"By publicly branding these groups as criminals without providing a forum for them to defend themselves or clear their names, the government has acted with blatant disregard for their constitutional rights," said Hina Shamsi, staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project.
"The government's action is especially shameful because the charge it makes is so inflammatory - it has caused each organization's reputation and good name to be dragged through the mud. The government has a constitutional obligation to correct the record and clear the names of ISNA and NAIT."
Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America, is right when she says that for many people, when they hear the designation ‘unindicted co-conspirator’ what they really hear is just ‘conspirator and this makes it very difficult for ISNA to continue to have relationships that are built on trust.
Additionally the government action has put a strain on fund-raising efforts of the Muslim groups. At the same time the legal entangling is draining their resources as they have to spend money for legal defense.
It will not be too much to say that the American Muslim community faces a COINTELPRO operation similar to the 1960s operation against the African Americans. COINTELPRO is the acronym for a series of FBI counterintelligence programs designed to neutralize political dissidents in the 1960s and 1970s. The program was directed against the civil rights movements, especially against the community leadership of African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans. In the 1980s similar program was used against Central American solidarity groups.
According to attorney Brian Glick, the author of War at Home, four methods were employed by the FBI at the height of the Cointelpro operation during 1960s and the same methods are being employed now which include: (1) Infiltration in the community. (2) Psychological warfare from outside. (3) Harassment through the legal system. 4) Extra legal force and violence. We see all the four methods being applied against the Muslim community.
The Los Angeles Times (February 24, 2009) revelation was a shock to the community that the FBI used paid informants in mosques to spy on the community. The case of Ahmadullah Niazi in Tustin, CA brought to light evidence of an all too familiar trend in law enforcement activity within the American Muslim community. The FBI sent a convicted criminal, Craig Monteilh, to pose as an agent provocateur in several of California’s mosques. A FBI agent allegedly told one of the mosque attendees that the agency would make his life a "living hell" if he did not become an informant.
In 2007, Niazi reported suspicious behavior by a new Muslim convert in his mosque, who he said was talking about jihad and suggested planning a terrorist attack in conversations with others at the Islamic Center of Irvine. He and a mosque official filed a report with the Los Angeles field office of the FBI. The FBI then told mosque officials that they were investigating the matter, and the mosque successfully got a three-year restraining order against the individual. Niazi reported that FBI officials later contacted him to ask him to be a paid informant. When he refused, he said they threatened to make his life "a living hell." Niazi was arrested earlier in February 2009 on charges related to lying on his immigration documents and was later released on $500,000 bail.
Niaz’s case is just one example of FBI’s infiltration in the Muslim community. At the same time a psychological warfare rages, through headline grabbing high profile arrests and trials. There is harassment through the legal system, with trial of Muslim charities in the name of fighting terrorism. The use of extra legal force is draining resources of the community on prolonged trial in which most of the evidence is “secret” and the defendants are unable to properly defend themselves. Trials of Holy Land Foundation and Dr. Sami Al-Arian are just two examples.
All this is bringing the desired results - intimidation of the Muslim community, defaming their faith (which is linked to acts of terrorism) and straining its financial resources because million of dollars are paid by the community in defense expenses.
In the final analysis, there cannot be two opinions on the priority of the security and safety of the nation but one wonders if such measures as including more than 300 Muslim individuals and organization as non-indicted conspirators made the nation more safe or they are being used to maintain a state of fear among the masses and usurp their civil rights in the name of national security.
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