Monday, October 10, 2005

Jamaat ul-Fuqra in Virginia, Part 1

 
During the Beltway Sniper crisis, back in the fall of 2002, a series of articles in The Washington Times described John Allen Muhammad’s conversion to Islam, and his later break with the Nation of Islam (the articles are no longer available, but extracts have been preserved here). Apparently the NOI was not militant enough for Mr. Muhammad, and he left it to become involved with a group called Jamaat ul-Fuqra (Arabic for “community of the impoverished”), a terrorist organization founded by a notorious Pakistani cleric, Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani.

What drew my eye in the article was the mention of a Jamaat ul-Fuqra compound in Red House, Virginia. Red House?! I know Red House — a small village in rural Charlotte County.
Red House, Va.

Red House, Va.

Ever since then I’ve been curious to know more about the Red House compound. This past Saturday afternoon, carrying a digital camera and a great apprehension about possible encounters with some reportedly very dangerous people, I drove up there.

But first: some background on Jamaat ul-Fuqra. The group was founded in New York by Sheikh Gilani in New York in 1980. Its current headquarters is in Hancock, New York, and it has various compounds, or Jamaats, scattered throughout the United States and Canada, notably in Colorado, New York, Tennessee, Georgia, and Virginia. Most of the adherents are reported to be American-born Black Muslims who follow a strict Islamist ideology.

Sheikh Gilani, you may remember, is the cleric with whom Daniel Pearl had arranged an interview back in January of 2002. Unfortunately, Mr. Pearl was betrayed by his sources, and then abducted and beheaded. Sheikh Gilani was arrested later that month and languishes in Pakistani custody.

So this is the kind of people we are dealing with here. They launder money, smuggle firearms, plan and carry out assassinations and bombings, and conduct intense Islamist indoctrination, including inside American prisons.

According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal:
     The JF, in its early phase, sought to counter what is perceived as excessive Western influence on Islam. It also concluded that violence was a significant aspect in its quest to purify Islam. In its ideological moorings, the Fuqra regards as enemies of Islam all those who do not follow the tenets of Islam as laid out in the Koran, including those Muslims who they consider as heretics as well as non-Muslims. One of Gilani’s works published by the Quranic Open University in the US and seized in a 1991-investigation instructed his cadres that their foremost duty was to wage Jehad against the ‘oppressors of Muslims’. Members of the group are described as Islamist extremists with much hatred toward their ‘enemies’.
Fuqra members were actively conducting jihad operations across North America in the ’80s and ’90s:
     In the 1980s, they carried out various terrorist acts, including numerous fire-bombings across the United States. JF’s early targets in North America were ethnic Indians and targets linked to various Indian sects. In July 1983, Stephen Paul Paster, a front ranking JF member, was responsible for planting a pipe bomb at a Portland hotel owned by followers of the Bhagwan Rajneesh cult. After his arrest in Colorado, Paster served four years of a 20-year prison sentence for the bombing…
After the Portland bombing, two Fuqra cadres allegedly killed Mozaffar Ahmad, a leader of the minority Ahmadiyyah sect in Canton, Michigan. Both the suspects reportedly perished in a fire they had set at the Ahmadiyyah mosque in nearby Detroit. The JF is also reported to have been involved in the killing of three Indians on August 1, 1984 in a suburb of Tacoma, Washington. Besides, the JF is suspected to be involved in a series of fire bombings of Hindu and Hare Krishna temples in Seattle, Denver, Philadelphia and Kansas City.
US officials in 1989, during a search of a storage locker in Colorado Springs, recovered a large cache of armaments and documents with multiple links to the JF… The documents, including maps and lists, contained details of potential JF targets and victims in Los Angeles, Arizona and Colorado––oil and gas installations and electrical facilities, US. Air Force Academy and other military sites, people in 12 US states and Canada with Jewish or Hindu-sounding names. Various JF publications were seized during this search. Titles of some of the publications seized included "Guerrilla Warfare", "Counter Guerrilla Operations", "Understanding Amateur Radio", and "Fair Weather Flying," and "Basic Blueprint Reading and Sketching."
In 1991, JF’s plans to bomb an Indian cinema and a Hindu temple near Toronto were unsuccessful. Five JF cadres were arrested at the Niagara Falls border crossing after US Customs agents searched their cars and found visual evidence and plans of the interiors of the targets and a description of time bombs…
In the 1990s, JF was more often than not operating under the guise of two front groups, ‘Muslims of the Americas’ and ‘Quranic Open University’. The latter portrayed itself as a religious and charitable educational institution dedicated to studying the Quran.
[…]
One of the persons convicted in the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 was Clement Rodney Hampton-el, a Fuqra member. JF was linked in a Congressional testimony to the planning of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
[…]
A media report has indicated that the JF is also being probed for links with Richard Reid, a Briton, accused of trying to use explosives in his shoes to blow up a Paris-to-Miami jetliner on December 22, 2001.
A Defense Watch article in 2002 outlines the activities of the Red House compound:
     Surveillance reports of the compounds note that the residents remain in a fluid state and are continuously on the move. For the past several years, law enforcement authorities observing the Red House, VA compound have voiced concern that this pattern may be designed to create a series of safe houses in the rural areas of southern Virginia.
[…]
The Red House, Va., compound was under surveillance by law enforcement prior to the 9/11 attacks for stockpiling weapons. Three members of the compound, including leader Vincente Pierre and his wife Tracy Upshur, were later arrested for illegal arms purchases.
A February 2002 article in The Daily Excelsior of India reported that
     Muslims of the Americas operates communes of mostly black, American-born Muslims in Binghamton, New York; Badger California; York, South Carolina; and Red House, Virginia, law enforcement officials said. But there are also some non-Muslims in the group.
The money laundering scheme in Virginia, officials said, is similar to a 101-acre Colorado operation that was shut down in 1993.
Five Al-Fuqra members were convicted there of defrauding the Government of approximately 350,000 dollars through bogus workers’ compensation claims.
But the most alarming aspect of ul-Fuqra is its propensity for violent and radical jihad:
     Doug Wamsley, a deputy district attorney in Jeferson county, Colorado, who participated in raiding the 101-acre commune in Colorado, said the initial search of the commune turned up bombs, weapons and plans for terrorist atacks.
"When we executed our search warrants," he said, "we found a cave with 30 firearms in it. Most of those firearms were military knockoffs, like AK-47s. We also found ammunition—6000 rounds."
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So this is all I knew as I drove through Rustburg toward Red House on a gloomy Saturday afternoon.

Red House is a crossroads hamlet with two stores, one of them a modern truck plaza with multiple pump canopies and a convenience store, and the other a traditional little country story with a couple of pumps in front and an unpaved parking lot. I chose the latter store to visit, since it seemed more likely to be a source of local news and gossip.

After waiting in line at the counter, I asked the proprietor if he had heard of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, an Islamist organization. He looked at me blankly. I mentioned that they had a compound near Red House, on Route 615.

“Oh, you mean the Muslims,” he said. “They come in here sometimes.”

I asked him where they were, and he indicated that they were about three miles east on Route 615. “They’ve got a sign up — you can’t miss it.”

He seemed reluctant to give further information on the subject, perhaps not wanting to gossip to a stranger about his (presumably well-armed) neighbors and customers.

However, outside the store I struck up an acquaintance with a local woman named Shirley. I showed her some of the printouts I had made from web articles about ul-Fuqra, and she was very interested; she proved to have a wealth of local lore on the subject.

As far as Shirley could recall, the commune has been in that location for at least ten years. She said that back before September 11th the members of Jamaat would appear from time to time in the community wearing Islamic garb (robes and head coverings), but mostly only the males. According to Shirley,
     It made me so mad, what the county let them get away with. They sent the boys to school, but not the girls — the girls stayed home at the compound.
But why didn’t the county do something about it?
    I think they were scared of them.
Didn’t they even send Social Services in there to check on them?
    No, I don’t think they did anything. Supposedly they’re “home-schooled,” but who knows?
Two or three weeks before 9/11, the members of the compound constructed a guard house and a gate at the entrance to their commune. After 9/11 and the FBI arrests, they kept a lower profile. According to the store owner, they still come in from time to time, but he doesn’t see them very often. The men dress in normal clothes now, but when the women come to the village they still wear the hijab.

Shirley said that there are other Jamaat locations besides the compound. One of her hobbies is historical research, and recently she was tracking down old homesteads in the wilds of Charlotte County. Her maps led her down a back-country lane, a non-state route through the wilderness that required a four-wheel drive to negotiate. When she neared the old homesteads she was looking for, she was surprised to find an establishment with a sign that identified it as a “Training Camp for Young Muslim-American Men.”
     There were a lot of men there, and some boys, and they came up to us to ask us what we were doing. I was a little bit scared, you know, asking their permission to go back and look at the ruins of the house. They weren’t real helpful, just pointed us in the general direction. We never did find the place.
This “training camp” was across Route 615 and a couple of miles from the main compound on Rolling Hill Road.

According to Shirley, Jamaat ul-Fuqra operated some kind of jewelry-and-essential-oils business at a kiosk at a Lynchburg Mall. A friend of hers who worked at UPS reported that the men running the kiosk would come in to collect C.O.D. packages from New York, and pay for them with large amounts of cash. Her friend didn’t understand how they could acquire such quantities of money from the kind of business they ran at the Mall.

I floated the idea that it might be a money-laundering operation. Perhaps they brought in drugs from their Central Asian contacts, and then laundered the money to buy their firearms and run their camps. Pure speculation on my part, but…

What we do know is that an organization with a history of violence had set up shop locally, refused to let its girl children go to school, and had top members arrested and convicted by the FBI for firearms violations. In addition they have set up a remote and isolated “Training Camp for Young Muslim-American Men” — to train young men for what? Auto repair? The food service industry? I have my doubts.

Shirley offered an additional tantalizing piece of information: there is yet another Muslim school, about 30 miles south of Red House in a little town called Randolph.
     It’s way out in the middle of nowhere, and you can’t see it from the road, but there’s a sign that says, “American Muslim College.”
After exchanging contact information with Shirley, I got back in my car, went through the crossroads, and headed up the Rolling Hill Road towards the compound. Along the way I passed the Red House Volunteer Fire Department, the Mt. Zion Baptist Church, the Beautiful Zion Baptist Church, and numerous modest little houses, double-wides, and trailers, with pickup trucks and boats out front and dog kennels in the back, the normal human landscape of rural Southside Virginia. As I came around a bend I saw the compound ahead. There was a big green sign near the road in Arabic and English, with a little cinderblock guardhouse next to it flying an unidentifiable flag. Beyond the entrance numerous trailers were scattered across the hillside, fairly close together in fields of waist-high unkempt weeds. No one was in sight.

I noticed the road sign at the entrance: “Sheikh Gilani Lane,” just as described in the South Asia Terrorism Portal article.

I was already quite scared, and there was a car behind me, so I didn’t stop. I continued along 615 until a side road afforded an opportunity to turn off. The car behind me kept on going — Whew! No ul-Fuqra people were after me.

I turned around and headed back towards the compound, and slowed when I approached the entrance, but this time there was a car pulling out of the compound as I got there. Once again, I continued on past the entrance and went on a mile or two until I could turn around.

The third time past I felt very conspicuous, so I balanced the camera on the steering wheel and tried to take a picture as I very slowly passed the entrance. Unfortunately, in my fumbling, I took a small video segment of the entrance instead by mistake, from which I was able to obtain the blurry screenshot shown below. You can see the sign, the guardhouse, and the flag, but, unfortunately, I couldn’t make the sign legible.
Jamaat ul-Fuqra

I wanted to try for a photo of the “Sheikh Gilani Lane” sign, so I drove down and turned around one more time for a fourth pass. This time I had a car coming up behind me, and this was my last chance. So I took a hurried photo through the windshield, but the gathering gloom of the storm plus the slight motion of the car made the result useless.

These results are less than satisfactory, but they will have to do.



Update: Welcome, Belmont Club and Tigerhawk and Instapundit readers! Sorry I haven't been able to keep up in the comments.

There are a lot of interesting comments; go and look at all of them. But the best one so far is this Virtual Earth image link sent by PoliticalCP. His blog post is here.

45 comments:

Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Interesting journey. Finding Islamic outposts in these boondocks is only a bit less surprising to me than finding them in the Ozarks would be.

Christian outposts in the wilds of an Islamic region would fare less well, I expect.

Jeffery Hodges

* * *

TigerHawk said...

Excellent job, Baron. Now you have to go interview the guys running the kiosk in Lynchburg (although you will have to pretend you are interested in essential oils, which may be too much to pull off).

TigerHawk said...

BTW, I chuckled at the photography troubles that you had. I'm guessing you have one of the little Canon digital cameras, which are wonderful but which do have the design glitch that it is easy to shoot an inadvertent video.

Baron Bodissey said...

gypzy --

The only MSM outlet that covered it, as far as I know, was the Washington Times. But even the blogosphere has been fairly inactive on the topic since '02 or '03. The last reference I found was a Nov 2003 appeal in Jihad Watch for more information.

Our new hope for things like this is Pajamas Media (under whatever new name it will be using). With it there will be a way for important memes to be fed up the food chain quickly and get exposure, if they merit it.

Baron Bodissey said...

Tigerhawk --

Thanks for the feature post.

I dunno about further investigation. Those guys are bad news; they scare the poo out of me!

You're right: Canon camera. Twist the "on" dial the wrong way, you get video. However, I might not have gotten a postable photo without it-- after what happened, I had about 10 or 12 frames to pick through, looking for the sharpest one.

bordergal said...

Baron,

did you pass the information about the "training camp" on to the FBI?

El Jefe Maximo said...

Islamic outpost hard by Appomattox. Robert E. Lee and Grant both are spinning in their graves.

Lanny Nugen said...

Interesting journey. If you plan to go back, I suggest you go back with 2 cars. One car stays back within viewing distance to provide additional support if trouble arises, like calling 911 or drive by shooting :)

When approaching the vincity, have cell phones with speaker on constantly. If cell phone not working because of no support tower nearby, consider to get a walkie talkie. They are cheap. Now you can go back feeling safer :)

Dymphna said...

Laurel--

You'll have trouble finding a state where they haven't settled in. Unless you want to live in the big city, where of course, it's even more open.

Gyspy Scholar: Bet they're in the Ozarks, too. And yeah, I wouldn't set up an Episcopal church in Sadr City, for example.

el jefe-- This place isn't far from the surrender memorial at all.

Forty-two: they're scary enough to discourage Social Services home visits. Unfortunately, the "sorry armpit" they hail from is the good ol US of A. They're disaffected American citizens, largely if not exclusively black, and most are recruited from prisons.

lan nguyen -- damn right. More like a caravan of sheep dogs.

Dymphna said...

Tigerhawk--

It'll be me looking at those "essential" oils. Maybe with a stiff drink first.

Baron Bodissey said...

bordergal -- based on my sources, law enforcement agencies (probably including the FBI) are well aware of these places.

Baron Bodissey said...

anybudee -- Follow the links for my three main sources (particularly the South Asian Terrorism Portal). There's quite a bit in there on Colorado.

But those were the most comprehensive sources I could find -- I don't have much more than what is in those three. I'm hoping that some of my savvy readers will dig up more info.

Cobalt Blue said...

Unfortunately it doesn't take much to scare off home visits by social services agencies. Aren't we always hearing about abused kids who fell through the cracks? All the same, I agree there is something intimidating about the place, and I would not at all be surprised to find this outfit--and others like it--in Chicago.

In the years since 9/11 we seem to have become aware, more and more, of the extent to which the jihad is already in America. There have been terrorism related prosecutions in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago. . .

I think we will find there are Islamic elements in this country every bit as disaffected as those homegrown terrorists in the UK responsible for 7/7. They just haven't come to our attention.

Yet.

As for your speculation about money laundering, with a Central Asian drug angle--if there is criminal activity going on, it could include something less exotic--such as benefits fraud, fraud in charitable fundraising, tax cheating, documents fraud, etc.

Baron Bodissey said...

DP111, you are quite right. I am leery of getting near that place again.

PresbyPoet said...

Baron,
It looks like there are two roads that branch off to left and right. They have names too according to multimap.
One is Hussain Lane, and the other is Fatima Lane. Have you tried to look at the site with one of the satellite photo things? Who owns the land? How big an area?

Gryffilion said...

I notice that this group doesn't suffer from the usual Islamofascist U-deficiency. Do you think this is significant at all in their behavior/attitude?

Cybrludite said...

According to Mapsource's City Select North America, the compound is at N37 11.473, W78 46.137. A quick check of Google Earth was disappointing, as they don't have high res images of the area. Yet.

There's a cleared area along the curve of the fishhook shaped road, rectangular, running roughly northwest to southeast, the last third opens up into a square that's katty-cornered to the overall rectangle shape. Looking at it in profile, it appears thatthe cleared area follows a low ridge that's a spur, or small finger of a taller hill to the left. The edge of the high ground seems to be marked by the long section of the road before the curve & the cleared space. the ground slopes down from highway 701. I need to get the topo module for Mapsource to get a better feel for the terrain. According to Mapsource, there's two more side lanes with similar names, so it looks like their propery borders a mile or so of 615 between Red House & Madisonville. Roughly between where 615 turns right and where it does a hairpin turn. A sizable chunk of turf, especially for back east. I rather doubt they bought it with the proceeds from their "essential oils"...

Baron Bodissey said...

I'm glad to see you guys chipping in with all the map research.

The whole area would be pretty visible from the bank by the side of the road, if one were willing to get out of the car, climb up it, and look northwards.

I wasn't willing to do that...

I looked at Google maps of the area, but nothing else, because we have a dreadfully slow 28K dialup at home in the Gates of Vienna compound. At work, I can't do things like that readily. So the imagery research is going to be up to readers like yourselves.

So those road names show on the maps, eh? That means they must have been surveyed and registered with the county or VDOT, doesn't it?

Mad Fiddler said...

It is disheartening to consider that the same brave Mainstream alleged News Organizations that strut and crow about how they take on the Big Mean Fascist Bush Administration, really pussyfoot and shy away from any contact with or investigation of — much less confrontation with — Islamic groups like this. That is NOT from cultural sensitivity. It's abject cowardice. I salute you for your present service.

Gryffilion said...

This is from a conversation with a ROTC buddy of mine that I had just now...

Friend: Well, I'm sure he can find a like-minded person with a pilot's license and access to a plane...a low-altitude overflight would probably be quite informative
Me: that would be cool
Friend: You can legally go down to 500 feet


Hmm...a flyover...?

rasqual said...

Don't forget to geotag the pictures and create a KML for use in Google Earth, and post the information to the boards at http://bbs.keyhole.com -- especially if anyone does aerial photographs from a low altitude.

500 feet be damned. Buzz 'em. ;-)

rasqual said...

http://snipurl.com/iele

Posted a kml of the site (google's images are VERY low resolution). Someone do the flyover and post the images as an overlay in GE, and it'll be something good to see. Hey, bloggers do the analysis nowadays -- why not the reconnaissance as well? ;-)

Gryffilion said...

I had the same thought, Rasqual...

Me: I wanna buzz the place
ROTC Friend: Heh
ROTC Friend: Now that would violate FAA regulations and get the pilot's license pulled
ROTC Friend: But just doing an overflight and taking pictures, as long as you stay above minimum safe altitudes, is perfectly legal
ROTC Friend: And I doubt they've done anything to camouflage their activities from the air
Me: yeah
Me: that would be awesome
ROTC Friend: Hell, if you only make one or two passes, they might not even realize they were being photographed


[Side note: ROTC friend is an amateur expert on this, since he is a qualified CAP pilot.]

Mojoski said...

So who else has information on Jamaat ul-Fuqra locations in Georgia? I have a digital camera and would love to do a little investigative footwork of my own..

Anyone?

If anyone has any info on Jamaat ul-Fuqra in the state of Georgia, please let me know via email as well so I don't have to keep coming back and watching this thread constantly.. Thanks!

del@mojoski.com

Edna Barney said...

Great adventure story. I was spell-bound and identified with poking about in the Virginia backwoods.

Baron Bodissey said...

Purple Avenger --

I'm sorry I had to delete your comment, for security reasons, based on the advice of law-enforcement contacts.

It's no reflection on what you had to say, but they have made me realistically paranoid. These guys specialize in targeted assassination, after all.

Baron Bodissey said...

Purple avenger -- Alas, but ditto. Suggest you email me.

rasqual said...

Now in additon to the flyover, someone needs to deliver milk in a cloaked version of this: http://snipurl.com/ieor

"What? You're NOT on our route? Good grief. OK, later . . . " then feign difficulty turning around in their drive as you make a pass by every outbuilding in the compound. ;-)

Baron Bodissey said...

John – sorry I had to delete your comment, but the URLs messed up the post width.

Here's the same things made into links, which John sent:

google +muslims +"red House" +VA yields 233 hits

#1, #2, #3, #4.

Purple Avenger said...

email on the way. if its from me it will mention an experiment with a TV, 1-into-3, and "Rover".

Always On Watch said...

Baron,
I am posting an excerpt from and a link to this article you have written @
www.northernvirginiastan.blogspot.com , where I am a team blogger.

I will also be adding the same information at my own blog.

Murphy said...

Oh c'mon. Don't let these lunatics intimidate you.

Stop the car, get out and take the pictures.

It's a free country only as long as you exercise your freedoms.

CP said...

I've posted links to a topo map and a better, more detailed arial view from MSN Virtual Earth on my blog here.

Dymphna said...

murphy, you have a good idea here:

Oh c'mon. Don't let these lunatics intimidate you.

Stop the car, get out and take the pictures.

It's a free country only as long as you exercise your freedoms
...

Here's a thought: I'll loan you the camera and you can drive over there, get out of the car and take some pictures for us.

I agree: freedoms need to "exercised"...but only where the rule of law is in force. Otherwise you may end up buying the farm.

Are you nuts???

Gryffilion said...

Murphy, that's a terrible idea. I don't want to end up fatherless at age 20.
--The Young Baron

PresbyPoet said...

The air photo Politicalcp posted on his site, showed what looked like an air strip to the right. If that is an airstrip, anyone know if there are rules for their creation?

One thing that would be useful is to go to local county offices. They may show any records. I went to the Charlotte county website, and it shows the following addresses to get information:
Commissioner of the Revenue
The Commissioner of the Revenue, Sandra K. Elgin, is responsible for assessing the tangible personal property tax, business tangible personal property tax, and machinery and tools tax. Their office is located at 205 David Bruce Avenue in Charlotte Court House, Virginia.

Contact the Commissioner Revenue at (434) 542-5546 or selgin@co.charlotte.va.us.


Circuit Court Clerk
The Circuit Court Clerk manages the records for the Judicial Circuit and serves as general record keeper for the County, recording all documents relating to land transfers, deeds, mortgages, births, deaths, wills, divorces and other statistics that date back to 1765. Attorneys, title searchers, genealogists, and the general public utilize the Clerk's record room. Our office is located in the newly renovated 1823 Brick Tavern at 125 David Bruce Avenue in Charlotte Court House, Virginia.

Contact us at (434) 542-5147.

If buildings have been built without permits, it would give a local agency reason to check on the property.

The county web site shows the following information:

Charlotte County Building Inspection
The Charlotte County Building Department is responsible for ensuring public health, safety and welfare associated with the design, construction and utilization of public and private buildings. County inspectors inspect all buildings under construction for compliance with the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code.

Contractors (and homeowners doing their own work on their homes) must obtain a building permit from the county Building Official when they construct, enlarge, alter, repair, convert or demolish any building in Charlotte County. Inspectors ensure that construction meets state construction codes as well as county regulations, such as setback requirements.

Applications for all permits are filed in the Building Inspection office located in the Office of the Commissioner of the Revenue in Charlotte Court House, Virginia. All applications must be approved and fees paid before work can begin.

Permits must be displayed before any construction can begin. A certificate of occupancy must be obtained before a building or structure can be occupied. Contact the Building Inspector at (434) 542-5094.

Interesting the power of the internet. The old story that a rope of three strands cannot be broken. Together we can do much. It looks like we must do much, since our leaders seem to have betrayed; or are working so quietly, there is no evidence of their passage.

In real life i research properties, it is amazing what you can find.

David Schantz said...

I found your site while visiting Always On Watch.Keep up the good work but please be careful while doing your investigations.The federal government was able to get the Weaver family off their land. They destroyed the Branch Davidian Church and killed many of it's members but they can't or won't do anything about real terrorist organizations. Some times I wonder whose side the feds are on in the war on terrorism.

God Bless America, God Save The Republic.

The Apostrophe Cop said...

In New Orleans in the 90s, maybe back into the 80s, there were a number of arrests of foreigners from Muslim countries that made the paper. Some of the arrestees were related to each other. They owned small neighborhood grocery stores.

The crime? Food stamp fraud. Back when food stamps were paper, they'd buy 'em 50 cents on the dollar, use them to replenish their stock or buy food for their families. When the cards became electronic, they'd buy the card outright.

In retrospect, it looks possibly a bit more sinister than just garden-variety fraud.

Baron Bodissey said...

badfeng,

I never said I thought the feds were unaware of JF and its compounds.

However, I know from law-enforcement sources that the local cops (and presumably the FBI) were NOT aware of the "Training School" that Shirley discovered until she told them about it.

So the information that domestic LE has may in fact be less than complete.

Greg said...

Local and federal law enforcement are aware of the site, and have made arrests on firearms charges, according to http://www.rickross.com/reference/islamic/islamic48.html also see http://calaware.org/news/weekly_detail.jsp?article_id=804 for some background information that made its way into a CA state appellate court opinion.

JINKS said...

today is 10/11/06, just an hour ago I heard about a small plane crashing into apartment house in Manhattan, got on web, began to surf and site lead to another, and just one year ago today, you are blogging and trying to get word out on terror group in our country......when will we awake and realize that jhad is going on as we speak in this country....thank you for all your information and I will be vigilant in checking this blog.

Precious said...

I am a local resident close by Sheikh Jilani lane and I know these people personally. They dont send their kids to public schools because of the influence and discrimination that they will face. We all know how we are as Americans to people who are different. They have a school and they educate their children, several of the teachers are certified teachers and others have Bachelors degrees. They strive to have garedens and animals, for a matter of fact I have sold several of my animals to them. I have never heard gunshots coming from them and I heard about the arrestings of two people but I didnt pay that any mind becuase you have bad seeds from every location. I never want someone to group me with a bad person because someone from Mt Zion Church got arrested. Maybe we should not believe everything we hear because deception creates fear.

Wulfgar said...

Sorry Precious, but I have to disagree. Anywhere that law enforcement fears to tread doesn't sound friendly. And come on... the street is named for a known terrorist.
Funny... When Waco went down, I believe the reasoning behind most of it was that there was child molestation going on. Of course, no children that made it out of there were molested, but it's a great way to get the public behind you. You'd think that if the government wanted in there, they'd do the same thing.
It's telling though. White or black, if any of us non-Islamics tried this same thing, we'd have been put under the jail. Here, we have local law enforcement, and social services AFRAID to even investigate. Sounds like profiling at it's best! Keep your average citizens from grouping together, but allow extremists. That way, we have something to fear. It keeps Big Brother more easily in power.
More to the point, we've heard reports that there are MORE of these places in Bedford and Campbell counties. Me and my pals will be looking into this, and keep you guys posted!

wheatington said...

Bomb doors are less complicated than a camera.

mike said...

i have a lot muslim friends, and they are so nice to me... to my family and to everybody.
a lot of my friend already joining islam... they all very happy and proud of it.

i dont see any reason to hate them, i prefer to hate jewish people of israel, they are the true bomber of 9/11....(wikileaks)

thank you