Pakistani doctor faces treason charges after bin Laden raid

By the CNN Wire Staff

 

A Pakistani policeman stands guard in front of Osama bin Laden's former

compound in Abbottabad on May 7.

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- The doctor who is suspected of helping the CIA target Osama bin Laden will be charged with treason, Pakistan's information ministry said Thursday.

"A case of conspiracy against the state of Pakistan and high treason is made" against Dr. Shakeel Afridi, the information ministry said, summarizing a commission's investigation into the death of the al Qaeda leader.
Afridi is accused of helping the CIA use a vaccination campaign to try to collect DNA samples from people who lived in bin Laden's compound.

The United States "has repeatedly asked" for the release of the Pakistani doctor, a U.S. official said Thursday. The official declined to comment further on the treason charges.

Pakistani security forces detained the doctor in July, a senior Pakistani security official said at the time. He remained in custody Thursday, but it was unclear whether an attorney was representing him.

A May 2 raid by U.S. Special Operations Forces killed bin Laden at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The Guardian newspaper reported earlier this year that in the course of gathering intelligence for the raid, the CIA recruited a Pakistani doctor to run a vaccination program in the area. The goal was to try to obtain DNA evidence from bin Laden family members, the British newspaper said, citing unnamed Pakistani and U.S. officials.

Any DNA obtained from the people in the compound could then be compared with a sample from bin Laden's sister, who died in Boston in 2010, as evidence the family was in the compound, the newspaper said.

Neighborhood residents told CNN that two women who appeared to be nurses visited homes and offered free vaccinations.

"This was one very small piece of a very large intelligence effort to determine that bin Laden was located at the compound," a senior U.S. official told CNN over the summer.

The vaccination campaign occurred shortly before U.S. forces raided the compound, the senior U.S. official said.

"People need to put this into some perspective," the official added. "The vaccination campaign was part of the hunt for the world's top terrorist, and nothing else. If the United States hadn't shown this kind of creativity, people would be scratching their heads asking why it hadn't used all the tools at its disposal to find bin Laden."

The Pakistan commission's report also said the house where bin Laden lived would be turned over to the city's civilian administration, and that authorities had finished questioning members of bin Laden's family.

That means the commission's restraining order that required the family members to remain in Pakistan during its inquiry can be lifted, Thursday's statement said. The order barred Pakistani authorities from handing over bin Laden's family members to officials in other countries.

The commission is continuing its investigation.

CNN's Pam Benson and Reza Sayah and journalists Nasir Habib and Shaan A. Khan contributed to this report.

Response to Muslim suit riles Ohio pork industry

From: woi-tv.com

 

By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
AP Legal Affairs Writer

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A decision by Ohio officials to remove all pork products from prison menus in response to a lawsuit by Muslim inmates is not sitting well with the state's pork producers and processors.

Both promise action of their own, including a possible counter lawsuit, to address what they consider an unfair and illogical decision.

"We really think it's not in the best interest, frankly, of the whole prison system," said Dick Isler, executive director of the Ohio Pork Producers Council. "It seems like we're letting a small group make the rules when it really isn't in the best interest of the rest of prisoners."

Pork is inexpensive and nutritious and compares well to other lean meats, he said.

Ironically, the inmates' lawsuit doesn't involve pork at all; it demands that non-pork meats like beef come from animals slaughtered according to Islamic law. But the prisons system responded by simply removing pork as an option altogether.

If Ohio would provide Muslim inmates with pre-packaged meals similar to those given to Jewish inmates, as the lawsuit requests, it wouldn't be necessary to remove pork from menus, said David Singleton, executive director of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center, which is suing on behalf of the two inmates.

Assistant prisons director Steven Huffman has spoken with Isler, but the system isn't changing its mind, spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said Wednesday.

She said she couldn't comment on the lawsuit specifically, but said removing pork assures that inmates' religious practices aren't jeopardized by pork coming into contact with other food during preparation.

Ohio joins California, Florida, Maryland and Massachusetts among states that don't serve pork in prisons. Massachusetts stopped serving pork more than a decade ago to satisfy religious preferences, said prisons spokeswoman Diane Wiffin.

Ohio first took pork off the menu in 2009 after, in a money-saving attempt, it closed the pig farm and processing facility it operated to provide meat for inmates.

Last year, after lobbying by pork producers, the system added pork rib patties back to the menu once a week, at a cost of about $27,000 a week. The pork was provided by a Michigan company, and so Ohio producers aren't affected, Smith said.

"This issue seems to be blown out of proportion based on a misunderstanding," she said.

Pork is big business in Ohio, the country's eighth-largest producer, with 3,700 farms raising 4 million pigs a year.

Kristin Mullins, who lobbies for Ohio pork processors, said the move last year actually saved Ohio money because pork was less expensive at the time than other meats.

"Let's service the entire prison population and not let one portion dictate what's being served," said Mullins, who also represents processors in Kentucky and Tennessee.

In a federal lawsuit, death row inmate Abdul Awkal complains that the state is restraining his religious freedoms by not providing meals prepared according to Islamic law, known as halal, while at the same time supplying Jewish prisoners with kosher meals. The Quran, the holy book of Islam, prohibits Muslims from eating pork.

Awkal, joined by a second inmate not on death row, says the vegetarian and non-pork options aren't good enough. The inmates say food must be prepared in specific fashion, such as ensuring that an animal is butchered by slitting its throat and draining its blood, to conform to Islamic beliefs.

Prison guidelines for Muslim inmates already provided that meals will be "free of all pork and products containing or derived from pork."

A judge has given lawyers and inmates for the state until next month to finish filing documents bolstering their arguments, ahead of an expected January trial.

Ohio says requiring halal meals could mean new dietary plans for as many as 2,000 inmates, while Awkal's lawyers believe the figure is lower because not all Muslims eat halal meals.

Awkal, 52, is scheduled to die in June for killing his estranged wife, Latife Awkal, and brother-in-law Mahmoud Abdul-Aziz in 1992, in a room in Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court. Joining Awkal in the lawsuit is Cornelius Causey, 35, serving 15 years to life for murder and aggravated robbery convictions out of Hamilton County.

In court documents, Ohio has argued that it provides both non-pork and vegetarian meals to Muslims and says the courts have sided with this practice. The state also says that providing halal meals could hurt Ohio financially, given the current budget situation.

California provides packaged kosher meals to Jewish inmates and halal meals prepared at prisons for Muslim prisoners.

Texas, which does serve pork to prisoners, offers Muslim inmates regular, meat-free or pork-free meals but not halal meals.

Rep. Frank Wolf calls out Grover Norquist for jihad ties; Norquist cries "racism"

From: jihadwatch.org

 

 

Many anti-jihadists' concern about Grover Norquist and his jihad ties ended abruptly when it turned out he was close friends with Rick Perry. People who had been criticizing Norquist for years for being in bed with Islamic supremacists suddenly discovered that, hey, everyone does it (ignoring the fact that Norquist is closer to Perry than he is to other candidates), and what's a few Hamas ties among friends, anyway?

Nonetheless, those concerns remain. Norquist's influence on the Republican Party is extraordinarily damaging, as it keeps on leading so many to turn a blind eye to the stealth jihad that Norquist continues so energetically to advance. Kudos to Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) for having the courage that so many lack and calling out Norquist on the floor of Congress.

For more on Norquist's unsavory ties, see Pamela Geller's expose here. Note also how well Norquist has mastered the tried-and-true tactic of his Islamic supremacist partners: crying "racism," smearing his opponent, and claiming victim status whenever his wrongdoing is pointed out, instead of responding with anything substantive.

"Norquist calls attacks from GOP congressman ‘disgusting,’" by Chris Moody for The Ticket, October 4:

Grover Norquist responded to attacks from Virginia Republican Rep. Frank Wolf Tuesday, calling Wolf's accusations that Norquist was connected to terrorists "disgusting" and saying they were copied from "racist websites." [...]

Gee, which websites do you have in mind, Grover?

On the House floor Tuesday, Wolf accused Norquist of being associated with terrorist financiers, discussed his connection in 2006 to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and said that Norquist has used his organization's pledge "to advance many other issues that many Americans would find inappropriate, and when taken as a whole should give people pause." "Some staffer of his went onto the racist websites, you know, dug up stuff from ten years ago," Norquist said in response to Wolf's floor speech. "I'm married to a woman who's Muslim, and it's sad and it's disgusting. It reflects poorly on him. I think given his district, he's going to spend a lot of time apologizing for getting into the gutter and anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry. I suppose this staffer who got this stuff off websites did as much chucking [sic] as the idiots who put it forward."

Wolf submitted a detailed report to the official record that outlined his grievances with Norquist.

"Documentation shows that he has deep ties to supporters of Hamas and other terrorist organizations that are sworn enemies of the United States and our ally Israel," Wolf's submitted statement read.

Norquist fired back, calling Wolf's comments "just a series of rants."

"It's just silly," Norquist said. "It's just a series of rants that mean nothing and have no effect on anything, and are neither honorable or honest."

A spokesman for Wolf said the congressman stands by his remarks and intended to send a message to the members of his caucus who have associated themselves with Norquist.
"There's a clear pattern there," Wolf spokesman Dan Scandling told The Ticket. "You need to look at who he's associated with."

Indeed. Unless, of course, you're so in thrall to the prospect of a Rick Perry presidency that suddenly a guy who's in bed with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood doesn't seem so bad after all.

Here is what Wolf actually said about Norquist's jihad ties. If this looks like a racist rant lacking in substance to you, report immediately to the nearest Hamas-linked CAIR office, offer your sincere apologies of U.S. mistreatment of Muslims, and ask how you can be of service.

TERRORIST CONNECTIONS

Not only was Mr. Norquist entangled with the criminal dealings of Jack Abramoff, but documentation shows that he has deep ties to supporters of Hamas and other terrorist organizations that are sworn enemies of the United States and our ally Israel.

According to Senate lobbying disclosure records of his now defunct lobbying firm, Janus-Merritt Strategies, around the years 2000 and 2001 Mr. Norquist’s firm represented Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was convicted two years later for his role in a terrorist plot and who is presently serving a 23-year sentence in federal prison.

Court documents and a October 15, 2004, Department of Justice press release reveal that Alamoudi, the president of the American Muslim Council, was arrested at Dulles Airport in September 2003 upon returning to the U.S after participating in a Libyan plot to assassinate the Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. “Alamoudi participated in recruiting participants for this plot by introducing the Libyans to two Saudi dissidents in London and facilitating the transfer of hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash from the Libyans to those dissidents to finance the plot,” the release said.

According to the DOJ press release, Alamoudi, a naturalized citizen, pled guilty to three federal offenses:

· One count of violating the International Emergency Powers Act;

· One count of false statements made in his application for naturalization;

· A tax offense involving a long-term scheme to conceal from the IRS his financial transactions with Libya and his foreign bank accounts and to omit material information from the tax returns filed by his charities.

It is important to point out that Alamoudi’s ties to terrorist groups were no secret prior to his arrest.

Alamoudi spoke at an October 2000 rally in front of the White House in support of Hamas and Hezbollah during the period he was represented by Norquist’s firm, according to Senate lobbying disclosure records.. The “Rally Against Israeli Aggression” was sponsored by Norquist’s Islamic Free Market Institute, according to a September 2000 “Islamic Institute Friday Brief.” The Islamic Free Market Institute was created by Grover Norquist and operated out of his Americans for Tax Reform office in Washington, thanks to sizable start-up contributions from Alamoudi, according to a March 11, 2003, article in the St. Petersburg Times by Mary Jacoby.

I have seen video from the rally, where Alamoudi roared from the stage:
“I have been labeled by the media in New York to be a supporter of Hamas, anybody supports Hamas here?”

[Crowd cheers, "Yes!"]

“…Hear that, Bill Clinton, we are all supporters of Hamas, Allahu Akbar.”
“I wish they added that I am also a supporter of Hezbollah. Anybody supports Hezbollah here?”

[Crowd cheers, "Yes!"]

A few months after the Lafayette Park rally, Alamoudi was photographed in Beirut at a conference attended by representatives of the terror groups Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and al-Qaida, also according to the March 2003 St. Petersburg Times article.

In addition to Alamoudi’s outspoken support for Hamas and Hezbollah, he expressed private support for the 1994 terrorist attack against a synagogue in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which killed 85 people and injured hundreds, according to a December 17, 2003, article in The American Spectator by Shawn Macomber, who reported: “In a wiretapped conversation made public in the recent criminal complaint, he (Alamoudi) praises a 1994 bombing in Buenos Aires. ‘The Jewish Community Center. It is a worthy operation,’ Alamoudi tells an unidentified man, in Arabic. ‘I think that the attacks that are being executed by bin Laden and other Islamic groups are wrong, especially hitting the civilian targets. Many African Muslims have died and not a single American has died. I prefer to hit a Zionist target in America or Europe…I prefer honestly like what happened in Argentina.”

According to a June 11, 2003, Wall Street Journal article by reporters Tom Hamburger and Glenn Simpson, around 1999 Alamoudi sent his deputy at the American Muslim Council, Khaled Saffuri, to work directly for Mr. Norquist to establish the Islamic Free Market Institute – one of the groups that sponsored the October 2000 rally in Lafayette Park. The institute, chaired by Norquist and led by Saffuri, operated out of the Americans for Tax Reform offices here in Washington, according to the March 2003 article in the St. Petersburg Times.
The Senate Indian Affairs Committee report revealed that Saffuri was closely tied to Mr. Norquist and the Abramoff scandal and received money from Abramoff and a front group, the American International Center (AIC), to partner with Abramoff’s firm Greenberg Traurig on his “Malaysian-related interests and issues.”

Mr. Norquist also associated with terror financier Sami Al-Arian, according to Mary Jacoby’s reporting in March 2003, in the St. Petersburg Times. Al-Arian pled guilty in 2006 “to a charge of conspiring to provide services to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a specially designated terrorist organization, in violation of U.S. law,” and is under house arrests, according to a Department of Justice press release. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s “paramilitary wing – the al-Quds Brigades – has conducted numerous attacks, including large-scale suicide bombings,” according to the National Counterterrorism Center,
Who is Sami al-Arian? An October 2003 federal affidavit noted that Al-Arian had longstanding connections to associates of al Qaeda. According to the affidavit, “Sheik Rahman (the “Blind Sheik”) visited Al-Arian at his residence in Tampa and spoke at his mosque.” Rahman is currently serving a life sentence in U.S. prison for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center attack and additional terror plots. The federal affidavit also disclosed Al-Arian’s ties with Alamoudi.

Al-Arian’s relationship with Mr. Norquist appears to have spanned several years. Prior to his arrest in February 2003, Sami Al-Arian visited Norquist’s office in Washington for a meeting, also reported in the June 11, 2003, article in the Wall Street Journal. According to Continetti, Mr. Al-Arian also “cc’d Norquist on an e-mail he sent to the Wall Street Journal protesting an editorial that had pointed out his terrorist connections.”

Mr. Norquist himself served as a key facilitator between Al-Arian, Alamoudi and the White House, according to Mary Jacoby’s reporting in March 2003 in The St. Petersburg Times. She reported that “In June 2001, Al-Arian was among the members of the American Muslim Council invited to the White House complex . . . The next month, the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom – a civil liberties group headed by Al-Arian – gave Norquist an award for his work to abolish the use of secret intelligence evidence in terrorism cases.”

OPPOSING THE PATRIOT ACT

Mr. Norquist also has been an outspoken supporter of Al-Arian’s effort to end the use of classified evidence in terror trials. In fact, Norquist was scheduled to lead a delegation to the White House on September 11, 2001, that included a convicted felon and some who would later be identified by federal law enforcement as suspected terrorist financiers.

According to a Arab American Institute 2002 report, “Healing the Nation,” “[o]n the day of the terrorist attacks, Arab American and Muslim American leaders were already in Washington, D.C. for a previously scheduled meeting with President Bush to discuss the use of ‘secret evidence’ in certain immigration proceedings and racial profiling of Arab Americans at the nation’s airports and security checkpoints.”

I have seen the list of attendees for the scheduled meeting. Among those listed:
Madhi Bray, a convicted felon who was found guilty of drug and fraud charges in the 1980s. Bray appeared cheering on stage with Alamoudi at the October 2000 rally in Lafayette Park as Alamoudi declared his support for Hamas and Hezbollah.

Omar Ahmed, co-founder of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). According to an April 18, 2011,Politico article by Josh Gerstein, “Federal prosecutors… have introduced evidence in court of Ahmad's attendance at a 1993 meeting in Philadelphia that the FBI contends was a gathering of Hamas supporters seeking to undermine the Middle East peace process. Prosecutors [in the Holy Land Foundation case] have also presented documents that appear to show CAIR as part of a network of Muslim Brotherhood organizations in the U.S.”

The list provided to the White House by Norquist’s Islamic Institute included representatives from each of Norquist’s organizations, including a Janus-Merrit lobbyist. At the top of the list: Grover Norquist, representing Americans for Tax Reform.

According to a June 11, 2003, Wall Street Journal article by reporters Tom Hamburger and Glenn Simpson, “Mr. Norquist helped secure a promise from presidential candidate Bush to moderate federal policy on investigating suspected illegal immigrants. In a nationally televised debate on Oct. 11, 2000, Mr. Bush said: ‘Arab-Americans are racially profiled in what's called secret evidence ... We've got to do something about that.’ Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the White House has abandoned that promise, as the Justice Department has aggressively pursued prosecutions of Muslims allegedly supporting terrorism.”

Mr. Norquist has also led efforts over the last decade to weaken and repeal the PATRIOT Act, working closely with liberal groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, according to a February 20, 2008, profile on Norquist in the Washington Examiner, “A former lobbyist with the American Civil Liberties Union said privately that Norquist won her over when they joined forces to oppose the Bush administration’s Patriot Act and warrantless wiretapping. ‘I was initially skeptical,’ she said, ‘but I knew there was common ground on this issue and that we would be most powerful if we united.’”

GUANTANAMO BAY DETAINEES

More recently, Mr. Norquist has become an outspoken advocate for moving Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States. According to a November 16, 2009, Huffington Post article by Sam Stein, Norquist led a public campaign to undermine Republican-led efforts to block the Obama Administration’s transfer of 9/11 mastermind Khaled Sheik Mohammed to New York City and other terrorist detainees to Thompson Prison in Illinois, the first time terrorists would be held indefinitely inside the United States.

The article reported that Mr. Norquist wrote that, “moving suspected terrorists to the Thomson, Illinois prison facility, ‘makes good sense.’ Taxpayers, [Norquist wrote], have already invested $145 million in the facility, which has been ‘little used.’ ‘The scaremongering about these issues should stop,’ [Norquist wrote], noting that there is ‘absolutely no reason to fear that prisoners will escape or be released into their communities.’”

Why is Mr. Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, advocating for one of President Obama’s top campaign promises? His efforts fly in the face of near-unanimous congressional opposition to providing al Qaeda terrorists with civilian trials in U.S. courts.

GROUND ZERO MOSQUE

Mr. Norquist also interjected himself into the debate about the proposed “Ground Zero Mosque” last summer, calling legitimate concerns about the location a “Monica Lewinsky ploy” by Republicans, according to an August 18, 2010, report by Michael Scherer on Time magazine’s Web site. Mr. Norquist further trivialized the concerns saying that Republicans were, “distracted by shiny things.”

Mr. Norquist even used Americans for Tax Reform to circulate a petition in support of the “Ground Zero Mosque.” Patrick Gleason, director of state affairs for Americans for Tax Reform, wrote an August 17, 2010, letter to state affiliates urging them to share the petition with their coalition.

Why would Americans for Tax Reform circulate a petition in support of the “Ground Zero Mosque?” For the families of those who lost loved ones on 9/11 or during operations in the War on Terror, concerns about the “Ground Zero Mosque” were neither a ploy nor a distraction, as Norquist described it.