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Port of
Miami or Port of Jihadi
By Joe Kaufman and Beila
Rabinowitz
In December 2002, the
Washington Post published an alarming report
stating that “U.S. intelligence officials had identified approximately
15 cargo freighters around the world that they believed were controlled
by al Qaeda or could be used by the terrorist network to ferry
operatives, bombs, money or commodities over the high seas.”
It further stated that, since September 2001, the U.S. maintained
a list of up to 50 al Qaeda “mystery ships.”
The greatest fear,
according to the Post article, is a scenario where one or more of these
vessels would be used to blow holes in cruise ships, as what happened to
the USS Cole and the French oil tanker Limburg, both off the coast of
Yemen.
One American location that
has been of particular concern regarding this is Miami, where just
recently a 50-foot wooden freighter, undetected by authorities, ran
aground whilst 220 undocumented Haitian passengers took to the shore.
Bruce Stubbs, an ex-Coast Guard captain and now security
consultant asked, “If the Coast Guard can't stop 200 people on a
freighter from coming into the port of Miami, how can they stop a
terrorist with a dirty bomb?”
This question becomes that
much more difficult to answer, when the port you’re discussing is
governed by those that possibly harbor sympathies for the attackers
themselves.
Khalid Salahuddin, or
Brother Khalid as he is affectionately known, is the Deputy Director for
the Seaport of Miami. He
received the position via an appointment from Director Chares Towsley,
shortly after sca-ndal
had rocked the port when illegally diverted port funds had made
their way into Democratic Party coffers.
As Deputy Director,
Salahuddin’s responsibilities are many.
He solicits Miami business via cargo and cruise ships; he attends
and participates in various diplomatic functions, including trade
missions, symposiums,
news
conferences and government briefings, with members of the
international community; and he oversees port employment.
That last part came under
scrutiny in late 2001, when an NBC
6 news report emerged questioning the hiring practices of the port.
In it, it was stated that, out of 1300 members of the three major
Longshoremen’s unions listed in port records checked, every one in
five were convicted felons in Florida, with offenses that included
“attempted murder, armed robbery, assault and battery, trafficking in
cocaine, grand theft, auto theft, and sex with a child.”
When confronted about
this, Salahuddin had this to say: “From
our standpoint, what benefit would it do to kick him out on the street?
We see none”
The report also had
something ominous to say about easy access to the port.
Jim McDonough, Florida Drug Control Director stated, “I think
we have to be very prudent about who we put in the hen-house. We
generally don't put the wolf in the hen-house, based on the promise that
reform has taken place.”
But almost two years
later, is the wolf still guarding the hen-house?
Aside from being the
Deputy Director of the port, Salahuddin is also the imam of what is said
to be the oldest
and largest mosque in South Florida, Masjid Al-Ansar.
That in itself doesn’t pose a problem, but his views and
affiliations do.
Before coming to “the
pure teachings of al-Islam,” and before becoming a “true
believer,” Salahuddin was a member of the Nation of Islam, the
organization headed by the virulently anti-Jewish and anti-American Louis
Farrakhan.
This bit of information is
found on a website for the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA),
which is selling a tape
featuring Salahuddin. ISNA
is an organization that serves as “an umbrella group for hundreds of
Islamic organizations in North America, some of which promote the
Islamic fundamentalist doctrine of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and the
Palestinian Islamic Jihad” (Steven Emerson, American
Jihad, 2002). Upon his
death, Salahuddin gave a memorial
speech for Hamid Iqbal Siddiqui, an East Zone Representative for ISNA.
The other individual
featured on this video is Maulana
Shafayat Mohamed, the spiritual leader of Darul Aloom, the Islamic
center where “dirty bomber” Jose Padilla worshipped and where Imran
Mandhai and Mossa Jokhan are said to have plotted attacks on a National
Guard armory and South Florida electrical power stations.
On February 16, 2002,
Salahuddin officiated
a fundraising event sponsored by the American Muslim Association of
North America (AMANA), a group whose website boasts anti-homosexual
material and contains a graphic link to www.islamonline.net, a site which
features religious/legal opinions in
support of suicide bombings.
On September 21, 2002,
Salahuddin was one
of the main speakers in an event sponsored by the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
CAIR was formed by three leaders of a
front for the terrorist organization Hamas and has had numerous high
ranking members suspected of and convicted of terrorist activity.
The Executive Director of CAIR, Nihad Awad, has stated that he
supports Hamas.
Other speakers at this
event were:
- Muhammad
Musri, who like Salahuddin also has his speeches sold by ISNA, believes
about Arab Christians that claim they converted from Islam that
they “are lying and that they were actually Christians all
along” and that “they are using tales of conversion to get
financial backing from evangelical ministries.”
And he took a jab
at Christianity, when he said, “We don't want the Muslims to
end up with 700 determinations of Islam.”
- Zulfiqar
Ali Shah,
the ex-Ameer (President) of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA),
an organization which “proclaims
in writing its support for jihad, or holy war, against the
‘enemies of Islam’” and whose “hatred of Jews is so fierce
that it has taunted Jews with a repetition of what Hitler did to
them.” Ali Shah gave
a lecture on how “stories and descriptions [in the] Old
Testament” have been “corrupted by the hand of man” and how
“many teachings presently in the Old Testament actually go against
all human logic and morality.”
- Hassan
Sabri, the imam of the Islamic Center of South Florida, who came to
the U.S. via the Palestinian territories on a “special travel
document” that expired 16 years ago.
On April 6, 2002, Sabri attended
an anti-Israel rally outside the Holocaust Memorial in Miami
Beach, where allusions to Nazis and genocide were broadcast.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called the references “a
disgusting trivialization of the Holocaust.”
- Mohammed
Qazi, the Orlando President of the American Muslim Alliance (AMA), a
group that has been described as “Radical
Islamic activists.” Hillary
Clinton returned a $50,000 donation the AMA had made to her New York
Senatorial campaign for statements made by members of the group she
deemed “offensive
and outrageous.”
- Sayed
Hemayed of the Muslim American Society (MAS). The July 4, 2003 edition of the MAS’s on-line
publication, The American
Muslim Magazine, features an article titled ‘Reaching
the Roots of Terrorism,’ which validates terrorism, including
suicide bombing, as “a reaction to injustice.”
- Ahmed
Bedier, the Florida Communications Director of CAIR, who used his
position, on numerous occasions, to defend
Sami al-Arian. Al-Arian
was arrested for his role as the North American leader of the
Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization, was found to have aided
in the murder of Americans, and has screamed “Death to
Israel.” Bedier has
openly complained that the post 9/11 climate “has
been an effective tool to silence anti-Israeli views in the
country.”
- Altaf
Ahmad Ali, the Florida Executive Director of CAIR, who used
a joint press conference with the FBI to defend 9/11 mastermind,
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Ali, on a radio show just one month after 9/11, wavered
on the question of whether or not the people that died in the
9/11 attacks were innocent.
- Parvez
Ahmed, the Florida Chairman of the Board of CAIR, who is the
registered agent for the Independent Writers Syndicate, an
organization created
by CAIR which distributes violent and hate-filled commentaries
to publications throughout North America.
It syndicates such radical Islamist authors as:
Hesham A. Hassaballa,
Arsalan Tariq Iftikhar, Riad
Z. Abdelkarim, and Fedwa Wazwaz
- Rafiq
Mehdi, the imam of Masjid Al-Iman, the mosque where ‘dirty
bomber’ Jose Padilla converted to Islam and where Adham Hassoun
worshiped. Hassoun was
the Florida registered agent for Benevolence International
Foundation, a charity “charged
with financing Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network.”
- Akhtar
Hussein, an attorney who had his license suspended in 2002 for
improper council in two cases, one involving cocaine distribution
and the other involving possession of firearms and car theft, and
who had his license
suspended in 1994 for two years, due to his own felony conviction.
Hussein was also the lawyer for Adham Hassoun.
He called the government’s case against Hassoun “ridiculous.”
Khalid Salahuddin’s
mosque is tied to another attorney with troubles.
The registered agent for Masjid Al-Ansar is Nashid Sabir, a
lawyer that has numerous business dealings with
ex-State Representative Willie Logan.
In 1997, the Bar admonished Sabir for missing a key hearing for
one of his clients. In
2001, the Bar found probable cause to believe he violated
ethics rules in the 1997 deportation case of a Dominican man.
And in 2002, Sabir was reprimanded for professional
misconduct regarding an immigration case.
And just like Akhtar
Hussein, Sabir also provided
legal services to a radical. In
2002, Sabir was the lawyer for convicted terrorist Imran Mandhai (see
above). But that makes
sense, because, while he’s the registered agent for Masjid Al-Ansar,
he’s also a Founding
Director and the Assistant Secretary for Darul Aloom, Mandhai’s
house of worship.
The website of Masjid Al-Ansar
contains only two outside links, one to Yahoo Maps and one to iviews.com,
a site that features rabidly anti-Jewish
and anti-American
writings. Prior to being
arrested earlier this year on firearms and conspiracy charges in
relation to a group associated with al Qaeda, Randal
Todd “Ismael” Royer served as iviews.com’s Washington Bureau
Chief.
All of these things must
be taken into account, when considering the sensitive nature of the
position Khalid Salahuddin holds at the Seaport of Miami.
On Oct 15, 2003, a forum
was held by the Coordinating Committee on Public Safety to discuss
Florida’s unique security concerns.
The meeting, which was attended by law enforcement and state
government officials, highlighted the Port of Miami’s vulnerability to
attack. A proposal was put
forth regarding the building of a “security wall” around the port.
However, when the time comes, no wall can hold out the
terrorists, when they have a sympathizer sitting in charge, right on the
inside.
Joe
Kaufman is the Chairman of Americans
Against Hate. You
could visit Joe’s personal interactive website, at joe4rep.com.
Beila Rabinowitz is an international journalist and translator.
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