View Full Version : FBI Raids Halal (Muslim) Slaughterhouse in IL
Kinsman, IL - FBI Raids Halal Slaughterhouse
Published on: October 20th, 2009 at 08:31 AM
News Source: CBS Chicago
Last updated on:
Kinsman, IL - Federal agents conducted a raid Sunday afternoon at a goat meat processing plant near Morris, Illinois. The secretive operation was led by the Chicago FBI office, the Feds are being very tight-lipped on what they found and why they were even there.
Spokesman Ross Rice confirms agents were at 6260 Kinsman Road, in Kinsman, Illinois. The business is called First World Management. Rice would not say why agents were there but said nobody was taken into custody.
The FBI said the raid began Sunday morning and ended in the late afternoon. They were at the plant about nine hours total.
According to sources, the plant provides goat, beef and lamb meat which is prepared in the Halal way in accordance with Muslim custom.
The government workers inside First World Management meat packing plant in Kinsman Monday wouldn't say why they were there or why scores of FBI agents and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were there Sunday.
The trouble is the FBI isn't saying much about what happened at this rural Grundy County plant. A spokesman confirms that the plant, which has a Muslim prayer room, was raided as part of an ongoing criminal investigation.
Several witnesses reported that the Grundy County Sheriff's office was involved, as well, saying sheriff dept. vehicles were visible at the scene. The Sheriff's department denies it was present.
When asked if the raid had something to do with undocumented aliens, the person wouldn't say. A neighbor suggested that undocumented immigrants live in a trailer behind the facility and work there.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said the agency assisted in the raid, but had no further comment. According to sources, many of the FBI and ICE agents were armed.
Several USDA criminal investigators were on site at the plant on Monday, but they would not comment on the situation.
One man who was talking about the raid was Jim Cavaness. He's a handyman who occasionally works at the plant where goats, sheep and cows are slaughtered. On Sunday, he witnessed the raid and says he was questioned by FBI agents.
Cavaness says the FBI asked him if he had seen anything unusual at the plant. He says he's never seen anything unusual, but, he says, judging by the amount of firepower on the scene, the FBI wasn't just working an immigration case.
"Way too much overkill for immigration," Cavaness said.
Neighbors who saw the raid on Sunday told CBS 2 it was a huge operation, involving more than 100 agents, police officers and even what one believed to be National Guard troops.
Sources say during the raid, the driveway was filled with more than 50 government vehicles. There was a helicopter flying overhead and a command center set up. On top of it were government sharpshooters with rifles at the ready.
George Jackson III is an attorney hired by one of the plant operators, Dr. Syed Hamid. Jackson and Dr. Hamid spoke briefly while on their way to a meeting with the federal prosecutor Monday.
Jackson says it's too early to say why there was such a huge show of force at the plant.
"Obviously, it was more than what was needed here, but why they felt the need to come forward with that much manpower allegedly, it's too early to say," Jackson said.
Jackson said federal agents confiscated the company's computers, effectively shutting down the business. Dr. Hamid chose not to weigh in Monday.
"I don't want to comment at this point," Dr. Hamid said.
Link (http://www.vosizneias.com/40050/2009/10/20/chicago-il-fbi-raids-halal-slaughterhouse)
Utah Bob
10-21-2009, 04:59
Kinsman, IL - FBI Raids Halal Slaughterhouse
Published on: October 20th, 2009 at 08:31 AM
News Source: CBS Chicago
Last updated on:
Kinsman, IL - Federal agents conducted a raid Sunday afternoon at a goat meat processing plant near Morris, Illinois. The secretive operation was led by the Chicago FBI office, the Feds are being very tight-lipped on what they found and why they were even there.
Probably not pork.
Ret10Echo
10-21-2009, 08:27
Ya think!??
According to sources, many of the FBI and ICE agents were armed.
It will be interesting to see how this shakes out. It may be something much less sinister than the press is leaning toward....but FBI as the lead and ICE as an "also attended" makes me think this is less about immigration and more about something else. :munchin
Dozer523
10-21-2009, 08:53
"One man who was talking about the raid was Jim Cavaness. He's a handyman who occasionally works at the plant where goats, sheep and cows are slaughtered. On Sunday, he witnessed the raid and says he was questioned by FBI agents. Cavaness says the FBI asked him if he had seen anything unusual at the plant. He says he's never seen anything unusual, but, he says, judging by the amount of firepower on the scene, the FBI wasn't just working an immigration case.'
Another liberal reading of the Patriot Act? hope it's not " Rag-headed Ay- Rabs, got's to be up to something. Lets get us a "John Doe warrant" and take a little look.
Warrior-Mentor
10-21-2009, 09:00
Hopefully, it's not related to this case!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1220815/Police-disciplined-blunders-murder-case-girl-turned-kebabs.html#ixzz0UKlGgES2
READ MORE HERE:
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/10/police-blamed-for-blunders-in-muslim-murder-case-of-girl-turned-into-kebab-meat-.html
.
Well...conjecture being what it is nowadays...did they find OBL or not? :confused:
And so it goes...;)
Richard's $.02 :munchin
Ret10Echo
10-21-2009, 11:57
Hopefully, it's not related to this case!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1220815/Police-disciplined-blunders-murder-case-girl-turned-kebabs.html#ixzz0UKlGgES2
READ MORE HERE:
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/10/police-blamed-for-blunders-in-muslim-murder-case-of-girl-turned-into-kebab-meat-.html
.
Don't be messin' with my "Doner"....because it's the shiznit in the wee morning hours..:p
Chris Cram
10-21-2009, 12:49
Well...conjecture being what it is nowadays...did they find OBL or not? :confused:
Wow... Jimmy Hoffa flash back.. :eek:
100+ agents for a business with 5-6 employees? What were they expecting?
Massive FBI Raid on Islamic Slaughterhouse Mystifies Tiny Illinois Town
Thursday , October 22, 2009
By Joseph Abrams
At 8 a.m. Sunday the population of Kinsman, Ill., stood at 109. An hour later it nearly doubled, as upwards of 100 federal agents and police swooped in on the tiny, rural community. And no one seems to know why.
The law enforcement officers, including FBI agents, immigration officials and state police, surrounded an Islamic meat plant in Kinsman, cordoning off the area and briefly detaining the plant's handful of employees.
The FBI isn't saying much, and the county sheriff is mum too, leaving Kinsman's residents mystified. The bust, in a town that has no local police force, involved dozens of vehicles, a pair of snipers and a helicopter flying overhead, witnesses said — but it ended without even a single arrest.
"We're all baffled," Mayor Mark Harlow said. "You know, stuff like this doesn't happen in a small community."
The unusual show of force has residents spooked and has left the mayor searching for answers.
"The public reaction is ... are they safe? We don't know," Harlow said. "What are they doing? We don't know. Are they making bombs? We don't know."
Harlow said residents of the town rarely see the five or six employees of the First World Management butcher shop, which provides ritually slaughtered and processed lamb and goat meat for Muslims living in Chicago, 50 miles to the northeast.
Some of the workers were handcuffed during the raid, but they were eventually released, Harlow said. He said the workers are foreign-born and live in a trailer on the property behind the plant's meat locker, and they have never harmed anyone in town.
"I've never seen them do anything out of the ordinary," he told Foxnews.com. The workers' residency status is unknown.
Kinsman is a sleepy town carved out of a patchwork landscape of farms in the heart of the Grain Belt. Its few square blocks are home to a post office, church and bar, and there isn't a restaurant or gas station in sight.
But the two men listed as the proprietors of the business appear to be under scrutiny. A staff member at the First World Management office in Chicago identified Syed Hamid, 51, as an employee, and confirmed that Tahawara Hussain Rana, 48, is the owner of the business.
Residents believe Hamid lives in a house adjoining the shop in Kinsman and runs the slaughterhouse. Hamid, a doctor, has been in talks with a Chicago lawyer, George Jackson III, who told Foxnews.com he doesn't anticipate Hamid will be charged with a crime. Jackson said he and Hamid had spoken to investigators since the raid.
Rana's case isn't so clear. Jackson said he could not comment, and phone calls to the Rana household in Chicago went unanswered.
Law enforcement officials declined to comment on whether the massive raid was connected to a series of high-profile arrests orchestrated by the FBI in recent weeks that focused on terror suspects.
"No one is in custody, no charges have been filed," said Cynthia Yates, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Chicago office. "There's not much to say."
The sheriff of Grundy County, Ill., where Kinsman is located, said he was informed of the impending raid about two weeks ago, but his officers did not play a tactical role.
"The only thing I can tell you is that it's an ongoing criminal investigation, and basically everything that's being done is through the FBI," Sheriff Terry Marketti said.
The presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials at the raid suggests it may have been related to immigration violations. But the Department of Homeland Security has issued a moratorium on workplace raids targeting illegal immigrants.
And unlike the targets of similar sweeps that were the norm in the Bush administration, the Kinsman shop employed only a handful of workers, a fraction of the size of other plants that have drawn the attention of ICE officials. Also unlike in past immigration raids, no workers were brought into custody.
"It was crazy," said Grundy County Board Chairman Francis Halpin, who lives in nearby Morris, Ill. "I never thought I'd see anything like this in Kinsman."
Link (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,569185,00.html)
Warrior-Mentor
10-22-2009, 15:43
100+ agents for a business with 5-6 employees? What were they expecting?
Overwhelming firepower to ensure they avoid another WACO?
Or was there something really nasty going on there?
The lack of info leads you to wonder????
Will be interesting to see what evolves over the next few days.
Wonder how many lawsuits will be filed on behalf of the accused...
Musta been suspected of violating the local school district's no tolerance rules and someone tipped them off that one of the worker's had brought a 2" knife to work. :p
And so it goes...;)
Richard's $.02 :munchin
Musta been suspected of violating the local school district's no tolerance rules and someone tipped them off that one of the worker's had brought a 2" knife to work.
Or, they failed to pay their taxes.
100+ agents for a business with 5-6 employees? What were they expecting?
Based on experience, not specifically this job:
Possible Reasons: (in no particular order)
1. On occasion the FBI likes to crush a fly with a sledgehammer
2. Mabye some agents had nothing else to do...ie.. they were bored. Seriously
3. Multi agency warrants usually bring a lot of people to the game. They need trigger pullers, evidence techs, lawyers etc..oh yeah lots of supervisors, prisoner transport, medical as well
4. Maybe they were expecting resistance
Or the USDA was investigating a rash of local pet disappearances in connection to the plant and needed backup....
What were they expecting?
Max per diem?
Max per diem?
Not for Kinsman, IL:
Lodging - $70.00
M&IE - $46.00
Of course, lodging was probably unavailable, so they had to stay in Chicago. In that case:
Lodging - $205.00
M&IE - $71.00 :)
Source (http://www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/contentView.do?queryYear=2010&contentType=GSA_BASIC&contentId=17943&queryState=Illinois&noc=T)
Arrests tied to raid on slaughterhouse.
Two Chicago men charged in terror scheme
Feds say plot focused on Danish newspaper that published Muhammed cartoons
Comments
October 28, 2009
By NATASHA KORECKI nkorecki@suntimes.com
When FBI agents at O'Hare arrested David Headley en route to Pakistan earlier this month on charges he plotted to kill a newspaper cartoonist in Denmark, authorities say he held an additional airline reservation – to Copenhagen.
He was to depart Thursday.
Headley's friend, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who shared an extreme hatred for cartoons that depicted the prophet Mohammed, arranged for the flight, authorities said.
Any depiction of the prophet, even a favorable one, is forbidden by Islamic law as likely to lead to idolatry.
The Chicago men, who knew each other from a military school in Pakistan, on Tuesday were accused of an international plot dubbed "The Mickey Mouse Project" that since late 2008 included scheming with others to "commit terrorist acts against overseas targets," according to federal criminal complaints made public in Chicago.
The North Side men are accused of plotting to target employees of the Danish newspaper Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten, which published cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in 2005, sparking violent riots across the Muslim world.
The most controversial of the 12 cartoons depicted Mohammed wearing a bomb with a lit fuse as a turban. That cartoon was drawn by Kurt Westergaard, 78 – who was targeted for assassination, authorities said.
But Headley's phone calls were wiretapped and his e-mails were under FBI review. When he tried to board his Pakistan-bound O'Hare flight Oct. 3, the FBI arrested him.
Headley, 49, then confessed to agents about the plot, authorities said. He was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit terrorist acts involving murder and maiming outside the United States and one count of conspiracy to provide material support to the alleged overseas terrorism conspiracy.
Rana, 48, a native of Pakistan and a Canadian citizen, was arrested Oct. 18 at his West Rogers Park home. He was charged with providing material support to a foreign terrorism conspiracy that involved Headley.
In October 2008, Headley used his birth name, Daood Gilani –which he changed in 2006 to avoid suspicion while traveling – when posting a message to a Yahoo group called "abdalians," authorities said.
"Everything is not a joke . . . We are not rehearsing a skit on Saturday Night Live," Headley said in the posting. "Call me old-fashioned, but I feel disposed towards violence for the offending parties."
Headley began his surveillance of targets in Denmark in 2008 and visited two of the newspaper's offices in January under the pretense of taking out an ad for a new business, authorities said.
Headley told agents the plot recently focused on Westergaard and the paper's cultural editor, Flemming Rose, "whom Headley felt were directly responsible for the cartoons," the criminal complaint states.
He also allegedly told agents he was trained by a terrorist organization called Lashkar-e-Taiba, according to his criminal complaint.
Authorities say Headley reported to Ilyas Kashmiri, the operational chief of what the FBI describes as a Pakistani-based terrorist organization with links to al-Qaida, according to the complaint. Headley was headed to Pakistan to report to Kashmiri when the FBI foiled his plans, according to charges.
When he was arrested, FBI agents found a memory stick on him that contained 10 surveillance videos, including footage of the newspaper office and Danish military barracks, the complaint said.
Westergaard was told Tuesday of the alleged plot to kill him.
"I feel confident and safe in my private life," Westergaard said. "I'm angry because I have to live with threats, just because I have done my job. PET (police intelligence) has advised me to keep a low profile and don't give statements. I will follow that, but I'm allowed to say that I'm angry."
Rana owns several businesses, including First World Immigration Services, which has offices on Devon Avenue in Chicago, New York and Toronto, as well as a meat-processing plant in Kinsman. That plant is used to slaughter goats and sheep per Muslim religious requirements.
Extensive means were used to carry out a search warrant of the plant earlier this month. Witnesses said about 100 agents were on the scene. Helicopters, trucks and SUVs could be seen in front of the building during the raid.
Rana's attorney asked the community to reserve judgment.
"Mr. Rana is a well-respected businessman in the Chicagoland community. He adamantly denies the charges and eagerly awaits his opportunity to contest them in court and to clear his and his family's name," said attorney Patrick Blegen. "We would ask that the community respect the fact that these are merely allegations and not proof."
Contributing: Mary Wisniewski, Mark Konkol, Nancy Stuenkel
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1849136,Men-charged-terrorism-JO091026.article