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Religion Title: CAIR to Pakistan terror suspects: Clam up, D.C.-based 'front group' also advises mosques against helping FBI A new Council on American-Islamic Relations notice to members advising them against cooperating with the FBI belies the group's long-held argument that the FBI should restore relations with the group to help agents locate terrorists in the Muslim community. The FBI severed ties to the so-called Muslim civil-rights group after prosecutors in 2007 implicated it in a criminal scheme to funnel millions of dollars to Hamas suicide bombers and their families. A federal grand jury in Washington is actively investigating CAIR. The Washington-based nonprofit group last week issued an advisory warning to its Muslim members that the FBI was interrogating "members of the Pakistani-American community" in connection with the Times Square car-bomb case involving a Pakistani-American from Connecticut. The FBI has arrested several Pakistani nationals in New England and is conducting related sweeps in cities as far away as Los Angeles. While cautioning members to report criminal activity in their community, CAIR at the same time asserted: "You are not obligated under law to answer any questions from law enforcement officers." It also offered to provide "legal assistance" to Muslims who are approached by the FBI and advised them to "be sure to get the names, agencies, badge numbers and business cards of all agents or officers." "You can also file a complaint with the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division," the advisory added. "CAIR can help you with this process." Such tactics are typical of CAIR, say investigators. While CAIR publicly announces it encourages its members to cooperate with law enforcement, they say it privately counsels them to clam up. "They're trying to paint the picture that they're such a valuable tool to law enforcement," says a senior FBI officer in Washington. "Yet they tell their constituents: Don't speak to law enforcement." In fact, CAIR distributes a "Muslim community safety kit" at mosques that advises Muslims to "Know your rights." Remember, it warns, if you are visited by agents: 2) You do not have to permit them to enter your home or office. ... Even if they have a warrant, you are under no obligation to answer questions. As a result, most mosques around the country "don't cooperate with law enforcement," the FBI official said. Moreover, there is evidence CAIR is actually coaching Muslim terror suspects to mislead investigators and obstruct their terrorism investigations. Consider, for example, a six-page confidential report generated by a senior CAIR official, who on the third anniversary of 9/11 helped a prominent Muslim figure under FBI inquiry to obstruct a line of questioning by agents. In September 2004, a pair of agents arranged an interview with the Muslim leader of a Maryland mosque that the FBI was investigating for suspicious activity. The mosque leader alerted CAIR, and CAIR sent Shama Farooq, then-civil-rights director for its Maryland chapter, to coach him through the interview. Farooq wrote a detailed plan covering what Sayeed Ahmed, president of the Islamic Society of Western Maryland, should and shouldn't say. The predominantly Pakistani mosque is controlled by the Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA, and the radical Muslim Brotherhood. ISNA, like CAIR, is an unindicted co-conspirator in the large Hamas financing case. "Oftentimes, these meetings are used to get information about other community members," the CAIR official warned in the plan she devised. "It is important, first of all, not to talk about anyone else at all." Also, "If the agent wants contact information for anyone else, you should not give any numbers or addresses out – let him find the people the same (way) he found you," Farooq advised. The senior CAIR official also insisted Ahmed turn his cell phone off and keep it out of the sight and reach of the agents during the interview. Finally, she advised, "You are not required to tell them which Islamic centers you attend, how many times a day you pray, who you give charity to and which organizations you are associated with." "Definitely," she stressed, "do not address any questions relating to terrorism or violence and their place in Islam." That was step No. 1. Then Farooq and Ahmed went to lunch the day of the scheduled interview with the FBI – September 1, 2004 – to review her ground rules, details the secret CAIR memo, first revealed in the bestselling book, "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America." They agreed she would sit in on the meeting. Following lunch, they went back to his office and continued to "discuss strategies," including introducing her to the agents only as "a sister in Islam," while not identifying her position with CAIR up front. And she again specifically advised Ahmed not to answer any questions regarding information he may know about terrorism or violence. The agents arrived at Ahmed's office on time, and over the course of their interview, Farooq stepped in to stop Ahmed from answering several questions she felt could "incriminate" him, even though she was not his attorney. As a result, Ahmed withheld critical information from the FBI. For example: The FBI agents, who were attached to the bureau's Pittsburgh field office and led by agent Terry Grzadzielewski, left the meeting unaware they were denied information relevant to their investigation – thanks to CAIR's operative running interference on behalf of the subject of their inquiry that day, according to "Muslim Mafia." Farooq reported details of the FBI meeting, including Ahmed's omissions, to CAIR-Maryland/Virginia chapter Executive Director Rizwan Mowlana, who had assigned her to spy on the FBI. A copy of the confidential memo – which is marked DO NOT RELEASE OUTSIDE CAIR – was obtained by "Muslim Mafia." At the end of her report, Farooq recommended CAIR gather local Muslims who worship at Ahmed's mosque in Hagerstown, Md., to formally train them in similar deception and obstruction tactics. "Since the Hagerstown community seems to be a center of attention for several FBI agents," she wrote, "I recommend CAIR conduct a know-your-rights lecture at the location with some recommendations (on) how to respond to FBI agents when approached by them." At the same time, Farooq recommended mailing the FBI's Pittsburgh field office a copy of CAIR's "Law Enforcement Official's Guide to the Muslim Community," followed by "sensitivity training" for all its agents. "Muslim Mafia" obtained a copy of CAIR's law enforcement guide, which for the most part dictates terms to police – the Dos and Don'ts (and mostly Dont's) of investigating Muslims. Here is a summary: "Keep a physical space when dealing with members of the Muslim community," CAIR's police guide mandates. "Some Muslims may be uncomfortable with gestures that include any touching." The booklet spends nine pages lecturing law enforcement officers about Islamic tenets and how to respect them, and none offering them cultural clues to help them identify extremists and jihadists in the Muslim community. That same year, 2004, the FBI raided an Islamic "cultural center" in a northern Virginia suburb on suspicions of terrorist activity. But before agents executed the search warrant, the FBI told CAIR the raid was going to take place, so that CAIR officials could be on site to monitor the conduct and sensitivity of agents. By the time agents showed up at the Saudi-controlled Institute for Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America in Merrifield, Va. – where al-Qaida recruiter Anwar Awlaki lectured – the building was practically an "empty box," as one investigator described it in "Muslim Mafia." "By the time we went in, the place was sterile. They'd cleaned it out," adds the senior investigator, who works with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in Washington. "It was bad. It was really bad." What happened? "They were warned by CAIR that we were coming to do a search warrant," explains the law enforcement official, who helped execute the search warrant. "We were pissed. It was obvious to us they knew we were coming." Who got the courtesy call from the FBI that morning? The same CAIR official cited earlier – CAIR-MD/VA executive director Rizwan Mowlana – who'd assigned the "sister in Islam" to coach the Maryland mosque president and help obstruct the FBI's questioning of him.
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