"My son's no terrorist..." says mom of MIA DC Muslim youth. A total of 6 Americans now under arrest.
About those 5 missing DC Muslim men ... links to al Qaeda and the Ft. Hood Jihadi?
Update: 5:57 pm MST: Brother says Zamzam a "Normal Joe". O really? If that's what the brother is putting out there, Dinah's thinking the FBI ought to be checking him out, too. Because any guy who thinks sneaking off to Pakistan and staying with a member of Jaish -e- Mohammed is normal needs to be put under the microscope. Just saying.
Update - 3:45 pm MST: Imam says they weren't radical but they did MISCONSTRUE the Koran. Or something.
Imam Johari Abdul-Malik says friends of the unidentified young men saw no signs the men were radicalized. At a news conference, Islamic leaders say the men left behind a disturbing 11-minute farewell video that contained misconstrued quotes from the Quran.
Update - 2:20 pm MST: Looks like CAIR is blowing its own horn with a PR Newswire puff piece AND a press conference. (h/t mDittmar):
"The Muslim community has taken the lead in bringing this case to the attention of law enforcement authorities and will offer ongoing cooperation with the FBI as the investigation moves forward," said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. The parents of the missing young people and local Muslim leaders recently informed CAIR of the disappearances. CAIR immediately informed the FBI and, along with the families and Muslim community leaders, has been working to assist the agency as the investigation moved forward. The families were also assisted in obtaining legal representation to make sure their constitutional rights were protected.
At today's news conference, CAIR officials and other Muslim leaders will outline the sequence of events in the case, urge anyone aware of the missing group's activities to come forward and warn against the dangers of adopting or promoting extremist religious views.
Update - 1:40 pm MST: Interesting. Earlier it was reported that the authorities were approached by concerned friends and family of the missing Muslims after they left. Well, not exactly.
From the Taunton Gazette:
The families, who are members of the local Muslim community, took their concerns to CAIR, which put them in touch with the FBI and got them a lawyer, Hooper said.
Update - 1:20 pm MST: Samirah Ali, the current president of the Howard University Muslim Student Association claims to have been contacted by the FBI last week. She's known the "bubbly" Zamzam for three years and she "never suspected he would be involved in radical activities". More at the linky.
Update - 12:25 pm MST: Details of the so called "farewell" jihad video.
U.S. officials say one of the missing U.S. students detained in Pakistan left what investigators call a farewell video saying Muslims must be defended and featuring images of American casualties.
Two officials did not identify which of the five missing students made the video.
Update - 12:20 pm MST Hmmm. From yesterday - coincidence or...? 4 foreigners refuse police search. Not related - but still interesting: US Consulate staff disallow checking, traffic jam ensues.
Update - 11:45 am MST - Additional confirmation from The Examiner.com:
Pakistani police on Wednesday arrested five American men believed to have gone missing from the Washington, D.C. area last month, officials from both countries said.
Update - 11:35 am MST: They're naming names now and it appears that our boys Rami and Waqar were among the individuals detained.
The DPO told that these people had been living in Sargodha since Nov 30 and it was quite a possibility that they were engaged in acts of terrorism. Initial investigations have identified them as Ahmed Abdullah, Waqar Hassan Khan, Eman Hassan, Yasir and Rami Zamzam.
Update - 11:25 am MST: From RTT News
And the nationalities of those detained are now being said to be:
"Two Yemeni, one Egyptian, one Swedish and one American of Pakistani origin..."
Update: Related? 5 Americans detained in Pakistan; no reason given.
Pakistani police say they have detained five U.S. citizens in a raid on a house in the east of the country.
Police officer Tahir Gujjar declined to say why the men were arrested Wednesday in the town of Sargodha.
He says three of the men are Americans of Pakistani descent, one is of Egyptian descent and the other is of Yemeni heritage. He says they are being interrogated by senior police officers.
A U.S. Embassy spokesman said officials there were aware of the reported arrests, but had no more information.
ORIGINAL POST:
From You Heard It Here First (by way of IPT):
The identities of two of the missing men, Howard student Ramy Zamzam and Waqar Khan, have been mentioned in online postings, including a Facebook page that was set up Monday for friends to offer their support. Some of those pages, however, appear restricted to friends and associates.
It is not clear where the men are believed to have gone, but an informed source told the IPT that at least one left behind a farewell video."
And as Miss J says: You know what that means...
From Refugee Resettlement Watch:
<--- Hey Ramy Zamzam - is this you? Where you at?
The Jawa Report has more on the MSA connection:
A Muslim Student Association president. Hmmm...where have I heard that before? Oh, that's right, Alabama jihadist Abu Monsour Al-Amriki (aka Omar Hammimi), who was MSA president at the University of South Alabama and is now an active trainer with the Somali branch of Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabaab. And lets not forget Syed Maaz Shah, who was convicted of participating in firearms training sessions with members of the "Houston Taliban", who was also the president of the Univ. of Texas-Dallas MSA."
Dinah's contribution to the effort: It looks like Br. Ramy Zamzam is also the project manager of something called Project 500. (The latest news items posted are from 2008 and his last comment on the blog is September 5th, 2008.) Pictures and more info at the link.
We are 17 Muslim youth
who have come together for a compelling cause to build a Masjid to
unite and strengthen our growing community. How? We have called to
action 500 Masajid all across the US to donate a simple $500 to assist
us in this amazing and remarkable project. Why? “We hope to inspire the
Muslim youth all across America to step up and show everyone that we can get things done and prove we are the future of this Muslim Ummah.â€
Unh-huh:
Our youth group does everything from discussing heated topics about issues facing Muslim Youth in America today to going on trips to New York, New Jersey, Islamic conventions, camping to just playing soccer, basketball, volleyball, and simply having barbeques or going bowling. We know how to have fun and at the same time keep a halal environment.
Love your title. I think one important thing in this story is that the parents of these 5 terrorists came to authorities, via their imam I believe. This is progress.
Posted by: Debbie | December 10, 2009 at 09:35 AM
Have only heard about the families and so-called "Muslim leaders" going to CAIR. CAIR lawyered them up and THEN they went to authorities. To me, the good news is - that they did it relatively quickly and that meant the trail was still fresh when it came time to tracking them down.
It is now being reported that one of the families attended the infamous Dar Al-Hijrah mosque, the mosque of choice for several of the 9/11 bombers and the Ft. Hood Jihadi.
Also about CAIR - I find it interesting that CAIR is now trading on their FBI connections - given that the FBI has pretty much cut them off and have subpoenaed documents from the Dave Gaubatz book, "Muslim Mafia."
(P.S. Glad you like the new title. Hope you are well. It's been too long since I've visited you. Mea culpa. It's been crazy town around here.)
Posted by: Dinah Lord | December 10, 2009 at 10:11 AM