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| FBI agent says charity founder lied about Afghan trip |
| 2007-11-16 |
| An FBI agent testified yesterday that the founder of a defunct Boston-based Islamic charity told agents he had "never ever" been to Afghanistan, but they later learned he traveled there in 1994 and personally met with a notorious Afghan mujahideen warlord. FBI special agent Christopher Peet told jurors that he and another agent showed up unexpectedly at Emededdin Muntasser's office in April 2003 to question him about the charity, Massachusetts Care International Inc., and its ties to a New York organization. He said they would have drastically changed their focus if Muntasser had disclosed his meeting in Afghanistan with warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatayr. "We would have been very interested in how that meeting took place, where it took place," Peet told jurors. Hekmatayr, who led a group that helped end Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1989, was designated a global terrorist by the US State Department in February 2003. But US District Judge F. Dennis Saylor ruled yesterday that jurors should not be told that Hekmatayr was an alleged terrorist because it could prejudice them against Muntasser and his two codefendants. The judge said that Muntasser's alleged meeting with Hekmatayr was in 1994 and that there was no evidence that he knew the warlord was deemed a terrorist by the US government nearly a decade later. Muntasser, 42, of Braintree, who owns Logan Furniture Co., is accused of lying to federal agents for failing to disclose his trip to Afghanistan. He is also charged, along with Muhamed Mubayyid, 42, of Shrewsbury and Samir Al-Monla, 50, of Boston of defrauding the government to win tax-exempt status for Care International. Prosecutors allege the men failed to disclose to the Internal Revenue Service that the humanitarian organization also distributed projihad publications and professed support for Muslim militants overseas. Care International raised $1.7 million between 1993 and 2003. Defense lawyers have argued that the three men are being prosecuted for their political views, and they told jurors during opening statements that all the money raised by Care International went to charitable causes and that no money was ever diverted to support Islamic militants. In his opening remarks, Norman Zalkind, Muntasser's lawyer, said his client initially didn't disclose his trip to Afghanistan in 2003 because he was fearful that he might be sent to the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. But, later, Zalkind said, Muntasser consulted a lawyer and said that after traveling to Pakistan to verify that Care International's money was being used for charitable causes, he crossed the border into Afghanistan. Muntasser said he worked as a volunteer for Al-Kifah Refugee Center, which was based in New York and had a branch in Boston, but split from the organization over concerns it wasn't operating as a nonprofit, then formed Care International, Peet said. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #5 You can get in trouble for telling them the truth, too. I'd just refuse to speak with them and let my attorney handle it. Nimble YOU WILL git into trouble for that too.. Unfortunately YOU are a member of that Legal Class (WM) that everything Bad Sticks Too.. |
| Posted by: Red Dawg 2007-11-16 20:12 |
| #4 Lying, or even faulty remembering, to the FBI has put quite a few people in jail You can get in trouble for telling them the truth, too. I'd just refuse to speak with them and let my attorney handle it. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2007-11-16 16:01 |
| #3 He is also charged, along with Muhamed Mubayyid, 42, of Shrewsbury and Samir Al-Monla, 50, of Boston of defrauding the government to win tax-exempt status for Care International. Prosecutors allege the men failed to disclose to the Internal Revenue Service that the humanitarian organization also distributed projihad publications and professed support for Muslim militants overseas. Care International raised $1.7 million between 1993 and 2003. It can only be hoped that this is the start of all Islamic "charities" getting stripped of their tax exempt status and being investigated down to proctological levels. The final upshot of such efforts must be the entire disqualification of Islam as a tax exempt entity. Its political nature and pseudo-governmental identity cannot in any way be interpreted as "non-profit". Defense lawyers have argued that the three men are being prosecuted for their political views, and they told jurors during opening statements that all the money raised by Care International went to charitable causes and that no money was ever diverted to support Islamic militants. As a matter of fact, they are "being prosecuted for their political views". Political Islam is the enemy of all other nations and religions. The defendants had better be able to provide convincing proof of their donations' final destinations. If not, their previous pattern of lieing to investigators should be construed as a tacit admission of guilt. I just realized it CAN'T apply to Muslims - lying to infidel authorities is a religious obligation so punishing them for it violates their religious freedom! Glenmore, you are dangerously close to the truth with your sarcasm. In a single sentence, you have identified why all Muslims simply cannot be trusted in any way. Nowhere do we see any Muslims loudly resolving to purge Islam of kitman and taqiyya. Religiously sanctioned lieing represents a profound moral and ethical crime. Even if Islam were entirely free of its abhorent institutionalized misogyny, taqiyya would still totally disqualify it of any validity or worthiness. The only way to combat such an insurmountable and unfair advantage like taqiyya is simply to eradicate its entire existence. There is no "fair fight" to be had against such philosophical filth. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-11-16 15:00 |
| #2 I just realized it CAN'T apply to Muslims - lying to infidel authorities is a religious obligation so punishing them for it violates their religious freedom! |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2007-11-16 08:53 |
| #1 Lying, or even faulty remembering, to the FBI has put quite a few people in jail, even if there was no associated crime (see La. insurance commissioner Brown, for instance). Works about the same with Special Prosecuters (see 'Scooter' Libby). I doubt it applies to Muslims though. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2007-11-16 08:51 |