Author:
Publication: WorldNetDaily.com
Date: August 18, 2006
URL: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51573
Feds show CAIR latest screening steps, sensitive
counterterrorism procedures
The Department of Homeland Security took a
Muslim group with known past ties to terror organizations on a VIP tour of
security operations at the nation's busiest airport at the same time British
authorities were working to break up a plot to blow up U.S. airlines.
On June 21, a senior DHS official from Washington
personally guided Muslim officials from the Council on American-Islamic Relations
on a behind-the-scenes tour of Customs screening operations at O'Hare International
Airport in response to CAIR complaints that Muslim travelers were being unfairly
delayed as they entered the U.S. from abroad.
CAIR is a spin-off of the Islamic Association
for Palestine, identified by two former FBI counterterrorism chiefs as a "front
group" for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Several CAIR leaders
have been convicted on terror-related charges.
During the airport tour, CAIR was taken on
a walk through the point-of-entry, Customs stations, secondary screening and
interview rooms. In addition, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents were asked
to describe for CAIR representatives various features of the high-risk passenger
lookout system.
In a meeting, Brian Humphrey, Customs and
Border Patrol's executive director of field operations, assured CAIR officials
that agents do not single out Muslim passengers for special screening and
that they must undergo a mandatory course in Muslim sensitivity training.
The course teaches agents that Muslims believe jihad is an "internal
struggle against sin" and not holy warfare.
Customs agents involved in the CAIR tour at
O'Hare tell WorldNetDaily they were outraged that headquarters would reveal
sensitive counterterrorism procedures to an organization that has seen several
of its own officials convicted of terror-related charges since 9-11.
"Isn't that nice of CBP," one agent
said, to provide a "group like CAIR with a guided, behind-the-scenes
tour of our customs facilities, explaining how programs designed to catch
Muslim terrorists work."
CAIR says the tour allayed its concerns about
profiling and that it "looks forward to continuing the relationship with
U.S. Customs and Border Protection offices in the region, and to furthering
understanding between the organizations as well as facilitating future communication
in order to eliminate problems for Muslim travelers before they even arise."
The Muslim-sensitivity training course at
O'Hare is taught by Margaret Nydell, an Arabic professor at Georgetown University,
home to a large Saudi-financed center on Islamic studies.
A Customs and Border Protection supervisor
described Nydell's instruction, along with CBP's companion training manual
and video, as "politically correct drivel."
"It's all about how Islam means peace
and tolerance," he told WorldNetDaily. "We're told how to deal with
Arabs and Muslims, that they are loving people and not terrorists. That jihad
is struggle with sin and has nothing to do with violence."
The Department of Homeland Security invites
CAIR itself to conduct sensitivity training for Immigration and Customs Enforcement
officers and supervisors (CBP's counterparts) in Chicago. The course is taught
by local CAIR officials Christina Abraham and Mariyam Hussain. More than 30
ICE staffers have gone through the CAIR awareness program so far.
CAIR - which is bankrolled by the Saudis and
the United Arab Emirates, two countries that formally recognized the Taliban
- also offers religious and cultural sensitivity training about Islam and
Muslims to the military. In June, for example, CAIR trained more than 300
military personnel at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Ariz.
Also in June, CAIR was invited by the Pentagon
to a ceremony dedicating the first Islamic center in Marine Corps history
at Quantico headquarters outside of Washington.
Washington-based CAIR also has regular meetings
with the FBI and Justice Department. In fact, FBI case agents complain the
bureau rarely can make a move in the Muslim community without first consulting
with CAIR, which sits on its advisory board. CAIR in the past has cried racism
and bigotry when the bureau has moved unilaterally with investigations and
raids in the community.
