NYC Ground Zero Mosque

[casey]

Originally Posted by greenberetTFS

As for you and Zonie, I'll bet you two guys haven't been to a strip joint since you've been out of the service......

Big Teddy

Res Gestae lads !!! Res Gestae !! No statements until RL clears you......

[Saoirse]

Originally Posted by alright4u

Their hero was a damn thief and a murderer of innocent people riding in caravans. Jesse and Frank James had more class.

Hell for 3-4 coins the bastard wanted a hand cut off for simple theft of fruit.

Yet the Great ONE robbed caravans worth a 100,000 the value of a piece of fruit? Let's not forget he killed them, too'

So Islam sucks in teaching.

If you like rob the rich not the poor- you might like Islam.

This religion is not going to assimilate in America.

I couldn't agree more with you, Alright! For some reason the words, "we ain't played cowboys and muslims, yet" keeps rolling around in the back of my head. Yeah, I'm just sayn!!!

[alright4u]

SF Soldiers playing the damn COIN game of Petraus plus his BS that he invented it. Add the PC, MC, EEOC officers. We win wars by killing the damn enemy- not PC BS.

[Richard]

SF Soldiers playing the damn COIN game of Petraus plus his BS that he invented it.

COIN (nee CI or CGW or CRW) was a part of SF doctrine and national strategy long before any of us here made it to Group or GEN Petraus was lauded for 'reinventing' it.

And on the subject at hand:

Looking at Islamic Center Debate, World Sees U.S.
NYT, 25 Aug 2010

For more than two decades, Abdelhamid Shaari has been lobbying a succession of governments in Milan for permission to build a mosque for his congregants — any mosque at all, in any location.

For now, he leads Friday Prayer in a stadium normally used for rock concerts. When sites were proposed for mosques in Padua and Bologna, Italy, a few years ago, opponents from the anti-immigrant Northern League paraded pigs around them. The projects were canceled.

In that light, the furor over the precise location of Park51, the proposed Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan, looks to Mr. Shaari like something to aspire to. “At least in America,” Mr. Shaari said, “there’s a debate.”

(cont'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/world/26islamic.html

Richard

[alright4u]

Ironically, a 5th Group Major asked some questions. The O&I committee had his answers in old blue books.

Now this WTC Mosque to get back on track is going to be taller then the Empire State Building.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2319602620100823

[6.8SPC_DUMP]

On a some-what related note Larry Silverstein (of Silverstein Properties), who acquired the World Trade Center complex for $3.2 billion (99-year lease) on July 24, 2001, has reached a deal to rebuild in the area of W.T.C buildings 1 and 2 (the two big ones). I haven't seen anything on what the new buildings might look like.

W.T.C. Silverstein Deal Finalized, Finally

The board of the Port Authority today voted in favor of a deal struck between Mr. Silverstein, the agency's staff and the city and state governments that provides the developer a bailout package of sorts to allow him to build two towers on the site, provided he can find a relatively small tenant commitment and raise $300 million in capital. Given that the package accounted for hundreds of millions in new subsidies on top of old subsidies already in place, it was not a deal typical of government economic development efforts; but, in the end, the governmental powers that be opted for this over an unending stalemate that rendered the World Trade Center site paralyzed.

[T-Rock]

The Tangled Web of the GZM Imam's Organizations Raises Questions

IPT News
August 26, 2010


The backers of the Ground Zero Mosque have virtually no money, one of the group's leaders says, and plan to create another nonprofit organization that would further complicate the already labyrinthine financial network surrounding the project.

Daisy Khan, one of the leaders of the project, told supporters over the weekend that the mosques organizers have "nothing in the bank" for their effort. Khan said there is no money and that she doesn't know of anything that has been raised.

Tracing the money going to the two nonprofit groups led by Khan and her husband and partner in the mosque project, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, requires a world map.

Federal tax records show Rauf and Khan direct the two groups supporting the mosque project – the Cordoba Initiative and the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA). Those two organizations, along with Soho Properties, which owns the site of the proposed mosque and community center, are coordinating the project.

However, federal tax records show the Cordoba Initiative has not listed contributions from at least two charitable foundations that have supported its activities. In another case, a foundation gave money to Cordoba's sister group, the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA), that was supposed to go to Cordoba; that money was also not listed in Cordoba's tax records.

Cordoba has failed to list almost $100,000 in charitable donations since 2007, federal tax records show.

Between 2006 and 2008, Cordoba's charitable tax filings with the IRS show a total of $31,668 in gross receipts. However, tax filings from two charities that have donated to Cordoba or ASMA show more than $130,000 to donations to Cordoba during that time.

They include:

$98,000 from 2006 through 2008 from the Deak Family Foundation, a Rye, N.Y.-based nonprofit organization.
$32,000 from the William and Mary Greve Foundation of New York in 2007.
The Greve foundation also gave ASMA $25,000 in 2008 "to support Cordoba Initiative in improving Muslim-West relations." There is no record in the Cordoba Initiative's tax filings that shows it received $25,000 from ASMA. Greve foundation officials did not respond to requests for comment.
The Deak foundation's contributions to Cordoba were routed through ASMA, the religious organization Rauf founded in 1997 as the American Sufi Muslim Association, said R. Leslie Deak, the foundation's director. The Deak foundation has also given more than $100,000 between 2006 and 2008 to the National Defense University Foundation. That group supports activities at the National Defense University, a Pentagon think tank in Washington.

However, Cordoba's tax filings between 2005 and 2008 show no contributions from ASMA.

The missing donations are troubling, said Bob Blitzer, a former FBI counterterrorism chief now in private business. "Obviously, they're not running things very well," Blitzer said. "It's the whole issue of the money is really bothering the public. Does he have the money?"

Blitzer said the missing money could be due to theft, embezzlement or sloppy bookkeeping. "They're really open for somebody who, particularly the government since they're filing as a nontaxable institution, could look into why the money is missing," he said.

As a religious organization, ASMA is exempt from filing the same federal tax forms as Cordoba. That means it is not required to name its donors, or reveal how much it receives in donations or how it spends its money in federal tax documents.

The church status for ASMA comes from the group's original 1997 filing with the IRS. ASMA was originally created as the American Sufi Muslim Organization and stated on its federal application it would provide "facilities for the local Muslim community in offering five time daily prayers" and other religious functions. As a result, the group was granted church status and was exempted from filing the traditional tax forms and financial disclosures associated with other charities.

The group changed its name from the American Sufi Muslim Association to the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA) in 2006, New York state corporation records show. Its current web site mentions nothing about the group hosting prayer services. Instead, it cites five key parts of its mission, to educate, incubate, advocate, organize and mobilize on behalf of Islam.

Their church status, former FBI counter-terrorist chief Blitzer said, could also be subject to an investigation. "The bigger issue is, if they got tax exempt status as a church and they're now not having services, how can they maintain their status for any length of time?" Blitzer said.

A financial statement found on ASMA's web site for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009, also does not mention religious services as one of the group's functions. The statement says ASMA is "a non-profit intermediary organization established in 1997 and dedicated to reshaping the discourse about Islam."

The same financial statement lists Cordoba as a "related party." The statement says Cordoba is a separate corporation that will "work with ASMA as a sister organization sharing the same infrastructure, space, utilities, vendor services and co-sponsorship of programs to remain fiscally lean and keep operational costs low for both."

The statement, however, does not show that ASMA sent any money to Cordoba between July 1, 2008, and June 30, 2009.

During that time, ASMA reported receiving $1,382,194 in grants, the financial statement shows. Donors included the United Nations Population Fund, $53,664; the Dutch government's MDG3 Fund, $481,942; the Hunt Alternatives Fund, $15,000; the Carnegie Corp. of New York, $122,000; the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, $50,000; and the Qatar government fund, $576,312.

There are no available records for anything called the Qatar government fund, although the oil-rich Persian Gulf nation has a sovereign wealth fund known as the Qatar Investment Authority.

At various times this year, Rauf has said he plans to solicit donations for the $100 million mosque and community center project from overseas sources, although he has not named any donors. One possible source could be Malaysia, where Cordoba has an office, according to a 2009 New York corporate filing.

In an interview earlier this year, however, Khan said there is no connection between the two offices that share the same name. "I don't know what the status of that organization is," Khan told investigative reporter Claudia Rosett of Forbes magazine on Aug. 11. Yet Khan is named as a Cordoba official in the 2004 tax form that includes the reference to the Malaysian official. Khan is also listed as a Cordoba director in its 2008 tax filing, which is the latest on record.

Imam Rauf was also listed as a participant in several meetings of the Malaysia-based Perdana Global Peace Organisation, according to the group's web site. Perdana is led by former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

Mohamad was prime minister from 1981 to 2003. Shortly before he left office, he told a gathering at the Organization of the Islamic Conference that Jews rule the world by proxy. Mohamad said he was not anti-Semitic but opposed "Jews who kill Muslims" and "the Jews who support the killers of Muslims."

Creating a new nonprofit group to handle the finances for the mosque profit means that outsiders looking to monitor the group's finances would have to wait until 2012, according to guidelines for nonprofits posted on Guidestar.org. That site tracks nonprofit groups and their finances.

It takes an average of two months for the IRS to rule on a group's nonprofit filing, Guidestar says. So, if the group filed immediately, it could receive tax-exempt status in late October. IRS regulations require all nonprofits to file their tax forms within five months after the end of their fiscal year. That would push disclosure of the mosque group's finances to March 2012 at the earliest.

Until then, however, questions about Rauf and Khan's finances remain. "When you see this kind of activity, it makes you pause," Blitzer said.

Read more at: http://www.investigativeproject.org/...-organizations

[spherojon]

While browsing the internet this crossed my path. While the article isn't much to look at, the video is. CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said the point of the ad is to "challenge the notion that Muslims were not also targeted on 9/11."



http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot...tional-service

[dadof18x'er]

Originally Posted by spherojon

While browsing the internet this crossed my path. While the article isn't much to look at, the video is. CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said the point of the ad is to "challenge the notion that Muslims were not also targeted on 9/11."



http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot...tional-service

I found this article about muslim brotherhood getting stimulus funds....
http://bigpeace.com/cbrim/2010/08/29...m-brotherhood/

[T-Rock]

I found this article about muslim brotherhood getting stimulus funds....
http://bigpeace.com/cbrim/2010/08/29...m-brotherhood/

Who'da thunk it.....our tax dollars going to the Ikhwan....it's not like they have any influence...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFOnv3xiKPU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQLIa...eature=channel

[Nightflyer]

Warrior Mentors- There's breaking news. I'm in class so here goes..

MYFOXNY.COM - Fox 5 News reported Thursday that one of the financial backers of the Islamic mosque and cultural center project in Lower Manhattan once contributed to a terror group, although the investor says the contribution was made because he thought he was giving money to a harmless charity.

One of the key players in Sharif El-Gamal's Mosque near Ground Zero is Egyptian born businessman, Hisham Elzanaty. Fox 5 News has learned exclusively and confirmed with Mr. Elzanaty’s attorney that Elzanaty made a “significant investment” in the development of the mosque near Ground Zero.

Fox 5 has also uncovered Elzanaty has teamed up with El-Gamal on at least two real estate deals: the controversial mosque site and another deal involving a commercial property in the Chelsea section of Manhattan.

In the Chelsea deal, mortgage documents show Elzanaty played a major role signing off as the guarantor on El-Gamal's $39 million mortgage.

When Fox 5 News reporter Charles Leaf tracked down Elzanaty outside his Long Island home in Roslyn Heights last week Elzanaty avoided the camera and did not answer a single question about his business dealings with El-Gamal.

Fox 5 News has also learned that in 1999 Hisham Elzanaty sent money to an organization that would later be deemed by the U.S. government to be a terrorist group.

The organization was the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, also known as HLF. The now defunct group’s 1999 tax records show Elzanaty contributed more than $6,000 to HLF.

Two years later, in 2001, HLF was shut down by the federal government and designated as a global terrorist. After a mistrial in 2007, in 2008 five HLF leaders were convicted of providing material support to Hamas.

The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) is a non-profit research group that focuses on radical Islamic terrorist groups. The research group shared its information on HLF with Fox 5 News and IPT’s Managing Director, Ray Locker tells us HLF, “masked what their true purpose was, they funneled money to Hamas which used that money to conduct terrorist operations. In many cases they gave that money to the widows and children of so-called martyrs. ”

Federal investigators say HLF was set up as the largest Muslim charity in the United States based in Richardson, Texas, but from its inception the group existed to support Hamas.

Mr. Elzanaty's attorney tells Fox 5 News exclusively his client believed he was making contributions to an orphanage.

But IPT’s Ray Locker claims even back then TV and newspapers were reporting suspicions of the group’s ties to terror. “If you gave money (to HLF) in 1999 you probably had some inkling that HLF was giving money to Hamas and therefore to terrorist operations,” Locker says.

Mr. Elzanaty's contribution to HLF came in the same year his Egyptian parents, Abdou Elzanaty and Abed Raboh Fawkia Elzanaty, were killed in a plane crash. On October 31, 1999, Egyptair flight 990 left New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport bound for Cairo, but crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Nantucket Island killing 217 people. U.S. investigators concluded the flight’s pilot deliberately crashed the plane in a suicide, while Egyptian investigators disagreed, concluding the flight had mechanical problems.

Elzanaty’s attorney tells Fox 5 the tragic plane crash changed Mr. Elzanaty's life and brought him closer to Islam.

--------------

See below for the 1999 IRS 990 form for the organization known as: Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF).

It shows Hisham Elzanaty’s $6,050 contribution. (Specific street addresses and names have been removed by Fox 5 News)

In 2001 the HLF was shut down by the U.S. government and designated as a global terrorist. After a mistrial in 2007, in 2008 five HLF leaders were convicted of providing material support to Hamas, a group on the U.S. governments List of Foreign Terrorists.

U.S. Government's List of Foreign Terrorists:

http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/other/des/123085.htm


Hamas is the same dirty terrorist who drove a VBIED into the Devil Dog barracks back in the early 80's. How could our intel resources not know about this shady stuff sooner? Some people need to be a little bit more squared away and ratchet down at their jobs is all I have to say.

Respectfully.
Night

[T-Rock]

On October 31, 1999, Egyptair flight 990 left New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport bound for Cairo, but crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Nantucket Island killing 217 people.

FWIW, that was the flight in which Gameel Al-Batouti insisted on taking the controls shortly after takeoff while yelling “Allahu akbar!” - as he shut down the engines, and both elevators were moved three degrees nose down, the plane dived over 14,000 feet in 36 seconds into the ocean.

[TOMAHAWK9521]

So now this asshole is saying the mosque can't be moved or else it will incite hatred and violence amongst radical islamists and threaten national security? Gee, what a surprise.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/09/09...nrage-muslims/

[Penn]

In addition to the above, this article has a bit more local commentary.

Imam: Handling of Islamic center plan a matter of national security
By the CNN Wire Staff


"The whole national security thing: that's a veiled threat," Andy Sullivan, a union construction worker who wants all New York construction workers to boycott the proposed Islamic center, said on CNN's "AC 360" Wednesday night. "He's saying 'you make me move' and, guess what, the whole radical Muslim world is coming after us."
"This is a turf war," Sullivan said.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/09/09/new...r.imam/?hpt=T1

[Richard]

So the 'Jets' and the 'Sharks' are gonna rumble again...and the popularity of revivals remains unabated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu7sRdRrm_w

The Imam didn't say it "can't" be moved - he said it would now be difficult {complicated, sensitive} and potentially dangerous, and must be handled in a way that neither encourages nor allows radical elements to use such a decision for the furthering of their agendas.

The interview with Soledad O'brien is here.

http://www.cnn.com/

Richard