Busy tourist update. Of course, here is another innocent Muslim engaging in innocent activities and wrongfully arrested. I would find such assertions more credible if law enforcement officials had ever arrested and tried a Muslim that Islamic advocacy groups acknowledged was guilty. From the Charlotte Observer, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
Kamran Akhtar, suspected of having ties to terrorism after a police officer spotted him videotaping Charlotte's skyscrapers in July, was sentenced Monday to six months in prison.Chief Judge Graham Mullen of the U.S. District Court in Charlotte gave the 36-year-old Pakistan native credit for the time he's already served in jail. That means Akhtar will now be turned over to immigration officials for deportation.
Akhtar has not been charged with any terrorism-related offenses, but he pleaded guilty in October to failing to leave the United States, possessing false identification documents and making false statements to investigators....
When Akhtar was detained in July, authorities announced that they had found a videotape in Akhtar's camera that showed the 60-story Bank of America tower and the former Wachovia Center, which houses the FBI's offices in Charlotte.
Authorities said Akhtar also had tapes showing buildings in the downtown areas of Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas, Houston and Austin, Texas.
Akhtar's brother, Irfan Akhtar, told the Observer that Kamran Akhtar has been wrongfully accused and portrayed in the media as a terrorist. He said his brother is not a terrorist.
Irfan Akhtar, 33, said his older brother likes to take pictures of tourists spots and buildings and had been traveling the country after losing his job at a New York photo store....
The indictment accused Akhtar of making false statements to investigators that he was in the United States legally, had a green card and had never been ordered deported. He also was charged with possession of false documents -- a New York driver's license and a Social Security card.
Federal prosecutors have said the investigation into Akhtar's activities is continuing.
OT~ Today’s Positive! (As opposed to leftist MSM) Iraqi vote news:
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=16775
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=16746
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20050126-121552-2600r.htm
http://techcentralstation.com/012605C.html
http://techcentralstation.com/012605A.html
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/lindachavez/lc20050126.shtml
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/tonyblankley/tb20050126.shtml
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/jaybryant/jb20050126.shtml
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/jonahgoldberg/jg20050126.shtml
Sounds to me like the Feds are finally doing their job. Regardless what he has on those videotapes, he committed a crime. I say, send him back to the hole he crawled from.
Amplify this in the news, and I say make him an example. Our nation is crawling with illegal immigrants as it is.
There are hundreds of thousand of Muslim illegal aliens who need to be deported. This dummy's mistake was to draw attention to himself from the law. Otherwise he would never have been bothered. I happen to believe his excuse for videotaping.
Dennis, I agree with you- he very well may just be a tourist.
But you can't tell us he had absolutely NO clue that this particular activity is being profiled. Not when other cases like his in the US and Canada are being played on the media on Several continents.
they, not you.
Deporting such a person will do something, but not much. The criminal justice system in the Western world is not designed to handle people making war of the kind now being waged. This is a twilight zone: military laws apparently do not apply (except that some scream that the Geneva Convention should apply precisely to those to whom it was expressly not supposed to apply -- irregular forces, not in uniform, not observing any of the laws of war). Deportation in this case is like throwing a fish back in the sea, for this fellow clearly does not like America, does not want to see Infidel America and Infidel Americans survive.
The only way to really cause such people to not act as they do is to come down hard on their extended families. If, for example, anyone who is potentially involved in terrorism knows that not he, but his brother and his other relatives will also be deported -- that may modify, not beliefs (Islamic beliefs cannot be modified, but the transmission of those beliefs can be constrained, as Ataturk knew), but at least activities.
This seems to be, in a sense, punishing the innocent. (One reserves judgment on just how "innocent" the families of many of these people in fact are -- either in knowledge, or in their own desires). That is what wars have done -- punished not just the immediate soldiers, but the "innocent" in order to cause the enemy to stop. Would that it were otherwise, but modern warfare does not permit it. The English and American airmen who bombed German cities, the Americans who bombed Japanese cities, were trying to hasten the war's end. Of course there were innocents (not all civilians are "innocents" of course, merely by dint of being out of uniform), but there had been tens of millions of innocents who had been victims of Nazi Germany, and militarist Japan.
There may come a time when the security services of the Western (and other non-Musliim countries) will begin to realize that they owe their first duty to their own people, and not to some theoretical ideas, based on previous, battlefield warfare. Deporting of those who are believed to have lent a kind of "support" -- even emotional or financial support as family members -- should not be ruled out. There is something absurd about the timidity of the Western response, and of handwringing by Western governments in Europe, for example, about what they "are allowed to do." Laws are not written in stone; they should reflect realtity, even the most unpleasant realities.
During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus. Are you quite sure he was wrong? What would you say if it became policy, after one more attack, to deport the entire "family network" of those believed involved in terrorism? Would you shrilly and automatically condemn it? Why do you think in Israel the houses of family members of suicide bombers are knocked down? Is is possible that the Israelis understand that family pressure is the best way to prevent Muslim terrorism, when no appeals by Infidels to any sense of decency have been shown to work?
Terrorism is, of course, only one part of the problem. But it will cease if it is understood that the umma al-islamiyya itself will suffer, for it is clear that the actual perpetrators are perfectly willing to die. They may, however, be open to appeals from family members, who know that they will suffer to -- or from imams, not relishing the thought that their mosques will be shut down, and they deported if a single gun or false passport is found on the premises.
The younger brother has testified that his older brother just "likes to take pictures of tourist spots and buildings and had been touring the country after losing his job at a New York photo store." Do any of the buildings and sites -- those skyscrapers in Charlotte, N. C. -- strike you as ordinary "tourist sites"? How often do we go to visit Colonial Williamsburg, and Monticello, and Gettysburg, and oh yes, let's go visit skyscrapers in Houston, and Charlotte, and Chicago, and...
That "youngest brother" needs to be looked into as well. The case should not end here.
How often do we go to visit Colonial Williamsburg, and Monticello, and Gettysburg, and oh yes, let's go visit skyscrapers in Houston, and Charlotte, and Chicago, and...
That "youngest brother" needs to be looked into as well. The case should not end here.
Posted by: Hugh at January 26, 2005 10:03 AM
Funny aint it??
And the frist thing people who lose their job do is go on vac. of course they must pay photo people really well in NYC??
the PC is BAD BAD BAD AND CAN GET YOU KILLED??
Part of the American Tribe
Squirrel Hunter
Spider Killer
God Bless the USA and her Fighting Forces and ALL who Fight with her give them Wisdom, Strength, Sight, and Courage to Destroy ALL Islamic Terrorist and ALL who Support them Open the Worlds Eyes to their Threat Amen
notice how this story looks alike??
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/004803.php#comments
January 26, 2005
Israel: Dane under arrest is Hizbullah spy
More evidence of how Muslims in Europe are aiding the global jihad. From the Jerusalem Post, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
The Danish citizen of Lebanese origin currently the focus of a joint Police-Shin Bet investigation was identified Wednesday as a Hizbullah recruited agent by the name of Iyad al Ashwah, 39, after a gag order on the investigation was lifted.
Al Ashwah, originally born in Lebanon moved to Denmark in 1986 and received Danish citizenship six years later.
Al Ashwah was arrested on January 6 while he was on a train from Nahariya to Haifa after he raised a security officer's suspicions by videotaping the passing scenery through the train window.
He was arrested by police and confessed that in July 2004 he had been recruited into Hizbullah by relatives living in Lebanon. In his interrogation, al Ashwah told police that he was ordered to travel to Israel disguised as a tourist to collect security information and most importantly to recruit Israeli-Arabs into the terror organization.
"War is deceit."
Posted at January 26, 2005 06:00 AM
I happen to believe his excuse for videotaping.
Posted by: dennisw
You are joking are you not?
That "youngest brother" needs to be looked into as well. The case should not end here.
Posted by: Hugh
Right on Brother (Saying this with right arm etended towards the heavens with clenched fist).
Akhtar has not been charged with any terrorism-related offenses, but he pleaded guilty in October to failing to leave the United States, possessing false identification documents and making false statements to investigators....
Dennis does this not upset you?that he was here after having been ordered to leave the U.S.? and other offenses. He is not on vacation pal he is reconning areas for something next and this will not be tolerated.
Unemployed and traveling across country Hmmmmm if this aint got something wrong with it............
As citizens it is our duty to ensure our survival and should you happen to see someone strange and out of place taking pictures of something strange and outta place ask them what they are doing!!!
People who have experienced some in flight troubles with the other people baffle me, they let strange things happen about them while accepting it as ok and dont worry........I am not taking any crap from them or others I may deem people of interest.
"THE HOTTEST PLACES IN HELL ARE RESERVED FOR THOS WHO IN A TIME OF GREAT MORAL CRISIS MAINTAIN THEIR NUETRALITY". (Dante)
FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO SAY IT IS SOME ONES ELSE'S JOB REMEMBER PEOPLE ARE NOT PREFECT ??
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/mm20050126.shtml
A heartless homeland security screw-up
Michelle Malkin (January 26, 2005
Do you remember when immigration officials sent out flight school visa approval notices for two of the 9/11 hijackers -- six months after they had committed their suicide attacks on America?
President Bush proclaimed his outrage, four federal immigration officials were reassigned, and Washington vowed that such embarrassing bureaucratic paperwork snafus would never happen again.
I'm sorry to report to you that it has, in fact, happened again.
On Jan. 15, immigration officials sent a notice to Eugueni Kniazev of Brooklyn, N.Y. The letter informs Kniazev, an immigrant from Siberia, that he is now "deemed to be a lawful permanent resident of the United States." The notice directs Kniazev to obtain a new alien registration receipt card (what we commonly call a "green card") and instructs him to appear in person at the immigration office at 26 Federal Plaza in New York City with his passport and three recent photos.
But Eugueni Kniazev won't be appearing at Federal Plaza. He won't be going anywhere. Kniazev, 47, was an employee of the Windows on the World restaurant located on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center's North Tower. After working his way up from dishwasher to facilities manager and living the American dream, Kniazev was murdered in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Let me repeat that for the clueless paper-pushers at the Department of Homeland Security: Eugueni Kniazev won't be picking up his green card because he has been dead for nearly three-and-a-half years.
What on earth is wrong with our federal government? Can you imagine how upsetting it must have been for family members to receive the letter? Why didn't it occur to anybody to cross-check the official list of Sept. 11 victims against the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' records? Did homeland security officials learn nothing from the dead hijacker visa letter fiasco?
After that debacle, top immigration officials pledged "to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the nation's immigration system." In the fall of 2002, President Bush signed into law the creation of the behemoth Department of Homeland Security, encompassing 22 agencies, 180,000 employees and a nearly $34 billion budget. Last month, the president signed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, creating another huge mega-agency "to ensure that the people in government responsible for defending America have the best possible information to make the best possible decisions."
Promises, promises. Despite billions spent on restructuring and new technology, our homeland security system is still unable to prevent a green card approval notice from being sent to a dead person. The fact that the letter recipient is a murdered Sept. 11 victim adds unconscionable insult to bureaucratic injury. A Department of Homeland Security spokesman told me it's up to family members to notify the government when an applicant dies. "It's unfortunate," he said, but there is no mechanism in place to prevent this from happening again.
Eugueni Kniazev's case is only the tip of the incompetence iceberg:
-- The nation's various fingerprint databases still have not been integrated because of bickering among FBI, State Department and homeland security officials, which means that most visitors entering the country still aren't thoroughly screened for terrorist or criminal ties.
-- There is still no system in place for notifying immigration investigators about stolen passports, which led the Homeland Security inspector general to conclude last month that foreigners using the fraudulent documents have "little reason to fear being caught."
-- The long-delayed entry-exit tracking system for foreign visitors -- in the works for nearly a decade -- has still not been implemented fully.
-- There is still no systematic tracking of illegal alien felons.
-- And while millions of legal applicants deal with paperwork backlogs and mishaps that take years if not decades to resolve, the White House supports granting "temporary guest worker" status to upward of 20 million illegal aliens -- a move that rank-and-file homeland security officials say will lead to rampant fraud and even greater bureaucratic overload.
The same overwhelmed and inept immigration system that facilitated Eugueni Kniazev's murder has now made a mockery of his memory.
What more will it take before "Never again" is more than just an empty rhetorical mantra to pacify the American public?
YEP MISTAKES ARE MADE AND IT COULD COST YOU AND YOURS YOUR LIFE IT IS US THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE TO KEEP OUR EYES AND EARS OPEN AND OUR MOUTHS AND PENS WORKING??
Part of the American Tribe
Squirrel Hunter
Spider Killer
God Bless the USA and her Fighting Forces Amen
For crying out loud everybody's innocent. Everyone is "misjudged." I think the only place there is more innocent, misjudged people is behind bars where every one is innocent.
By-the-way, when you're on vacation don't you try to get a little video of bridges, infrastructure and FBI buildings? Shoot ....
Hey, did this guy have a toy airplane in his free hand while videotaping?
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/ct20050125.shtml
Living and dying by the court
Cal Thomas (
January 25, 2005
On Monday, the same day that thousands marched in Washington in opposition to the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, which opened the floodgates to abortion on demand, that same court refused to reinstate a Florida law designed to keep alive a severely brain-damaged woman.
How ghoulishly ironic.
Judge Bars Terror Evidence Against Sheik
By William Glaberson
January 26, 2005
In an important victory for a Yemeni sheik charged with financing terrorism, a federal judge yesterday prevented prosecutors from introducing what they have described as vital evidence during their initial presentation to the jury.
The judge in federal court in Brooklyn, Sterling Johnson Jr., ruled that the prosecutors cannot display three items they have said are their only corroboration for secretly recorded conversations in which they say the sheik and an aide plotted to take money for terrorist organizations.
Source: http://http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/26/nyregion/26sheik.html?pagewanted=print&position=
BUT THE JUDGE SAID TO LET THE ISLAMIC TERRORIST GO AND REMEMBER THIS IS AFTER 9/11/2001????
IF I COULD WRITE AS WELL AS MOST HERE I COULD HAVE WRITTEN SOMETHING REAL PRETDY??
GUY WANTS TO KILL HIM SELF?? DRIVES HIS JEEP ON TRAIN TRAKS CHANGES HIS MIND DOSE NOT DRIVE OFF TRAK BUT JUMPS OUT AND WACTHES THE CRASH
WILL THE PRESS LOOK AT THIS AS THIS GUY WAS WORLING WITH ISALMIC TERRORIST OR WILL THEY PLAY IT UP THAT HE IS SORRY AND JUST CRAZY??
SLY LIKE THE DIVEL??
Part of the American Tribe
Squirrel Hunter
Spider Killer
God Bless the USA and her Fighting Forces and ALL who Fight with her Amen
PS
Just a crazy redneck who loves her Short Skirts and hair blow-in the wind!!
Below is a story which is very much the same and the Muslim and Islamic Org.'s are launching a law-suit for 1,000,000 dollars,Dr.Elmasry is mentioned in the article and he's the one that commented on a TV show on October that "All Israelis over 18 are valid targets for murder by suicide-bombers".
Elmasry is also behind the demands for Sharia-Law in Canada for female Muslims,now that's a man you can trust for telling the truth so Police can catch terrorists.
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2004/10/03/cntowermuhammad041003.html
Posted by: ala-sux at January 26, 2005 06:49 PM
There is concern in the Muslim community, and beyond, about the Toronto police gathering intelligence about individuals considered to be potential extremists.
Mohamed Elmasry, president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, said Toronto police should stick to local police issues. "This is not really their expertise. They are new in this game and doomed to fail. Only innocent people will end up in files somewhere here in Toronto or New York," he said.
what do you think he ment by this??
We have been lieing all our lifes and you are just beginers???
Part of the American Tribe
Squirrel Hunter
Spider Killer
God Bless the USA and her Fighting Forces and ALL who Fight with her give them Strength, Wisdom, Sight and Courage to Defeat ALL Islamic Terrorist and ALL who Support them Amen