March 14, 2016


News Clips For The Day


http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/03/14/470395022/thats-no-bottlecap-hiker-in-israel-finds-rare-gold-coin

That's No Bottlecap! Hiker In Israel Finds Rare Gold Coin
EMILY HARRIS
Updated March 14, 20164:44 PM ET
Published March 14, 20161:24 PM ET

Photograph -- The front of the rare coin found by a hiker in northern Israel.
Image provided by the Israel Antiquities Authority
Photograph -- The back of the rare coin., Image provided by the Israel Antiquities Authority


Glint in the grass? Often, it's not even a nickel.

But last week, Israeli Laurie Rimon spotted a gleam while on a hike in northern Israel with several friends. It turned out to be a gold coin so unusual, Israeli archaeologists say there is only one other one with the same symbols in the world.

"It's extremely exciting," said Dr. Donald Ariel, an expert with the Israel Antiquities Authority, in comments released by the agency, which says the coin was struck by Roman Emperor Trajan in the year 107. "His gold coins are extremely rare."

One side of the gold disc shows an image of Augustus, the founder of the Roman Empire more than a century earlier. The other has symbols of Roman military legions.

Israeli archaeologists believe Trajan made the coin to honor Augustus. Ariel says at that time gold coins were used only for high finance — and to pay soldiers when silver was unavailable.

But they were worth so much — one gold coin would cover a month of a soldier's salary, according to Ariel — that they were difficult to actually use.

"When the Romans didn't have, for some reason, their regular silver coins to pay soldiers, they would pay three coins every quarter to the soldiers instead of the regular 75 silver coins," Ariel said. "But when the Roman soldier received this coin, what could he do with it? He couldn't buy anything in the market, in town. It was far too much money."

Ariel says soldiers would have to beg the paymaster to change their gold into something spendable.

He speculates that the find — the only coin minted by Trajan found to this day in northern Israel — could give some clues to the Roman army presence in the Galilee area at that time. Jews and Roman rulers fought several wars between A.D. 66 and 135, including before Trajan's rule, when an ancient Jewish temple was destroyed in Jerusalem.

Antiquities officials said Rimon, the hiker who found the coin, told them it was "not easy" to part with her find. "It's not every day one discovers such an amazing object," she told the agency representative who came to inspect and collect it.

The Israel Antiquities Authority plans to give her a certificate of appreciation for turning it over to authorities. They hope to display the coin publicly soon.

Credit: Israel Antiquities Authority



“ … turned out to be a gold coin so unusual, Israeli archaeologists say there is only one other one with the same symbols in the world. "It's extremely exciting," said Dr. Donald Ariel, an expert with the Israel Antiquities Authority, in comments released by the agency, which says the coin was struck by Roman Emperor Trajan in the year 107. "His gold coins are extremely rare." …. Ariel says at that time gold coins were used only for high finance — and to pay soldiers when silver was unavailable. But they were worth so much — one gold coin would cover a month of a soldier's salary, according to Ariel — that they were difficult to actually use. …. He speculates that the find — the only coin minted by Trajan found to this day in northern Israel — could give some clues to the Roman army presence in the Galilee area at that time. Jews and Roman rulers fought several wars between A.D. 66 and 135, including before Trajan's rule, when an ancient Jewish temple was destroyed in Jerusalem. …. The Israel Antiquities Authority plans to give her a certificate of appreciation for turning it over to authorities. They hope to display the coin publicly soon.”


Exciting stuff! Reading about history is great, but to hold in your hand something like that is really magnificent. It would be like “channeling” the ancient dead. Her turning it in to the authorities was a very honest thing to do. Of course, the airport would probably have found it in her luggage if she hadn’t, and she would have been in the news for a less desirable reason.




http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/03/14/470414762/putin-orders-the-start-of-russian-troop-withdrawal-from-syria

Putin Orders The Start Of Russian Troop Withdrawal From Syria
LAURA WAGNER
March 14, 20163:07 PM ET


The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said Monday that in coordination with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, he ordered the withdrawal of the majority of Russian troops from Syria. The pullout is slated to begin tomorrow.

Speaking in a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Putin said the stated objective of Russia's intervention — disrupting ISIS and other terror groups — had "been fulfilled," which had laid the groundwork for more intense peace talks.

"I believe that the task put before the defence ministry and Russian armed forces has, on the whole, been fulfilled," Putin said, according to the Guardian. "With the participation of the Russian military ... the Syrian armed forces and patriotic Syrian forces have been able to achieve a fundamental turnaround in the fight against international terrorism and have taken the initiative in almost all respects."

Russia has long been a supporter of Assad's regime. Critics of Russia's presence in the country say Russian troops were involved in fighting the Syrian opposition groups, not just terrorists.

Putin's move comes as a Russian and U.S.- brokered cease-fire that began last month has largely held, though both the Syrian government and the opposition have cited violations from the other side. ISIS and the al-Qaida branch operating in Syria are not part of the cease-fire.

The withdrawal also comes amid peace talks in Geneva aimed at resolving the five-year-old Syrian conflict.

Putin said Monday's move would send a "good signal" to the parties to the conflict, help raise trust and help serve as a stimulus for Syria's political talks, the Associated Press reports.

The talks are expected to focus on a political transition in the country, which has been a major sticking point for the various parties. Russia and the Syrian regime have been adamant about keeping Assad in power, while the U.S. and Syrian opposition groups demand a new government.


I notice Putin didn’t pull all his troops out. He didn’t say what his plans against ISIS are to date. He also didn’t say which “international terrorists” he was mentioning. Was it us, or ISIS?


https://www.yahoo.com/news/secret-briefly-surrounds-trump-dayton-rally-183538461--election.html#

Trump's new normal: campaign rallies where chaos is expected
THOMAS BEAUMONT and JILL COLVIN,Associated Press
6 minutes ago March 13 2016


CLEVELAND (AP) — Hundreds of police officers, Secret Service agents and private security guards in cars, on foot and on horseback blanketed the area around Donald Trump's campaign rally Saturday afternoon. Dozens of protesters would soon be ejected from the event.

And that was the calmest rally in the past several days thrown by the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.

Welcome to Trump's new normal.

After months spent goading protesters and appearing to encourage violence, Trump has seen his raucous rallies devolve over the past two weeks into events at which chaos is expected. The real estate mogul is routinely unable to deliver a speech without interruption, and a heavy security presence is commonplace amid increasingly violent clashes between protesters and supporters.

On Friday, groupings of well-organized students succeeded in keeping Trump from even taking the stage at a rally in Chicago. The next morning, a protester rushed the stage at a Trump rally outside of Dayton, forcing Secret Service agents to leap on stage and form a protective circle around him.

"Frankly, I'm a little shocked that we got to this point, I'm shocked at it," said Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who is vying with Trump to win his home state's winner-take-all primary on Tuesday.

"We cannot create in this country a toxic environment where images of people slugging it out at a campaign rally, think about it, are transmitted all over the globe," he said.

Trump's events have always been intense. For months, he incorporated interruptions by protesters into his speeches, growling "Get 'em out!" — sparking explosive cheers from the audiences as he did so.

While Trump sometimes appears angered by the disruptions, he has also embraced them, using the interruptions as opportunities to lead his supporters in chants of "USA, USA." He's also joked about how the protesters force TV cameras to pan out over the crowd and show how large they are.

But the confrontations began to escalate this month, most notably at a Trump event in New Orleans. A steady stream of demonstrators interrupted Trump's speech, including a huddle of Black Lives Matter activists, who locked arms and challenged security officials to remove them.

There were skirmishes throughout the speech, mostly pushing and shoving, although one man was captured on video biting someone.

This week, an older white Trump supporter was caught on video punching a younger African-American protester as police led the protester out of a rally in North Carolina. The supporter, later charged with assault, told an interviewer the next time he confronted a protester, "We might have to kill him."

Two days later, police arrested nearly three dozen people at a rally in St. Louis that was interrupted so many times by protesters that Trump joked about how long it was taking him to complete his remarks.

Hours before Trump was scheduled to appear Friday night at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the atmosphere inside a campus arena was crackling as protesters and supporters shouted back and forth, arms raised and yelling in each other's faces.

Some of the protesters, many of whom said they supported Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, said they planned to rush the stage when Trump came out to speak. They didn't get the chance, as Trump called off the rally before even getting to the venue.

"It feels amazing, everybody came together," said Kamran Siddiqui, 20, and a student at the school. "That's what people can do. Now people got to go out and vote because we have the opportunity to stop Trump."

The next morning, Trump was mid-speech when a man, later identified by authorities as Thomas Dimassimo of Fairborn, Ohio, jumped a barricade and rushed at Trump. He was able to touch the stage before he was tackled by security officials.

Trump initially laughed it off, but later in the day, said Dimassimo had ties to the Islamic State. Experts who watched a video Trump tweeted as evidence called the allegation "utterly farcical."

"Trump's accusations about it being linked to ISIS serve only to underline the totality of his ignorance on this issue," said Charles Lister, a fellow at the Middle East Institute.

At the Cleveland rally, more than a dozen officers on horseback patrolled the outside as police helicopters buzzed overhead. Hundreds of officers massed inside to block some exits and sweep the audience out after the event ended.

More than 50 protesters, including a pair of doctors who removed sweat shirts to reveal white T-shirts printed with "Muslim Doctors Save Lives in Cleveland," were told to leave.

Things weren't much different at Trump's evening rally in Kansas City, Missouri, where protesters interrupted the candidate throughout his speech. While he asked his supporters not to hurt them, a visibly annoyed Trump also said he was "going to start pressing charges against all these people."

Back in Cleveland, Brandon Krapes said he was punched repeatedly after he held up his sign, which said, "Trump: Making America Racist Again." His 17-year-old son Logan had a freshly bruised cheek from what he said was a punch in the face he received while trying to help his father.

"The sheer amount of hatred in there is so blatant, and Trump does nothing to stop it," said Sean Khurana, a 23-year-old Cuyahoga Community College student, who is Indian-American. He said someone called him "ISIS" as he stood in line. "He provokes it."

Trump, meanwhile, celebrated a successful campaign day on Twitter.

"Just finished my second speech," he wrote. "20K in Dayton & 25K in Cleveland- perfectly behaved crowd. Thanks- I love you, Ohio!"

Colvin reported from Chicago.

Follow Thomas Beaumont and Jill Colvin on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/TomBeaumont and http://twitter.com/colvinj



"Frankly, I'm a little shocked that we got to this point, I'm shocked at it," said Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who is vying with Trump to win his home state's winner-take-all primary on Tuesday. "We cannot create in this country a toxic environment where images of people slugging it out at a campaign rally, think about it, are transmitted all over the globe," he said. …. But the confrontations began to escalate this month, most notably at a Trump event in New Orleans. A steady stream of demonstrators interrupted Trump's speech, including a huddle of Black Lives Matter activists, who locked arms and challenged security officials to remove them. There were skirmishes throughout the speech, mostly pushing and shoving, although one man was captured on video biting someone. This week, an older white Trump supporter was caught on video punching a younger African-American protester as police led the protester out of a rally in North Carolina. The supporter, later charged with assault, told an interviewer the next time he confronted a protester, "We might have to kill him." …. Trump initially laughed it off, but later in the day, said Dimassimo had ties to the Islamic State. Experts who watched a video Trump tweeted as evidence called the allegation "utterly farcical." "Trump's accusations about it being linked to ISIS serve only to underline the totality of his ignorance on this issue," said Charles Lister, a fellow at the Middle East Institute. …. Things weren't much different at Trump's evening rally in Kansas City, Missouri, where protesters interrupted the candidate throughout his speech. While he asked his supporters not to hurt them, a visibly annoyed Trump also said he was "going to start pressing charges against all these people." …. Back in Cleveland, Brandon Krapes said he was punched repeatedly after he held up his sign, which said, "Trump: Making America Racist Again." His 17-year-old son Logan had a freshly bruised cheek from what he said was a punch in the face he received while trying to help his father. "The sheer amount of hatred in there is so blatant, and Trump does nothing to stop it," said Sean Khurana, a 23-year-old Cuyahoga Community College student, who is Indian-American. He said someone called him "ISIS" as he stood in line. "He provokes it."


I am 100% against Trump, but we ALL have to stop throwing punches. Trump behaves so outrageously that he is faced with pure fury at these gatherings, and then he doesn’t even try to reign in his overly “enthusiastic” crowds. No, he whips them up with verbal threats at all protestors. Protests are supposedly allowed in this country. They should be peaceful, though, and the recent reports have spoken about the high degree of tension on both sides. This does remind me of the 1968 “police riot” in Chicago. Let’s don’t go through it again.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bernie-sanders-on-disrupting-donald-trump-rallies-thats-not-what-we-do/

Sanders on campaign violence: "That's not what we do"
By EMILY SCHULTHEIS FACE THE NATION
March 13, 2016, 11:09 AM

Play Video -- Sanders

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said Sunday that he's never encouraged his supporters to disrupt rallies for GOP front-runner Donald Trump, saying the anger and violence Trump incites is "not good for the country."

"To suggest that our campaign is telling people to disrupt his campaign is a lie. We don't," he said. "And we have millions of supporters and some of them will do what they do. But our campaign has never, not once, organized any effort to disrupt Mr. Trump's rallies or anybody else's rallies. That's not what we do."

Sanders's comments came after Trump himself suggested Sanders supporters were causing the disruptions at his rallies, suggesting he may begin sending supporters to Sanders rallies to cause similar disruptions. He pointed to instances where a man sucker-punched a fellow rally attendee, and to allegations that Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski got rough with a female reporter, as proof of the "violence" of the Trump campaign.

"There's a lot of this feeling about violence coming from Trump's campaign," he said. "And I very much hope that he understands that in a democracy, people should be allowed to go to anybody's rally, peacefully demonstrate without fear of being beaten up. So I really hope he tones it down. This is not good for the country."

As for Tuesday's primaries in five states, including Ohio and Florida, Sanders said his stunning upset in Michigan bodes well for his performance across the map this week.

"Now last week, all of the pollsters predicted that we would lose Michigan by 15, 20, 25 points. Well, we ended up winning," he said. "I think we have a lot of momentum in Illinois, in Ohio, in Missouri. I think we're going to do better than people think in North Carolina and in Florida."

Moderator John Dickerson asked Sanders about health care and where he stood on the issue when his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton was spearheading the fight for universal health care back in the early years of her husband's presidency.

"I have always said that Hillary Clinton did a very, very good job as first lady. She kind of broke the mold as to what a first lady should be doing," Sanders said. "But to criticize me on healthcare is not quite fair because I have been a leader in Congress from day one in the fight for universal health care, to make certain that in the United States, we join the rest of the industrialized world, guarantee healthcare to all people.

Sanders went on to note that he worked with Rep. Jim Clyburn to help put $12 billion in funding toward community health centers, and that he's long taken on the pharmaceutical industry over drug prices. "I don't have to defend myself to anybody about the role I have played in health care," he said.



"And we have millions of supporters and some of them will do what they do. But our campaign has never, not once, organized any effort to disrupt Mr. Trump's rallies or anybody else's rallies. That's not what we do." …. "There's a lot of this feeling about violence coming from Trump's campaign," he said. "And I very much hope that he understands that in a democracy, people should be allowed to go to anybody's rally, peacefully demonstrate without fear of being beaten up. …. "But to criticize me on healthcare is not quite fair because I have been a leader in Congress from day one in the fight for universal health care, to make certain that in the United States, we join the rest of the industrialized world, guarantee healthcare to all people. Sanders went on to note that he worked with Rep. Jim Clyburn to help put $12 billion in funding toward community health centers, and that he's long taken on the pharmaceutical industry over drug prices.”


Bernie Sanders was not, by and large, as well known to the populace as Hillary. He was in the legislature, and active in improving things, but he was not on the front page of the newspaper nearly as often as Clinton. He also does look very “professorial,” which he is, and some Americans link that with being “nerdy” or even less masculine than they would like. To me his high energy level and physical condition are masculine, but like Obama he has those lean rather than bulky muscles. He doesn’t look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Like Hillary, though, he is very, very fluent in the English language and quick on his feet when it comes to defending his points. He reminds me of Bill Clinton in that way. Hillary’s advances so far look intimidating, but anyone who watches horse races know the thrill of having their pick come up from the back and win the race!



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-isis-defector-muhammad-jamal-amin-iraq-kurdish-peshmerga/

Alleged American ISIS defector held in Iraq
CBS NEWS March 14, 2016, 7:05 AM

Play VIDEO -- Recruiting for ISIS
Play video -- CBS morning news from Iraq
Related Articles -- Plans by ISIS to attack U.S. possibly disrupted
Iraq says ISIS chemical attack killed little girl, wounded hundreds
Documents appear to reveal info on dozens of ISIS recruits


Two sources with the Kurdish peshmerga military force told CBS News on Monday that its troops in northern Iraq had detained an apparent American ISIS defector as he tried to make his way back to Turkey.

The man, identified by Kurdish news organizations as Virginia resident Muhammad Jamal Amin, 27, was apprehended as he approached a peshmerga checkpoint near the Iraqi town of Sinjar.

Reports suggested that the peshmerga initially believed the suspect was a suicide bomber, and that they fired warning shots at him, but that he then identified himself as former militant with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) who wished to turn himself in.

According to the reports, Amin had only been in the region fighting with ISIS for a couple months.

He was in custody of Kurdish officials in the city of Erbil, where there is a large U.S. military pressence.

Kurdish TV showed various identification and bank cards appearing to identify Amin, including a Virginia driver's license.

Also on Kurdish TV, a video was posted showing a bearded man, purportedly Amin, being questioned by a peshmerga commander.

He says he's from the United States, and that his father is Palestinian and his mother from Mosul, Iraq.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad told CBS News it could not confirm the detention of an Americna, indicating it had only recently become aware of the reports.

U.S. intelligence officials believe about a dozen American citizens have going to fight with ISIS in Iraq and Syria.


It may not make much difference, but at least some of these young twits are being caught. Quite a few have been picked up by US Customs. Just as this viral illness of loving war for its’ own sake has become an epidemic, perhaps it will die out and become magically unpopular as Ebola does after a year or so. I hope that process doesn’t require the death of all those who are susceptible. Maybe Islamic parents will realize that they have the most control over the children’s behavior of anyone, and will bring up young people to become logical and not subject to the siren song of propaganda. I keep saying this, but if people would just think for themselves rather than following the leader we would have much less of this.


WHAT’S GOING ON IN PORTLAND OREGON?

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sniffer-dog-portland-bound-combat-missiles-serbia/

Sniffer dog finds Portland-bound combat missiles in Serbia
CBS/AP March 14, 2016, 7:13 AM

Photograph -- agm-114hellfirehungonapredatordrone.jpg -- An AGM-114 Hellfire missile hung on the rail of an US Air Force (USAF) MQ-1L Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is inscribed with, "IN MEMORY OF HONORABLE RONALD REAGAN." TSGT SCOTT REED, USAF, COMBAT CAMERA DEPLOYED VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Play Video -- CBS News


BELGRADE, Serbia - Serbia's authorities are investigating a cargo package bound for the U.S. containing two missiles with explosive warheads that were found on a passenger flight from Lebanon to Serbia.

N1 television said the package with two guided armor-piercing missiles was discovered Saturday by a sniffer dog after an Air Serbia flight from Beirut landed at Belgrade airport.

The Lebanese army said the two missiles were used for training and claimed they did not contain any explosives. They did not explain then how a bomb-sniffer dog was able to detect them.

The army said the missiles were being sent to the American company that produced them. It said the return was in accordance "with administrative and legal measures after the training ended."

Serbian media said documents listed the final destination for the AGM-114 Hellfire missiles as Portland, Oregon. The American-made projectiles can be fired from air, sea or ground platforms.

N1 reported Sunday that Air Serbia is helping in the investigation. The Serbian flag carrier says "security and safety are the main priorities for Air Serbia."

The Portland office of the FBI would only tell CBS affiliate KOIN-TV that they are "looking into it."

The Oregonian newspaper reports the missile "is manufactured by Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrup Grumman. It weighs about 100 pounds and costs about $110,000 apiece. Most models use laser to home in on their targets, although one version of the AGM-114 relies on radar."

Scott Winegar, the director of Homeland Security Education at Concordia University, told KOIN the missiles found have been heavily used by drones to fire on ground targets over the past few years.

He said the investigation as to where these came from needs to start with the Department of Defense.

"The other organizations that we have in the US are not responsible for distributing Hellfire missiles. That's a Department of Defense asset so, wherever it came from, it would have to have come through the Department of Defense's logistical chain," Winegar said. "If it came from the U.S., if it came from our allies, that's going to muddy the waters."



“Serbia's authorities are investigating a cargo package bound for the U.S. containing two missiles with explosive warheads that were found on a passenger flight from Lebanon to Serbia. N1 television said the package with two guided armor-piercing missiles was discovered Saturday by a sniffer dog after an Air Serbia flight from Beirut landed at Belgrade airport. The Lebanese army said the two missiles were used for training and claimed they did not contain any explosives. They did not explain then how a bomb-sniffer dog was able to detect them. The army said the missiles were being sent to the American company that produced them. It said the return was in accordance "with administrative and legal measures after the training ended." Serbian media said documents listed the final destination for the AGM-114 Hellfire missiles as Portland, Oregon. …. The Lebanese army said the two missiles were used for training and claimed they did not contain any explosives. They did not explain then how a bomb-sniffer dog was able to detect them. The army said the missiles were being sent to the American company that produced them. It said the return was in accordance "with administrative and legal measures after the training ended." Serbian media said documents listed the final destination for the AGM-114 Hellfire missiles as Portland, Oregon.



The only links with this that I found on the Net are that there is indeed a branch of Northrup Grumman at Portland; and that there is a certain mosque in Portland which has been watched closely by the FBI since the 9/11 attack. The imam has been under surveillance for suspicious activities, for Social Security fraud and falsifying his income to receive state medical care. The Portland Seven, worshippers at his mosque, called Masjed As-Saber, are discussed in the article below as potentially involved in terrorism.

This is not to say that Muslims are involved with this really strange, perhaps botched, missile shipment. Still the connection to Lebanon brings the question to my mind. If it was legitimate, why didn’t the Belgrade officials know it was on the plane, and why did the sniffer dog find explosives in a supposedly unarmed shipment? The Lebanese Army claims to have been unaware of any explosives being in the missiles. The DOD and the FBI are investigating. I hope to hear a follow-up story soon.


THE PORTLAND SEVEN

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/06/fbi_actions_have_left_a_portla.html

FBI actions have left a Portland mosque and its imam feeling they're in the government's cross hairs
Helen Jung | hjung@oregonian.com By Helen Jung
on June 09, 2012 at 9:30 PM, updated June 18, 2012 at 3:05 PM

Photograph -- kariye.JPG, View full sizeRick Bowmer/The Associated Press
Sheikh Mohamed Kariye leaves the U.S. Court of Appeals in Portland last month after oral arguments on the ACLU no-fly list lawsuit.


On a bright April afternoon, hundreds of worshippers spill into a Southwest Portland parking lot, exchanging hugs and handshakes after the weekly sermon. Children scamper around the property, bordered by a white picket fence. The man who has guided the congregation for more than a decade greets the faithful.

The scene could be from any Sunday in America. Except this one unfolds on a Friday, among a crowd of U.S. and foreign-born Muslims and local converts. The women, in full-length dresses and glittering head scarves, emerge from a side door while the men, in traditional robes or casual wear, exit through the front.

There's one more distinction: At Masjed As-Saber, Oregon's largest mosque, the people sense that God isn't the only one scrutinizing their spirituality.

FBI and the mosque

The FBI's interest in Masjed As-Saber dates back more than 10 years.
October 2001: A group of Muslims, most regular attendees at Masjed As-Saber, plan to fight in Afghanistan against U.S. forces. They are turned away in China and most of the "Portland Seven" return to Oregon.
September 2002: Sheikh Mohamed Kariye is arrested at Portland International Airport and charged with Social Security fraud.
October 2002: Authorities arrest five of the Portland Seven. A sixth is arrested in March 2003. The seventh is killed in a raid on an al-Qaida encampment in Pakistan in October 2003. The living defendants all plead guilty the following year to charges ranging from money laundering to conspiracy to wage war against the United States. Four have completed their prison terms.
March 2003: Kariye pleads guilty to using a Social Security card with a false birth date to obtain Oregon Health Plan benefits and understating his income. Months later, the FBI reveals it is investigating Kariye for possibly supporting the Portland Seven, although it never brings charges.
March 2010: Airline employees block Kariye from flying to Dubai to visit his daughter and tell him he is on the government's no-fly list.
April 2010: Yonas Fikre, who previously attended Masjed As-Saber, is questioned by the FBI while visiting Sudan. Fikre says he refuses to answer questions about the mosque and the imam and turns down requests to become an informant.
June 2010: ACLU sues the FBI over the no-fly list in U.S. District Court in Portland on behalf of Kariye and 14 others.
November 2010: Mohamed Mohamud, then 19 and an occasional visitor to Masjed As-Saber, is arrested for allegedly trying to detonate a weapon of mass destruction at the annual tree-lighting in Pioneer Courthouse Square. The "bomb" is a hoax device set up by the FBI, which had been monitoring him for months.
June 2011: Fikre is arrested in the United Arab Emirates. He says his captors torture him and ask him the same questions the FBI had asked. He is released after 106 days and is seeking asylum in Sweden.
September 2011: Michael Migliore, a Portland State University student who attended Masjed As-Saber and was an acquaintance of Mohamed Mohamud, learns he is on the no-fly list. He is detained while traveling to Italy by British authorities. They grill him about his religion before letting him go, he says.
January 2012: Mustafa Elogbi and Jamal Tarhuni, two businessmen who both attend Masjed As-Saber and traveled separately to Libya, are blocked from returning home. Elogbi is detained in London, jailed for two days, questioned about his religion and sent back to the Middle East. Tarhuni is blocked from leaving Tunisia and is questioned by FBI agents. Both are told they are on the no-fly list.
February 2012: With the help of a lawyer and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, both men are able to fly home separately.

In the past two years, the FBI has placed at least five men with affiliations to the mosque, including its longtime religious leader, on the nation's no-fly list, a roster of suspected terrorists barred from flying in the United States. None has been charged with a terrorism-related offense, and federal officials haven't told them why they're on the list.

The unexplained actions are aggravating the FBI's already poor relationship with the mosque and fueling fear and frustration among Muslims that their house of worship appears to be once again in the government's cross hairs.

"It's not that we're doing anything wrong," said Jesse Day, who converted to Islam two years ago and regularly attends the Friday services. But like many others at the mosque who flinch at the sight of a camera and suspect an informant moves among them, he worries.

"There's this sense of nervousness. ... No one knows who's secretly the FBI," he said.

The FBI's top official in Portland said the agency doesn't go after people based on their religion, ethnicity or where they pray. "Nobody should be living in fear or concerned about random targeting by the FBI," said Special Agent in Charge Gregory Fowler.

But he wouldn't comment about any of the local men detained by the FBI or respond to their allegations that authorities questioned them about the mosque and the imam and proposed that they become informants.

Mosques across the country are under close watch by local and federal authorities. In New York, police have conducted widespread surveillance of Muslim communities, even recording license plates of cars at mosques. In Southern California, the FBI is dealing with fallout from a claim by a former informant who says the FBI coached him to talk of violence to incite other Muslims at his mosque into terrorism-related conversations.

In Oregon, Masjed As-Saber stands out for its traditional focus and charismatic imam, who urges worshippers to stay true to the vast library of strict Islamic teachings, down to the conviction that men and women shouldn't trim their eyebrows. The imam himself, Sheikh Mohamed Kariye, has been at the center of an FBI investigation. He also is one of 15 men suing the FBI over the constitutionality of the no-fly list.

With little information from the FBI, many at the mosque suspect the government is trying to harass people into a more Westernized Islam, said Tugrul Keskin, who attends the mosque and is an assistant professor of international and Middle East studies at Portland State University.

"They are trying to transform them into something that's not Muslim," Keskin said. "As-Saber is a true representation of Islam. . . (The government has) to accept who Muslims are."

Ongoing FBI attention

Masjed As-Saber, a two-story concrete building with pink trim and a modest minaret, sits on a hill up from Southwest Capitol Highway in a neighborhood of single-family homes and apartment complexes.

The Sunni mosque, whose name means "patience," opened in its current location in 1998 and serves as many as 500 people at peak times. Donations collected over more than 10 years covered the construction costs. The mosque also requests weekly donations of $3 a person for operations and solicits additional contributions for improvements such as its campaign in time for summer to install windows that open.
. . . .

He came to Portland in 1982, leaving Somalia, which was in the grips of political unrest that included harassment of Islamic scholars. A U.S. citizen since 1998, he became the imam at Masjed As-Saber in 1999.

His rise has not gone unnoticed by the FBI.

In September 2002, authorities arrested Kariye at Portland International Airport as he and family members prepared to fly to Dubai. He was charged the next day with Social Security fraud, but his arrest by the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force signaled a more ominous suspicion.

The arrest was unusual. A federal prosecutor successfully argued to hold Kariye without bail, saying a customs official at the airport had found traces of TNT on his bags. Tests two weeks later concluded the initial findings were wrong and Kariye was released the following month.

Kariye pleaded guilty six months later to understating his income to qualify for Oregon Health Plan benefits and using a Social Security card with a false birth date to obtain the benefits. A judge sentenced him to probation and he paid $6,000 in fines and restitution.

But that didn't end the FBI's interest. An affidavit in August 2003 revealed that agents believed Kariye financially supported a group of Muslims -- known as the Portland Seven -- who had tried to reach Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban in September 2001. Most had regularly prayed at Masjed As-Saber and were turned in by an FBI informant at the mosque who recorded hours of conversations with two primary defendants.

Kariye was never charged. The FBI affidavit stated the informant failed to record a key conversation that allegedly described the imam's support.

Then in March 2010, Kariye tried to board a flight to Dubai to visit his daughter, but was blocked by an airport official who told him he was on a government watch list, according to the lawsuit challenging the no-fly list.

In the past year, four men who have or still regularly attend Masjed As-Saber have found themselves on the no-fly list as well: Michael Migliore, Jamal Tarhuni, Mustafa Elogbi and Yonas Fikre.

All said they were asked about their faith. In some cases, FBI agents seemed to suggest that being devout was a sign of extremism, they said. At least two said they were asked to spy at the mosque.

Mercy, faith, devotion

Each Friday afternoon, after a short call to prayer, Kariye steps to a microphone to speak to the hundreds who come to hear him.

First in Arabic and then in English, his sermons often reinforce a message of devotion to Islam in a mainstream culture that reveres wealth, career and material goods as signs of success. . . . .

His sermons frequently include quotes or stories from the Quran or the Sunnah, books that recorded the example set by the Prophet Muhammad in his daily life, to illustrate themes of mercy, faith and devotion.

. . . .

Public perception concern

What, if anything, ask people who attend Masjed As-Saber, does the FBI know that they don't?

"Why the big secrecy? Why all these years?" said Laila Hajoo, president of Islamic Social Services of Oregon State. If anyone is suspected of wrongdoing, people at the mosque want to know, she said.

"That's the hardship that we're facing," Hajoo said. "We don't know why."

Although the FBI's scrutiny in the past led to convictions of the Portland Seven, the agency has acknowledged missteps both on a local and national level with Muslims. Most recently, the FBI announced it discarded hundreds of training documents that were determined to be biased or inaccurate regarding Islam.

The FBI's Fowler said he can't specifically discuss Masjed As-Saber, the imam or the recent cases. He has never stepped inside the mosque, nor has he spoken with Kariye, whose status as a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the FBI over the no-fly list necessitates the caution, he said.

But he said the agency regularly evaluates its actions and investigations to make sure any information it has is reliable. Fowler also noted that he personally reaches out to Muslim immigrant groups and other mosques or centers to try to build trust.

Mosque leaders worry that the FBI's persistent attention is spilling over into how the public treats them. In March, Wells Fargo abruptly decided to close the bank accounts of the imam and the mosque. Both had accounts at the bank for several years.

A Wells Fargo spokesman, Tom Unger, said he doesn't know the reasons for the bank's decision, but maintained that "neither religion nor any other factors that could be considered discriminatory are included as part of that process" for closing the accounts.

But Unger advised doing an Internet search on the mosque's name, which turns up various links to news stories as well as other websites including those that allege a connection to terrorism.

Those assumptions show the problems the mosque's congregation regularly faces, Kariye said.

Mosques don't control who attends and don't have formal members, leaders noted. The government "has the full right to make sure there is no criminal act taking place inside the mosque," Kariye said.

But instead, he said, their actions feel like religious harassment.

"Always (the FBI) will say, 'We are not against Islam -- we are against radical interpretations of religion,'" he said. "A Muslim who is trying to practice the religion -- to them -- is a radical."

--Helen Jung
Follow @helenjung

. . . .



“With little information from the FBI, many at the mosque suspect the government is trying to harass people into a more Westernized Islam, said Tugrul Keskin, who attends the mosque and is an assistant professor of international and Middle East studies at Portland State University. "They are trying to transform them into something that's not Muslim," Keskin said. "As-Saber is a true representation of Islam. . . (The government has) to accept who Muslims are."

While I don’t for a moment condone Rightist abuse of Muslims, nor the creation of antimuslim laws of any kind, I can find it in my heart to forgive the Homeland Security, NSA, FBI, DOJ, etc. for keeping a close watch on nationalistic fundamentalism of any kind. That includes white, Christian groups as well if they become involved with such intrigues. The cruel and unrepentant Timothy McVeigh was such a man. I would also like to bring up another comment about Muslims. In researching Portland I found a truly peaceful branch of Islam which is neither Sunni nor Shia. They are a recent branch which traditional Muslims don’t acknowledge at all. Portland is also home to their mosque. They are discussed in the article below. They are probably the sort of Muslims that Kariye feels the FBI wants him to become. They are totally antiwar except in self-defense, and never to “spread” the message. They don’t want to take over any country or wipe out “the infidels.”



http://www.oregonlive.com/O/index.ssf/2010/07/post_1.html

Shunned by mainstream Muslims, Portland's Ahmadi community treasures freedom to worship openly
Nancy Haught, The Oregonian By Nancy Haught, The Oregonian
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on July 11, 2010 at 11:42 AM, updated July 11, 2010 at 1:45 PM

Photograph -- Harris Zafar and his son, Rohan, 2, participate in Friday prayers at the Portland Rizwan Mosque. They are Ahmadis, or members of the Ahmadiyya movement, Muslims who revere the founder of their group as the messiah Michael Lloyd, The Oregonian
Photograph -- Michael Lloyd, The Oregonian, Richard Reno, president of Portland's Rizwan Mosque


Like many teenagers, Saira Ahmad questioned her religious faith -- once she found out what it was. The Portland resident was born and grew up in Saudi Arabia, believing that she was Muslim. Her family attended mosques and celebrated the holy days of Islam like most of their neighbors.

But after a visit to relatives in Pakistan, Ahmad discovered that her family was Ahmadi, members of a movement in Islam that is ignored or scorned by mainstream Muslims. Her parents, fearing reprisals, had kept the details of their faith a secret.

"Why does everyone hate us?" she remembers asking her mother. "We follow Islam. We follow the Five Pillars. We accept a messiah that the rest of the world is waiting for. I was 16, and I just didn't understand."

Ahmadi Muslims were founded in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, a native of India who said he was the messiah foretold by the Prophet Muhammad. Ahmadi headquarters in London claim more than 10 million followers who live, work and pray in 190 countries. Ahmadis are a minority of the estimated 1.57 billion Muslims in the world. About 87 percent of Muslims are Sunnis, and 10 percent are Shiites, according to a 2009 study released by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Ahmadis differ from mainstream Muslims on the issue of prophethood. Most Muslims believe Muhammad was the Last Prophet. Ahmadis believe their founder was also a prophet. Otherwise, Ahmadis observe almost all Muslim practices, including reciting the Quran, praying five times a day and fasting during the month of Ramadan.

The Ahmadiyya movement has been present in the United States since the 1920s. The group's 65 American chapters include a small, close-knit community of 80 people who worship in Portland's Rizwan Mosque. Built of brick, trimmed in marble and boasting a minaret, the mosque has stood along Southwest 35th Drive for 23 years. . . . .

Americans who learned of the May 28 terrorist attacks on two mosques in Lahore may remember that 94 Muslims died and more than 100 were wounded, without understanding that they were Ahmadi Muslims, not Sunnis or Shiites. But Portland Ahmadis, painfully aware of more than 40 years of persecution in Pakistan, have taken the deaths personally.

In 1974, Pakistan amended its constitution to declare that Ahmadis are not Muslims; Ahmadis are not allowed to greet each other as Muslims or refer to their houses of worship as mosques. Extremist Muslims, who see Ahmadis as heretics, have carried out a campaign against them in Pakistan ever since. The United Nations, the U.S. State Department and Human Rights Watch have been concerned about the situation long before seven gunmen opened fire on the two Ahmadi mosques. . . . .

The Ahmadi motto is "Love for all. Hatred for none." It was a central teaching of their founder, who saw himself as a reformer, intent on uniting all faiths under one banner of peace, Zafar says.

"Ours is a moderate faith. We believe in separation between the mosque and the state. Jihad by the sword is dead. We are to defend our faith with our own rational discourse, the jihad of the pen," he says. To that end, the Ahmadis' founder wrote 80 books and thousands of letters in an effort to rid Islam of what he considered fanatical beliefs.

"The ink of a scholar is holier than the blood of a martyr," Zafar says, repeating a quotation that Ahmadis attribute to Muhammad but one that other Muslims say is fabricated.

Portland's Ahmadiyya community is diverse, with members of Indian, Pakistani, Vietnamese, Chinese and Cambodian descent. Some are lifelong Ahmadis. Others, like Richard Reno, 35, of Beaverton, are converts.
. . . .

In Portland, Ahmadis say they have little interaction with mainstream Muslims. "We are not invited to their Eid celebrations," Reno says, "so we have our own at the mosque."

As an American accustomed to freedom of worship, Reno says the latest violence in Pakistan shocked him. "If there was a simple explanation, then there'd be a simple solution," he says. "Some of it is ignorance. ... An extreme mullah can guide people into things that are not really part of Islam."

Shortly after Saira Ahmad learned her family secret, she left Saudi Arabia for boarding school in England. She remembers her first visit to an Ahmadi mosque in London and sitting with her uncle, who patiently answered her religious questions. She read the book, "Invitation to Ahmadiyyat," and prayed. Today she says she does not waver in her faith.

Ahmad earned a university degree in economics in Toronto, another city with a large Ahmadi mosque. She married an Ahmadi and they moved to Arizona and California before they settled in Portland five years ago. She is grateful every day for the freedom to worship openly.

"I grew up not being able to go to a mosque of my own," she says.

Now she has a place to worship, a place to ask others to pray for her, a place to try out her ideas and get some feedback.

"For my daughter," she says, "it's a place where she can know what -- and who -- she is."

-- Nancy Haught


http://www.golocalpdx.com/news/The-Threat-of-Terror-in-Oregon-Americans-and-ISIS

The Threat of Terror in Oregon - Americans and ISIS
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Monday, December 07, 2015
GoLocalPDX News Team and GraphIQ

Photograph -- Mohamed Osman Mohamud
Three Photograhs – San Bernardino Attackers -- ISIS Agents and an Islamic preacher
Chart -- ISIS Suspects by Age in the United States | InsideGov


The terror attack is San Bernardino was perpetrated by two individuals who were not on any global watch list despite their travel to Saudi Arabia. Neither of the ISIS attackers were detected by any federal law enforcement agency or California law enforcement.

In Portland in 2010, Mohamed Osman Mohamud, the Somali-American student, was arrested in an FBI sting operation when he tried to set off what he thought was a car bomb at a Christmas tree lighting at Pioneer Court House Plaza. Ultimately, he was tried and sentenced to 30 years.

ISIS and Westerners

The relationship between Westerners and ISIS is far deeper than may be previously known.

Both the Paris attack and the San Bernardino mass shootings were perpetrated by individuals who lived in the respective country - legally.

A study by New America has unveiled a number of chilling trends between the relationship between western-based ISIS.

The number of Americans killed from terrorist attacks in the United States post-9/11 is approximately the same as the number of people killed by white supremacists. Terrorists have killed 45 and supremacists 48 claims New America.

But, the impact of ISIS on America and the number of Americans and other Westerners in supporting ISIS

. . . .

This article is by a think tank called New America which, from the Net at any rate, seems to be well respected, and it is very interesting. It is long, however, so please if you are interested, read it for yourself. Good Evening!