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Tue 30 Sep, 2003 02:05 pm
Mounting worries over enemy within
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No, we haven't found Osama. Haven't found Saddam. Haven't found weapons of mass destruction. But we sure are making discoveries in our own self-evidently compromised military.Now that it appears security has been distressingly breached at the Guantanamo terrorist tank, the Pentagon has at last agreed it might be useful to "review" the clearances of Muslim Americans in the U.S. armed forces.Right. Good plan. Sen. Chuck Schumer has been saying this for only months now. He and Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl will shortly open formal inquiries into whatever disturbing degree Islamic radicals and those sympathetic to them have systematically infiltrated the military while the Pentagon wasn't paying attention.In particular, Schumer has warned that the Muslim clergymen the Pentagon uses, without much checking, have for the past 10 years been certified and supplied directly by two groups that have been linked to global terrorism: the American Muslim Foundation and the Islamic Society of North America.Consider Army Capt. Yousef Yee - not yet charged but being held on suspicion of committing espionage while ministering to his Taliban and Al Qaeda flocks at Gitmo. He was sponsored by a foundation subgroup whose co-founder, one Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi, was arrested yesterday in Washington. With $340,000 worth of Libyan cash in his possession.And there's surely more to worry about than just the chaplains. Consider another Guantanamo man, the Air Force's Ahmad al-Halabi. He's a mere translator, not an imam. He's now officially charged on more than 30 espionage-related counts."If it's happening at Guantanamo," wonders Schumer, "what's happening at the other military bases?" Point well taken. Consider the angry American Muslim soldier who in March fragged his commanders in Kuwait.And if the military has been infiltrated, what about local, state and federal law enforcement agencies? Wasn't there a Muslim FBI agent not so long ago who refused to investigate fellow Muslims? What about the airline industry? What about the power companies? Of course, we're not talking about all Muslims, just the time bombs. For now, Schumer's principal concern is the military imams - tending to the more than 4,000 Muslims in U.S. uniform, as well as to the Gitmo detainees. The Yee case is profoundly disturbing. "The fact that a chaplain who was detained for supposedly stealing classified documents was trained by a group under investigation for terrorism," says Schumer, "should set off alarms at the highest levels."What's that noise? Bells and sirens
An editorial from the NY Daily news. Is it the case of seeing an enemy behind every tree or does it pose a serious delimma?
Maybe they just want you to see an enemy behind every tree. Our government is certainly trying that.
Wilso
On the other hand. It is very difficult to trust people who are convinced that they are fighting a holy war and protecting their religion from the infidel.
Fear of Sabotage by Mistranslation at Guantánamo
By ERIC SCHMITT and THOM SHANKER
Published: October 7, 2003
[]ASHINGTON, Oct. 6 — American interpreters at the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who are under suspicion of espionage may have sabotaged interviews with detainees by inaccurately translating interrogators' questions and prisoners' answers, senior American officials said on Monday.
It is unclear in how many cases, if any, this may have happened, the officials said. But military investigators are taking the issue seriously enough to review taped interrogations involving the Arabic-language interpreters under scrutiny to spot-check their accuracy.
If the investigators' worst fears are realized, officials said, scores of interviews with suspected Qaeda or Taliban prisoners at the Cuban detention center could be compromised, and military officials could be forced to reinterview many of the camp's 680 detainees.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/07/politics/07GITM.html?th
I would be inclined to take some of the issues in the original piece seriously but the major proponent there seems to be Chuckie Schumer which usually means it's nothing but hot air so he can get more press.
fishin'
Chuckie Schumer or not. What is the possibility of it being a real worry?
I think we ought to wait and see what the review of the tapes shows before jumping up and down. Both of the articles you list mention "worst case" scenarios which aren't likely to be the actual case.
(I do find it amusing the Schumer is the mouthpiece for all of this yet he also brags that he co-sponsored Senate Concurrent Resolution 74 which basically told the entire Federal government NOT to go out of it's way to to look into Muslim's in this country in the wake of 9/11...)
Ok - any more info on Schumer guys?
dlowan
Schumer is the senior senator from NY State and a Democrat
Court Papers Show Charges That Group Aided Terrorists
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: October 18, 2003
WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 — Federal law enforcement authorities said in court documents unsealed on Friday that they suspected a group of Islamic charities in Northern Virginia of laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars or more from Saudi Arabia to help finance terrorist attacks by Hamas and other militant groups.
The authorities said in documents that they suspected that the network of charitable and educational institutions known as the Saar group in Herndon, Va., used an elaborate system of domestic and overseas financial transactions to "blur the trail" of its revenues and disguise the fact that it was sending money to aid overseas terrorist organizations.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/18/national/18TERR.html?th
What if putting some Muslim chaplins,that they suspected, in Git Mo to initiate a sting operation to catch some more bad guys. I seems that it might have been successful---this al-Amoudi seems to have been one such catch. It is marvelous how everyone tends to jump to conclusions that EVERYONE in the gov't is a bumbling idiot. I remind you that it has been over 2 years(thats supposed to be the waiting period between attacks) and no attack yet.
Could it be that al Queda has been forced to go to Iraq to kill Americans because they have been thoroughly disrupted for any further attacks here in this country. Don't take that to mean anything other than-- we are making some progress in the fight to prevent any further attacks here.
perception
Quote:What if putting some Muslim chaplins,that they suspected, in Git Mo to initiate a sting operation to catch some more bad guys.
What if the moon is made of green cheese? That what if is pretty far fetched is it not? You are talking about our intellegence agencies are you not?
AU
You never hear about our successes in intelligence and I would like to think there have been many more successes than goofs. Git -Mo would be the perfect place to launch a sting operation. We have absolute control over the situation there and the only possible error could be acting on any information received from the prisoners through a suspected translator, before crosschecking it from several directions.
I'm not saying that's actually what happened----just that it's possible. Don't you believe it significant that they caught a guy with a very large amount of cash
which was probably destined for al Queda operations?
I agree with you that our greatest danger comes from within.
I never like to jump to conclusions about what the media brings to our attention, especially when it comes to announcing suspected mishandling of gov't affairs from a self-serving Democratic Senator with an ax to grind.(Shumer)
Au, remember Percy's explanation for the violence in Iraq: The US is purposely appearing weak so the "enemy" will come in and engage.
LOL---what better way to get rid of the the bastards.
That would be a strategy if we were fighting a cohesive force. It's done on TV all the time:roll:
. However, in a guerilla action it would be meaningless.
au1929 wrote:That would be a strategy if we were fighting a cohesive force. It's done on TV all the time:roll:
. However, in a guerilla action it would be meaningless.
They receive weapons, explosives , ammo and directions from a higher level so why do you say they are not a cohesive force. I believe you underestimate them.
perception
Because they hit and run or fire from afar. There is no organized attacking force. At least that has been the how the attacks have been carried out to this point. I doubt that there will be any change.
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