The Dearborn Police Department, which did not participate in the raid, but is investigating the shooting because it took place in Dearborn, has requested the report not be released until they’ve completed their investigation.
Today’s unsigned editorial, which the Freep ran alongside Abdullah’s prom photo, (“Don't delay release of autopsy truths”), is most likely from the pen of Freep blogger, Jeff Gerritt, whose December 22 post resembles today’s editorial almost word-for-word. (“Release Abdullah's autopsy now”).The theme of the opinion pieces is that withholding the report from the public (i.e., from impatient trial lawyers champing to file a wrongful-death suit against the USA on behalf of Abdullah’s family), only raises “further questions in the community about a government cover up.” “Further,” that is, beyond those questions being planted all over “the community” by CAIR-MI’s Dawud Walid.
Walid has been suggesting since the morning after the raid that Abdullah was targeted for assassination by the FBI as part of their sinister “neo-COINTELPRO”--the same one they used against the brothers in the Black Panther Party back in the day.
(The way Dawud has been talking up the glorious history of the Panthers and the Nation of Islam lately, I almost wonder if he isn’t trolling for a job with the NOI. It’s not as if CAIR has a bright future nowadays. If he starts giving interviews wearing a bow tie, remember you heard it here first.)
The current brouhaha arose from an early report that a morgue employee told a family member that Abdullah’s corpse had eighteen bullet wounds. This hearsay factoid is then combined with reports that Abdullah’s corpse was handcuffed, suggesting he was still alive after being shot at the scene, which is all then mixed with the well-reported efforts by the task force to medi-vac the mortally wounded K-9 to a veterinary hospital, while Abdullah wasn’t medi-vacced anywhere.
In spite of the Freep’s editorial headline, “Don't delay release of autopsy truths,” I don’t know what “truths” are likely to emerge that will make Abdullah a martyr, and the FBI his assassins. Even if the report does document that Abdullah was shot 18 times, it’s already well known that Abdullah was shot to death by the task force, and why he was shot: Because he opened fire after refusing to surrender. Would CAIR stop complaining if he was killed with a single shot? Or do people really believe that when an armed task force has to resort to returning fire against an armed suspect, they take turns firing slowly, one bullet at a time, so as not to overdo it? (I loved Ron Scott's analogy that the episode was analagous to a Christian minister being shot while "in his pulpit.")
And even if the autopsy report shows Abdullah’s corpse arrived in handcuffs, I don’t see why that proves that his “civil rights” were violated. If his condition wasn't known by agents immediately after he was shot, I would expect agents to restrain him. The object of the raid was to arrest Abdullah and his band, and prudence would require treating him as alive until it was certain that he wasn’t. And if for some reason he was handcuffed after he was dead, what would that prove? I don’t know which Amendment that violates.
It’s obvious that Gerritt, and the Free Press, are taking their talking points on this directly from Dawud Walid. A week ago, Gerritt’s blog sounded like a composite of all Walid’s recent interviews, like the one he gives above.
Today the Free Press writes:
Federal agents sought to arrest Abdullah on suspicions that he dealt with stolen goods, but his death has raised questions not only about the shooting itself but also about the use of government informants to infiltrate Muslim groups and mosques. The death of Abdullah, who was African American and Muslim, has racial and religious overtones, especially among a people who have faced excessive police force throughout their history. Fueling the skepticism: a recent report that the federal government improperly gathered intelligence on the Nation of Islam in 2007.Gerritt went so far in his blog last week to say, “Abdullah’s killing has blown up far beyond metro Detroit and threatens relations between the Muslim community and government, and even between Muslim nations and the United States.”
Yikes! No wonder Iran won’t give up their nukes, and Yemen has the Welcome mat out for Al Qaeda.
Actually, what’s fueling any skepticism locally is Walid and the other Muslim leaders who are doing everything they can to portray Abdullah--who was a violent, hate-filled radical--as a martyr, while portraying any counterterrorism efforts by US law enforcement as illegitimate.
As for the NOI “intelligence” report, that didn’t even come to light until it was disclosed by the by the DHS only a couple weeks ago. By then, CAIR had been fueling skepticism about Abdullah’s death for weeks. And the NOI story is a major red herring, anyhow, but one Walid has fastened onto because, as I said above, he’s been sounding more and more like a Black Muslim these days, and the NOI has chosen to feature this non-story heavily.
The autopsy report is going to come out. Maybe it will prove that a harmless and wounded Abdullah was set upon by outraged cops and shot to death in cold blood. Police murders do happen. If that turns out to be the case, I'll be the first to denounce it. But I think that’s unlikely in this case. For the time being, that's not the point. Here is the point:
Even the Freep has to admit that it’s the Dearborn police, not the FBI, who requested the report not be released, and no one is accusing the DPD of any wrongdoing. So where is the DPD’s motive? And the FBI, who would be the logical puppeteers behind any alleged “cover-up,” haven’t asked the coroner to sit on the report. So where is the FBI’s motive?
The only ones here with transparent motives are Walid and the Freep, who are using this delay to stir up skepticism and mistrust in an already alienated Muslim community. Walid’s motive is to deflect attention from problems with radical Islamists--whose actual existence he has never admitted--and to further his career as a professional Muslim rabble-rouser.
The Freep’s motive is to pursue its ancient Democrat commitment to the destruction of western civilization By Any Means Necessary.
He looks (looked) like the "Undercover Brother". No wonder the police dogs went after him.
ReplyDelete