Author: Steve Miller
Publication: The Washington Times
Date: October 24, 2001
Detroit: This city has been cited
in a state police report as a "major financial support center for many
Middle East terrorist groups," setting the sizable Arab-American community
on edge.
The report, presented to the Michigan
Legislature last week, also says that "members of [terrorist] groups commit
criminal acts to raise financial resources to support terrorist operations
overseas. ... [I]t is also conceivable that sleeper cells may be located
in [the Southeast] area of the state. Southeast Michigan is known as a
lucrative recruiting area and potential support base for [terrorist] groups."
The 22-page report, obtained by
The Washington Times, says that 374 "potential threat elements" were located
in Michigan, home to the largest Arab population outside the Middle East.
A state police spokesman said yesterday
that the document was not intended to be public, but instead was part of
an effort to solicit federal money for terrorism-response programs.
But spokesman Mike Prince said,
"It is no secret that the largest population of Arab-Americans is in the
Detroit area. This was not intended to isolate that segment of the population.
And the threat element includes the entire spectrum, from lone gunmen to
terrorist groups."
"The [information] being cited is
a small portion of a large document," Mr. Prince said, referring to a growing
concern in the local Arab community about the notion of local terrorists.
"I am concerned that there is also investigative information in there,
that report. And I also want to make sure that this is not used to inflame
any anti-Arab sentiment."
The report was compiled over two
years through data from law enforcement agencies from all 83 counties in
the state, as well as several local jurisdictions.
"According to the Detroit Field
Office, FBI, most of the 28 [terrorist] groups recently identified by the
State Department, some of which are known to target U.S. citizens and U.S.
interests, are represented in Michigan," the report states. "Examples include
such well-known terrorist organizations as Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad,
Egyptian Brotherhood, Al-Gama'at, Al-Islamiyya, and Osama bin Laden's terrorist
organization Al Qaeda."
It also cites information from a
Hamas training manual, as well as a statement from a Canadian Security
Intelligence Service report.
The veracity of the state police
document was assailed by Rep. David E. Bonior, who called it the "character
assassination of a community ... the kind of thing that went on during
the McCarthy era."
The Michigan Democrat, whose district
includes many Arab- Americans, told the Macomb County Daily newspaper that
he intends to question the FBI about the information.
"We certainly want to stop terrorism,"
he was quoted yesterday as saying. "But I want to see some hard evidence."
Immigration has been a political
hot potato in Michigan in recent years. Last year, Republican Sen. Spencer
Abraham narrowly lost a re-election bid after activists criticized his
pro-immigration stance.
In one 1999 ad targeted at Mr. Abraham
the son of Lebanese immigrants, who was the only Arab-American in the Senate
the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) asked, "Why is a
U.S. senator trying to make it easer for terrorists like Osama bin Laden
to export their war of terror to any city street in America?"
Some Arab-American groups say they
have been harassed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"Now, with this kind of thing getting
out, it can get worse," said Steve George, an attorney and first-generation
American of Palestinian heritage. "I hope [state police] can explain what
exactly they are talking about in this report."
The report has caused a "big, loud
noise here," said a spokeswoman at the Arab-American and Chaldean Council,
a service agency for Middle Eastern immigrants. "They better have something
to tell us about the problem this is causing here."
State police officials have promised
to meet with Arab-American leaders this week about the report. Democratic
state Sen. Gary Peters said officials defend the report as accurate.
"It is a super-sensitive subject
in this state," Mr. Peters said. "It is a magnet for attention. I asked
the state police if this was substantiated. I was told it was confirmed
by the FBI in Detroit."
Dearborn Police Chief Greg Guibord
said federal and state officials have not told him of any terrorist activity.
"If the state police and the FBI know something, they haven't shared it
with me," he said.
