FBI Ordered to “Back Off” Investigations into Black Muslim Converts

Update: July 25, 2012: FoxNews: Man Sentenced to Life in Arkansas Military Recruiting Station Shooting. LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A man who confessed to shooting two soldiers outside a military recruiting station in Arkansas struck a plea deal with prosecutors Monday to avoid the death penalty.

Abdulhakim Muhammad pleaded guilty in the middle of his trial to capital murder and attempted capital murder charges. Pulaski County Judge Herbert Wright then sentenced Muhammad to life in prison without parole for capital murder, with 11 more life sentences for the remaining charges against him plus an additional 180 years in prison.

But prosecutors had to withdraw the death penalty for Muhammad to plead guilty to capital murder. Arkansas law requires a defendant to be tried if lethal injection is a sentencing option. . . . Muhammad was charged with the killing of Army Pvt. William Andrew Long. He also was charged with attempted capital murder for wounding Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula in 2009.

Muhammad was born Carlos Bledsoe but changed his name after converting to Islam during college. In 2007, he traveled to Yemen, where Islamic extremists are known to seek sanctuary. He overstayed his visa and was deported back to the U.S. Muhammad claimed to have links to terror groups . . .
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Update: Pvt. William Andrew Long laid to rest; remembered and mourned!
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by Bill Smith, ARRA Editor and 22 year Veteran: Today, Arkansas will rally at 4 pm in front of the Army-Navy Recruiting Station in Little Rock to show support for our military. While most of the media, elected officials, and Commander-in-Chief Obama have ignored this terrorist attack in Arkansas, the rally participants will show their respect for our military and will mourn the loss of soldier Pvt. William Long, and will express concern for wounded soldier Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, for their military comrades and for the families of the victims of this terrorist attack in the heartland of America.

Both soldiers were gunned down by Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, a 21-year-old African-American man who had changed his name from Carlos Leon Bledsoe after he converted to Islam. In Arabic, the word mujahid is the singular form of mujahideen, and it literally means one who engages in jihad. It appears that Abdulhakim operated as a "lone wolf" which is described in an article for STATFOR, a civilian global intelligence firm. The article by Scott Stewart and Fred Burton is titled: "Lone Wolf Lessons" and is identified on the STATFOR website as a "Global Security & Intelligence Report." It has a good rundown on the concepts and dangers of the "Lone Wolf" terrorist. However the most chilling part of the article is the allegation that the administration had ordered the FBI to “back off” of counterterrorism investigations into the activities of Black Muslim converts. An Arkansas source, a retired Army colonel, expressed that "this is a very damning allegation against the administration. . . . any administration. And yes, I am PO'd!"

Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad was reportedly already under investigation by the FBI joint terrorism task force after he traveled to Yemen and was arrested there for using a Somali passport. However the details of the probe have not been revealed. But, it is now it is clear that the FBI had a prior interest in this "lone wolf terrorist."

Skipping the article's "Challenges" and "Limitations" in dealing with the Lone Wolf terrorist, let's note the text that literally jumps off the pages of the report:

However, politics have proved obstructive to all facets of counter terrorism policy. And politics may have been at play in the Muhammad case as well as in other cases involving Black Muslim converts. Several weeks ago, STRATFOR heard from sources that the FBI and other law enforcement organizations had been ordered to “back off” of counter terrorism investigations into the activities of Black Muslim converts.

At this point, it is unclear to us if that guidance was given by the White House or the Department of Justice, or if it was promulgated by the agencies themselves, anticipating the wishes of President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder.

As STRATFOR has previously noted, the FBI has a culture that is very conservative and risk-averse. Many FBI supervisors are reluctant to authorize investigations that they believe may have negative blow-back on their career advancement. In light of this institutional culture, and the order to be careful in investigations relating to Black* Muslim converts, it would not be at all surprising to us if a supervisor refused to authorize a full-field investigation of Muhammad that would have included surveillance of his activities. Though in practical terms, even if a full-field investigation had been authorized, due to the caution being exercised in cases related to Black* Muslim converts, the case would most likely have been micromanaged to the point of inaction by the special agent in charge of the office involved or by FBI headquarters.

Let's reflect for a moment. First, note again that President Barack Hussein Obama has remained silent since the incident and in face of his planned trip to meet with Muslim leaders in the Middle East. As Commander-in-Chief, he and his administration, including the Secretary of the Defense and the Attorney General have remained mute and failed to both condemn this act or to comfort the families, friends, and comrades of the victims or to express concern for the severely wounded soldier. When Fox News asked the White House staff yesterday what they had to say, they related that they were working on a statement to be released. Well, no thanks to any three days old or more concern!

Second, as detailed yesterday by Gary Bauer:

[A] White House official briefed reporters on the trip and emphasized Obama’s Muslim roots. According to Jake Tapper of ABC, the aide said, “The president himself experienced Islam on three continents . . . you know growing up in Indonesia, having a Muslim father – obviously Muslim Americans (are) a key part of Illinois and Chicago.” However, During the presidential campaign it became forbidden in any way to draw attention to candidate Obama’s Muslim roots. . . . Obama himself attacked any suggestion he had Muslim roots. . . . Barack Hussein Obama wants it both ways. In his world view, America isn’t a Christian country but it is one of the largest Muslim countries in the world. He doesn’t want anyone to bring up his Muslim roots when they are talking to American voters, but his Muslim roots become the main selling point when he is headed to Cairo and Saudi Arabia.

Third, the SRATFOR global security and intelligence report concludes:

Had the FBI opened a full-field investigation on Muhammad, and had it conducted surveillance on him, it would have been able to watch him participate in preoperational activities such as conducting surveillance of potential targets and obtaining weapons. There is certainly going to be an internal inquiry at the FBI and Department of Justice — and perhaps even in Congress — to determine where the points of failure were in this case. We will be watching with interest to see what really transpired. The details will be extremely interesting, especially coming at a time when the Obama administration appears to be following the Clinton-era policy of stressing the primacy of the FBI and the law enforcement aspect of counter terrorism policy at the expense of intelligence and other elements.

The above points beg many questions: Why did President Barack Hussein Obama ignore Private William Long, Private Quinton Ezeagwula, the military recruiters, their friends and families, and the people of Arkansas? Why would the Obama administration order the FBI and other law enforcement organizations to “back off” of counter terrorism investigations into the activities of Black Muslim converts? Why did the Department of Homeland Security issue a document labeling conservatives, pro- constitution, Pro-bill of rights, veterans, as "right-wing" extremists and potential domestic terrorists?

AP reports: President Barack Obama met with Saudi King Abdullah on Wednesday in Riyadh, where he stressed the need for the two countries to cooperate. "I am confident that working together that the United States and Saudi Arabia can make progress on a whole host of issues of mutual interest," said Obama. Pakistan was expected to be on the agenda when the two leaders met. . . . Obama's defense secretary, Robert Gates, has already asked the Saudis for help in staving off the spread of militants in Pakistan and encouraging Pakistani officials to work together in countering the terrorist threat.

NPR Reports: Obama is scheduled to deliver a speech in Cairo on the US relationship with the world's 1.5 billion Muslims. . . . Obama brings perceived advantages — he's the son of a Kenyan Muslim and lived part of his childhood in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country. . . . "I thought it was very important to come to the place where Islam began and to seek his majesty's counsel and to discuss with him many of the issues that we confront here in the Middle East," Obama said.

President Obama, today you may be speaking to 1.5 billion Muslims but the fact is that the majority of them will not hear you or will refuse to hear you because you have violated the "sacred laws" of Islam by converting from Islam to Christianity. Therefore, you are to them -worse than an infidel. President Obama, today the blood on the pavement outside of the Army Recruiting Station in Little Rock, Arkansas cries out for justice and for a president worthy to be called the Commander-in-Chief. You have dishonored a fallen soldier and elevated the enemies of our country. Your administration has ordered the FBI and other law enforcement organizations to “back off” of counter terrorism investigations into the activities of black* Muslim converts. You have catered to our enemy in an attempt at appeasement.

Your dismissive attitude, your being retroactively sorry, or your making someone else the fall guy won't cut it this time! I join with the aforementioned retired colonel and the hearts of millions of Americans in stating emphatically that I am more than PO'd with you. Mr. Obama - I Do Not salute you!
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* The use of the word "Black" is reported to remain consistent in context with the original STRATFOR article. However, for this author, a person's color or race are not issues. The issues remain the Obama administration's interference in government investigations and President Obama and others disregard for the American soldiers attacked in Little Rock, Arkansas.

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Tags: Barack Hussein Obama, Barrack Obama, FBI, Little Rock, Middle East, Muslims, STRATFOR, veterans To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

HEAL Act in Honor of Little Rock Recruiting Station Victims

Rep. Griffin Says, ‘It’s the right thing to do,’ Ezeagwula and Long were ‘victims of international terrorism’

Pvt William Long

WASHINGTON – Congressman Tim Griffin (AR-02) has reintroduced the Honoring Ezeagwula and Long (HEAL) Act in the U.S. House of Representatives:

“Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula and Pvt. William Long were shot because they were serving their country in the armed forces of the United States.  Regardless of President Obama’s refusal to admit it, they were victims of international terrorism, targeted because they were soldiers.  They are American heroes who deserve the same honor as the military personnel who were wounded or killed in the attacks of September 11, 2001.  It’s the right thing to do, and my bill will correct this injustice and ensure these men and their families receive the full recognition of a grateful nation.”

In 2007, Abdulhakim Muhammad traveled to Yemen where he admits to training with known members of Al Qaeda and discussed attacks on American military personnel.  Muhammad also planned to receive terrorist training in Somalia, and, and when he was arrested with a fake Somali passport at a Yemeni roadside checkpoint, he was in possession of videos and literature from Al Qaeda leaders including Anwar Al-Awlaki.  On June 1, 2009, Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula was wounded and Pvt. William Andrew Long was killed when they were shot by Muhammad outside of a military recruiting station in Little Rock, Arkansas.

On July 25, 2011, Muhammad pled guilty to the charges of capital murder, attempted capital murder, and unlawful discharges of a firearm.  He was sentenced to consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole and life in prison on the remaining charges.  An additional fifteen years was imposed for use of a firearm in the commission of these felonies.

Last year, the White House threatened to veto a bill if it included language that would have awarded the Purple Heart to Ezeagwula and Long.

Griffin first introduced the HEAL Act in 2011.

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Tags: HEAL Act, Honor, Recruiting Station, Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, Pvt. William Long, Victims, Little Rock, Arkansas, Recruiters killed, muslim radical, Representative, Tim Griffin, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

EMERGENCY ALERT!! RALLY TO SUPPORT THE TROOPS!!

While most of the media, elected officials, and Commander-in-Chief Obama are ignoring the terrorist attack in our state, Secure Arkansas is planning on an emergency rally to support the troops:
Secure Arkansas is planning a huge rally to support our military. It will be held on Thursday, June 4th, at 4 p.m., in front of the Army-Navy Recruiting Station at Ashley Square, corner of Reservoir Road and Rodney Parham in Little Rock. This is an emergency rally to show respect for our troops and let them know we mourn the loss of soldier Pvt. William Long and the wounding of soldier Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula.

For more information, please contact Jeannie Burlsworth at info@securearkansas.com or 501-765-3325 SecureArkansas.com

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Tags: Little Rock, Arkansas, Rally, Secure Arkansas, support troops, terrorist attack, soldier killed, soldier wounded To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Muslim Terrorist Doesn't Think Killing Was Murder

Is Abdulhakim Muhammad a prime example of a Muslim convert who sees America as a Nation at war with Islam rather than against people who are enemies of America which also happen to be Muslim? Or is he an exception to the prevailing view of Muslims? In this case, a Muslim American is not persuaded that his shooting of two unarmed America soldier was wrong or that his killing one of them is murder. He believes he was justified.

Where was the outcry from American Muslim clerics or from the Muslim leaders with whom President Obama met after the shooting? It is time to address the false teachings being taught to Muslim converts. Continual claims that the Muslim religion is a Religion of Peace appears untrue and possibly deadly. And, the hatred by the followers of Islam for Jews and Israel is even more rabid than against Christian or the decadent Americans. Again, where is the denunciation by the Muslim clerics in America? Background story follows:

Fox News: A Muslim convert charged with fatally shooting an American soldier at a military recruiting center said Tuesday that he doesn’t consider the killing a murder because U.S. military action in the Middle East justified it. “I do feel I’m not guilty,” Abdulhakim Muhammad told The Associated Press in a collect call from the Pulaski County jail. “I don’t think it was murder, because murder is when a person kills another person without justified reason.”

Pvt. William Andrew Long, 23, of Conway was volunteering at the west Little Rock recruiting office before starting an assignment in South Korea. He was shot dead June 1 while smoking a cigarette outside the building, and a fellow soldier, Pvt. Quinton I. Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville was wounded. [See Prior Story]

. . . Muhammad told the AP he admitted to his actions to police and said he was retaliating against the U.S. military. "Yes, I did tell the police upon my arrest that this was an act of retaliation, and not a reaction on the soldiers personally," Muhammad said. He called it "a act, for the sake of God, for the sake of Allah, the Lord of all the world, and also a retaliation on U.S. military." In the interview, Muhammad also disputed his lawyer's claim that he had been "radicalized" in a Yemeni prison and said fellow prisoners that some call terrorists were actually "very good Muslim brothers."

He also said he didn't specifically plan the shootings that morning. "It's been on my mind for awhile. It wasn't nothing planned really. It was just the heat of the moment, you know," said Muhammad . . . . said he wanted revenge for claims that American military personnel had desecrated copies of the Quran and killed or raped Muslims. "For this reason, no Muslim, male or female, sane or insane, little, big, small, old can accept or tolerate," he said. . . .

"U.S. soldiers are killing innocent Muslim men and women. We believe that we have to strike back. We believe in eye for an eye. We don't believe in turning the other cheek," he said. Asked whether he considered the shootings at the recruiting center an act of war, Muhammad said "I didn't know the soldiers personally, but yes, it was an attack of retaliation. And I feel that other attacks, not by me or people I know, but definitely Muslims in this country and others elsewhere, are going to attack for doing those things they did," especially desecrating the Quran. . . . [Read the Full Story: Recruitment Shooting Suspect Doesn't Think Killing Was Murder]

Texas Fred rightly noted on his site: "[Barack] Obama was "shocked and outraged" at the murder of an abortionist, but wasn’t shocked and outraged by the murder of a U.S. soldier, and the shooting of another soldier, on duty, at a recruiting station on American soil, a shooting and murder that was committed by a member of the Muslim cult that we, supposedly, aren’t at war with? Isn’t the murder of this soldier a heinous act of violence as well? If you’re Barack Hussein Obama, apparently not…"

What kind of confusion is being peddled by our political leaders? Now that Obama has announced that GITMO will no longer exist, how many others will attack American military personnel and their families? Will Obama administration via AG Holder take jurisdiction over this murder case to shut down the publicity and to protect Abdulhakim Muhammad from the Arkansas' death penalty?

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Tags: Arkansas, Little Rock, Murder, Muslim, Soldiers, terrorists To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

In Plain Sight

by Paul Jacob, Contributing Author: The Berlin terrorist attack just a little over a week ago fit a noteworthy pattern. German authorities had investigated Anis Amri — the Tunisian man who drove that large truck into a crowded Christmas market, killing 12 and wounding 56 others — and found “links with Islamic extremists.”

Later killed in Milan, Italy, Amri had been wanted in Tunisia for “hijacking a van” and jailed in Italy for arson and a “violent assault at his migrant reception center.” And yet with all that known or easily knowable, the German authorities couldn’t prevent him from killing innocent Germans.

It’s not just a European phenomenon, either.

Consider Omar Mateen, this country’s worst mass shooter, having massacred 49 people in Orlando’s Pulse nightclub. The FBI had spent ten months looking into Mateen.

Years before the Boston Marathon bombing, the FBI had tracked Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the bombers.*

“In case after case . . . authorities have come forward after the fact to say that they had enough cause to place the suspect under surveillance well before the violence,” the Washington Post recently noted. This was the case with the majority of recent lone-wolf terrorism plots.

“If any lesson can be learned from studying the perpetrators of recent attacks,” a report in The Intercept concluded, “it is that there needs to be a greater investment in conducting targeted surveillance of known terror suspects and a move away from the constant knee-jerk expansion of dragnet surveillance . . .”

Yet intelligence agencies are still grabbing our metadata in violation of the Fourth Amendment. That needs to stop.

The fact that known threats are consistently not being stopped suggests curtailing mass surveillance won’t hurt our security, but improve it.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

* The same is true regarding the Ft. Hood (work-place) shooter, Nidal Hasan. Likewise, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad (formerly Carlos Bledsoe), who was under the active eye of the FBI after returning from Yemen . . . until he opened fire on a Little Rock, Arkansas, recruiting station killing one soldier and wounding another. Ditto Ahmad Khan Rahami, the less deadly bomber in New York City and New Jersey.
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Paul Jacobs is author of Common Sense which provides daily commentary about the issues impacting America and about the citizens who are doing something about them. He is also President of the Liberty Initiative Fund (LIFe) as well as Citizens in Charge Foundation. Jacobs is a contributing author on the ARRA News Service.

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Tags: Paul Jacob, Common Sense, In Plain Sight, Terrorists To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Jihad at Fort Hood

by Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families: Every American this morning should be outraged not only about the murderous rampage against U.S. soldiers in Ft. Hood, Texas, by Major Nidal M. Hasan, but also by the sickening effort of Big Media, and even some U.S. officials, to deceive us about what has taken place.

For eight years we have been fighting radical Islamists around the world, and we have been the victims of jihadist attacks by lone radical Muslims repeatedly here in the U.S. Yet as the story broke of the carnage yesterday, 13 dead and 30 wounded, virtually every major media outlet, along with our own government, seemed to have as their main goal convincing us that the event had nothing to do with terrorism or radical Islam.

But minute-by-minute, more information is coming to light that can’t be ignored. We have found out that six months ago Major Hasan may have defended Muslim suicide bombers on his web page, comparing such acts to the sacrifice a U.S. solider makes when he falls on a grenade to save his fellow soldiers. Col. Terry Lee, who worked with the killer, said Major Hasan had said, “Muslims shouldn’t be fighting Muslims.” Back in June, when a Muslim convert assassinated a U.S. soldier at a recruiting station in Little Rock, Arkansas, Col. Lee said that Major Hasan seemed happy about the event and that he was confronted by other officers. (You may recall that it took days for Obama to acknowledge that attack, yet the White House issued a rare Sunday statement when late-term abortionist George Tiller was killed.)

In recent weeks, while off the base, Major Hasan started wearing Arabic and religious clothing. He passed out Korans on the morning of the shooting. Survivors in the facility where Major Hasan went on the attack reported that he yelled, “Allahu Akbar,” (Allah is great) before he opened fire – the same words shouted by the jihadists on 9/11 and which have been repeated by our enemy in every attack since.

Nor is this an isolated incident. In June 2003, Sergeant Hasan K. Akbar attacked his fellow soldiers as they gathered in Kuwait to start the liberation of Iraq. He killed two officers and wounded many more. Numerous plots by American Muslims have been uncovered in recent years to attack Fort Dix, the Quantico Marine Corps base and other military facilities.

No one is suggesting that an Al Qaeda operative contacted Major Hasan and ordered yesterday’s attack. But the evidence certainly indicates that Major Hasan was becoming more and more committed to radical Islam and growing increasingly hostile to the American military that paid for his education and repeatedly promoted him. NPR reports, “Hasan was put on probation early in his postgraduate work… He was disciplined for proselytizing about his Muslim faith with patients and colleagues…”

I understand the media’s politically correct mindset. What is inexcusable is why the military and the FBI continue to be so reticent about acknowledging the nature of the enemy we are confronting. Instead of going into denial, our military, the FBI and other intelligence agencies need to admit the obvious. While thousands of loyal American Muslims have served in the military, and some have died with other Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, there are also “sleeper cells” or “sleeper individuals” who are jihadist ticking time bombs inside our own ranks. Similar attacks are inevitable the longer our leaders engage in self-deception. The brave men and women in uniform, who are on the front lines in Afghanistan and Iraq, should not have to worry about being killed at home by the same enemy they are fighting abroad.

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Tags: Gary Bauer, jihad, military To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!