Florida Trail Of Terror
By Beila Rabinowitz & William A. Mayer
Fourteen of the nineteen September 11 hijackers either came from or through Florida - The 3 main ringleaders - the "pilots" - Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi & Ziad Jarrah and 11 of the foot soldiers - Ahmad Al Haznawi, Ahmed Alnami, Satam M.A. Al Suqami, Wail M. Alshehri, Waleed M. Alshehri, Fayez Rashid Ahmed Hassan Al Qadi Banihammad, Ahmed Alghamdi, Hamza Alghamdi, Mohand Alshehri (not related to Wail & Waleed Alshehri), Saeed Alghamdi, Ahmed Ibrahim A. Al Haznawi.
Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged 20th hijacker also has roots in Florida.
Other notable Floridians - Imran Mandhai, Shueyb Mossa Jokhan - accused of conspiring to bomb the Miami Israeli Consulate and Safraz Jehaludi - currently being held on charges of threatening to blow up the White House.
Despite elaborately embroidered rejections of radicalism and events constructed to showcase Islam's "moderate" nature, the fact remains that Federal investigators say they have heard it all before. One senses that the claims of moderation are ringing hollow with increasing frequency, and for good reason.
For residents of the area, it's déjà vu all over again. Virtually every Florida Mosque and Islamic Center has played host to one or more people who are either fugitives from the law, or in jail on terrorism related charges.
Why Florida?
Why not?
For starters, Florida, especially South Florida, is home to 150,000 Muslims, mostly of Middle Eastern extraction.
The area is also home to at least 23 Mosques.
It is in many ways a transient society; nearly eight million tourists from all over the globe shuffle through the area each year, bustling amusement parks, cheap accommodations, miles of strip malls all offer plenty of cover in which to remain anonymous.
"It's a melting pot. It's not like in Montana where you would stick out like a sore thumb," said Ben Graber, a Broward County commissioner. "Here you just blend in with the population."
Quiero Plutonio?
Back in the good old - pre domestic terror - days your biggest concern about the guy behind the counter at a Taco Bell restaurant was that he might spit in your burrito. But this is the 21st century and now you have to worry if he's working for Osama bin Laden and trying to build a radiological weapon on nights and weekends.
Mohammed Javed Qureshi, the owner of a South Florida Taco Bell, employed Jose Padilla and his wife Cherie Stultz.
"If you had known him, you would have never thought of him as a violent person," said Raed Mousa Awad of the Al-Imam Mosque that Padilla attended in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "He was a polite, shy, serious gentleman, according to my observations." ABC News - June 17, 2002
Unfortunately, the pattern linking obfuscation, disinformation and sketchy characters continues, as Raed Awad was also under observation by law enforcement for his involvement in terrorist fundraising. He left South Florida around the time Padilla did and "moved to Alabama". His children claim they do not have his address.
Awad claimed he did not know when Padilla converted to Islam or who converted him. He says that he met Padilla in 1995 and that he attended services daily - sometimes once or twice a day.
"He [Padilla] was very active in the social activities of the Mosque and well known in the Muslim community." - ABC News
Yet Awad claimed not to remember him.
A leader at Awad's Mosque, Yusef Shakoor, remembers Padilla as shy and helpful, but went on to say that he had no standout qualities or personality.
In addition to attending prayers at the Mosque, Padilla studied the Koran on Saturday at the Dar Ul Uloom Institute in Pembroke Pines.
Maulana Shafayat Mohammed, the prayer leader at the Institute, described Padilla as an oddity who definitely stood out - "...he was a Hispanic who converted to Islam and always wore a red scarf over his head."
From no "standout qualities" to an "oddity," everyone in the Muslim community appears to have a different and conflicting story about Jose Padilla. There is an obvious reason for this subterfuge - to confuse the media, investigators, researchers and above all, the public. It is not an accident that Qureshi, Rafiq Mahdi and others have given varying accounts to the regarding South Florida events involving Muslim extremists.
It is now common practice for these people to go by two, three or more differing names; arranged in varying order - depending upon the demands of the occasion. For example - Mohammed Qureshi, Mohammed Javed and Mohammed Javed Qureshi - all the same individual.
In like manner, Qureshi never refers to himself as the owner of the Taco Bell that employed Padilla, he usually says that he was Padilla's supervisor, which is technically correct but seemingly calculated to avoid disclosure of the fact that he was not only his ultimate supervisor but his employer as well.
"Da' wa in North America begins with the packaging"
Muslims are called upon to be evangelical and the practice of Da' wa underlines that philosophy. It means reaching out through religious preaching to those not of the faith - attempting to convert them. The devout are supposed to spend at least two hours every week engaged in such activity.
Compared to Muslims, most fundamentalist Christians are pikers in that regard.
This "packaging" concept really is a marketing ploy and if truth in advertising were applied to the above statement - which was taken directly from the from the Islamic Foundation of South Florida website - it should be rephrased - "Da' wa in North America begins with lying."
To claim that Jose and Cherie Padilla weren't "well known in the community" is absurd. As a chubby Hispanic, red durag [a biker head scarf] coiffed, gangsta' - with a Jamaican born wife - it would stand to reason that Jose would have been remembered by the community who took him in.
However, after Padilla's arrest the community was struck by a bout of collective amnesia prompted, no doubt in no small part, by the nature of his overseas sales pitch to al-Qaeda.
Managing complex fabrications is difficult, sometimes the truth just slips out. One spokesman for the community, Sofian Abedelaziz Zakout, the director of AMANA, the American Muslim Association of North America, has spoken of meeting Padilla, Shukrijumah and two - now jailed - terror suspects.
Sofian Abdelaziz Zakkout employs the same tactic.
In some cases the spelling is merely altered - as is the case with Shukrijumah's father, Gilshair - Shukri Jamal M.
After Adnan Shukrijumah had been identified as a dirty bomb suspect and Mohammed Atta's possible successor, the Mosque that employed his father, which is also the Islamic Caribbean American Society fired him due to the unwanted negative publicity.
Zakkout identified Gilshair as one of the directors of the Shamshuddin Islamic Center in North Miami Beach.
In 1999 Sofian Abdelaziz Zakout was the Vice President of a now defunct "charity" called Health Resource Center Palestine which solicited funding for the Islamic Association of Palestine on it's website - IAP is a virulently anti-Semitic group which distributes hate filled "news" content to the Arab press.
"I am in support of the Hamas movement" - Nihad Awad, the former PR director for the IAP and the current Executive Director of the Council on Islamic American Relations [CAIR].
The HRCP also listed the brother of the Islamic Center of Boca Raton's, Ibrahim Dremali - Ishaq - as its Gaza coordinator. His name was spelled Drimly instead of Dremali. Both Ibrahim Dremali and Sofian Abdelaziz Zakkout testified as character witnesses on behalf of Adham Hassoun, who is accused of setting up the Florida office of the al-Qaeda front group, Benevolence International.
Dremali and Zakkout both made indignant statements to the media regarding Hassoun's detention.
After speaking with Hassoun by phone, Muslim community activist Sofian Abdelaziz said Hassoun's civil rights "have been broken."
The Principal of the School of Islamic Studies in Broward - Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Shah [co-founded by Mohammed Qureshi and associated with a Mosque on the same property which was attended by Padilla and Hassoun] made the following understatement:
"Hassoun has been an active part of the local Muslim community for many years"
Shocked, amazed and astonished!
"I'm astonished," Shah said of the arrest and of other recent arrests tied to federal investigations of possible terrorist activities in South Florida.
Qureshi and Imam Madhi of Masjid Al-Imam have given Islam friendly but conflicting versions of the conversion story to the media.
Qureshi said Padilla constantly marveled at how peaceful he seemed. "He asked me where could he go to be a Muslim." Qureshi allegedly told him - "to find a Mosque through the yellow pages" - a strange response, to say the least, from a devout Muslim who was the proprietor of a school/Mosque complex.
According to Querishi, Padilla stated that "something [at the Mosque] touched his heart. He said he had wanted peace of mind, and now he said he felt at peace with himself" and then added "He [Padilla]changed his demeanor."
Denial of associations reigned supreme - Imam Rafiq Mahdi of the Al-Imam Mosque in Sunrise held a press conference with Sheriff Ken Jenne and stated "that there was no record of Jose Padilla having attended any services".
Mahdi merely stated the obvious, since they don't register their worshippers, no record would exist. It's a poor ploy - several newspapers reported that Padilla and his wife were very much in attendance at Masjid Al-Imam.
Hassoun and Padilla worshiped at the same Fort Lauderdale Mosque, Masjid Al-Imam, through much of the 1990s, according to prayer leader, Rafiq Mahdi. Members of the Masjid Al-Imam - which has about 200 worshipers - said Padilla and his wife regularly attended.
The spiritual leader in those years, Raed Awad, was chief Florida officer of another charity targeted for possible terror links, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.
Peter Feaver, director of the Triangle Institute for Security Studies at Duke University, said it wouldn't be surprising if al-Qaeda sleeper cells and sympathizers are continuing to use Florida as a base. CBS news reports the same.
Local government officials there are more specific, openly speculating that there may be as many as 1,000 "sleepers" living outwardly normal lives.
It may be total happenstance, but Qureshi's Taco Bell is situated quite close to the offices of the Benevolence International Foundation, whose director - Adham Hassoun - was well known as a "Palestinian activist" in local Islamic circles.
Hassoun had been chosen by Ernaam Arnaout - bin-Laden's personal envoy - to set up an office for the al-Qaeda fundraising operation known as the Benevolence International Foundation. Hassoun, a Jordanian national, is now on jail on charges of funding terrorism and is fighting deportation from the U.S.
Arnaam Ernaout - a Syrian national married to an American - was recently sentenced to 12 years in jail for supporting al-Qaeda. He admitted to using money from BIF to buy tents, sleeping bags and boots for Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
Law enforcement officials believe that Hassoun met Jose Padilla at the Mosque belonging to the school for Islamic Studies in Broward. It was Hassoun who recruited Padilla, assisted him in acquiring an American passport and supposedly paid for his trip to Egypt - his "Arabic language study" sabbatical. Jose Padilla was arrested on May 8, 2002 at O'Hare airport in Chicago returning from Pakistan and is currently being held in a military brig, held as an irregular enemy combatant.
Before they left, Qureshi remembers the couple seeking advice on how to buy a car with the little money they were able to scrounge up. They were hoping to find better-paying jobs - she in office work, he in construction, he recalled.
"I mean from Taco Bell in Davie, the guy's boarding the plane in Pakistan?" he said. "What is going on in this world?"
What indeed, Mr. Qureshi?
Mohammed Javed Qureshi had kept in touch with Cherie Padilla after Jose left for Egypt in 1999. According to Qureshi, Jose was being taking care of by friends, listening and learning.
Padilla started calling himself "Ibrahim." Eventually he legally changed his name to Abdullah al Muhajir, even though "Jose" was tattooed on his arm.
He quit the Taco Bell in 1994, and by 1998 was headed to Egypt, telling friends he hoped to teach English in Cairo.
Javed said he would occasionally hear from Padilla's ex-wife that he was "doing fine, that someone had provided him shelter, that he was listening and learning."
The Padillas were divorced in 2001 with Jose giving an address in Egypt.
During the divorce, Padilla's wife Cherie, sought counseling with the father of Padilla?s alleged partner in terror, Adnan Shukrijumah.
Gilshair's own terror connections went back to the followers of Sheik Abdel Rahman [the 1993 World Trade Center bombing's mastermind, the [Blind Sheikh] in Brooklyn. In 1995 Gilshair testified as a character witness on behalf of Clement Hampton El who was convicted of plotting to blow up the Holland tunnel and the United Nations.
An enterprising tour guide could come up with a "Terror Tour" of South Florida. It would include at least 23 different Mosques in addition to schools and other dwellings within a 20 mile radius of the - "last seen" location - of some the FBI's most wanted terror suspects.
The tour could finish up at the empty homes of those currently matriculating at various federal - maximum security - gated institutions of higher learning.
The Qureshi name is ubiquitous in the school registry of the Islamic Foundation of South Florida - now the parent organization for Shah's School for Islamic Studies.
The IFSF site lists Pasha Qureshi as a registrar. Samina Qureshi on the Al-Falah [success committee] and Zahra Qureshi on the Youth and Camp Committee. The Principal of the Elementary School - Zulfiqar Ali Shah - is the president and CEO of the Universal Heritage Foundation in Kissimmee.
Shah showcased his new foundation with an inaugural - and highly controversial - Islamic conference the theme of which was supposed to portray Islam as a religion of peace and religious accommodation. The original list of conference speakers read like a who's who of radical Wahabis and the event ended up giving UHF a very black eye in the community.
Shah's organization is situated on a 31-acre parcel of land, which it shares with Pastor Lee Wasson's Kissimmee Christian Academy. The landlord is Super Stop Petroleum, Inc. It obtained the property in a bankruptcy proceeding. Wasson's tenancy considerably predates Shah's as he was a tenant of the party in bankruptcy, David Peoples, who operated a travel and culinary school on the property called the Southeastern Academy. It is this former Southeastern Academy that UHF now occupies.
Super Stop Petroleum is one of approximately 160 companies in which Denise Qureshi is the registered agent. In addition to Super Stop, the Florida Department of Corporations lists ? MAQ Financial Group, Q Research Group, Pembroke Park Investments, American Money Orders, 441 Investments, Homestead Subco, HWY 31 Investments, HWY 80 Investments, and on and on and on.
We have extensively covered this a previous article Will Of Faith which detailed how Zulfiqar Ali Shah and Mohammed Javed Qureshi - in an apparent display of anti-Christian bigotry - attempted to drive the Kissimmee Christian Academy into bankruptcy through legal harassment, primarily a frivolous eviction proceeding.
We must conclude, from the circumstances surrounding the court action, that Super Stop Petroleum is run not by Denise, but by Mohammed Javed Qureshi. In Pastor Wasson's only successful effort to talk directly with Super Stop Management, he was put in touch with Javed Qureshi, not Denise. After only briefly listening to the Pastor's request to attempt to work things out amicably, Javed abruptly ended the telephone call, snorting insolently "I am a busy man."
End of conversation.
In their only face to face conversation with Wasson, Dr. Shah made the claim that he didn't even know Qureshi, despite his numerous dealings with him.
Though this amounts to persecution by Muslims who are knee deep in associations with terrorists - against a struggling Christian School whose presence on the property predates UHF's arrival - local major media in Florida has shunned the story. PipeLineNews has even contacted Fox News in New York and they won't touch it either.
So serious is the problem with the Islamic Circle, that in December, 2003 the Senate Finance Committee - under the leadership of Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) - requested from the IRS tax returns, lists of contributors, applications for tax-exempt status, and all materials from examinations, audits and criminal investigations on 25 noble sounding Muslim groups, one of which is Shah?s former haunt, the Islamic Circle of North America.
During Shah's period of leading the ICNA, Ashrafuzzman Khan was its Vice President - as well as the head of the ICNA local chapter in Queens New York.
To many immigrants, however, Khan was better known as the mad-dog leader of a death squad active in the Bangladesh war.
On 24th September 1997, a criminal complaint [case no. 115/1997 Ramana Thana] was filed against Asrafuzzaman Khan, as a result of war crimes allegedly committed by him during the Bangladesh Liberation War.
It is alleged that Khan personally murdered at least 7 intellectuals during that war, that he was a member of the much feared Al-Badr terror squads.
Professor Giasuddin Ahmed was killed as a result of the death squad activity. His sister, Mrs. Farida Banu, filed the case in Bangladesh.
In the complaint Mrs. Banu claims that Khan, along with others, kidnapped Ahmed. His body was found later at the Rayar Baazar killing fields, a disposal site used by the Al Badr death squads.
"Asrafuzzaman Khan, was one of the chief Al-Badr executioners. It has been clearly proved that he himself shot to death 7 teachers of the Dhaka University in the killing fields at Mirpur. A certain Mofizzuddin, who drove the vehicle, which took these helpless victims of Asrafuzzaman to Mirpur, has clearly identified Asrafuzzaman as the "chief executer" of the intellectuals. After Liberation, Ashrafuzzaman's personal diary was recovered from 350 Nakhal Para where he resided. On two pages of the diary, the names of 19 teachers of the University have been entered, as well as their addresses in the University quarters" - From the Weekly Thikana, a Bengali print journal published from New York December 15, 2000
This really is only a cursory glance at what is going on, not just in South Florida, but also in many other parts of the country.
Connect the dots and follow the associations.
Fact: The Wahabi brand of thought dominates Islam in the Middle East. Wahabi Saudis are directly and primarily responsible for funding the majority of US Islamic institutions.
In his book, Inside Islam, Reza F. Safa states that the majority of American Mosques are funded by jihadist Saudis, that over the last 25 years they have spent nearly $90 billion on such projects in the US and the West and that 80% of this nation?s 1,200 Mosques were built as a result of this effort.
Islam is a supremely aggressive religion. The Muslim American Society has single handedly converted 1 million American Blacks to Islam, the Saudis have contributed $8 million towards building Los Angeles' biggest Mosque.
From their mouths, to Allah's ear
"Either the best Muslim will get power, or the worst Kaffir [worst infidel, etymology - comes from an African Islamic usage - extreme pejorative for black person, on the level of "nigger," not at all surprising since it was the Muslims who were the primary sellers of slaves for the New World] Allah has created us as the Khaleefah [leaders] and we do not know Biology, Chemistry, Geology, when the Muslims knew those sciences they rules those lands and controlled them. We need to learn these sciences then we know how to control this earth. Rasool (S) struggled for 13 years, he was tortured abused, made sacrifices, even lost his uncle. Victory will not come sitting down. We need to prepare ourselves in all aspects." - Zulfiqar Ali Shah from remarks on the History of Islam prepared for the consumption of young Muslims.
Anyone with a critical eye who has evaluated the manner in which the Islamic world has operated for a millenium-and-a-half will note that Islam fosters little tolerance for other religions.
This intolerance, in the face of 911 and increased public scrutiny, continues unabated. Supposedly mainstream Islamic institutions expressly created for educating Muslim youth, in reality operate as thinly disguised Madrassas - little factories of fundamentalist religious bigotry and hate.
"...The fundamental theme of Islam throughout history has been - there is no god but Allah - Islam alone can provide the power for Muslims to liberate oppressed peoples from the control of those who worship the false gods of modernist and postmodernist cultures, namely, from taghut, so that these false gods will no longer be in a position to persecute or put obstacles in the way of sincere people and so all religion will be exclusively for Allah.Our task in general is to stand against the flood of modernist civilization overflowing from the swamp of materialistic and sinful desires...Western secularism moved into a Muslim world already estranged from its Qur'anic roots, and delayed its advancement for centuries, and will continue to do so until we drive it from our lands. Moreover, we will not stop at this point, but will pursue this evil force to its own lands, invade its Western heartland, and struggle to overcome it until all the world shouts by the name of the Prophet and the teachings of Islam spread throughout the world." Jan 18, 2004 Young Muslims USA Newsletter.
The Young Muslim USA organization busses Muslim teenagers to Washington, DC so they could add their voices in protest against the war in Iraq, which liberated 25 million of their Islamic brothers and sisters.
The slick looking signs these kids were given were obviously done by professionals.
The placards they held carried familiar leftist slogans such as "Defend Iraq Against US Imperialist Attack" - "For Class Struggle Against US Capitalist Rulers" and "No Justice, No Peace" many complete with the logos of the Socialist Worker's Party, a communist front group.
Unbelievably, only a few years ago, Muslim youth organizations were actually soliciting impressionable Islamic kids to participate in Summer Jihad Camps, here it the headline of a flyer, from the Young Muslim USA organization.
Young Muslims North East Region
presents...
Jihad Camp
August 20th - 26th, Pennsylvania
Note that the date was exactly two weeks before September 11, 2001.
The Summer camps continue, albeit under a different guise. Sometimes now they are called Akhira camps. Akhira is the Arabic word for afterlife. Nice concept - Summer Death Camps.
"Our [Young Muslim USA] Summer Camp will help educate and prepare the youth with the proper understanding of the concept of the Akhira (The Hereafter) in Islam. This camp is for brothers with ages ranging from 14 to 25 years"- from the flyer
Curious...healthy young people - males only - preparing to meet Allah.
The speakers at these events always include radical jihadis.
For example, in addition to Zulfiqar Ali Shah, three of the speakers at the 'Jihad' and Akhira [afterlife] camps were:
Sirraj Wahaj - a member of the advisory board of CAIR and in 1995 was declared an unindicted co conspirator in the attempt to blow up New York City monuments. Imam Abdul Malik who runs the radical Masjid Tarwhid in New York. He also spoke at the UHF's 'Islam for Humanity' inaugural event Malik recently produced an audio tape entitled "Thugz in the Masjid" which "explores issues related to thug life and it's adaptation by Muslim Youth."
The activities at these Muslim youth camps?
Wrestling - Archery - Paintball Combat Sports
For some reason the paintball images have been pulled from the Young Muslim USA site, but the following comes from similar Muslim paintball activity, this from of all places, Kentucky.
Makes you feel all warm and cozy, brings you right back to...Afghanistan?
Had enough? Feel reassured now that you understand the Islam is the religion of peace?
This is the real problem when dealing with Islam in a Western setting. The religion is not being truthfully evaluated because an invidious process has been set in motion. Our own loss of intellectual vigor is partly to blame. It is manifested as an inability [or even desire] to critically reason about such demanding subjects, but the main antagonist is the left's multiculturalism/moral relativism, which causes many to take at face value high sounding statements by Muslim spokesmen, like CAIR, Shah, Qureshi and others.
As has been written here in the past until we see significant and meaningful - concrete - demonstrations of good faith by the Muslim community, we remain unconvinced of the sincerity of claims of moderation. Until we see Imams stand before their followers and reject Hamas, Yasir Arafat, religious martyrdom and the Palestinian Intifada, until we see young Muslim men demand to join the US Armed Forces so they can participate in the war on terror and rid the world of those who have allegedly defiled the true spirit of Mohammed, we remain unconvinced.
We remain unconvinced because it is all cheap lip service, frosting on a poison tart, marketing, packaged Da'wa.
"...Law enforcement officials are not sure what exactly El Shukrijumah may be planning, but they say he could target gas stations, fuel trucks, subway systems, trains, or bridges. "Our No. 1 priority," Larry Mefford, assistant director of the FBI's counter terrorism division, told U.S. News, "is to find sleeper cells if they exist"
Since Mr. Mefford broached the subject, let's pursue it a bit - we don't advocate giving people ideas but this type of speculation is already out there.
There is absolutely no doubt that al-Qaeda and other Islamic terror groups are actively planning further, even more devastating attacks against the United States. Unless we are 100% effective in stopping them, the question is only a matter of when the next attack will occur, not if.
Suppose that entire chains of - lets say - gas stations or fleets of fuel tanker trucks - or both - come under surreptitious control of al-Qaeda types.
The standard gasoline transport tractor trailer rig features two stainless steel containers, each with the capacity of approximately 8,500 gallons, for a combined single vehicle capacity of 17,000 gallons of gasoline. According to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission - that amount of gasoline is equivalent in energy content to over 100,000 pounds of TNT.
A similar load of liquid hydrogen would be far more deadly, it has over twice the energy content of gasoline and its laminar flame velocity is nearly 10 times as fast [2.7 to 3.3 m/s for hydrogen vs. .37 to .43 m/s for gasoline] hence a far higher potential explosive effect.
Of course that number is theoretical and you are not going to get these kinds of yields by simply tossing a few books of matches in front of fuel carrying semis. However, with the proper amount of oxidizer and correctly applied ignition, the energy release from such potential mobile bombs would be massive.
Imagine the effect that would be caused by the simultaneous detonation of hundreds of gas stations during rush hour while gasoline, liquefied natural gas and propane transports were set off on major bridges, as well as outside political and military targets?
There are many other possibilities along these lines, the point is merely that in a high tech society such as the United States it is impossible to control every potential source of destructive energy available to crafty, scientifically aware, foes.
Absent that we have to judge people by what they do, what they say in private, when they think they are not being overheard by outsiders and by their associations.
On these three fronts American Islam, not to mention the Islamic movement outside of the United States, stands looking very suspect.
© 1999-2005 Beila Rabinowitz & William A. Mayer.
