Breaking: Columbus Al-Qaeda cell member Nuradin Abdi sentenced to 10 years

Nuradin Abdi was sentenced to 10 years in prison today for his role in the plot to bomb one of our Columbus-area shopping malls. Abdi was part of the local Al-Qaeda cell headquartered out of the Omar Ibn El-Khattab mosque just north of the Ohio State campus. Co-conspirator Iyman Faris was sentenced to 20 years in prison in October 2003 for material support of Al-Qaeda. Christopher “Kenyatta” Paul is presently awaiting trial on similar charges, and according to Paul’s indictment and subsequent media reports, at least 10 more members of the cell have not yet been charged (one is known to have fled the country).

Abdi’s sentencing comes after he took a last minute plea deal just prior to going to trial this past summer, much to the chagrin of some of our local extremist leaders who had loudly protested his innocence since his arrest in June 2004. Abdi pled guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.

I reviewed our local Al-Qaeda problem in this previous post. A report from the NEFA Foundation describes the mall plot. The Investigative Project has court documents from the Abdi case, including the indictment and plea agreement.

CBN News: Jihad in Central Ohio

(Sorry, I’m a couple of weeks late getting this up.)

Ohio No Stranger to Radical Islam
By Erick Stakelbeck
CBN News Terror Analyst
October 27, 2007
CBNNews.com — COLUMBUS, Ohio — One traditional Middle Eastern grocery is painted to match the distinctive red, white, black and green of the Palestinian flag. Over the meat counter hangs a flag often flown at rallies for the terrorist group Hamas.

But this grocery store isn’t located in Gaza or the West Bank. It’s in Hilliard, Ohio: a sleepy suburb of Columbus. It seems an unlikely battleground in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but support for the Palestinian cause runs deep.

“We are critical of our government policy in the Middle East, and its blind support of Israel,” Mahmoud El-Yousseph, a local columnist said.

A Palestinian native, El-Yousseph writes about Muslim issues. He says many Muslims in Columbus feel the U.S. has neglected the Palestinians.

He said, “Our foreign policy in the Middle East, it stinks. It needs a tune up, and we’re going to speak about it, whether people like it or not.”

El-Yousseph served 20 years in the U.S. military. His son is serving in Iraq now. He says patriotism isn’t an issue for this Muslim community.

“We are God fearing, law abiding American citizens,” El-Yousseph said. “We love this country. We want to work together for the common good of our national defense.”

A Jihad Hotbed?
Patrick Poole isn’t so sure. A writer and consultant on terrorism-related issues, he returned to the Columbus area recently after a ten year absence.

“After a decade away, to come back and see all the changes that Hilliard had gone through and then to find out that we are essentially a center of jihad — one of the hottest centers of jihad in the country — was just mind blowing,” Poole said.

Columbus is no stranger to Islamic radicalism. Members of an al-Qaeda cell attended a local mosque. Two of the men were convicted on federal terrorism charges. One plotted to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge. Another planned to blow up a local shopping mall.

Federal law enforcement officials say other members of the cell are still on the loose.

That al-Qaeda cell was one of the largest yet discovered in America. El-Yousseph says he and other local Muslims condemned those involved.

But Poole says support for two other terror groups is widespread among Columbus Muslims.

“Hamas and Hezbollah and everything going on in Israel are really the linchpin issues of radicalization here in Columbus,” Poole said.

According to Poole, there’s a budding Hamas support network in the area. He says much of this network leads back to one man — Dr. Salah Sultan.

Poole said, “I discovered that Dr. Salah Sultan — a very prominent international cleric who’s closely associated with Yusuf Qaradawi — was living right around the corner from my own home.”

Sultan’s relationship with Qaradawi is the first thing that caught Poole’s attention. Qaradawi is listed by the U.S. as a specially designated global terrorist. He’s openly advocated suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. He’s also called on Muslims to fight U.S. troops in Iraq.

A Closer Look
Terrorism expert Steven Emerson has followed Sultan and Qaradawi’s activities closely.

“Sultan is an acolyte of Qaradawi,” said Steven Emerson, of the Investigative Project on Terrorism. “And Qaradawi is a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood who has called for killing Americans and killing Jews”

Their relationship is so close that Sultan joined in honoring Qaradawi at a reception this summer.

Emerson said, “The fact that Sultan is hanging out with these men indicates exactly where he stands.”

Qaradawi is a leader of The Muslim Brotherhood, a jihadist movement that seeks to establish worldwide Islamic law. An exclusive interview with Sultan was featured on the Brotherhood’s Web site last year.

El-Yousseph told CBN News that Sultan is a Muslim scholar. He says Sultan’s views aren’t extreme, and that he even supports women’s rights in countries such as Saudi Arabia.

Sultan’s views on 9/11 are more problematic. He told Saudi TV the attacks were planned by the U.S. government.

“The entire thing was of a large scale and was planned within the U.S., in order to enable the U.S. to control and terrorize the entire world,” Sultan said.

Sultan recently left his home in an affluent Columbus suburb and now lives in the tiny Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain.

His application for U.S. citizenship was denied after he appeared at a Hamas rally in Turkey last summer. But he’s still allowed to enter the U.S. and move around freely.

Sultan agreed to a phone interview with CBN News, but later cancelled.

Poole says Sultan continues to be influential in the Columbus area’s Muslim community.

“Dr. Sultan was insulated into all of the major Islamic institutions here in Columbus,” Poole said. “The Islamic Society of Greater Columbus, Sunrise Academy — the private islamic school — the Al Noor Center, he was preaching at several other mosques. He was all over the place and integrated into all those institutions.”

For example, one site that used to be Hilliard’s public library is now home home to Sunrise Academy, a K–8 Islamic school. Sultan lectured there on a regular basis. Siraj Wahhaj also appeared there recently. He’s an un-indicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

El-Yousseph says Sultan and other Muslims in Columbus have been singled out unfairly since 9/11.

He said, “Most Muslims I know are professional here. Doctors, lawyers, engineers, grocers, schoolteachers who love this country, who left overseas because of religious persecution. They want to be here for a better life. They’re not here to betray America and stab it in the back.”

Emerson says that’s exactly the case with Sultan.

“Salah Sultan has made incredibly incendiary comments about Jews, about jihad.” he said. “This is not someone we want in the United States.”

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

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:

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?

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.

The Franklin County Commission Stonewall

Three weeks after it was revealed that a vocal supporter of Islamic terrorism, Abukar Arman, was sitting on the Franklin County Commission responsible for overseeing Central Ohio Homeland Security (see “Hilliard’s Somali Terror Apologist”) and Franklin County Commissioner Paula Brooks demanded an immediate investigation into Mr. Arman’s said support of terrorism (see “Impacting: Franklin County Commissioner Responds to Somali Terror Apologist Story”), the Franklin County Commission has since clammed up and has refused to respond to repeated media inquries about the matter (see “The Cover-Up Begins”).

Dirk Thompson of 610AM WTVN reports that he has submitted multiple email requests (“Emails to a Non-Responsive County Board of Commissioners”) to Franklin County Public Affairs Director Hanna Greer following up on the supposed investigation into Mr. Arman. He says:

For two weeks I’ve been trying to get one basic question answered by the Franklin County Board of Commissioners in regards to the appointment of Abukar Arman. “Who put his name in for consideration?”

These are the emails that have gone unanswered

He gets right to the heart of the matter by asking the crucial question:

“Who put Abukar Arman’s name forward to be put up for consideration?”

It’s long past time for the County Commissioners to answer that question.

Thompson also reprints his email correspondence (“Emails with an Apologist”) with Abukar Arman this week asking him to appear on his Radio Deli program. Arman refused TWICE to appear to defend his published comments on the al-Qaeda-backed Somali Islamic Courts Union, HAMAS, Hezbollah, and others. First, he says that critics have “cherry-picked” his statements; in his second response, he then complains that statements explaining his support for these terrorist groups has been “deliberately omitted”. Despite Arman’s name-calling and bigotted rantings (see “Abukar Arman Identifies the Zionist Global Conspiracy”), he has steadfastly refused to directly respond to his statements in support of terrorists. That should be of particular interest to those who have been following this story.

People have asked, “What can I do about this?” The answer is simple. Contact the Franklin County Commissioners and demand answers. There are two questions that demand response:

1. When will the County Commission take action to remove Abukar Arman from his positions on the three county boards he currently sits on?


2. Who is responsible for recommending Abukar Arman for these appointments?

Along those lines, the initial response from Commissioner Paula Brooks’ aide RJ Sontag was that she relied entirely on the recommendations of fellow commissioners Mary Jo Kilroy and Dewey Stokes.

But earlier this week, the minutes of the meeting in which Abukar Arman was appointed to the Planning Board were obtained, and lo an behold, it was none other than Commissioner Paula Brooks who moved the resolution appointing Arman and the other members of the Planning Board, which included Commissioner Kilroy and herself. I have provided the copy of the signed resolution 210-05 showing that Brooks was the one to move the motion approving the resolution, and the letter that all three signed informing Arman of his appointment.

Here is the contact information for the County Commissioners and the Public Affairs office:

Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy (614.462.5589, aide Amy Billerman aabiller@franklincountyohio.gov)

Commissioner Paula Brooks (614.462.5729, aide RJ Sontag rjsontag@franklincountyohio.gov)

Commissioner Marilyn Brown (614.462.3461, aide Laura Stehle ljstehle@franklincountyohio.gov)

Public Affairs Director Hanna Greer (614.462.5848, hmgreer@franklincountyohio.gov)

Here is the original resolution appointing Abukar Arman to the Planning Board, and the signed letter from the Commissioners announcing his appointment. Click for full version.

The Cover-Up Begins

UPDATE (7/13): I will be on Dirk Thompson show tomorrow, Saturday, at 5:15pm EDT on 610AM WTVN talking about this issue [link to live Internet stream here]. Dirk has invited all three members of County Commission to participate, but none have taken him up on the offer as of yet.

UPDATE #2 (7/15): I have added below the first four pages of the “Franklin County Comprehensive Strategic Justice Plan” as jpegs that directly refute the claims made by Franklin County Commission Public Information Director Hanna Greer that the Criminal Justice Planning Board does not oversee Homeland Security and that all information handed by the Criminal Justice Planning Board are public documents (discussed below).

UPDATE #3 (7/16): More details and additional questions can be found in my FrontPage article today, “The Columbus Homeland Security Cover-Up”.

*****

If Watergate should have taught politicians anything, its that the cover-up ends up more damaging than the actual crime.

Case in point: following up on the report yesterday about Franklin County Commissioner Paula Brooks calling for an immediate investigation in response to my article published earlier this week, “Hometown Jihad: The Somali Terror Apologist Next Door,” today it seems that the County Commissioners have begun to rally around terror apologist Abukar Arman rather than answer the hard questions about who recommended Arman for appointment to the Criminal Justice Planning Board, which oversees Central Ohio Homeland Security.

Earlier today, Dirk Thompson of 610 WTVN received an email from Hanna Greer, Public Information Officer for the Franklin County Commission. Thompson was making an inquiry as a member of the media, and Greer’s email was a public statement in response. Here is what she said:

From: Greer, Hanna M. [mailto:hmgreer@franklincountyohio.gov]
Sent: Fri 7/13/2007 2:14 PM
To: Thompson, Dirk
Subject: Statement in Response to your Request

Mr. Thompson,

Franklin County has implemented a national model for intelligence and information-sharing with trained terrorist and intelligence analysts. We rely on their expertise. We also take seriously any allegation of terrorism and will refer Mr. Poole’s information for review.

The Franklin County Criminal Justice Planning Board meets quarterly to review annual grant applications for funding from the Justice Assistance Grant Program, Violence Against Women Act, Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention II and Juvenile Accountability Block Grant from a diverse pool of applicants. The Criminal Justice Planning Board does not oversee homeland security for Franklin County. Those functions belong to police and fire, the Sheriff’s office and the FBI. Any information about homeland security presented to the Board is also available publicly.

Hanna Greer

Hanna M. Greer
Public Affairs Director
Franklin County Board of Commissioners
373 S. High St., 26th Floor
Columbus, Ohio 43215
614.462.5848
www.FranklinCountyOhio.gov/Commissioners

Again, rather than answer the hard questions about Abukar Arman and who is behind his sudden rise to power, Ms. Greer is claiming that the Criminal Justice Planning Board really doesn’t oversee Homeland Security. This is a back-door method to try to attack my credibility and my reporting of the story. But as Mr. Thompson noted in a reply, the Planning Board’s own report, “The Franklin County Comprehensive Strategic Justice Plan”, which is dated December 2006, 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.

[. . . .]

The Homeland Security Strategy was developed in January 2004 by the Homeland Security Advisory Council and is aligned with the State of Ohio’s Homeland Security Strategy. The Strategy is updated annually to identify goals and define the implementation steps necessary to support Franklin County’s First Responders in prevention, protection, response to, and recovery from all-hazard incidents. The Strategy is written in an all-hazards approach to support on-going efforts to provide planning, training, exercising, and equipment to secure critical infrastructure, provide personal protection, improve communications, and promote interoperability. The Homeland Security Strategy is a sensitive document protected under the Homeland Security Act and is referred to in general terms herein.

Dirk has more details from the Strategic Justice Plan at his website. This document refutes the very two points she tried to make in her email to Mr. Thompson: 1) the Criminal Justice Planning Board DOES have oversight of area Homeland Security; and 2) the Homeland Security Strategy is a “sensitive document” and not available to the public as she claims.

Again, Hanna Greer is the Public Information Director for the Franklin County Commission, yet she either: 1) Doesn’t have the slightest idea what she’s talking about, in which case she should be fired immediately for incompetence; or 2) She is taking the lead in the cover-up on this issue.

My money is on No. 2. Be sure to download that document now, because it’s sure to quickly disappear from the County Commission website as this story unfolds. The cover-up has begun, folks.

Here are the first four pages from the Franklin County Comprehensive Strategic Justice Plan.

Impacting: Franklin County Commissioner Responds to Somali Terror Apologist Story

SEE THE UPDATE, “The Cover-Up Begins”

Franklin County Commissioner Paula Brooks’ office responded to yesterday’s FrontPage Magazine exposé revealing Somali terror apologist Abukar Arman’s appointment to the board overseeing Central Ohio Homeland Security, “Hometown Jihad: The Somali Terror Apologist Next Door” (see our post, “Hilliard’s Somali Terror Apologist”). Brooks aide RJ Sontag sent the following email to an inquirer:

From: “Sontag, RJ” <rjsontag@franklincountyohio.gov>
To: “XXX” <[removed]>
Subject: RE: Question
Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2007 16:45:58 -0400

Dear Mr. XXX:

Commissioner Brooks asked that I share this with you. She did not recommend Mr. Arman, and Commissioner Brooks especially relied on the judgment of the other voting commissioners: Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy and former Commissioner Dewey Stokes — both of whom she thought knew Mr. Arman.

RJ Sontag
Aide to Commissioner Paula Brooks
Franklin County Board of Commissioners
373 South High Street, 26th Floor
Columbus Ohio 43215
o: (614) 462-5729
f: (614) 462-5999
rjsontag@franklincountyohio.gov

Brooks sent the following memo to Don Brown, County Administrator, and Karen Crandall, County Homeland Security director, earlier today:

To: Don Brown, County Administrator
CC: Kathy Crandall, Director, Homeland Security and Justice Programs
From: Paula Brooks, Commissioner
Date: July 12, 2007

I expect this to be investigated expeditiously. If true, these allegations are definitely grounds for removal.

This is a positive development, but it remains to be seen if:

1. The powers-that-be in Central Ohio rally around Mr. Arman, despite his extremist views, in order to avoid the obvious implication that the very people responsible for our Homeland Security in Central Ohio don’t even have a clue as to what’s going on in our area;


2. Anyone actually takes credit for Arman’s appointment. Sontag’s email is an indication that Brooks, despite having voted for Arman’s appointment, is already passing the buck to Mary Jo Kilroy and former commissioner Dewey Stokes. Will it seem that Abukar Arman magically appeared from the heavens and landed on the Franklin County Criminal Justice Planning Board and the Community Planning Commission without any explanation? Or was it secret Franklin County Commissioner and Columbus School Board member Keyser Söze who is responsible for Abukar Arman’s appointment?

Stay tuned for updates as they happen.