NY Dem scolded immigration officials for questioning terror-linked Muslim scholar
Posted on September 30, 2010 by creeping
via US Rep. Gregory Meeks scolded immigration officials for questioning a terror-linked Muslim scholar – NYPOST.com.
US Rep. Gregory Meeks scolded immigration officials for questioning a Muslim scholar whose nonprofits have been linked to financing terrorism.
The Queens Democrat contacted federal agencies — finally appealing to then-Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff — asking why Anwar Hajjaj faced “unwarranted scrutiny” when he returned to the United States from trips abroad through JFK Airport.
Meeks described Hajjaj as a “highly regarded” professor of Islamic studies who leads Friday Muslim prayers at the Capitol.
Meeks said Hajjaj was “a pioneer in distance-based learning of Islam” through the American Open University in Virginia, according to a copy of the Sept. 30, 2006, letter to Chertoff, which was obtained by The Post under a Freedom of Information Act request.
But The Post has learned Hajjaj also headed the Taibah International Aid Association, a charity that has been accused of funding Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. The group was co-founded by Abdullah A. bin Laden, Osama bin Laden’s nephew, who has been investigated for his ties to groups that have funded al Qaeda and Hamas.
Hajjaj is also director of another Virginia-based nonprofit, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth International, or WAMY. It was also founded by bin Laden’s nephew and said to support al Qaeda. The group’s 2005 federal tax form, the most recent available, is signed by Hajjaj, who is listed as director.
Steven Emerson, executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, said WAMY has been a financial and ideological supporter of Islamic terrorist organizations. A WAMY publication lists people who have attacked Israelis as “heroes of Palestine” and referred to Jews as “humanity’s enemies,” according to a 2003 affidavit by a customs special agent.
Both organizations are named as defendants in several ongoing civil lawsuits filed on behalf of families of 9/11 victims.
A 2004 complaint filed in one of the suits alleges that although Taibah “purports to be a humanitarian organization, the Taibah International Aid Association furthers the aims and materially supports Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda.”
Hajjaj is not specifically named as a defendant in the suit, but the complaint does say Taibah’s directors and officers, including Hajjaj, are material sponsors and co-conspirators of al Qaeda and international terrorism.
The complaint says WAMY, founded in Saudi Arabia in 1972, has been identified by the FBI as a suspected terrorist organization since 1996.
In a decision in the lawsuit made last week, US District Court Judge George Daniels refused to dismiss WAMY as a defendant, saying the allegations against the group are “sufficient to demonstrate that they are knowingly and intentionally providing material support to al Qaeda.”
Hajjaj was not arrested when he entered JFK after visiting the Middle East, but was pulled aside and questioned.
Meeks defended his letter: “As a member of Congress and a proud New Yorker who deeply feels the loss of all families afflicted by the 9/11 attacks, my No. 1 priority is to do everything in my power to ensure the safety and security of all Americans.
“At the same time, I also adamantly believe that securing our homeland must be done without risking the unfair or discriminatory treatment of any in our society as is our constitutional duty. To that end, several years ago it was brought to my attention that several Muslim American citizens faced what they felt was undue scrutiny from Department of Homeland Security officials at many US airports, including JFK.
“I sent letters to inquire about the treatment of two Muslim American citizens in particular that felt they were treated unfairly at US ports of entry.”
Hajjaj, 65, told The Post that he was routinely harassed and sometimes missed flights when he traveled to and from Saudi Arabia for the pilgrimage to Mecca.
“It was an awful experience under the Bush administration,” he said. “Now under Obama, I have no complaints.”
He said he asked Meeks to write a letter on his behalf. He said he knew the Democratic lawmaker through Jameel Aalim-Johnson, Meeks’ chief of staff from 2006 to early 2008.
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Meeks is no stranger to Islamic terrorists – he has brought them to Capitol Hill before. His understudy, Jameel Alim Johnson, founded the Congressional Muslim Staffers Association (CMSA) we have documented numerous times, primarily for converting Capitol Hill into a mosque every Friday and being the pseudo-Muslim employment agency for the Obama administration. From a previous post:
The founder of the Congressional Muslim Staffers – Jameel-Aalim Johnson, former chief of staff to Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) – has been involved in inviting terror-linked individuals to speak on Capitol Hill in the past:
Why is a powerful congressman trying to pave the way for terror-linked speakers to appear on Capitol Hill?
The event, originally scheduled for August 11, would have taken place in the Cannon House Building Caucus Room had it not been for the last minute discovery of the terror-linked speakers that the DC-based Peace and Justice Foundation had invited to participate.
According to an article in The Muslim Link, the scheduling of the August conference had been handled by the chief-of-staff for Congressman Gregory Meeks (D-NY6), Jameel Alim Johnson.
More from YidwithLid, Why Does NY Congressman Meeks Hire Terrorist-Linked Staffers?
And, related from The Lid:
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Why Does NY Congressman Meeks Hire Terrorist-Linked Staffers?
According to the NY Post, Congressman Gregory Meeks scolded immigration officials for questioning a Muslim scholar whose nonprofits have been linked to financing terrorism. Meeks sent the DHS a letter asking why Anwar Hajjaj faced "unwarranted scrutiny" when he returned to the United States from trips abroad through JFK Airport.
Meek's letter ignored the fact that Hajjaj is accused of having terrorist connections. For example, he headed the Taibah International Aid Association, a charity that has been accused of funding Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. The group was co-founded by Abdullah A. bin Laden, Osama bin Laden's nephew, who has been investigated for his ties to groups that have funded al Qaeda and Hamas. But that is only part of the story. What the NY Post isn't telling you is Meek's has this nasty habit of hiring staffers with terrorist ties, Specifically Jihad F. Saleh (who just left his job with Meeks two weeks ago) and Jameel Aalim- Johnson (former Chief-of Staff)
Jihad F. Saleh, a top congressional aid to U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), helping fulfill the legislative goals established by CAIR founder and former chairman Omar Ahmad, who wanted increased Muslim “influence with Congress,” by using Muslims on Capitol Hill “to pressure Congress and the decision makers in America” to shift U.S. foreign policy. (P. David Gaubitz and Paul Sperry, The Muslim Mafia, p. 183) Saleh is not just a Congressional staff point man, though. He has been working closely with national CAIR official and convert Corey Saylor to increase the Muslim Congressional presence through the CAIR-backed Congressional Muslim Staffers Association (CMSA).
Jameel Aalim- Johnson, who was Meek's Chief of Staff until 2008 founded the CMSA, Saleh was a key member. Immediately after 9/11, the group began holding Friday afternoon prayer services on Capitol Hill, to lead their prayers they chose Anwar al-Aulaqi, the same al-Qaeda backed "holy man," now hiding in Yemen, who was associated with the massacre at Fort Hood, the attempted underwear bomber last Christmas, and the attempted Time Square bombing. The video below of Anwar al-Aulaq delivering a sermon to the CMSA in 2002 while he was still in the US is from the Investigative Project on Terror.
According to the book The Muslim Mafia (page 185) , Salah is spearheading an effort to bring terrorist sympathizers into the US Government.
Saleh has been conducting seminars for “Muslim Professionals” in order to “capitalize’ on the change in the oval office, and “ensure that Muslim Americans are prominent in the Obama administration”. Unbeknownst to most Washington insiders, Saleh has been collecting resume’s from Muslim Brotherhood front groups such as CAIR and ISNA. Over three hundred resume’s were bound and sent to the Obama administration, in the hopes of placing more moles into governmental positions. The White House has already hired one of the people from the resume book, Dalia Mogahed, an Egyptian born, veiled Muslim, who is now charged with briefing President Obama what Muslims want from the US.
CAIR was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Terrorist funding case and as recently as this past March, the FBI reaffirmed this group's terrorist ties. The ISNA was also identified by the Justice Department at the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial as an unindicted co-conspirator and part of the international terrorist organization the Muslim Brotherhood, when they balked at that designation the FBI released the documents to prove the groups association.
Why is a key congressional staffer, such as Jihad Saleh working with terrorist organizations such as CAIR or ISNA. Another question is why is a congressional Chief of Staff introducing a Congressman to terrorist-linked Muslim scholar? According to the Post article referenced above, Anwar Hajjaj was introduced to Meeks through Democratic lawmaker through Jameel Aalim-Johnson.
In 2007 Aalim-Johnson was involved in some controversy because he tried to run a conference in a Capitol Hill Caucus Room which included terror-linked speakers Originally scheduled to be held at the Caucus Room in the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill, the conference had to be moved to Maryland at the last minute because the Sergeant-at-Arms, the officer responsible for security on Capitol buildings, declined to approve the Conference. The conference is the first part of a two part project for the Foundation, which is planning a major march in Washington after Ramadan.
Salaakhan states that he had confirmed the availability of the Cannon Caucus room with Jameel
Johnson, chief of staff for Congressman Gregory Meeks (D-NY). Salaakhan said that at about 2 pm Friday, August 10, he got a call from Meeks’ office stating that the Sergeant at Arms had concerns about the conference, and would not allow it to take place unless Rep. Meeks attended the event. Johnson responded by telling Salaakhan that this appeared to him to be the red-flagging of a Muslim group and that the Sergeant-at-Arms request that Rep. Meeks be at the conference was “unusual and unfair.”
What was "unusual and unfair" was the speakers invited to attend the conference were involved in terrorist organizations:
One of the scheduled speakers for the Capitol Hill Muslim Mobilization Conference was Anisa Abd El Fattah, a longtime former employee and past president of the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR), which one convicted terrorist leader described as "the political command for HAMAS in the United States." The organization was one of the US-based organizations found liable in a $156 million federal court judgment in the death of an American teenager killed in a Hamas suicide attack in Israel.
Fattah was the subject of a recent Pajamas Media article describing her covert attempts to be appointed to the Columbus (OH) Public School Board. Fattah has also co-authored two books with the current spokesman for Hamas, Ahmed Yousef, and was a longtime consultant to terrorist leader Abdurahman Alamoudi. Alamoudi was convicted of conspiring with the Libyan government to kill Crown Prince Abdullah, the Saudi royal heir at the time and now the king of Saudi Arabia.
Meeks responded to his letter defending the terrorist-connected Muslim scholar by telling the NY Post,
"As a member of Congress and a proud New Yorker who deeply feels the loss of all families afflicted by the 9/11 attacks, my No. 1 priority is to do everything in my power to ensure the safety and security of all Americans.
If Meeks truly believed that his number one priority is to ensure the safety and security of all Americans, maybe he should take a little more care in picking his staff. Because based on Jihad F. Saleh and Jameel Aalim- Johnson, because either the Congressman doesn't care about the safety of the country or he simply doesn't do any research on who he hires.
And, related from The Blaze:
NY Congressman Helped ‘Jihad Flier’ After Airport Interrogation
Posted on September 19, 2010 at 6:45pm by Scott Baker Print » Email » Depending on who you ask, Anwar Hajjaj is either a distinguished scholar, or a close ally of Osama bin Laden. Non-profit groups connected to Hajjaj have been accused of funneling cash to terrorist.
A few years ago Hajjaj was stopped by immigration officials at JFK Airport as he returned from a trip to the Middle East. This apparently bothered Hajjaj. And not just him.
The New York Post is reporting today that US Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) intervened on Hajjaj’s behalf:
The Queens Democrat contacted federal agencies — finally appealing to then-Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff – asking why Anwar Hajjaj faced “unwarranted scrutiny” when he returned to the United States from trips abroad through JFK Airport.
Meeks described Hajjaj as a “highly regarded” professor of Islamic studies who leads Friday Muslim prayers at the Capitol.
Meeks said Hajjaj was “a pioneer in distance-based learning of Islam” through the American Open University in Virginia, according to a copy of the Sept. 30, 2006, letter to Chertoff, which was obtained by The Post under a Freedom of Information Act request.
Weasel Zippers calls this another sign that, “The leftist-Islamist alliance continues to be as strong as ever.”
The Post report details some of the allegations Hajjaj-related groups:
The Post has learned Hajjaj also headed the Taibah International Aid Association, a charity that has been accused of funding Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. The group was co-founded by Abdullah A. bin Laden, Osama bin Laden’s nephew, who has been investigated for his ties to groups that have funded al Qaeda and Hamas.
Hajjaj is also director of another Virginia-based nonprofit, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth International, or WAMY. It was also founded by bin Laden’s nephew and said to support al Qaeda. The group’s 2005 federal tax form, the most recent available, is signed by Hajjaj, who is listed as director.
Read the full Post report here.
Further, YidWithLid is now asking why Rep. Meeks seems to have a pattern of hiring “terrorist-linked” staffers:
What the NY Post isn‘t telling you is Meek’s has this nasty habit of hiring staffers with terrorist ties, Specifically Jihad F. Saleh (who just left his job with Meeks two weeks ago) and Jameel Aalim- Johnson (former Chief-of Staff)
The Lid report in full can be found here.
To the Post report, Rep. Meeks is reponsding this way:
“As a member of Congress and a proud New Yorker who deeply feels the loss of all families afflicted by the 9/11 attacks, my No. 1 priority is to do everything in my power to ensure the safety and security of all Americans.
“At the same time, I also adamantly believe that securing our homeland must be done without risking the unfair or discriminatory treatment of any in our society as is our constitutional duty. To that end, several years ago it was brought to my attention that several Muslim American citizens faced what they felt was undue scrutiny from Department of Homeland Security officials at many US airports, including JFK.
“I sent letters to inquire about the treatment of two Muslim American citizens in particular that felt they were treated unfairly at US ports of entry.”
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