A Bridge Too Easy

I'm guessing that local Muslim Affairs Bureau Reporter Tanveer Ali wasn’t being deliberately funny when he described our local Iranian agent Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi as “seizing” President Obama's inaugural appeal for unity amongst religions when Elahi staged an “interfaith” prayer Friday. (“Obama inspires interfaith prayer”).

The choice of verb is funny because of the well-known habit of Islamic Khomeinist Iranians, of whom Elahi is a proud example, for “seizing” or trying to seize things and people in the name of jihad, (like American embassies, American embassy personnel, the governments of Syria and Lebanon, Gaza, and who can forget “Iranian Vessels Seize 15 British Navy Personnel in Iraqi Waters”).

Now Elahi is "seizing" Obama's appeal for mutual respect between religions for his own ends. He recognizes in Obama's election, no doubt, a weakening of American resolve against radical jihadism. As Ali’s article notes, “Elahi was among the local Muslims who took note Tuesday, when Obama said American relationships with Muslims should no longer be divisive. ‘To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect,’ Obama said.”

But in fairness to the President, he didn’t only mention mutual respect, but also took a well-deserved smack at the kinds of regimes, like the Islamic dictatorship in Iran for whom Elahi works, President Obama doing everything but calling Iran out by name:

To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

If you’ve noticed, Elahi can’t do anything without a clenched fist, which he’s usually shaking either at Israel, or George W. Bush. Even his “interfaith” prayer had to get political, “as Elahi and other religious speakers said world leaders have a moral obligation to investigate and prevent any future military actions into Gaza.”

As I think I mentioned somewhere, these interfaith events with Detroit’s Islamic leaders never admit the equal status of the priests, rabbis, and ministers gullible enough to show up: they always take place on Muslim terms. They're held at an Islamic location, during an Islamic prayer period (e.g. Friday), a always Muslim leads it, and afterwards the Muslims get all the press.

(Okay, I admit it: when a priest or rabbi attending these fiascos has anything to say, it's never worth reading anyway. ITEM:

"We need peace and justice,"said Jack I. Seman, who spoke at the event as a part of the Chaldean Christian community. "The best ammunition you have is be at peace with each other.")

In Chaldean, this would be pronounced: "Baah, Baaah, Baaaaaah!")

Pay attention and you'll notice that for all the claptrap about “mutual” understanding, Elahi and his fellow Islami interfaith leaders are always very careful to stage these events with dhimmitude in mind.

This is a “seizing” indeed. This is dawah. Just one more tiny bit of ground, yes. That’s how it’s done.

Ayatollah Khameini Fires Hassan Nasrallah, 'Our Leader'

Okay, I've had it to here with outsiders messing with Dearborn's internal affairs.

First the Saudis tell us we have to close our schools a day early.

Now I find out the Iranians are messing with Dearborn’s army.

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, is firing Dearborn’s maximum leader, Secretary-General Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, from running Hezbollah’s military wing, and giving his spot to deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qasim. ("Khamenei appoints Qassem as Hezbollah military commander").

The Iranians say Nasrallah will still be in charge of Hezbollah intelligence, but who are they kidding?

As if there’s anything else to run in Hezbollah but the military wing. As if all those charitable contributions collected from Dearborn residents, and all that money being laundered and sent to Lebanon at risk of criminal prosecution, has any other purpose than supporting Hezbollah’s military wing. You may as well demote the Postmaster and say he’s not in charge of mail delivery any more, but he can still handle the Human Relations Department.

Dearborn residents are very proud of Hezbollah. We witnessed that last July, when, as the IDF was delivering a serious pounding to Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon, “About half of Dearborn’s Arab community turned out" for rallies in enthusiastic support of Hezbollah--and Nasrallah ("Lebanese-Americans Are Angry and Anxious"):

College-age men asked, in call and response fashion, “Who is your army?” Protestors responded: “Hezbollah.” “Who is your leader?” they were asked. “Nasrallah,” the chanters responded. Many carried placards of the Hezbollah leader. A few days earlier at an even larger demonstration, more than 15,000 turned out, about half of Dearborn's Arab community.

Even Houssein Zorkot, the young man now in so much trouble for dressing up in black face and using Dearborn’s Hemlock Park to practice Hezbollah training with a loaded AK-47, was inspired by Nasrallah, whose picture adorns Zorkot's pro-Hezbollah website.

How exactly did this happen?

Details are still sketchy, but it appears that Iran (which we all know has a strict policy of respecting the internal affairs neighboring states), sent a senior intelligence officer, accompanied by master terrorist and Hezbollah leader, Imad Mugniyah, to Beirut a couple weeks ago, along with a wagonload of Revolutionary Guards. (“Iranian intelligence official visits Lebanon”).

Mugniyah's name may sound familiar. According to reports he:

has been implicated in the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut , and U.S. Marine and French peacekeeping barracks, which killed over 350, as well as the 1992 bombings of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires . He was also linked to numerous kidnappings of Westerners in Beirut through the 1980s, most notably that of Terry Anderson. Some of these individuals were later killed such as U.S. Army Col William Francis Buckley.” He is also currently Hezbollah Chief of Operations and “will continue to act as liaison between Hizbullah, the Palestinians, Iranian intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards.
(“Report: Nasrallah replaced as head of Hizbullah military wing”).

As reported by, Asharq al-Awsat, the pan-Arab daily, the Iranian decision to interfere in Lebanon's Hezbollah operations

was taken in light of a report presented by a team from the Intelligence apparatus of the Revolutionary Guards that had visited Lebanon to assess the status of Hezbollah’s military and its capabilities.

It quoted a revolutionary Guards officer in the Bekaa Valley as saying “intense differences” between Qassem and Nasrallah on “destiny issues related to the party’s military wing … led to the interference by Khamenei’s office to re-organize Hezbollah’s command structure.”

It's also notable from where details of the shakeup are leaking: from “sources within the liaison and recruitment office of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards based in Lebanon,” suggesting Hezbollah may be having a recruitment problem. Additional Iranian action includes this:

The unnamed source said Hezbollah’s annual budget of 400 million dollars was raised to over one billion dollars in the past 18 months to compensate for the losses sustained during the 34-day war with Israel in the summer of 2006.

Which indicates last year's Divine Victory by Hezbollah over Israel wiped out Hezbollah's budget, and then some. Imagine the cost if Hezbollah lost.

Fortunately, Dearborn’s Lebanese Arabs, in fact, all the world’s Lebanese Arabs, have gotten used to taking orders from non-Lebanese authorities--most notably in recent times the Syrians, and, obviously, the Iranians. And I suppose that, in spite of losing the charismatic Nasrallah, the important main thing is that Hezbollah is still there, defending Lebanon against Israel and providing social services to the poor. (“They're Muslims, And Yankees, Too”)

I believe in no time Dearborn’s Lebanese Shias will manage to transfer their loyalties to the new Hezbollah top man, so that next time there's any need to show how much Dearborn admires Hezbollah, we'll see some nice posters of Qasim. If he doesn't het himself fired, too.

Fighting Terror Is Not the Same as Fighting Crime

Here's an excerpt from an interesting piece in last Friday’s Detroit News:

Dearborn man accused of providing support to Hezbollah

Paul Egan / The Detroit News

DETROIT -- A Dearborn man who has spent three years behind bars awaiting trial is expected to plead guilty in federal court Dec. 6 to providing support to the terrorist group Hezbollah.

Fawzi Mustapha Assi, 47, was stopped in 1998 while attempting to depart from Detroit Metropolitan Airport with global positioning equipment, night vision goggles and a thermal-imaging camera.

The former Ford Motor Co. engineer was released on an electronic tether soon after his arrest and fled to Lebanon. He returned to the United States and surrendered in 2004.
Assi was the first person indicted under a 1996 anti-terrorism law that made it illegal to knowingly provide money or materials to terrorists. The U.S. State Department designated Hezbollah a terrorist group in 1997.

Those who follow the Detroit-Dearborn are already aware that in most instances of criminal charges or investigations of people suspected of assisting terrorism, the favored beneficiary is almost always Hezbollah.

Hezbollah is very popular amongst the Lebanese Shia population of Dearborn. We have seen Hezbollah's supporters demonstrating openly, and vocally, in support of the Army of Allah. During one demonstration last summer thousands of Dearborn residents loudly declared Hezbollah Big Cheese Sheikh HassanNasrallah to be “Our leader!”

We've also seen a heap of examples of criminal activity intended to benefit Hezbollah, from fraudulent FBI and CIA agents, to marriage fraud, bribes paid to ICE officials, a local resident running around Hemlock Park with an AK-47, tax evasion, flight from prosecution, money laundering, mortgage fraud, and cigarette smuggling.

There are people who believe that the “so-called” war on terror is either completely non-existent, or, at best, exaggerated.

It can’t be a war, they say, because the people attacking us are not nation-states, the way Japan and Germany were in 1941.

Therefore, every act of terrorism can only be investigated and prosecuted as an individual criminal act, without regard to all the connected dots that lead to highly organized, and extremely dangerous terrorist organizations and paramilitary groups, nor to the states behind them, e.g., Afghanistan, Syria, Iran.

This rule about only going to war against nation-states seems awfully arbitrary to me.

In human history, the rise of the nation-state is fairly recent, while warfare goes all the way back. If you’ve got an army, weapons, and a will to make war on someone, then it seems right to me that that someone has a right to make war in self-defense. Whether your defending your tribe, your extended family, your kingdom, your city-state, your right to self-defense should be the same.


By the same token, those who support armies that are sworn to make war on us aren’t merely criminals. They are themselves national enemies, because they have made common cause with our country's enemies. They aren't committing their crimes to get rich, but to assist a foreign army to destroy its foes--whether the foe is our ally, Israel, or us.

Which is why money laundering for Hezbollah, or cheating on your taxes to give the proceeds to Hezbollah, or smuggling cigarettes to earn money for Hezbollah, while they are still only criminal acts, are very similar to treason, or acts of war.

Leader of Dearborn Mortgage Scam Gets 10 Years

Safi Sobh, 34, of Dearborn, convicted by a federal jury of leading a mortgage fraud conspiracy, has been sentenced to ten years in prison in by U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Duggan, and ordered to pay $1,256,579 in restitution.

Sobh’s conspiracy worked by obtaining “inflated appraisals on residential properties, created false applications and obtained millions of dollars in bank loans.”

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the trial evidence

Established that between July 2002 and December 2005, Sobh led a large conspiracy that successfully corrupted the system of checks and balances lending institutions rely upon to determine how much money they can safely lend on a property, and whether a particular borrower is qualified to repay the loan. Ohio Savings Bank, Commercial Federal Bank and several other federally insured financial institutions relied upon the false representations of the conspirators and loaned millions of dollars, most of which has not been recovered. Workiong out of his realty, The Success Group, Sobh hand-picked and taught his co-conspirators how to commit these crimes. Eight indicted co-conspirators pleaded guilty to acting as corrupt loan originators, processors, appraisers, and straw buyers.

Mortgage fraud is a big problem in Dearborn for several reasons, not least of which include the destruction of property values, the deterioration of neighborhoods, and further destabilizing an already badly depressed real-estate market.

Dearborn’s mortgage-scammers are also a problem because fraud is one more source of funds that find there way to international terrorist organizations, especially, in Dearborn’s case, Hezbollah.

We see a regular pattern in the Dearborn-Detroit area of criminal conspiracies involving everything from cigarette smuggling to extortion to tax evasion to health-care fraud to mortgage fraud in which proceeds are intended for Hezbollah. Although some mortgage fraud might be motivated by nothing more than simple greed, we believe a large portion of mortgage fraud in this area (bearing in mind the large number of Arabic defendants) has its roots in Hezbollah’s bottomless need for funds.

One local blogger who posts at JihadChat, commenting this past May on the Sobh conspiracy , said “a title company officer told me Dearborn-Detroit [Wayne County] now has the HIGHEST REAL ESTATE MORTGAGE TITLE FRAUD IN AMERICA.”

She researched a recent report by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute [MARI], which she says “explains many Muslim Scams without ever saying ‘Muslim.’”:

What sort of games are Arab-Muslims (with big gas cash) playing with mortgage applications? You name it -- everything from little white lies about income or assets all the way up to what the FBI calls "air loans" that are based on completely fabricated information. The Umma never work alone. They can fabricate and falsify for each other.

The popularity of low- and no-documentation ("stated income") mortgages is also a key component of rising fraud levels, according to MARI. Sometimes referred to as "liar loans" or "NINAs" (no asset, no income verification), low-doc mortgages originally were designed for professionals and business owners with high credit scores who preferred not to lay out their confidential tax, income and investment information every time they applied for a mortgage. Typically those loans required FICO scores above 700, relatively low loan-to-value (LTV) ratios, and came with slightly higher fees or rates.

But recently, even consumers with subprime credit scores, low down payments and questionable incomes are opting for reduced documentation. Too many of these, however, turn out to be liar loans indeed, says MARI, where applicants falsify their incomes and asset information -- frequently with the help or a cooperative mortgage broker. Muslims, because of non-tax paying immigrant status, can fabricate interest in many assets or show assets owned by various family members as being owned by the applicant.

The MARI report cites this real-life example to illustrate the problem: "An officer at a Florida mortgage company applied to a second lender for two stated income loans. The applications were submitted 90 days apart. In the first application, the borrower stated his monthly income as $24,000, and in the second he said it was $30,000." When the mortgage officer was challenged about the discrepancy, he replied, "I thought that on stated income loans you could claim an income as high as necessary" to qualify for the loan amount the applicant needed. Muslims use al-Taquia in a way of being agreeable but confused when they know the actual requirements.

MARI
The most common misrepresentation and frauds in 2003-2004 related to falsehoods on applications (56 percent of all reported frauds), followed by fabricated tax returns and bank documents (33 percent -- up sharply from 23 percent three years earlier), false employment verifications (12 percent), and hoked-up appraisals (10 percent). because the Muslim sub-culture is primarily one of cash transactions funds are easily converted or diverted to bolster a financial position.

Remember this. Of over 10,000 FBI agents, only approximately 13 speak and read Arabic. How many of those are native Muslims and loyal only to umma?

There is a reciprocal relationship between Hezbollah's terrorist state-within-a-state in Southern Lebanon, and many (that's many, not all), of Dearborn's Lebanese residents: Dearborn sends Hezbollah money, and Hezbollah uses it to buy rockets to kill Jews, further Hezbollah's grip on all of Lebanon, and otherwise forward the agenda of Hassan Nasrallah (celebrated here in Dearborn as “Our Leader”), of whom so many Dearborn residents are fervent supporters.

We aren't Hezbollah's only source of money. But our contributions put us in the shady company of the likes of Iran and Syria. We'd like to see Dearborn's contributions stopped.

Lebanon Not Deterred by Murder of MP Assassination

From Ya Libnan:

The killers will not succed; Lebanon vows to move on

Thursday, 20 September, 2007 @ 8:23 PM

Beirut - Antoine Ghanem fell victim as the eighth political assassination in Lebanon since February 2005. Lebanon's pro-Western government says it is determined to hold a presidential election, despite the latest assassination.

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said the killers of MP Antoine Ghanim would not be allowed to succeed in their aims.

Syria has been accused of being behind the killing, but it denies involvement.

MPs are due to choose a new president next week. The killings of several anti-Syrian figures has left Lebanon's government with only a slim majority.

Banks, schools and government offices have been closed in Lebanon, as the country mourns Mr Ghanim, of the Maronite Phalange party.

The education ministry said schools and universities would remain closed again on Friday, when a funeral would be held.

Mr Ghanim died with at least six others in a car bombing in the mainly Christian Sin al-Fil district on Wednesday.

Mr Siniora said on Thursday: "The hand of terror will not win and will not succeed in subduing us and silencing us.

"The Lebanese will not retreat and will have a new president elected by lawmakers, no matter how big the conspiracy was."

He has called for a UN investigation into the assassination of Mr Ghanim, who had returned to Beirut just a few days before his death to take part in next week's vote.

Lebanon is poised to choose a successor to pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud.

The country has been mired in an ongoing political crisis, with a deadlock between pro- and anti-Syrian factions in parliament.

'Hand of terror'
Syria said it had no involvement in the attack, calling it a "criminal act" that undermined hopes for Lebanese national reconciliation.

But some Lebanese politicians were quick to blame Damascus for the blast.

Saad Hariri, son of Rafik Hariri, a former prime minister who was assassinated in a bomb attack in 2005, said responsibility lay with the "cowardly regime" of Syria.

Even pro-Syrian Mr Lahoud said it was no coincidence someone was killed whenever there were positive developments in Lebanon.

US President George W Bush denounced the "horrific assassination", which he described as attempts by Syria and Lebanon to destabilise Lebanon.

The attack has also been criticised by the UK, the EU, Russia, China, France and Italy.

Six other leading figures in Lebanon's anti-Syria movement have been killed since Rafik Hariri's assassination in 2005.

Lebanese Assassinations
Feb 2005: Ex-PM Rafik Hariri
Feb 2005: MP Bassel Fleihan
June 2005: Anti-Syria journalist Samir Kassir
June 2005: Ex-Communist leader George Hawi
Dec 2005: Anti-Syria MP Gebran Tueni
Nov 2006: Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel
June 2007: Anti-Syria MP Walid Eido
Sep 2007: Anti-Syria MP Antoine Ghanim