FBI "Anti-Terrorism" Raid on Arab and Arab-American Websites

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>Delivered-To: orb-furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
>From: "Hunter Gray" <hunterbadbear at earthlink.net>
>To: "Leninist-International" <leninist-international at lists.econ.utah.edu>,
>"Rad-Green" <rad-green at lists.econ.utah.edu>
>Subject: [L-I] FBI "Anti-Terrorism" Raid on Arab and Arab-American Websites
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>Thursday September 6 5:38 PM ET
>FBI Denies Bias as Raid Shuts Arabic Web Sites
>By Marcus Kabel
>
>DALLAS (Reuters) - An 80-strong U.S. terrorism task force raided the
>Texas-based host of Arabic Web sites, including that of the Arab world's
>leading independent news channel, prompting charges on Thursday of an
>``anti-Muslim witchhunt.''
>
>But the FBI (news - web sites), which took part in the raid on Wednesday at
>privately held InfoCom Corp., in the Dallas suburb of Richardson, denied any
>anti-Arab bias and said it was executing an unspecified federal search
>warrant.
>
>The FBI declined to specify the target of the search warrant, which is under
>seal in a federal court, except to say in a statement that the search was
>``one aspect of a more than two-year investigation that is ongoing.''
>
>InfoCom's owners said the raid resulted in a temporary shut-down of Web
>sites it hosts for about 500 customers, including that run by Al-Jazeera
>television and the newspaper Al-Sharq, both based in the Gulf state of
>Qatar.
>
>Al-Jazeera is a major regional news source for Arabic speakers. Often dubbed
>``the Arab CNN,'' it has emerged as a major force in a region where most
>broadcasters operate under direct state control.
>
>The Web sites were shut down while about 80 agents copied information from
>InfoCom's Internet servers, said Ghassan Elashi, brother of owner Bayan
>Elashi.
>
>He said many of the sites were able to start up again on other servers,
>while the task force continued to copy computerized information on Thursday.
>The office remained sealed off by FBI agents.
>
>``We have nothing to hide. We are cooperating 110 percent with the FBI,''
>InfoCom's lawyer Mark Enoch told reporters.
>
>Enoch said whatever tips had led to the search was ``bad information.''
>
>``If they think they're going to find that InfoCom is associated with
>terrorism, they're wrong. It's not,'' he said.
>
>Elashi said InfoCom's customers were not solely Arabic or Muslim. ``They are
>across the board, from Dallas to California to other places around the
>world,'' he said.
>
>Several American Islamic groups condemned the search as ``an anti-Muslim
>witchhunt promoted by the pro-Israel lobby in America,'' according to a
>statement from 10 organizations, including the Muslim Public Affairs
>Council.
>
>``We are deeply concerned that there is a pattern of stereotyping that
>permeates all these types of investigations. There is a marginalization of
>the American-Muslim population,'' Mahdi Bray of the Los Angeles-based
>council said at a news conference outside the closed InfoCom office.
>
>The FBI denied the raid was any kind of witchhunt.
>
>``We were executing a search warrant as part of a criminal investigation. It
>had nothing to do with anti-Islamic or anti-Palestinian or anti-Middle East
>issues or anything like that,'' said special agent Lori Bailey, spokeswoman
>for the Dallas FBI office.
>
>The search was conducted by the North Texas Joint Terrorism Task Force, a
>multi-agency federal and local grouping which includes the FBI, Secret
>Service and the U.S. Customs Service.
>
>It also includes the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, an arm of the
>Treasury Department (news - web sites) empowered to freeze or seize the
>assets of individuals or organizations that have been designated by the
>government as terrorist.
>
>
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>Earlier Stories
>FBI Denies Bias in Raid That Shut Qatar Web Site (September 6)
>
>
>Hunter Gray
>www.hunterbear.org
>
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