"US Intelligence Ineptitude And Diversion"

 Federal prosecutors took steps Thursday to seize four U.S. mosques and a Fifth Avenue skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization long suspected of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government.

In what could prove to be one of the biggest counterterrorism seizures in U.S. history, prosecutors filed a civil complaint in federal court against the Alavi Foundation, seeking the forfeiture of more than $500 million in assets.

The assets include bank accounts; Islamic centers consisting of schools and mosques in New York City, Maryland, California and Houston; more than 100 acres in Virginia; and a 36-story glass office tower in New York.

Confiscating the properties would be a sharp blow against Iran, which has been accused by the U.S. government of bankrolling terrorism and trying to build a nuclear bomb.

It is extremely rare for U.S. law enforcement authorities to seize a house of worship, a step fraught with questions about the First Amendment right to freedom of religion.

The action against the Shiite Muslim mosques is sure to inflame relations between the U.S. government and American Muslims, many of whom are fearful of a backlash after last week's Fort Hood shooting rampage, blamed on a Muslim American major.

"Whatever the details of the government's case against the owners of the mosques, as a civil rights organization we are concerned that the seizure of American houses of worship could have a chilling effect on the religious freedom of citizens of all faiths and may send a negative message to Muslims worldwide," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Prosecutors said the Alavi Foundation managed the office tower on behalf of the Iranian government and, working with a front company known as Assa Corp., illegally funneled millions in rental income to Iran's state-owned Bank Melli. Bank Melli has been accused by a U.S. Treasury official of providing support for Iran's nuclear program, and it is illegal in the United States to do business with the bank.

The U.S. has long suspected the foundation was an arm of the Iranian government; a 97-page complaint details involvement in foundation business by several top Iranian officials, including the deputy prime minister and ambassadors to the United Nations. (Read Full Article)

 The Army psychiatrist in the Fort Hood massacre was charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder Thursday as he lay in a hospital bed and President Barack Obama ordered a review to determine if the government fumbled warning signs of the shooter's contacts with a radical Islamic cleric.

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan could face the death penalty if convicted.

Meanwhile, Obama ordered a review of all intelligence related to Hasan to determine whether it was properly shared and acted upon within the government. John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, will oversee the review. The first results are due Nov. 30. Obama also ordered the preservation of the intelligence.

Members of Congress are pressing for a full investigation into why Hasan was not detected and stopped. A Senate hearing on Hasan is scheduled for next week.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, and others have called for a full examination of what agencies knew about Hasan's contacts with a radical imam and others of concern to the U.S., and what they did with the information. Hoekstra confirmed this week that the U.S. government knew of about 10 to 20 e-mails between Hasan and a radical imam, beginning in December 2008. (Read Full Article)

A radical Muslim preacher linked by U.S. intelligence to a gunman who killed 13 people at a U.S. Army base is an influential voice in English-language Internet forums increasingly used by militants unfamiliar with Arabic.

Anwar al-Awlaki, has spent years publishing anti-U.S. views sympathetic to al Qaeda to his English-language followers on the Internet, using blogs, video and audio lectures and lengthy articles.

While not a household name in the Arab world, Awlaki, in his 30s, has a following in the West, where governments suspect views like his may help to radicalize potential militants who do not understand Arabic, the main language of al Qaeda missives.

U.S. intelligence agencies learned that the gunman, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, had contacts with Awlaki late last year and they relayed that information to authorities before he went on the shooting spree on Thursday, U.S. officials have said.

The spotlight on Awlaki, one of whose favorite themes is the minority status of Muslims in the West, intensified when a blog was posted on his website in his name praising the killings and calling Hasan "a hero."

Awlaki's website was closed down shortly afterwards. (Read Full Article)

     Clearly the ineptitude of US intelligence in the  "war on terror" is manifested in the Fort Hood killings. The all of a sudden move against peaceful Muslims that have lived here for about forty years is a diversionary tactic to draw attention away from the failings to remove or detain the Muslim officer with known radical Islamic views and associations, before he committed his act of terrorism at an American military base. Most American Muslims will view this as backlash for the act of one Muslim extremist. These American Muslims have legitimate business and religious rights, like every other American or legal foreigner on American soil. The seizing of the Muslim businesses and mosques has Fed "smokescreen" written all over it, as I see it. This shouldn't happen in America.

tags: fort hood  iran  american muslims  us intelligence  politics  war on terror  takebackamerica