The Charlotte County Files

In the recent days The Southside Messenger — a small regional newspaper covering an area that includes Charlotte County, Virginia — has published pair of letters to the editor from residents of the Muslims of America compound near Red House, as well as an uncritical “news” story — dare I say puff-piece? — about the MOA.

Christine, the Operations Manager of the 910 Group, was dismayed by the lack of substantive information in the newspaper about Sheikh Gilani and Jamaat ul-Fuqra. She wrote an email to Averett Jones, the editor of The Southside Messenger, and suggested that he consider some of the available sources on Sheikh Gilani’s terrorist and criminal activities.

Mr. Jones proved an unreceptive audience. At first he suggested that there was no information about any terrorist activities by Sheikh Gilani, that all the allegations floating around on the web were derived from questionable fringe groups such as the Christian Action Network. Only information from the federal government would convince him. If he could be shown any such data, he would be glad to publish a story about it in his paper.

After Christine provided a copious amount of government information, Mr. Jones insisted that he meant that there was none from the State Department, which he considered the authoritative source. When supplied with State Department links, he added a requirement that they be recent documents, not from before 2002.

Christine has now supplied him with recent government documents, both state and federal, State Department and otherwise, detailing the extensive criminal and terrorist activities of Sheikh Gilani and the Muslims of America. But she is convinced that Mr. Jones is not acting in good faith, and will never make good on his promise to publish such material if she were to produce it.

As a result, she has decided to go public with the whole exasperating exchange. She is writing to all her contacts in Charlotte County — local government officials, law enforcement personnel, businesspeople, and ordinary citizens — to let them know that their local newspaper editor has been engaging in de facto censorship concerning Sheikh Gilani, Jamaat ul-Fuqra, and the Muslims of America compound near Red House.


In the process of dealing with a recalcitrant newspaper editor, Christine has managed to compile the web’s most comprehensive collection of links to official documents detailing the activities of Sheikh Gilani. Readers who are interested should save her lists for future reference.

Notice how closely Mr. Jones’ attitude reflects that of the MSM — no need to find out the facts; we know what’s true; any information obtained from conservative sources is by definition invalid; etc., etc.

It’s the Tiny Trickle Media aping the Mainstream Media.

Averett Jones, the editor of The Southside Messenger, told Christine, “If anyone could provide concrete evidence to a terrorist connection we will be happy to publish it.”

Don’t hold your breath for that one.

Christine has given me permission to post the entire email exchange here. Take a look, and see the extremes to which denial, self-dhimmification, and willful blindness will go.

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Email sent to Charlotte County residents, February 19, 2007

Hi,

You may have heard that a rally will be held Tuesday February 20 at 6:00 pm at the County Court House administration building, to protest the Charlotte Board of Supervisors’ vote on February 6 to honor Sheikh Gilani by naming a road after him. I will attend the rally as a concerned Virginia resident, and I hope you will too, if you read even some of the information provided here in links to 9 official U.S. federal or state government websites and reports that link Gilani to terrorism.

According to press reports, the public road sign has since been removed (the private one remains), but the Board’s vote preserves it on official government maps, and keeps it as part of Virginia’s cultural heritage and economic development profile. The negative impact extends to the entire state, not just to Charlotte County.

The Charlotte Board’s decision was based on incorrect information. According to the February 6 issue of the Charlotte Gazette (page 3), the Board’s decision to honor Sheikh Gilani was based on Supervisor Nancy Carwile’s research:

“But Carwile said she had extensively researched FBI, State Department, and Justice Department websites and could find no proof of any Gilani-based terrorist acts. In fact, during a brief Power Point presentation at the beginning of the meeting, all she did find were sites ‘made up’ by groups and individuals that supposedly showed ‘facts.’”

Supervisor Carwile is incorrect. Sheikh Gilani is linked to terrorism, as shown in several official U.S. federal and state government websites listed below.

I presented these links in a lengthy email to Averett Jones, editor of the Southside Messenger; that email is attached in entirety and summarized below. Mr. Jones stated, initially, that these websites are “pretending” to be official, and therefore he will not publish any articles on their existence.

I urge you to decide for yourself, to inform yourself about Sheikh Gilani and Jamaat ul-Fuqra, and to determine on your own the validity of this information and its serious implications for your community.

The exchange with Mr. Jones is included below, in chronological order, to explain why I am sending this information out, citizen to citizen. After a very long effort, I have given up trying to encourage Mr. Jones to publish the information. I include the links to the reports first, for your convenience.

Regards,
Christine

Summary of U.S. Federal and State Government Websites and Reports linking Sheikh Gilani and Jamaat ul-Fuqra to terrorism

1.		These first links all refer to the annual State Department “Patterns of Global Terrorism” Reports. Sheikh Gilani is mentioned in each of them. I provide links for all years in which I found his name. Search text for “Gilani”: http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps14740/www.state.gov/ www/global/terrorism/1997Report/backg.html http://sweden.usembassy.gov/terror/rpt1998/appb.html http://stockholm.usembassy.gov/terror/rpt1996/appb.html http://stockholm.usembassy.gov/terror/rpt1995/appb.html http://stockholm.usembassy.gov/terror/rpt1999/appb.html
2.		The next link is a reply to a query about the delisting of JUF in 2000 by the State Department: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2002/7738.htm
3.		This link is to the transcript of a State Department briefing from 01/31/2002: Search text for “Gilani” http://usembassy-australia.state.gov/hyper/2002/0131/epf401.htm
4.		This excerpt is from the State Department briefing from March 27, 2002. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2002/9025.htm
5.		This testimony by Daniel Pipes is provided by the State Department at: http://www.state.gov/s/p/of/proc/tr/11443.htm
6.		These reports for 2004 and 2005, published by the California Department of Justice on “Organized Crime in California, Annual Report to the California Legislature.” See pages 2,23,24 and 25 in 2004; page 26 in 2005 http://caag.state.ca.us/publications/org_crime2004.pdf
7.		This link is from the Colorado Attorney General’s official website: http://www.ago.state.co.us/pr/121001_link.cfm Gilani’s name is spelled here as “Jilani.”
8.		This Library of Congress site provides a brief summary for a report on Jamaat ul-Fuqra: http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/hispanic/terrorism/pakistan.html
9.		The National Criminal Justice Reference Service, of the Department of Justice, provides this 93 page report on Jamaat ul Fuqra and Sheikh Gilani (spelled Jilani here): http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/209520.pdf

- - - - - - - - - -
Email Exchange and Link Summary between Averett Jones, Editor, Southside Messenger, and Christine

[Mr.Jones’ computer appears to be set a day ahead – it may be a yahoomail problem.]

[All emails below will be forwarded, individually, at your request, if you wish to validate the accuracy of this email exchange. All emails are included here in entirety, with the exception of the very long Feb. 18, 2007 email with 9 categories of links, which is summarized in this page and included in full as an appendix.]

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Mon, 19 Feb 2007 16:16:34 –0500
From: Averett Jones editor@southsidemessenger.com
To: Christine
Subject: Re: Sheikh Gilani Road Sign Rally Feb 20

Dear Mrs ---,

Thank you for your letter and the links to Mercury news.com. I have personally read every article I could find on Gilani both in mainstream press and on web sites. I read your link to Mercury News and found the same information I have found in hundreds of websites and on CAN’s website. Our problem with this information is that not one of the claims regarding Gilani is ever documented. Gilani is not listed on any government website as a possible terrorist.

The article states “But over the years, state and federal authorities have described him as the head of an international terrorist group who draws financial support from followers in the United States.”

I have found this quote many times but again no reference to which “state and federal authorities.”

If anyone could provide concrete evidence to a terrorist connection we will be happy to publish it. At this point all we have found are rumors mostly taken from CAN’s website. We have also received dozens of emails with quotes alleged to be from Gilani which also appear to originate on CAN’s website. If you find any additional information please do not hesitate to send it to us.

Thank You for writing.
Averett Jones
Editor, The Southside Messenger

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Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 19:57:43 -0800 (PST)
From: Christine
Subject: Re: Sheikh Gilani Road Sign Rally Feb 20
To: editor@southsidemessenger.com

Hi,

Thanks for your prompt reply. I searched on U.S. government sites and immediately found a number of links, which I provide with annotation below for your convenience. I hope that you will follow through on these. I will make them available, to assist your own efforts, to other stakeholders in our state and nation.

The total time required to find these was approximately 1 hour. I went to the central search website for the U.S. and state government sites, USAsearch.gov. I have not searched Lexis Nexis yet, since you expressed an interest primarily in official government sites.

You state in your email to me, “If anyone could provide concrete evidence to a terrorist connection we will be happy to publish it.” Below, I provide reports from the State Department, the U.S. Department of Justice, the California Department of Justice, the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, the Library of Congress research service, and a 93 page report on Gilani and Jamaat ul Fuqra funded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.

These reports provide concrete evidence to a terrorist connection for Sheikh Gilani and Jamaat ul Fuqra. I will be happy to see you publish these materials. Please send me a link to the published article.

The nine links follow below, with summary annotations and excerpts for your convenience.

[See Appendix at the end of this email for the details supplied to Mr. Jones.]

Regards,
Christine
Fairfax, Virginia

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Tue, 20 Feb 2007 09:02:47 –0500
From: Averett Jones editor@southsidemessenger.com
To: Christine
Subject: Re: Sheikh Gilani Road Sign Rally Feb 20

Morning Ms ---,

Again, thank you for the information. I have already seen these sites but the problem is that when I attempt to return to the “State Department” website from them, they are not attached to that site. This indicates they are not official sites. Please advise me if you find additional information.

Sincerely
Averett Jones
The Southside Messenger

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Mon, 19 Feb 2007 06:43:56 -0800 (PST)
From: Christine
Subject: Re: Sheikh Gilani Road Sign Rally Feb 20
To: editor@southsidemessenger.com

Hi,

Mr. Jones, I’m beginning to think you’re not actually looking at these links. Let me urge you to do so, with greater care.

Of the nine itemized links below to official government sites that I provided, ALL of them have a link back to the official home page of the government agency. I just checked.

Two of them are old enough that they go back to an archived home page:

1.		In the five links provided for item #1 below, the first item is an archive file, and clicking on the state department link returns to the archive home page. Perhaps you are not aware of the archiving policies for websites within the U.S. Government. Of course, clicking on the State Department link for the other four items leads to the current State Department home page. Is it possible you clicked only on the first link of all those I provided? Surely not.
2.		Item #3 is also an archive file from an embassy website, but clicking on the “home” page link leads to an official homepage. This appears to me to be a non-standard approach to archiving, by the way, and I am happy for you not to treat it as an active link.

That leaves 8 additional links — plus the four from Item #1 — that are not archived files, but are active and all are on identified official government websites.

I look forward to your researching these documents, preparing a balanced article, and publishing it as you said you would do in an earlier email. Please send me a copy when you do.

As noted before, I will also be helping your efforts to educate the public, by sharing our email exchanges with stakeholders in our state and nation.

Regards,
Christine
Fairfax, Virginia

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Tue, 20 Feb 2007 10:32:33 –0500
From: Averett Jones editor@southsidemessenger.com
To: Christine
Subject: Re: Sheikh Gilani Road Sign Rally Feb 20

Dear Mrs ---,

I AM looking at the links. The address to the state Department is http://www.state.gov. Any link that does not begin with this address is not an official website it is a private site made to look official. I have serious reservations with any site made to look official with no official standing. The site I mentioned earlier has a return link to the State Dept. but the site itself is not official. The only official links you provided are in item 2 and 4.

Item 2 Question: The group headed by Shaykh Gilani used to be designated by the State Department as a terrorist group but it was taken off the list. Why?

Answer: Jamaat ul-Fuqra has never been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. It was included in several recent annual terrorism reports under “other terrorist groups,” i.e., groups that had carried out acts of terrorism but that were not formally designated by the Secretary of State. However, because of the group’s inactivity during 2000, it was not included in the most recent terrorism report covering that calendar year.

This does not state Gilani is a terrorist in fact it states ul-Fuqua was not included in 2000. (and has not been included for the past 6 years.) As I said earlier we are searching for the truth. I have difficulty believing the truth will be found in sites pretending to be official government sites.

Regards
Averett

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Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:58:21 -0800 (PST)
From: Christine
Subject: Two questions regarding Charlotte Board and Sheikh Gilani research
To: editor@southsidemessenger.com

Hi,

I have two questions for you, Mr. Jones.

1. Question #1:

In an article by Robert Benning, “Name Will Stay the Same” (Charlotte Gazette, 2/7/07, page 3), Nancy Carwile of the Charlotte Board of Supervisors is quoted as follows:

“But Carwile said she had extensively researched FBI, State Department, and Justice Department websites and could find no proof of any Gilani-based terrorist acts. In fact, during a brief Power Point presentation at the beginning of the meeting, all she did find were sites ‘made up’ by groups and individuals that supposedly showed ‘facts.’

“Anyone can make up a website that says anything...you have to be careful when you search the internet,” she said. “If it doesn’t end with ‘.gov’ then it is not an official government site.”

This statement by Carwile closely reflects your own statements in our exchange of emails. Are you the source of Carwile’s research? Did you prepare the powerpoint she provided to the Board? The Board made their decision based on an assessment that no official websites or reports, federal or state, exist that link Gilani with terrorism. Are you responsible for that assessment, and therefore for their decision?

2. Question #2:

As to your suggestions that the websites I sent you are, in your words, “sites pretending to be official government sites,” your assessment is simply wrong, and you do need to learn more about domain name conventions within .gov sites. The site URLs that you have decided are pretending” are Embassy websites. Their URLs are either listed as subdomains within the state department website, or as their own URLS with a .gov suffix.

The other website links that I provided are also either U.S. federal or state government sites. You have not commented on these other links in your emails, although I am confident you exercised prudence and due diligence, followed each link, read the webpage content or the attached reports, and assessed the validity of the URLs, before dismissing them as “sites pretending to be official government sites.”

The URLs for these additional sites include:

1.		Three websites with the http://www.state.gov URL which you say you trust;
2.		The Office of the Attorney General of California (NOTE — NOT A .GOV ADDRESS, BUT STILL OFFICIAL) http://caag.state.ca.us/publications/org_crime2004.pdf
3.		The Office of the Attorny General of Colorado (NOTE — NOT A .GOV ADDRESS, BUT STILL OFFICIAL) http://www.ago.state.co.us/pr/121001_link.cfm
4.		The Library of Congress, ending in a .gov address http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/hispanic/terrorism/pakistan.html
5.		The National Criminal Justice Reference Service, also ending in a .gov address http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/209520.pdf

So this is my second question, Mr. Jones. You state in your email, “I have already seen these sites.” If so, and if you suspected that they were “pretending,” can you document your phone calls or emails to the official government agency webmasters, or to their public information offices or, in fact, to anyone, in which you actually verified that these sites were not official? Please forward that documentation if it exists.

I am, of course, particularly interested in seeing it, if your assessment of these sites was the basis for the Board of Supervisor’s decision to name the road in honor of Sheikh Gilani.

Thanks!

Regards,
Christine
Fairfax, Virginia

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Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:52:52 –0500
From: Averett Jones
To: Christine
Subject: Re: Two questions regarding Charlotte Board and Sheikh Gilani research

Mrs. ---

I apologize for any misunderstanding. I am trying to answer your concerns and get my work done at the same time. I was not saying the websites you listed were not official. They are. When I said I could not find information on official sites, I should have said current sites. I have been unable to find anything after the 2002 statement that Gilani is no longer listed as a potential terrorist. There are hundreds of current sites which contain the same information that was official from 1995 to 2002 which are not official but have current dates. I have been unable to find anything official with current dates. I should have said I have seen the same information listed on these unofficial sites. I have never discussed this matter with Dr. Carwile until after the board meeting, nor am I responsible for any board decision. I will again apologize for the miscommunication and if you can find any current information regarding Gilani, please share it with me. My personal opinion is simple. I believe that everyone is innocent until proved guilty and this includes you, me, the Muslims in Red House and Sheik Gilani.

Sincerely, Averett Jones

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Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:30:48 -0800 (PST)
From: Christine
Subject: Re: Two questions regarding Charlotte Board and Sheikh Gilani research
To: editor@southsidemessenger.com

Hi,

You state below, “I have been unable to find anything after the 2002 statement that Gilani is no longer listed as a potential terrorist.”

Please refer again to the list of links that I sent you. No doubt you reviewed them carefully and simply missed the dates of the documents. The report from the U.S. Department of Justice, http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/
grants/209520.pdf, is dated April, 2005, and includes significant cited information from 2004.

The report from the California Department of Justice is, in fact, their 2004 Annual Report on Organized Crime.

Since you are concerned about recent information, I also found references to Gilani in the California 2005 Annual Report on Organized Crime, available here: http://caag.state.ca.us/publications/org_crime2005.pdf

This means that the latest official government information I could find, based on a 1 hour search, is less than two years old.

As mentioned before, I look forward to your doing what you said you would: “If anyone could provide concrete evidence to a terrorist connection we will be happy to publish it.”

Please do so.

Thanks,

Regards,
Christine
Fairfax, Virginia


APPENDIX

1. These first links all refer to the annual State Department “Patterns of Global Terrorism” Reports. Sheikh Gilani is mentioned in each of them. I provide links for all years in which I found his name.

http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps14740/www.state.gov/
www/global/terrorism/1997Report/backg.html
http://sweden.usembassy.gov/terror/rpt1998/appb.html
http://stockholm.usembassy.gov/terror/rpt1996/appb.html
http://stockholm.usembassy.gov/terror/rpt1995/appb.html
http://stockholm.usembassy.gov/terror/rpt1999/appb.html

2. The next link is a reply to a query about the delisting of JUF in 2000 by the State Department:
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2002/7738.htm

3. This link is to the transcript of a State Department briefing from 01/31/2002: The mention of Sheikh Gilani is the following excerpts from the transcript:
http://usembassy-australia.state.gov/hyper/2002/0131/epf401.htm

		QUESTION:		Pearl. Do we know anything, or does the State Department know anything about this sheikh that they have arrested, Sheikh Gilani or his group? Just tell us everything.
		MR. BOUCHER:		That’s the problem. I don’t think I’m in a position to tell you everything about what we know, about groups or an ongoing investigation. So I’m going to have to believe that it wouldn’t be in the best interests of Mr. Pearl for us to do that. I can make clear that the Pakistani police are continuing their efforts. We are assisting them, US law enforcement officials are assisting them. The cooperation is very close, and as the Secretary told you, the senior Pakistani officials are interested and involved. Our Embassy in Islamabad and the State Department have been in very close touch with Mr. Pearl’s family and with the Wall Street Journal to work with them, to keep them updated. The Embassy met today with American journalists in Pakistan to advise them on the security situation. And we have taken other measures to increase the security awareness of official and non-official Americans. We issued that new Travel Warning yesterday to include information on possible kidnappings and terrorist actions. Mr. Pearl should be released immediately and unconditionally. His continued detention is no help to any cause. This continuing to hold him, threatening to kill him would only hurt the people who are holding him. He is a Wall Street Journal reporter, and he should be released immediately and unconditionally. He is a respected journalist. He has no connection with the US Government.
		QUESTION:		With the arrest of Sheikh Gilani, does the United States believe they are going in the right direction (inaudible) with Daniel Pearl?
		MR. BOUCHER:		Again, I’m not going to comment on the process of investigation, on the progress of the investigation. I think I really have to let that proceed, and it would not help Mr. Pearl for me to try to talk about it or second-guess it from here. I’m sorry…
		QUESTION:		Without getting into the details of the investigation, this group that Mr. Gilani belonged to used to be on the State Department terrorism list and was taken off. Could you say why?

4. This excerpt is from the State Department briefing from March 27, 2002.

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2002/9025.htm

				QUESTION:				The group Jamaat ul-Fuqra , which is associated with Sheikh Gilani, who may or may not be implicated in Daniel Pearl’s murder, was taken off the FTO list last year or in --
				MR. BOUCHER:				A couple years ago, I think, yes.
				QUESTION:				In the 2000 Report. With its reemergence, why hasn’t that been put back on the list?
				MR. BOUCHER:				We look at these things very carefully. It is a very careful review. It is an extensive review of the information before we do it. As you know, some of these have been challenged in court, although they were ultimately upheld. So it’s a very careful process to make sure that we gather all the available information and take the appropriate steps.
								Now, there are some designations under the Treasury Department’s list; for example, some of these groups get designated first in order to block their assets before we formally make them a Foreign Terrorist Organization. But it is a very careful process to make sure we get it right.
				QUESTION:				Can you say whether that was being looked at again?
				MR. BOUCHER:				I don’t think we’re able to say whether a specific group is under review, but we’re looking at various groups all the time for possible designation.

5. This testimony by Daniel Pipes is provided by the State Department at:

http://www.state.gov/s/p/of/proc/tr/11443.htm

Concerning Sheikh Gilani, the state department website excerpt from Pipes states:

“Daniel Pearl was suppose to meet with Sheikh Gilani, Pakistani militant Islamic leader who some 20 years ago organized a group known in this country as Al-Fuqra, which literally means “the poor.” It was made up primarily of African-Americans converts who live mostly in self-contained rural communities with their own schools and militias. They have a history of violence, for example murdering an Egyptian immigrant in Arizona in 1990 and recently a member of the California branch was arrested for killing a policeman. This is an extremely dangerous group, but I have no idea if Daniel Pearl was on the track of discovering something new about it .”

6. This is a report published by the California Department of Justice on “Organized Crime in California, Annual Report to the California Legislature 2004.”

http://caag.state.ca.us/publications/org_crime2004.pdf

Here are interesting excerpts:

“connection to a compound located on 377 acres off of Highway 245 in a rural mountain area of northeastern Tulare County near Fresno, California, known as Baladullah. The compound was, at one time, advertised as a site for a chapter of the Islamic Quranic Open University (IQOU). The school was founded by Pakistani cleric Sheik Sayed Mubarik Ali Gilani and has campuses on similar type compounds in various regions of the country. Sheik Gilani is also the founder of Jamaat el- Fuqra, a group that has been designated by the U.S. Department of State as a terrorist organization, which he created in the 1980s while in Brooklyn, New York, for the purpose of purifying Islam through violence. Sheik Gilani heads the organization from his base of operations in Lahore, Pakistan. Law enforcement authorities suspect that the compound may have been owned and occupied by individuals connected to Jamaat El-Fuqra, in part, because the IQOU and the terrorist organization are believed to be linked due to their crossover membership and that both groups operate under Gilani’s authority.

“During 2004, members of groups supporting international terrorism were engaged in the following criminal activity....

“...In November, a California resident and suspected Fuqra member was arrested in York, South Carolina, on a federal warrant for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. This individual, a former resident of the Baladullah compound in Fresno and Tulare counties, was extradited to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he remains in custody at a federal detention center awaiting trial. In early November 2004, Baladullah was placed into foreclosure.”

7. This link is from the Colorado Attorney General’s official website:

http://www.ago.state.co.us/pr/121001_link.cfm

Gilani’s name is spelled here as “Jilani.”

The page content is the following:

“INFORMATION REGARDING COLORADO’S INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION OF MEMBERS OF JAMAAT UL FUQRA

Beginning in the late 1980s, the Colorado Attorney General’s Office successfully prosecuted members of a fundamentalist Sufi-militant Islamic sect known as “JAMAAT UL FUQRA”. Five FUQRA members were ultimately prosecuted between 1993 and 1994.

“FUQRA” is an Arabic word, which translates most accurately as “the impoverished”. The sect advocates the purification of the Islamic religion by means of force and violence. Sheikh Mubarik Ali Jilani Hasmi, who is known by many other aliases, and who also calls himself the sixth Sultan Ul Faqr, originated this group in Pakistan.

In addition to being suspected of committing numerous acts of domestic terrorism, FUQRA members in the United States have been suspected of committing fraud against various governmental entitlement programs in an effort to financially support their activities.

Colorado’s investigation indicated that the United States FUQRA movement was composed of approximately 30 different ‘Jamaats’ or communities, somewhat mobile in nature. Most of these ‘Jamaats’ are believed to currently exist today, along with what investigators deemed to be several ‘covert paramilitary training compounds’ -- one of which had been located in a remote mountainous area near Buena Vista, Colorado prior to Colorado’s prosecutions in the mid-1990s. The corresponding FUQRA ‘Jamaat’ to the Buena Vista compound was located in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Colorado’s investigation of FUQRA was initiated in 1989 when Colorado Springs Police Department detectives, initially investigating a series of burglaries, were contacted by the owner of a storage locker site and were told about a locker of, what appeared to be, abandoned property.

In September 1989, detectives executed a search warrant of the storage locker upon suspicion of illegal explosives. The search of the locker disclosed numerous items believed to belong to the FUQRA sect then residing in that area. Several explosive components-- thirty to forty pounds of explosives, three large pipe bombs, a number of smaller improvised explosive devices, shape charges, ten handguns-- some with obliterated serial numbers-- silencers in various stages of manufacture, military training manuals, reloading equipment, bomb-making instructions, and numerous FUQRA-related publications were located in this storage area. Titles of some of the publications included “Guerilla Warfare”, “Counter Guerilla Operations”, “Understanding Amateur Radio”, and “Fair Weather Flying,” and “Basic Blueprint Reading and Sketching.” Several silhouettes for firearms target practice were also discovered, including one with the words “FBI Anti-terrorist team” written on the target’s torso bullseye.

Of great interest to law enforcement officials were documents concerning potential ‘targets’ for destruction and murder in the Los Angeles, Tucson, and Denver areas, including surveillance-type photographs, maps with hand-drawn overlays, notes, etc., concerning these targets. In addition, references to Buckley Air National Guard Base, Rocky Mountain Arsenal, the Air Force Academy, and electrical facilities in Colorado, and Warren Air Force Base, and two Wyoming National Guard armories in Wyoming were found. A somewhat detailed description of a firebombing attack on what is believed to have been the Hare Krishna Temple in Denver was also discovered. An attack, as described in these writings, did, in fact, take place in Denver in August 1984, causing an estimated $200,000 in damage. Investigation by Denver authorities at that time revealed that a Hare Krishna Temple in Philadelphia, where FUQRA activity also had been noted, was firebombed in a similar fashion.

Among the many documents found in the Colorado Springs’ storage locker were numerous blank birth certificates; blank social security cards; several sets of Colorado drivers’ licenses, each containing a picture of the same individual, but each with a different identity; and many underground press publications concerning the assembly of phony identification -- to be reproduced in a manner to “withstand even close government scrutiny”.

Finally, the search disclosed a number of workers’ compensation claims, which ultimately led to a full-scale fraud investigation being conducted by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment in coordination with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Joint Terrorist Task Force.

This investigation revealed that Colorado Springs FUQRA members had defrauded the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment of approximately $350,000 dollars between September 1984 and January 1992. The mobility and multiple addresses and identities of the various FUQRA members posed a significant challenge to early detection and normal prevention of the fraud. As a result of the two-year investigation, five FUQRA members were indicted by the statewide grand jury in September 1992 on racketeering charges involving theft, mail fraud, and forgery. Six months after the indictments, further racketeering charges, including theft of rental property, conspiracy to commit murder and arson (the Denver Hare Krishna Temple), were also filed against the five individuals and a sixth person -- all FUQRA members. Some of the fraudulently obtained workers’ compensation funds were traced directly to payments for a parcel of land near Buena Vista used by the group as a residence compound and training site.

One of the FUQRA defendants convicted is James D. Williams. After his conviction in 1993 for conspiracy to commit first degree murder, racketeering, and forgery, Williams fled and remained a fugitive until being apprehended in Virginia in August 2000. He was returned to Colorado and sentenced this past March to 69 years in prison. From at least the middle 1980’s through 1990, Williams was a leader of a Colorado FUQRA.

The conviction for conspiracy to commit first degree murder referred to a comprehensive written plan for the murder of a Tucson, Arizona Muslim cleric, Rashad Khalifa. Khalifa was murdered in January 1990 in a manner that was remarkably similar to the written plan.

It is believed the activities of UL FUQRA across the nation continue. Just recently the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms (BATF) arrested one of the former Colorado defendants and FUQRA member, Vincente Rafael Pierre, in Virginia on alleged ammunition violations. In California, a FUQRA member was arrested on the suspected murder of a Fresno County Deputy Sheriff this last August. In addition, FUQRA operates something called the Quranic Open University in Los Angeles, which has received over $1.5 million dollars over the course of the last two years in charter school funding. This entity is also located in New York City and Philadelphia. There are believed to be active UL FUQRA training compounds still existing in New York, Michigan, South Carolina, California, and perhaps other states.

FUQRA or its members have been investigated for alleged terrorist acts including murder and arson in New York, Detroit, Philadelphia, Toronto, Denver, Los Angeles and Tucson. UL FUQRA is suspected of more than thirteen firebombings and, at least, as many murders within the United States”

8. This Library of Congress site provides a brief summary for a report on Jamaat ul-Fuqra:

http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/hispanic/terrorism/pakistan.html

Jamaat ul-Fuqra

(http://www.ict.org.il/inter%5Fter/orgdet.cfm?orgid=16)

The International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT), located in Herzlia, Israel, provides a profile for the terrorist organization, Jamaat ul-Fuqra, which is based in Pakistan. The Islamic sect commits acts of violence against those that they view as enemies of Islam. The ICT discusses the history and terrorist activities of Jamaat ul-Fuqra.”

9. The National Criminal Justice Reference Service, of the Department of Justice, provides this 93 page report on Jamaat ul Fuqra and Sheikh Gilani (spelled Jilani here):
http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/209520.pdf

Annotation: Using a case study of the investigation and prosecution of members of a terrorist group (Jamaat Ul Fuqra) in Colorado, this research report identifies the types of white-collar crimes used by the group for funding + mechanisms and identity deception and suggests how lessons learned from white-collar crime investigations can provide guidance for State and local police and prosecutors who may investigate terrorist groups.

Abstract: The Fuqra group was first organized in Pakistan by Sheikh Mubarik Al Jilani Hasmi, who also established a United States Fuqra organization in 1980. Most members of the U.S. Fuqra are African-Americans who have adopted extremist beliefs and live in communal environments or “Jamaats.” In August 1989, the discovery of a storage locker by the Colorado Springs police marked the beginning of an investigation that focused on fraudulent claims for worker’s compensation, a white-collar crime that is the focus of this report. Linked to the fraudulent worker’s compensation claims were other white-collar crimes, notably identification fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion. Proceeds from these crimes were used to plan violent terrorist acts. This research obtained information on these cases through interviews and document analysis. This report describes the Colorado investigation in a module format. The first module describes the organization and activity of Fuqra, followed by a module on the investigation of properties that included a vehicle search, a storage locker search, and the search of a Fuqra compound. The third module details investigations of four fraudulent worker’s compensation claims, and the fourth module addresses the group’s cash flow from fraud to the purchase of property. Legal strategies are profiled in a fifth module, and the sixth module discusses lessons learned and best practices. 13 tables, 4 charts, and 3 supplementary appendixes

Main Term(s): Domestic Preparedness

Index Term(s): White collar crimes; Organized crime investigation; Fraud; Revolutionary or terrorist groups; Prosecution; Organized crime; Insurance fraud; Terrorist tactics; Investigative techniques; Money laundering; NIJ final report; Colorado