Mayor Coleman advisor brings hate sheikh to town

Guess who Mayor Michael Coleman advisor Ahmad Al-Akhras is bringing to town? None other than hate sheikh extraordinaire, Siraj Wahhaj. Two peas in a pod.

On February 2, 1995, Siraj Wahhaj was named by US Attorney Mary Jo White as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six people, injured 1,042 others, and foreshadowed the horror of 9/11.

On September 8, 2007, Ahmad Al-Akhras, close advisor to Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman and president of the Islamic Foundation of Central Ohio (IFCO), will host Siraj Wahhaj as guest speaker at an IFCO fundraising dinner here in Columbus. Mayor Coleman has appointed Al-Akhras to numerous Columbus city government boards, commissions and committees. (UPDATE: I forgot to mention that Al-Akhras is also on the city’s Community Relations Commission. I know — the irony!)

I guess it is only appropriate that at the same time Mayor Coleman is dealing with anti-Semitism in the Columbus Police Department, that he shows his solidarity by having his friend and advisor Al-Akhras bring to Columbus one of the most notorious hate sheikhs in America. How’s that for sympathy?

Siraj Wahhaj says that he isn’t sure that Osama bin Laden is responsible for 9/11; he calls for the return of the global Islamic caliphate and the imposition of Islamic shari’a law, including punishment by amputations and stoning; and he calls for the violent overthrow of American government.

Wahhaj even served as a defense character witness in the trial of blind hate sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, who was a regular feature in Wahhaj’s mosque until he was convicted for seditious conspiracy and sentenced to life in prision for his leadership in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing plot. Rahman’s followers were responsible for the 1997 attack on European tourists in Luxor, Egypt, which killed 58.

Even the Left-leaning publication, Salon, has spoken out concerning Wahhaj’s extremist views and the reluctance of CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper to address them:

Nor could he be asked about CAIR board member Siraj Wahaj. Wahaj, the imam of the Taqwa Mosque in Brooklyn, decried on TV the Sept. 11 attacks as “criminal” and “wrong.” But Wahaj also had invited convicted terrorist Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman to speak at his mosque, and even testified on his behalf. Before then, in 1991, speaking to the Islamic Association of North Texas, Wahaj called Operation Desert Storm “one of the most diabolical plots ever in the annals of history,” and that the war was “part of a larger plan, to destroy the greatest challenge to the Western world, and that’s Islam.” Just as the USSR fell, so too will the U.S., Wahaj said, “unless America changes its course from the new world order and accepts the Islamic agenda.” (“Islam’s Flawed Spokesman”, Salon [09/26/2001])

As the Church Lady used to say, “Well, isn’t that special?”

Thanks to Al-Akhras, Wahhaj has become a regular staple on the Columbus fundraising circuit. Earlier this year I had two articles published concerning past appearances by hate sheikh Wahhaj in town: at the June 2006 CAIR-OH fundraiser; a March 2006 Sunrise Academy fundraiser; and a February 2007 fundraiser for the Abubaker Al-Siddique mosque (see “CAIR’s Blood Money” and “Hometown Jihad: The School Gym that Terror Built”).

Here’s a sampling of Wahhaj’s greatest hits taken from my two FrontPage articles linked to above:

Paul Barrett, an editor for Business Week and author of the recent book, American Islam: Struggle for the Soul of Religion, has spent considerable time with Wahhaj and made him one of the primary subjects in his book (read the introduction to Barrett’s book at the Washington Post). Barrett has previously described the transformation of America into an Islamic state that Wahhaj would like to see:

He has told his followers that a society governed by strict Islamic law, in which adulterers would be stoned to death and thieves would have their hands cut off, would be superior to American democracy. Speaking of unnamed forces in the U.S. government and media, he has preached, “These people want the destruction of Islam.” (“One Imam Traces the Path of Islam in Black America”, Wall Street Journal [October 24, 2003])

Barrett also describes how Wahhaj brushes off evidence of Osama bin Laden’s involvement in 9/11, including dismissing bin Laden’s own video pronouncements claiming responsibility for the terror attacks, preferring to remain “neutral” on the subject:

He says the al-Qaeda leader’s videotaped boasting about the attacks may have been a media ruse: “I’m just not so sure I want to be one of the ones who say, ‘Yeah, he did it. He’s a horrible man.’” (Ibid.)

Elsewhere Wahhaj has offered a grotesque convergence of bin Laden’s calls for the revival of the Islamic caliphate with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, “I Have a Dream” speech, envisioning an Islamic supremacist society:

“I have a vision in America, Muslims owning property all over, Muslim businesses, factories, halal meat, supermarkets, all these buildings owned by Muslims. Can you see the vision, can you see the Newark International Airport and a John Kennedy Airport and La Guardia having Muslim fleets of planes, Muslim pilots. Can you see our trucks rolling down the highways, Muslim names. Can you imagine walking down the streets of Teaneck, [New Jersey]: three Muslim high schools, five Muslim junior-high schools, fifteen public schools. Can you see the vision, can you see young women walking down the street of Newark, New Jersey, with long flowing hijab and long dresses. Can you see the vision of an area . . . controlled by the Muslims?” (quoted in Daniel Pipes, “The Danger Within: Militant Islam in America”, Commentary [Nov. 2001])

How is this Islamic supremacist society governed by an Islamic caliph supposed to come about? Wahhaj is not shy about laying out his plan for violent revolutionary action by Muslims:

“[I]f only Muslims were clever politically, they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate. If we were united and strong, we would elect our own emir and give allegiance to him. Take my word if eight million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us.” (quoted in Jagan Kaul, “Kashmir: Kashmiri Pundit View-point,” Kashmir Telegraph [May 2002])

And what message does Sunrise Academy send to its non-Muslim neighbors by hosting Siraj Wahhaj? In an audiotape message Wahhaj speaks of his love for the kuffar (infidel):

“. . . And he [Allah] declared ‘Whoever is at war with my friends, I declare war on them.’ Who is a friend of Allah? [He chants a passage in Arabic] Allah. Your true friend is Allah, the messenger, and those who believe. Americans and Canadians. Hear it well. Hear what I’m telling you well. The Americans are not your friends, hear what I’m telling you, hear it well. The Canadians are not your friends, hear what I’m telling you, hear it well. The Europeans are not your friends. Your friend is Allah, the Messenger and those who believe. These people will never be satisfied with you until you follow their religion. They will never be satisfied with you. . .” (audiotape, “The Afghanistan Jihad” [September 28, 1991]; quoted in “UCLA Sponsors of Terrorism”, FrontPage Magazine [April 4, 2003])

If you think I’m exagerating about the virulent message of hate spewed by Siraj Wahhaj, following this link to the Investigative Project website where you can see a video of Wahhaj in action, where he condemns America as “a garbage can”:

Demonize Saddam Hussein. Blow them up, no one say anything about it. Demonize Libya, Qadaffi, blow them up, attack them, no one say anything. Demonize Khomeini, all of the leaders, demonize them one by one by one. Demonize all the Muslim leaders and then when they come to get us no one will open their mouth because see he is a terrorist, it says so right here in the paper.

Alhamdulilah We gotta response for them. Who are the real terrorists? It’s not the Muslims, but the real terrorists is some segments of the United States government.

You know what this country is? It’s a garbage can. It’s filthy, filthy and sick. This country is taking our children. We’re trying to raise them up righteous. And you with your sick, low morals grabbing them, trying to teach a man how to be respectful towards his wife. And you got perversity all over. Wicked filth everywhere.

Wahhaj’s appearance at the fundraiser was announced in an email earlier this week from Mayor Coleman advisor Ahmad Al-Akhras himself:

Salam to all

The Islamic Foundation of Central Ohio (IFCO) cordially invites you and your family to attend the “Annual Fundraising Dinner” at the Asian Cusine [sic], 8008 North High Street, Columbus, Ohio 43235 @ 6:00 P.M. on Sunday, September 9, 2007.

We would be honored if you and your family would join us.

Dinner Ticket Cost: $25 per ticket

Our Guest Speakers: Imam Siraj Wahhaj & Dr. Parvez Ahmed, CAIR Chairman

Please give us a call or reply back to us as soon as possible so that we could plan dinner order accordingly. We are expecting over 250 people would join us at the program. So please confirm your dinner tickets as early as possible.

Please support our fundraising effort to build a new “Community Center” on the Sunbury land and to up keep our existing facilities at the Broad Street and Cook Road. Allah will give you a reward to support this worthy cause.

If you can not attend, please send your tax deductible donations payable to “IFCO” and to be mailed at the following address:

IFCO
P.O. Box 1055
Columbus, OH 43216-1055

FOR TICKETS, PLEASE CALL:
Abdo Abdouni [ph. # removed]
Ahmad Al-Akhras [ph. # removed]
Siraj Haji [ph. # removed]
Fatimata Kamara [ph. # removed]
Sohail Khan [ph. # removed]
Abukar Osman [ph. # removed]
Mohamed Shareef [ph. # removed]
M. Rustam Ali [ph. # removed]

We appreciate your support for IFCO.

My sincere thanks to the brave soul and member of the Central Ohio Muslim community who sent this announcement to me, who obviously requested anonymity for fear of retaliation from the Al-Akhras crew of thugs. They said it was sent because they are gravely concerned with the long string of extremists and hate preachers that Ahmad Al-Akhras and his network of associates are regularly bringing into our area, the radicalizing influence they are having on local Muslim institutions, and the direct threat they pose to Central Ohio. This is proof of what I have been contending all along that the Al-Akhras/CAIR-OH network of extremists who are the loudest and most obnoxious members of the Muslim community here in the Columbus area are not representative of it, but instead, are only its’ most radical and extreme element. Central Ohio Muslims deserve better public representatives than CAIR, ISGC, ICFO and Ahmad Al-Akhras.

Most Central Ohio Muslims reject the extremist views of Siraj Wahhaj and Ahmad Al-Akhras. Mayor Michael Coleman, on the other hand, embraces them in his bosom.

LA Times: Hilliard Holy War Homeboy Causing International Furor

LA Times (July 2007): Salah Sultan a “controversial Sunni figure”, “glorifying holy war”, “sharing the outlook of Al-Qaeda”.

Columbus Dispatch (May 2006): Salah Sultan a moderate, peaceful Muslim preacher falsely accused of extremism and terrorist ties.

Remember that peaceful, moderate Muslim preacher living in Hilliard that the Columbus Dispatch cleared of my outlandish and scurrilous charges of associating with terrorist leaders last year? Well, according to an article in the LA Times, our Hilliard homeboy, Salah Sultan (Soltan), is now causing trouble in Bahrain.

The article by Borzou Daragahi, “Strategic rift in Bahrain’s royal court”, published on July 7th, is opened with this set-up:

MANAMA, BAHRAIN — Leading members of Bahrain’s royal family have thrown their weight behind hard-line Sunni Muslim groups, some of whom share the outlook of Al Qaeda, in an attempt to counter a perceived Shiite threat, government officials and critics say.

And just who represents these “hard-line Sunni Muslim groups” who are glorifying holy war and share the outlook of Al-Qaeda?

Critics worry that in a country long a bastion of relative moderation, clerics are glorifying holy war. Islamic newspapers have grown more strident and anti-American. One, Akhbar Khaleej, refers to Bin Laden as a “sheik,” a title of honor.

Two controversial Sunni figures who left the United States have found refuge and employment in Bahrain: Wagdy Mohammed Ghoneim, the head of an Orange County mosque who was suspected of giving speeches in support of terrorist organizations and arrested in November 2004 on suspicion of overstaying his U.S. visa; and Salah Soltan, a scholar.

“Every week they appear on television, telling people how to be clean and religious and pious,” said one journalist who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

Fear of retribution? Why ever would a Bahraini journalist fear retribution from naming Salah Sultan? Didn’t he read Felix Hoover’s article in the Columbus Dispatch “clearing” Salah Sultan of my baseless charges? Doesn’t he know that Sultan signed a fatwa against terrorism? Hasn’t he read the dossier Ahmad Al-Akhras is currently circulating to government officials and establishment media personalities that cites Hoover’s article “clearing” Sultan as proof that I’m a discredited Islamophobic hack? Isn’t the LA Times and its reporter aware that Salah Sultan has been defended by a number of Central Ohio Muslims, including Al-Akhras, Abukar Arman, Norma Tarazi, and most recently, Mahmoud El-Yousseph, who called Sultan “one of America’s most noted Muslim scholars”?

Or maybe — just maybe — the Columbus Dispatch got it wrong, and Salah Sultan really is a terrorist associated radical. I know it is a possibility difficult to entertain, but just go with me here for a minute.

In the past month, we have not only seen that Salah Sultan was speaking at a conference in Doha, Qatar honoring Yousef Al-Qaradawi in July, listed by the US government as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, where he said that he considered himself a “friend and pupil” of Qaradawi; that Sultan’s remarks and a paper he delivered at the conference were posted on Qaradawi’s personal website; but just days ago we noted that Sultan had his picture taken with the terrorist leader at the event.

In addition, I have reported about Sultan’s speech at a pro-HAMAS rally in Istanbul with HAMAS terrorist-in-chief Ismail Haniyeh last year, just a few weeks after the Dispatch article was published. But just days after Hoover’s article appeared, Sultan was recorded on Al-Risala TV saying the US government was behind 9/11, and praising Al-Qaeda cleric and Specially Designated Global Terrorist Abd-al-Magid Al-Zindani [video clip and transcript of Sultan’s Al-Risala interview].

And it seems that not everyone is Bahrain is pleased with Sultan’s presence there. An article in Al-Wasat (in Arabic) dated May 8th, many people were upset that Sultan and his buddy Ghoneim were granted Bahraini citizenship almost immediately upon their arrival in violation of the country’s constitution. This is particularly curious since according to my sources, Sultan still has a US citizenship application pending. I’m also told that his family is still living in Hilliard while he cavorts with terrorists all over the Gulf region and preaches jihad in Bahrain.

Surely the Columbus Dispatch and Felix Hoover couldn’t have got it wrong on Salah Sultan, could they? And Ahmad Al-Akhras, Abukar Arman, Norma Tarazi and Mahmoud El-Yousseph couldn’t be covering up for their jihad-loving buddy? Say it isn’t so, Joe!

Hilliard Man Shares a Moment with Global Terrorist Qaradawi

Hilliard resident Salah Sultan (kneeling) sharing a private moment with Specially Designated Global Terrorist Yousef Al-Qaradawi (far right) at a conference honoring Qaradawi held last month in Doha, Qatar (image from Islamonline.net)

A little over a week ago, I posted information on Hilliard resident Salah Sultan, president of the Hilliard-based American Center for Islamic Research, speaking at a conference honoring US-designated global terrorist Yousef Al-Qaradawi in Doha, Qatar (“Hilliard man roasts global terrorist Qaradawi at conference in Qatar”). Over the weekend, I discovered the picture above of Sultan and HAMAS/Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Qaradawi together during a dinner at that same conference on the Qaradawi-owned and supervised Islamonline.net website.

In that previous post I included pictures of Sultan speaking at the conference and greeting attendees, which were included in Sultan’s speech at the conference and a paper he delivered there on Qaradawi’s intellectual contributions that are published on Qaradawi’s personal website. The conference also featured a speech by HAMAS political leader Khaled Mash’al, who praised Qaradawi for his groundbreaking fatwa authorizing HAMAS suicide bombings (remarks by Mash’al and Qaradawi have been translated by MEMRI).

What makes this situation interesting is that the Columbus Dispatch “cleared” Salah Sultan of charges I had made about his connections to Qaradawi in a May 2006 article by Felix Hoover, “Muslim Milestone”, and likened him as a moderate because he was a signatory to a bogus CAIR fatwa “against terrorism”, even though the fatwa condemned no terrorist organization, individual or any specific act of terror, nor did it even define “terrorism”. For continuing to report on Sultan’s activities for the past year and a half I have been savagely attacked by several Central Ohio Muslim writers and an advisor to Mayor Michael Coleman. In a dossier compiled by Ahmad Al-Akhras and circulated by him to various government and establishment media officials attacking FrontPage Magazine and myself, he specifically cites Hoover’s article as proof that my claims about Sultan have been debunked (more on the Al-Akhras dossier later this week!).

Will an apology from Dispatch executive and CAIR lackey Mike Curtin be forthcoming? I won’t hold my breath.

Another interesting element is that despite the multiple reports I have had published regarding Sultan’s open support for terrorist organizations, including his appearance last summer at a rally in Istanbul in support of HAMAS (see “Hometown Jihad: The HAMAS Connection”, and a COAT post by Scanderbeg, “The Hilliard-HAMAS-Muslim Brotherhood Connection”), his videotaped appearance on Al-Risala TV claiming that 9/11 was planned by the US government and praising another US-designated Al-Qaeda terrorist [video], several Central Ohioans have risen up to defend Salah Sultan.

Chief among Salah Sultan’s public defenders has been none other than Abukar Arman, who was recently “cleared” by the Columbus Dispatch for his repeated statements in support of terrorist organizations, including his characterization of Qaradawi as a “moderate”, even though he was forced to resign from the Homeland Security oversight board because he wasn’t eligible according to Ohio law to serve on the panel (see “Terrorist Sympathizer Tossed from Homeland Security Oversight Panel”). After my initial FrontPage exposé on Sultan, “Hometown Jihad”, Abukar Arman likened me to Joseph Goebbels and denouncing my “Goebbelian excercise [sic] of freedom of speech”:

Only a few days ago, one such moderate Muslim, Dr. Salah Soltan, a renown scholar and a member of the North America and the European Fiqh Council, and Sunrise Academy, a Kindergarten to Seventh Grade Islamic school which this author has been sitting on its board for the past six years, were implicated with those all too familiar innuendoes as terror-promoting individual and institution. The accusatory article was written by a gentleman who claims being a “policy researcher” . . . . and boasts to have only spent 3 hours to arrive at that conclusion. (“The Trilogy that Muffles Moderate Muslims”)

Just as a point of clarification, the “3 hours” comment about the amount of time I spent researching Salah Sultan is pure fiction by Arman. After the series of reports I published on Sultan’s activities, it would take someone less than 30 minutes to arrive at that conclusion.

Another vocal local Salah Sultan defender is Mahmoud El-Yousseph, who just this weekend had an article published, “Muslim Basher, Patrick Poole, Preys on People’s Fears”, complaining of my reports on Sultan’s terrorist support activities:

Last May he attacked Salah Sultan, a nationally noted Muslim scholars. For no reason other than his views — the very same thing he accused Abukar Arman of. [The US Constitution guarantees freedom of expression to every citizen and non-citizen living in this free country.]

This is not the first time that El-Yousseph has promoted and praised Salah Sultan in print. In an op-ed published in the Newark Advocate on June 23, 2005, El-Yousseph called him “one of America’s most noted Muslim scholars” and promoted Sultan’s website and books:

I asked doctor Salah Soltan of Central Ohio, who is one of America’s most noted Muslim scholars, about a woman’s rights to drive from an Islamic perspective. He said, “There is nowhere in the Holy Quran or the teaching of the prophet Mohammad that prohibits a woman from using any mode of transportation, even traveling by herself.”

Dr. Soltan recently wrote a book about women’s rights under Islamic law. In fact, he pointed out 25 examples where women have more right than men when it comes to inheritance. A visit to his Web site www.salahsoltan.com could be very useful for people seeking information about Islamic topics.

If observing that one of my Hilliard neighbors is regularly cavorting with known designated international terrorists makes me a “Muslim Basher”, it should give us all pause; if being concerned about it makes me an “Islamophobe”, than my accusers have all the evidence they need to find me guilty. And if self-proclaimed local Muslim leaders, such as Ahmad Al-Akhras, Abukar Arman and Mahmoud El-Yousseph, are all too eager to rise up in defense of Salah Sultan’s activities supporting terrorists (Qaradawi) and terrorist organizations (HAMAS), it should indicate that these gentlemen are not representative of moderate Muslims in Central Ohio at all. With such abundant information now available about Salah Sultan’s known terrorist associations, we can safely conclude that Ahmad Al-Akhras, Abukar Arman and Mahmoud El-Yousseph, along with their buddy Salah Sultan, are exactly the extremists I have portrayed them to be.

Colleagues of Mayor Coleman Advisor Placed at HAMAS Meeting

Mike Brown, Mayor Michael Coleman’s spokesman, who we have previously seen actively involved in a cover-up to bury any investigation on terror apologist Abukar Arman to avoid any connections between the Mayor and Ahmad Al-Akhras, close advisor to Coleman and business partner to Arman, ought to be more concerned about the developments coming out of the Holy Land Foundation trial currently underway in Dallas than covering up the Arman matter.

During testimony in that trial two weeks ago, two CAIR colleagues of Al-Akhras (vice chairman of CAIR), Omar Ahmad (chairman emeritus of CAIR) and Nihad Awad (executive director of CAIR), were both placed at a critical 1993 HAMAS strategy meeting held in Philadelphia with the express purpose of coordinating fundraising for HAMAS and putting their public relations and lobbying efforts to work within the US to undermine the Oslo Peace Accords. Ahmad and Awad are the co-founders of CAIR.

Counterterror expert Matthew Epstein has previously testified (p. 12) before the US Senate Judiciary Committee on the 1993 Philadelphia HAMAS strategy meeting, and the role that the future CAIR officials played in the event :

Future CAIR leadership was present at the infamous “1993 Philadelphia meeting,” which FBI documents describe as “a meeting in the United States among senior leaders of HAMAS, HLFRD and IAP.” According to FBI documents, the meeting was attended by future CAIR board chairman Omar Yahya Ahmed26 and future founding board member of the Texas CAIR chapter Ghassan Elashi.27 According to an FBI action memorandum analyzing wiretaps of the meeting:

“The overall goal of the meeting was to develop a strategy to defeat the Israeli/Palestinian peace accord, and to continue and improve their [HAMAS] fund-raising and political activities in the United States. . .

The participants decided that for fund-raising purposes, the United States theater was very valuable to them. They stated they could not afford to lose it. In the United States, they could raise funds, propagate their political goals, affect public opinion and influence decision-making of the U.S. Government.

It was mentioned that the United States provided them with a secure, legal base from which to operate. The democratic environment in the United States allowed them to perform activities that are extremely important to their cause. In discussing financial matters the participants stated a belief that continuation of the Holy War was inevitable.

It was decided that most or almost all of the funds collected in the future should be directed to enhance the Islamic Resistance Movement and to weaken the selfrule government. Holy War efforts should be supported by increasing spending on the injured, the prisoners and their families, and the martyrs and their families.”28

The fact that participants in this senior Hamas meeting would go on to organize CAIR in the United States exposes the militant Islamic disposition of CAIR leadership.

Omar Ahmad, Nihad Awad, Ahmad Al-Akhras and Parvez Ahmed are the executive leaders of CAIR. Omar Ahmad and Nihad Awad have been listed by federal prosecutors as unindicted co-conspirators in the case, as has CAIR itself. The founder of the CAIR-Texas chapter, Ghassan Elashi, has already been convicted on terrorism charges and is included in the Holy Land Foundation trial as well (Al-Akhras founded the Ohio chapter of CAIR). Because of the activity by HAMAS to disrupt the Middle East process, President Clinton designated the group as a terrorist organization in January 1995, but many US-based organizations continued to fundraise for the group.

Mayor Michael Coleman and his spokesman, Mike Brown, have bigger concerns than Abukar Arman, especially since the Mayor has appointed Al-Akhras to a number of government boards, including the Community Relations Commission and the Street Car Working Group. Coleman’s close association with Al-Akhras puts him only one step away from a whole network of international terrorists and domestic extremists, which may not bode well in an election year.

More on the City Hall — County Commission Cover-Up

I’m continuing to go through the County Commission records obtained through my Open Records Act request related to the Abukar Arman cover-up and pseudo-investigation. In my previous post, “Anatomy of a cover-up on Abukar Arman”, we saw through a series of email exchanges that Mayor Coleman’s office was giving direction to Democratic Party public officials and political staff to bury this matter as deeply as possible. We saw that in response to the Abukar Arman story, the Franklin County Commission’s Public Information Director Hanna Greer admitted to instituting an Orwellian “proactive strategy of not responding” — a betrayal of her responsibilities to the public she is paid to serve. Why exactly is she still employed with such an admission?

Another interesting email I have discovered in the ~250 pages of documentation is the following email from Mike Brown, Mayor Coleman’s spokesman, and Greer, where she had forwarded a note from Abukar Arman to everyone at the County Commission and the Planning Board. What it clearly shows is that Brown interjected himself right into the middle of the Arman matter, giving direction to law enforcement, even though it had absolutely nothing to do with City Hall:

From: Brown, Michael S.
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2007 11:55 AM
To: Greer, Hanna M.
Subject: RE: SPAM-An Important Issue That I Would Like To Share With the Board

I’ve sent a message of concern over this issue to Police and the DOJ to look into. Please keep that under your hat.

Exactly who is Mike Brown that he believes as spokesman for the Mayor he can direct the Columbus Police and the Department of Justice/FBI on a matter entirely unrelated to Columbus City government? Why was it necessary for anyone to keep it under their hat? What exactly was this “message of concern”? That there was a terror apologist on the Planning Board and that it needed looking into, or that someone had exposed a vulnerability to local Democrats that needed a whitewash post haste? This raises a troubling issue: who was running the show, and were they primarily interested in political fallout or public safety?

In that previous post, I speculated on what exactly this exchange might mean:

7) Later this week I will be posting another separate email from Michael Brown to Hanna Greer informing her that he had contacted Columbus Police and the DOJ on the Abukar Arman matter. Why did he do this, when all I had accused him of was publicly voicing support for terrorist organizations while serving on the Criminal Justice Planning Board? He initiated these law enforcement investigations so that Arman could be “cleared” of my supposed charges, when in fact they had nothing to do with my original FrontPage report. Again, this email between Brown and Greer had already been provided to the Columbus Dispatch, who was apparently not interested in the public corruption angle of this story; but instead, chose to be a part of it.

Could there be another explanation for this? Perhaps, but Mike Brown’s actions at City Hall as expressed in his email exchange with County Commission Public Information Director Hanna Greer and fellow Democratic political operatives and staff in town was about giving direction to cover the exposed rears of his fellow Democrats on the County Commission, and they followed his advice to the letter, eventually making the investigation they had promised vanish. This all transpired and the plan of action established amongst them all before anyone had a chance to investigate my claims regarding Abukar Arman’s public statements in support for terrorists.

Brown’s concern is understandable, seeing that Abukar Arman was just a step away from the Mayor himself though Arman’s business partner, Ahmad Al-Akhras, one of the Mayor’s closest political advisors. For anything to be confirmed about Arman’s public apology for terrorist could very well end up getting hung on Mayor Coleman as well. Brown needed something from law enforcement saying, “No, he’s not a terrorist”, as a diversion so that they could avoid having to address Arman’s repeated statements of support for terrorists. It was best not to have too many people asking about the matter and sniffing around the Mayor, which necessitated Brown’s directive to stonewall anyone but friendly “credible media” and to have predetermined answers at-hand if those calls ever came.

And when that call came from the friendly “credible media”, a warning signal was sent from Greer to Brown:

-----Original Message-----
From: Greer, Hanna M.
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 4:01 PM
To: Brown, Michael S.
Subject: FW: Information Request from Barb Carmen

Mike,

I wanted to make you aware that this Public Records Request has come to my attention this afternoon.

Hanna

-----Original Message-----
From: Brown, Michael S.
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 4:03 PM
To: Greer, Hanna M.
Subject: RE: Information Request from Barb Carmen

Understood.

Again, the Columbus Dispatch had all of this information, but apparently had no interest in the City Hall and County Commission cover-up, but just participating in it.

The documents also indicate that the stonewall ordered by Brown wasn’t limited to just City Hall and the County Commission. A memo dated July 11th from Hanna Greer to the County Commissioners that indicates that Columbus Public Schools Director of Communications Jeffrey Warner had also adopted the stonewall strategy, and was coordinating the School Board’s response in tandem with Mike Brown at City Hall and Greer at the County Commission:

Commissioners,

I was contacted today by Jeff Warner the Communications Director for the Columbus Public Schools (CPS) because he received a call from Patrick Poole a reporter with FrontPageMagazine.com concerning the School Districts employment of Abukar Arrnan. Patrick has written an article (below) entitled Columbus’ Hometown Jihad in which he alleges that Mr. Arman is a prominent defender of the Al-Quaeda [sic] backed ICU terrorist organization and that CPS, Franklin County and Columbus have chosen him to serve on our boards.

In an e-mail to Jeff, Patrick asked who exactly made the decision to recommend Mr. Arman for an appointment to the Franklin County Criminal Justice Planning Board and what the considerations were involved in making the appointment. Jeff does not plan to respond to this e-mail request but he did contact Mike Brown and me so that we coordinate a response to future questions.

Patrick Poole has not contacted the county Public Affairs staff and at this point, I do not intend to contact him. I wanted to bring this electronic article to your attention and will be working to prepare a response in the event the county receives questions about Mr. Arman’s appointment and/or service to Franklin County.

Hanna

Thus far we have seen three public officials holding positions responsible for communicating with the public betrayed that trust and refused to answer any further questions in a coordinated effort to stonewall the public on this matter: Hanna Greer, Franklin County Commission Public Information Director; Mike Brown, spokesman for Mayor Michael Coleman’s office; and Jeffrey Warner, Communications Director for the Columbus Public Schools.

Why do these three individuals still have jobs? Perhaps someone should ask their bosses, because it seems likely the establishment media in Columbus never will:

• Mayor Michael Coleman — 645-7671 mbcoleman@columbus.gov


• Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy – 462-5589 aabiller@franklincountyohio.gov


• Commissioner Paula Brooks — 462-5729 paula.brooks@franklincountyohio.gov


• Commissioner Marilyn Brown — 462-3461 marilyn.brown@franklincountyohio.gov


• Superintendent Gene Harris — 365-5888 gharrris@columbus.k12.oh.us

The Muslim Brotherhood in Central Ohio

The Investigative Project on Terrorism reports from the Holy Land Foundation HAMAS terror financing trial in Dallas that during testimony yesterday an FBI agent was questioned regarding a Muslim Brotherhood phone directory showing the terror organization’s US leadership (“Muslim Brotherhood Phonebook Confirms that MAS is Brotherhood’s Baby”).

A quick look at the Muslim Brotherhood directory shows that one member of their board of directors at the time (1992) was located right here in Columbus (in the 614 area code):

The office number for Hani Saker/Shaker is an Ohio State University phone number that currently goes to the OSU Department of Orthopedics, but additional information on Saker’s past/present relationship to OSU will need to be the subject of further research.

It has been known that the Muslim American Society (MAS) organization was the ideological training operation for the Muslim Brotherhood in the US, especially after a September 2004 Chicago Tribune exposé on MAS, “A rare look at secretive Brotherhood in America”, featured an interview with Ahmad Elkadi, who worked with current international Muslim Brotherhood General Guide Mahdi Akef to found the organization here and served as the leader in the US for several years in the 1970s and 1980s. Elkadi and other MAS officials admitted their relationship to the mothership of Islamic terrorism and extremism. These new documents and testimony in the Holy Land Foundation trial support this prior evidence about the role of MAS as an arm of the international Muslim Brotherhood. Counterterrorism expert Matthew Levitt has already testified in the trial about the MAS-Muslim Brotherhood connection.

For those not familiar with the Muslim Brotherhood, its credo is: “Allah is our objective, the Koran is our Constitution, the Prophet is our leader, jihad is our way, and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations”, and it has spawned virtually every single Islamic terror organization in the world today. It’s chief theorist, Sayyid Qutb, articulated the jihadist ideology that undergirds the present global jihad, and the graduates of the Muslim Brotherhood include Osama bin Laden, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, 1993 WTC bomber Ramzi Youssef, 9/11 leader Mohammad Atta, et al.

The MAS-Columbus affiliate has been one of the more important groups in the national organization. So important, in fact, that Muslim Brotherhood operative Salah Sultan made Central Ohio (specifically, Hilliard) his home. Sultan was a MAS board member from 2000-2004, he worked for the group at the head of their Tarbiyah department in the late 1990s, and was the founder of the Islamic American University in Michigan, where he installed his mentor and Specially Designated Global Terrorist Yousef al-Qaradawi as honorary chairman. So important was this major Muslim Brotherhood figure’s move to Columbus, that MAS-Columbus posted a major annoucement heralding Sultan’s arrival on their website (archived copy).

Another prominent member of the MAS-Columbus group is none other than my good friend, Ahmad Al-Akhras. When he was appointed to the Leadership Columbus Hall of Fame, MAS-Columbus again posted the announcement on their website, crowing that a MAS member had been chosen for such an honor.

Ahmad Al-Akhras, vice chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and close advisor to Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood? Say it isn’t so, Joe!

The day before MAS-Columbus posted that announcement regarding Al-Akhras, it published an article entitled, “Palestine: Is it the Jews’ Promised Land?”. Believe it or not, it concludes that it isn’t. I know you are staggered in disbelief. In conclusion, it states:

Though, seizing the chance of Muslims’ lapsing in weakness and deviating from Allah’s teachings, the Jews have occupied Palestine, they will never remain there forever, for the evil within themselves is beyond description. They will suffer another defeat and sever blow; we hope this will be at the hands of Muslims once they return back to their Lord and be unified again.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Central Ohio? The documents don’t lie, even though its members do.

Anatomy of a cover-up on Abukar Arman

“Never let the truth get in the way of a good cover-up.” — anonymous Nixon aide

“I had put together, what I considered a proactive media strategy of not responding. . .” — Hanna M. Greer, Public Information Director, Franklin County Commissioners

[Welcome American Thinker readers, and additional thanks to Columbuser, BizzyBlog and Nixguy for the plugs]

Take a minute and re-read that statement from Hanna Greer again. With reference to the Abukar Arman kerfuffle, Greer’s statement encapsulates the Franklin County Commissioners’ handling of the issue. Earlier today I went to the Commissioners’ office and finally obtained the documents I had requested under the Open Records Act last month on the Abukar Arman matter. Greer contacted me by email at the close of business last Thursday (4:43pm to be precise) to let me know the documents were ready. As I already noted, this information had already been provided to Barbara Carmen of the Columbus Dispatch more than a week before it was made available to me.

It is going to take a couple of days to wade through the ~250 pages of information, but perhaps the most important article obtained through my Open Records Act request was a set of email exchanges between Hanna Greer and Michael Brown (reproduced below), spokesman for Mayor Michael Coleman, just days after my initial article regarding Abukar Arman’s extremists statements in support of terrorist organizations and his presence on the Franklin County Criminal Justice Planning Board, “Hometown Jihad: The Somali Terror Apologist Next Door”. Perhaps coincidentally, the County Commission finally responded to my request only after my FrontPage article last week noting that they continued to sit on the information they were required by law to provide “promptly”, “Terror Sympathizer Tossed from Homeland Security Oversight Panel”.

In this set of email exchanges, which were also copied to a number of Central Ohio Democratic Party operatives and political staffers, Michael Brown lays out a plan to:

1. Politicize the Abukar Arman issue by stonewalling information requests from the public and non-establishment media to prevent giving the allegations any legitimacy or traction, and only responding to friendly “credible media” inquiries;



2. Shut down/downplay the investigation that Commissioner Paula Brooks had demanded regarding Arman’s extremist positions; and



3. Manipulate the “investigation” for a predetermined outcome to create the necessary media response long before anything had come back on the various inquiries into what Arman had said, all in order to discredit the published reports and to limit the possible political damage to Central Ohio Democrats.

What we see in this exchange is the anatomy of a cover-up, and Mayor Coleman’s office acting in concert with the Franklin County Commission staff to make it happen.

We also find Hanna Greer admitting in these emails to pressuring Barbara Carmen and Doug Caruso of the Columbus Dispatch to get off the Abukar Arman story. In light of how the story ended up, and in light of how the pseudo-investigation was a set-up from the start, is it any wonder the Dispatch article came out as it did? Was Barbara Carmen duped? Carmen had already been given a copy of this Greer-Brown exchange before she wrote her article last week, but I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. That said, she did not report that Greer had leaned on the Dispatch to drop the story.

Here are a couple of quick thoughts and immediate questions raised by the Greer-Brown exchange:

1. How is it that Mayor Coleman’s office took it upon themselves to start dictating media strategy for a matter that only involved the County Commission? Who is running the show downtown?



2. When did government-employed public information directors get in the business of choosing who they would respond to and what information they would provide?



3. Michael Brown claims that this issue is driven by political and ideological considerations, and responds by encouraging further politicization of the issue. Did his strategy best serve the people of Franklin County and the City of Columbus, or his Democratic Party overlords?



4. Hanna Greer admits to setting up an Orwellian “proactive media strategy of not responding” (aka “stonewalling”), which explains why none of us were able to get any response whatsoever from anyone at the County Commission. Remember, Hanna Greer is Public Information Director, not Political Director. Her job is working for the people who pay her salary, not the elected political officials who currently occupy those positions. Her behavior borders on the criminal, and certainly crosses the lines of nonfeasance and misfeasance.



5. Perhaps the most galling thing about this is how Hanna Greer was upset that Paula Brooks had made public her call for an investigation. Brooks had the audacity, according to Greer, to act forthrightly and communicating directly with the unwashed masses and bloggers without consulting her first! Who exactly is running the show at the County Commission office; our elected representatives, or unelected lackeys?



6. The Columbus Dispatch had this same information, and was under admitted pressure from Hanna Greer to drop their Abukar Arman story. Why did they not find that important enough to report?



7. Later this week I will be posting another separate email from Michael Brown to Hanna Greer informing her that he had contacted Columbus Police and the DOJ on the Abukar Arman matter. Why did he do this, when all I had accused him of was publicly voicing support for terrorist organizations while serving on the Criminal Justice Planning Board? He initiated these law enforcement investigations so that Arman could be “cleared” of my supposed charges, when in fact they had nothing to do with my original FrontPage report. Again, this email between Brown and Greer had already been provided to the Columbus Dispatch, who was apparently not interested in the public corruption angle of this story; but instead, chose to be a part of it.

Immediately below is the initiating email from Michael Brown, Mayor Coleman’s spokesman, that got the ball rolling (misspellings in the original):

-----Original Message-----
From: Brown, Michael S.
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 11:17 AM
To: Greer, Hanna M.; electpaulabrooks@aol.com; Brooks, Paula L.; Sontag, RJ; Seckler, Barb; Reese, Michael; Ivanic, John P.; Rutkus, Mark K.; Sexton, Michael E.
Subject: Right Wing Bloggers

Hanna Greer,

Sending a note on this blogger issue I read about. I’m seeing Step 2 in classic right wing “from blogs to news” strategy on this Mr. Arman issue, see message below . . . They were mildly successful in getting electeds to react to some nobody blowhard on WTVN, now they got a different blog to accuse you of not doing enough or covering up, damned if you do or don’t. This is the next to last stages of their facist-esque defamation “balloon floating” on this person . . . Either credible media will pick up or they won’t, if not it goes away.

Best strategy for responsible folks (in my opinion) is simple, factual defense from external validator. Have Don Brown or lower staff (not at request of Comm.) get short, clear statement from Sheriff, Police or Homeland Security folks on status of individual, good or bad . . . Not an investigation or hearing. You’ve already got something from DC John Rockwell of Columbus Police (one of the fairest and sharpest on Homeland Security in country). If accusations of blog don’t match reality from Safety folks, just sit tight until (if/when) credible media call. If that ever comes, then down staff folks simply hand over Safety official notes/statement . . . “oh yeah, the Sheriff looked into that accusation, it’s bs . . . “No further comment by anyone aside from that.

As long as there’s no credible threat, We respect free speech of both sides, even if we don’t agree with either . . . We certainly don’t govern based on the paranoia and fear-mongering of divisive Republican operatives or their hench-persons at select blogs or talk shows.

The reality here is that this in the end won’t be about the individual, they don’t care about him, it’ll be about they use a reaction to tear you down. They’ll hit you if you make it serious in any direction… That’s why you need credible external source to demystify accusations.

I cc’ed Paula Brooks, as I know she expressed concern, and some of our team.

Be cautious.

mb

Here are some of the other Democratic Party players and political staff who were in on this spin-strategy memo:

• Michael Sexton: Community Liaison Officer, Office of the Mayor


• Mark Rutkus: Currently Legislative Aide to City Council President Michael Mentel mkrutkus@columbus.gov 614-645-8558; Former Franklin County Democratic Party Chair; Executive Director for State Convention


• John Ivanic: currently Columbus city council spokesman and former NBC 4 weekend anchor/reporter


• Barb Seckler: Deputy Director of the City of Columbus Department of Public Safety

Here is the rest of the Greer-Brown exchange (emphasis added; misspellings in the original):

-----Original Message-----
From: Greer, Hanna M.
To: Brown, Michael S.
Sent: Tue Jul 17 12:38:29 2007
Subject: RE: Right Wing Bloggers

Mike,

Thanks for your counsel.. ...... I appreciate it. Unfortunately because of the call to “expeditiously investigate’’ the Dispatch is going to give additional credence to the allegations and write a piece.

We should talk .........

Hanna

-----Original Message-----
From: Brown, Michael S.
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 12:50 PM
To: Greer, Hanna M.
Subject: Re: Right Wing Bloggers

Who is on it? Barb?

Who will reply?

-----Original Message-----
From: Greer, Hanna M.
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 1:05 PM
To: Brown, Michael S.
Subject: RE: Right Wing Bloggers

Barb is on it. She wants Commissioner Brooks to respond about her call for an investigation. I am trying to persuade her and Doug Caruso not to do the story.

-----Original Message-----
From: Brown, Michael S.
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 1: 11 PM
To: Greer, Hanna M.
Subject: RE: Right Wing Bloggers

Good luck. This is a tough one, but when electeds speak sometimes they walk into traps. I’ve got similar troubles over here with Councilmembers who are so new. Which way will Paula go ... ?

What is her message?

-----Original Message-----
From: Greer, Hanna M.
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 1:15 PM
To: Brown, Michael S.
Subject: RE: Right Wing Bloggers

Honestly Mike, I have no idea what Paula’s message is. I had put together, what I considered a proactive media strategy of not responding however, her office sent out the memo requesting an investigation which the other commissioners and I heard about on 610 WTVN and from Patrick Poole.

-----Original Message-----
From: Brown, Michael S.
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 1:28 PM
To: Greer, Hanna M.
Subject: RE: Right Wing Bloggers

Alright, I feel ya.

Sorry you’re in this position.

Again, there is much to wade through, but one additional document that demonstrates the stonewall established by the County Commission and how Hanna Greer manned it, is a handwritten memo dated July 19th from Hanna Greer to one of the commissioners that is written on a copy of an email request from Dirk Thompson at 610WTVN asking for a response on the matter. Greer tells the commissioner:

Commissioner,

I do not plan to respond to Mr. Thompson’s request.

Hanna

Ladies and gentlemen, our Franklin County Commission Public Information Director Hanna M. Greer hard at work . . . for someone other than the taxpayers she is paid to serve:

Hilliard man roasts global terrorist Qaradawi at conference in Qatar

(Welcome to everyone joining us from JihadWatch and Solomonia!)

This picture was taken last month of Hilliard resident and Muslim Brotherhood/HAMAS operative Salah Sultan speaking at a conference honoring Specially Designated Global Terrorist and HAMAS spiritual leader Yousef Al-Qaradawi in Doha, Qatar (see the previous post on Sultan, “The Hilliard-HAMAS-Muslim Brotherhood Connection”). The conference, “Imam Al-Qaradawi: A Forum with Students and Friends”, was broadcast on Al-Jazeera TV.

During the conference, Sultan gave a moving tribute to his mentor Qaradawi, describing himself as a “friend and pupil”. Sultan’s speech appears (in Arabic) on Qaradawi’s own personal website, “Pupils do not forget their teachers”. Interestingly, Sultan begins his speech by describing how he has been attacked for his association with Qaradawi in “Boston, Chicago, and Ohio” and the campaign to deny him US citizenship (a story I broke last year, “Hometown Jihad: Our Newest Citizen?”) and brazenly saying that “I endorse Qaradawi; especially on the position of Israel, and support of the Palestinian cause.” He also talks about his meetings with Qaradawi, specifically a meeting in 1999, Qaradawi’s last appearance in the US right before he was designated a global terrorist by the US government, and again in 2003, when he received personal advice and counsel from his mentor.

Sultan delivered another paper at the conference on the “scientific and intellectual development of Qaradawi” — again, posted on Qaradawi’s own website, as the screen capture below shows:



It is interesting that Sultan mentions the “Palestinian cause”, because another important speaker at the conference, HAMAS leader Khaled Mash’al, also praised Qaradawi for his contribution to the "Palestinian cause". And what specifically was that? Here are Mash’al’s comments translated by MEMRI [video]:

“The support we got from Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi is different from the support of anybody else, because of his religious status, his status in terms of morale, and his ability to draw the attention of the nation and the world to the issues of the nation, particularly the issue of Palestine. This support was of great value to us, to the Palestinian people, in the first and second Intifadas, and in all matters pertaining to the Palestinian cause. . . One of the most notable manifestations of this support was when we relied — after Allah — on his support of martyrdom operations. He never hesitated to issue rulings in support of these operations, and there were times when we were in dire need of these rulings.”

When he talks about “martyrdom operations”, he’s talking about suicide bombings. In fact, Qaradawi was the first major Muslim Brotherhood cleric to issue a fatwa endorsing suicide bombings, which unleashed a torrent of terror in Israel (one of the most horrific incidents — the bombing of the Sbarro pizza shop — occured six years ago today). By qualifying suicide bombings as “martyrdom” instead of suicide (prohibited by Islamic law), it radically changed the dimensions of the Israel/Palestinian conflict and prompted a rapid escalation in violence.

As I have noted elsewhere, this is not the first time that Salah Sultan has been discovered speaking with officials with the terrorist group HAMAS. I reported a few months ago about his speech in Istanbul last summer at an AKP pro-HAMAS rally, where Sultan spoke, along with HAMAS head Ismail Haniyeh, “Hometown Jihad: The HAMAS Connection”. He has been involved in the following Central Ohio Islamic institutions:

• Islamic Society of Greater Columbus (where he was employed, and which owns several area mosques Sultan has preached for)
• Sunrise Academy (an affiliate of ISGC, where Sultan has regularly lectured)
• Noor Islamic Cultural Center (where he was a regular fixture, being right around the corner from his Hilliard home)

It is also worth noting that Salah Sultan was “cleared” by Columbus Dispatch reporter Felix Hoover in May 2006 (see my article, "Hometown Jihad: Blowback"), just a few days before Sultan appeared on Al-Risala TV saying that the US government was behind the 9/11 attacks and praising another Specially Designated Global Terrorist and al-Qaeda cleric Abd-al-Magid Al-Zindani [video clip of Sultan’s Al-Risala interview]. The Dispatch’s “clearing” of Abukar Arman earlier this week should be considered in light of this fact. Arman also praised the terrorist leader Qaradawi as a “moderate” (“Who is the ‘moderate’ Muslim”, International Herald Tribune [November 11, 2005]), and rose to Salah Sultan’s defense (“The Trilogy that Muffles the Moderate Muslims”) after my initial article revealing Sultan’s ties to terrorist leader Qaradawi.

Sultan’s current position as fiqh advisor to the Supreme Islamic Council of the Kingdom of Bahrain was arranged by Qaradawi, and Sultan also sits on two organizations headed by Qaradawi that have endorsed terrorist acts and attacks on US troops: the European Council for Fatwa and Research and the International Association of Muslim Scholars, which in 2004 issued a fatwa to wage jihad against Americans in Iraq.

With such open associations to one of the most notorious terrorist clerics in the world, why is Salah Sultan still allowed to live and work in the US? What are our local Hilliard leaders doing about this immediate terrorist threat?

Update #1: Someone asked me about links to my previous articles on Sultan, so here they are:

Hometown Jihad (04/03/2006)

Hometown Jihad: Blowback (05/24/06)

Hometown Jihad: Our Newest Citizen? (09/08/06)

Hometown Jihad: The Return of Salah Sultan (03/29/07)

Hometown Jihad: The HAMAS Connection (05/11/2007)

County Homeland Security at work

Back in March, Congressman Anthony Weiner and Congressman Jeff Flake produced a report entitled, “Security or Pork? A Review of National Homeland Security Funding Boondoggles”, which mentions the following item regarding how our Homeland Security funds are being spent here in Central Ohio (p. 4):

Columbus, OH

Program: Urban Area Security Initiative
Amount: $7,348 for 11 vests
Year: 2005
Use: Bulletproof vests for police and fire department dogs
“Consider Columbus, Ohio, which used part of its Homeland Security grant to buy bulletproof dog vests.” (Tampa Tribune, January 5, 2006)

“‘I challenge anyone to spend $8 billion and not find something to pick on,’ Ken Morckel, director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety, said.” (Columbus Dispatch, December 9, 2005)

“‘These aren’t pets. These aren’t woolly sweaters we bought them to walk in the park,’ [Kerry] Ellis [of Columbus division of fire] said. ‘These are flak vests we bought to protect an animal who provides an expensive service.’” (Columbus Dispatch, December 9, 2005)

Who oversees the Urban Area Security Initiative grants? The Franklin County Criminal Justice Planning Board, which is now one member short. Is it any wonder that our grants under the UASI are being cut?

Terrorist Sympathizer Tossed

The Abukar Arman saga continues this morning at FrontPage, “Terrorist Sympathizer Tossed from Homeland Security Panel”.

Here’s a quick summary:

• Abukar Arman is cleared by Columbus Dispatch after pseudo-investigation, but is still forced to resign from Criminal Justice Planning Board overseeing the Office of Homeland Security and Justice Programs. Also loses adult education job at Columbus Public Schools. CPS says FrontPage has nothing to do with it; Arman complains it does.


• County Commissioners obstruct Open Records Act request on the matter while passing same information to media establishment allies at Columbus Dispatch. Can a lawsuit or criminal charges be far behind?


• CAIR seethes and nutroots wail.


• New revelations are about to emerge about Abukar Arman, Ahmad Al-Akhras and their business partners.

Stay tuned for updates!

Breaking the law, breaking the law

Update #1 (8/7/07 4:57pm): It’s been a busy afternoon at the Franklin County Commission. It seems someone in their office has been furiously downloading pages from this blog as the stats log below attests. Can another hit piece by their friends at the Columbus Dispatch be far behind? Shouldn’t they be busy instead preparing my Open Records Act request?

Original Post: Exactly how is it that the Franklin County Commission continues to sit on an Open Records Act request submitted on July 30th at 10:51am to their Public Information Director Hanna Greer regarding the appointment of Abukar Arman to the Criminal Justice Planning Board and their alleged investigation into his extremist statements, while simultaneously providing some of the same information to Columbus Dispatch reporter Barbara Carmen for her front-page article published yesterday? Inquiring minds want to know!

Hanna Greer confirmed receipt of this request the following day in a phone call. We haven’t heard from the Franklin County Commission since, but they were eager to pass the same information along to the Columbus Dispatch for their story. In a phone interview on Thursday, Barbara Carmen read her own Open Records Act request to me, and it was strikingly simliar to my own. The Dispatch got their information; I’m still waiting for mine. Maybe this post should have been titled, “Waiting for Godot”?

Here is the Open Records Act request I filed:

From: Patrick S. Poole
To: “Hanna Greer” hmgreer@franklincountyohio.gov
Date: Mon, Jul 30, 2007 at 10:51 AM

Ms. Greer,

This letter is a request to inspect and copy public records pursuant to Section 149.43 of the Ohio Revised Code, the Open Records Act. Pursuant to this law, I am requesting immediate access to the following public records:

• Any and all copies of documents, reports, memoranda, of internal and external correspondence, memos, emails, faxes, notes, and meeting minutes of the Franklin County Commissioners and/or Commission staff related to the recommendation and appointment of Abukar Arman to the Franklin County Criminal Justice Planning Board on or before March 8, 2005. (I am particularly interested in any communication with the Columbus Public Schools on this matter.)


• Any and all copies of documents, reports, memoranda and correspondence relating to all internal and external correspondence, memos, emails, faxes, notes, internet logs and meeting minutes of the Franklin County Commissioners and/or Commission staff, and any communications with the members of the Criminal Justice Planning Board, Community Corrections Planning Board, Community Planning Committee and Terrorism Advisory Committee, related to the investigation into Abukar Arman’s public statements in support of terrorist groups and individuals following Commissioner Paula Brooks’ July 12, 2007 directive to County Administrator Don Brown and Homeland Security and Justice Programs Director Kathy Crandall that the allegations made concerning Mr. Arman’s public statements be “investigated expeditiously”. I would also request any communications between the Commission members and its staff with Mr. Arman since July 12, 2007.


• Any and all copies of documents, reports, memoranda, of all external correspondence received by the Franklin County Commissioners and/or Commission staff on or following July 11, 2007 with reference to Abukar Arman’s presence on any boards or committees of the Franklin County Commission.

Since you have previously indicated in your July 13, 2007 public statement to Dirk Thompson of 610AM WTVN that all information handled by the Criminal Justice Planning Board is “available publicly”, I would finally request to inspect the Homeland Security Strategy referred to on page 1 and following in the Franklin County Comprehensive Strategic Justice Plan dated December 2006.

The Ohio Open Records law requires prompt preparation of the requested records and to make them available for inspection at all reasonable times during regular business hours. Please inform me by phone (******) or by email (*****) when this information is ready for inspection.

Patrick Poole
FrontPage Magazine

Most of this information they should have already had at hand from the Dispatch request. I readily admit that was easy for the Franklin County Commissioners and their staff to shape the public narrative of events and to do political damage control by denying me the information needed to continue to report on this story, and passing some of that same information to their media establishment allies. They just may have broken state laws in doing so. As I said here previously, government officials never learn that it’s the cover-up that gets you.

CAIR-OH reps admit to harrassing man at home

I noted in the previous entry a comment made in today’s Columbus Dispatch by CAIR-OH president Asma Mobin-Uddin, who points to an incident where she and Abukar Arman confronted a man at his home for a bumper sticker he sported on his car. But this incident is so illuminating into the fascist mindset of CAIR and its officials that it merits its own entry. Here’s what Mobin-Uddin told the Dispatch:

“Mr. Arman is a man of the greatest integrity, kindness and responsibility,” Mobin-Uddin said. She recalled a visit with Arman a few years ago to the home of an ex-Marine who displayed an anti-Muslim bumper sticker.

“We stood and talked with the man on his doorstep for an hour and a half. Mr. Arman never raised his voice. He told the man, ‘You know, sir, I have four children. I’ve lived in this country for decades. If I knew someone who was going to put a bomb somewhere, I would be the first one to jump on them.’”

But here is how Abukar Arman himself described this encounter:

Several months ago, a non-Muslim fellow in the inter-faith community brought to the attention of CAIR-Ohio a picture of his neighbor’s truck with a bumper sticker that read “Jesus loves you, and Allah wants you dead”.

Some of us thought that the appropriate thing to do was to get media involved and use this truck owner as a poster-child of the prevalent assertive ignorance that is widening the post 9/11 political divide between Muslims and non-Muslims. Others, on the other hand, saw this as an opportunity for human contact, discourse, and to build bridges of understanding.

The latter opinion prevailed.

Therefore, I had the privilege of being one of three Muslims (2 male and a female with Islamic veil) who paid a neighborly visit to the truck owner.

What ensued was an interesting discourse that I found to be very educational (its final outcome notwithstanding).

The truck owner was a former Marine officer who served in Somalia and Iraq. Initially, as he opened the door, he was visibly apprehensive (and rightfully so).

We greeted him and introduced ourselves. We reassured him that we were only interested to get to know him, address any questions or perhaps grievance that he may have, and to give him a chance to meet and dialogue with ordinary Muslims.

Long story short: in a conversation that took place right outside his door and lasted for over an hour, the former Marine talked about how he was very suspicious of Muslims and how, both in Somalia and in Iraq, he and other Americans who “came to help these two countries had their hands bitten. . .” He talked about how he did not believe there were any moderate Muslims and how organizations such as CAIR were deliberately silent about condemning terrorism. He also talked about being alarmed by the growing Muslim population in Central Ohio and how they may be hiding a terrorist who has in his possession a “briefcase nuke”. He said, “I don’t want to see a giant mushroom in Columbus” [I will come back to this point].

Lastly, he talked about his career in the private sector . . . how he worked as a “corporate anti-terrorism expert” and a “consultant to a numerous multinational corporations”. . .

First, note that this man was reported to CAIR-OH by one of his neighbors in the “interfaith community”. Abukar Arman admits that they originally intended to make him “a poster-child of the prevalent assertive ignorance that is widening the post 9/11 political divide between Muslims and non-Muslims”, but instead decided on just haranguing him at his home. Of course, we only have one version of the events that evening, so it would be interesting to hear the side of the man they accosted to see if the conversation really went as Arman says it did.

Could you imagine the outrage (rightfully so) if I had done that to someone with a pro-HAMAS bumper sticker or come to Abukar Arman’s home to confront him on his extremist views? Can you imagine the CAIR press releases and restraining orders that would have immediately followed? But in their view, this is evidence of their peace and moderation.

Abukar Arman is cleared of what, Columbus Dispatch?

Update #1: The Democratic Party shills at BuckeyeStateBlog have pulled out their own epithets in an attempt to make more out of the Dispatch story than what it really is. Again, no one accused Abukar Arman of criminal activity or terrorist ties. What he was accused of was statements in support of terrorist organizations, which neither the Democrats at the County Commission or the Columbus Dispatch were interested in exploring. The fact that Abukar Arman was forced to resign from the Criminal Justice Planning Board and lost his job at Columbus Public Schools following my FrontPage exposé ought to say something to those rallying around this terrorist sympathizer.

Update #2: Contrary to what Barbara Carmen reported, I spoke with both federal and local law enforcement today and no one was aware of any investigation by their departments into Abukar Arman. Never let the facts get in the way of a good narrative.

The Columbus Dispatch wades into the Abukar Arman controversy with a front page article this morning, “Investigation clears Hilliard man”. First off, I think that reporter Barbara Carmen did a fair job of splitting the baby and allowing both sides to have their say, though there are several factual errors with Carmen’s article that I will note below.

This is certainly an improvement over the hatchet job by Dispatch reporter Felix Hoover in May 2006 on my research into Muslim Brotherhood and HAMAS operative and Hilliard resident Salah Sultan, which presented Sultan as a moderate Muslim cleric in an article published just a few days before he appeared on Saudi Al-Risala TV saying that 9/11 was an inside job by the Bush Administration to launch the War on Terror and praising an al-Qaeda cleric.

But the headline is intentionally deceptive. The article quotes County Administrator Don Brown on what Arman was cleared of: “We did a background check and found no criminal or terrorist connections. Mr Arman is not a person of interest.” Yes, Don Brown — terrorism researcher extraordinaire. But the Dispatch article itself reveals that they didn’t actual do an investigation, and the County Commission has said that it will not issue a report. What exactly was Abukar Arman cleared of, Columbus Dispatch?

They did a background check? No one ever accused Mr. Arman of any crimes or terrorist activities. What I did accuse him of in my original FrontPage article, “Hometown Jihad: The Somali Terror Apologist Next Door”, citing his own extensive collection of published articles, was his praise for designated terrorist organizations and individuals by the US government. See for instance his blog post, “HAMAS Victory is a Victory for Democracy and Peace!”. I would invite readers to peruse that post and explain to me how it is anything other than irrational exuberance at the January 2006 election of the terrorist group HAMAS in the Palestinian Authority elections. The recent HAMAS takeover in Gaza gives us an indication of their plans for “democracy and peace”. His support for terrorist organizations should have been the issue at hand, but it apparently wasn’t.

One interesting tidbit revealed in the Dispatch article is that Abukar Arman is not even a US citizen, and yet he is sitting on all these government boards and committees, particularly the Criminal Justice Planning Board.

There are a couple of errors made by Carmen worth correcting. Carmen says, “Poole note the county website says that the criminal justice board oversees homeland security. County officials said that is an error. The board oversees justice grants and court programs, and handles no sensitive information.” Actually, in our conversation it was Carmen, not me, who referred to the website. What I referred her to was the Planning Board’s own report (that bears Abukar Arman’s name), “The Franklin County Comprehensive Strategic Justice Plan”, which is dated December 2006 and states the following about the Planning Board’s oversight of Homeland Security:

The Board is responsible for comprehensive countywide planning and directing the mission of the Office of Homeland Security & Justice Programs. The Franklin County Office of Homeland Security & Justice Programs performs the fiscal and programmatic administration of the county’s federal justice block grants and the Urban Area Security Initiative, provides training and technical assistance for the justice partners and first responders, and is responsible for the development and evaluation of projects and programs operating in accordance with the Franklin County Comprehensive Strategic Justice Plan and the Homeland Security Strategy.

Additionally, there are members of the Planning Board that I interviewed off the record who are also under the supposedly erroneous conclusion that they oversee the county’s Office of Homeland Security and Justice Programs.

A second error is that they state that I have worked for “Republican research groups”. In fact, I have never worked for a Republican organization. Every public policy organization I have worked for is a registed 501(c)3 that is prohibited by law from engaging in partisan politics. But the Columbus Dispatch never lets the facts get in the way of a good story.

Thirdly, she claims that I did a FrontPage story on CAIR-Ohio president Asma Mobin-Uddin, which in fact I haven’t.

A few observations:

1. It doesn’t appear that the County Commission was really interested in actually examining Arman’s vocal support for terrorists because of the perceived political implications for the three Democratic county commissioners. It’s tragic, and one day may prove fatal to some Central Ohioans, that the County Commission is driven more by political interests than the security of the citizens of Franklin County.



2. It is certainly disappointing that the County Commission did not actually conduct an investigation, as Commissioner Paula Brooks and her staff had represented. Instead, they punted and tried to find a bureaucratic way out, much as the Columbus Public Schools did by letting Arman go.



3. This kerfuffle has essentially come to a draw on the central issue I raised — Abukar Arman’s vocal support for terrorist organizations — because it was never really examined. They did a background check. So what? I never accused him of being a criminal or a terrorist.



4. Abukar Arman was sitting on these boards and commissions without actually being a US citizen (a fact uncovered by Barbara Carmen). That apparently isn’t troubling to anyone else. That notwithstanding, it seems their “investigation” did uncover something.



5. Read the last two paragraphs of the article:

“Mr. Arman is a man of the greatest integrity, kindness and responsibility,” Mobin-Uddin said.

She recalled a visit with Arman a few years ago to the home of an ex-Marine who displayed an anti-Muslim bumper sticker.

“We stood and talked with the man on his doorstep for an hour and a half. Mr. Arman never raised his voice. He told the man, ‘You know, sir, I have four children. I’ve lived in this country for decades. If I knew someone who was going to put a bomb somewhere, I would be the first one to jump on them.’”

But here is how Abukar Arman himself described this encounter:

Several months ago, a non-Muslim fellow in the inter-faith community brought to the attention of CAIR-Ohio a picture of his neighbor’s truck with a bumper sticker that read “Jesus loves you, and Allah wants you dead”.

Some of us thought that the appropriate thing to do was to get media involved and use this truck owner as a poster-child of the prevalent assertive ignorance that is widening the post 9/11 political divide between Muslims and non-Muslims. Others, on the other hand, saw this as an opportunity for human contact, discourse, and to build bridges of understanding.

The latter opinion prevailed.

Therefore, I had the privilege of being one of three Muslims (2 male and a female with Islamic veil) who paid a neighborly visit to the truck owner.

What ensued was an interesting discourse that I found to be very educational (its final outcome notwithstanding).

The truck owner was a former Marine officer who served in Somalia and Iraq. Initially, as he opened the door, he was visibly apprehensive (and rightfully so).

We greeted him and introduced ourselves. We reassured him that we were only interested to get to know him, address any questions or perhaps grievance that he may have, and to give him a chance to meet and dialogue with ordinary Muslims.

Long story short: in a conversation that took place right outside his door and lasted for over an hour, the former Marine talked about how he was very suspicious of Muslims and how, both in Somalia and in Iraq, he and other Americans who “came to help these two countries had their hands bitten. . .” He talked about how he did not believe there were any moderate Muslims and how organizations such as CAIR were deliberately silent about condemning terrorism. He also talked about being alarmed by the growing Muslim population in Central Ohio and how they may be hiding a terrorist who has in his possession a “briefcase nuke”. He said, “I don’t want to see a giant mushroom in Columbus” [I will come back to this point].

Lastly, he talked about his career in the private sector . . . how he worked as a “corporate anti-terrorism expert” and a “consultant to a numerous multinational corporations”. . .

Abukar Arman and Asma Mobin-Uddin decided that they didn’t like this man’s bumper sticker and confronted him at his doorstep at the instigation of one of the “interfaith community” friends. They originally intended to make him “a poster-child of the prevalent assertive ignorance that is widening the post 9/11 political divide between Muslims and non-Muslims”, but instead decided on just haranguing him at his home. Could you imagine the outrage (rightfully so) if I had done that to someone with a pro-HAMAS bumper sticker? Can you imagine the CAIR press release that would have followed? But in their view, this is evidence of their peace and moderation.

Go back to sleep, Central Ohio. The Democratic Party, the establishment media and moonbat blogs are here to tell you that everything is all right. Ignore that big, bad man saying otherwise.