Feds’ Detroit “Terror” Kill

(Letter)

17 February 2010

Dear Workers Vanguard,

The so-called War on Terror took a sinister turn in the Detroit area on October 28, 2009 with the execution style killing of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, leader of the Masjid Al-Haqq mosque, by agents of the FBI.

According to the FBI, a federal complaint was filed identifying Imam Abdullah as “a highly placed leader of a nationwide radical fundamentalist Sunni group”. The affidavit continues “Abdullah and his followers have trained regularly in the use of firearms, and continue to train in martial arts and sword fighting”. Nowhere in the complaint was the word terrorist, nor did the FBI seek any terrorism charges.

The mosque served the heavily Arab-American community along the Detroit/Dearborn border. Countering the FBI complaint, Dawud Walid, executive director of The Council on American-Islamic Relations-Michigan said: “the congregation he led was poor. He fed very hungry people in the neighborhood who were Christian. He helped and assisted a lot of troubled youth. People would come to him who were hungry and he would let them sleep in the mosque. He would let them in from the elements. They have no linkage to terrorism nationally or internationally. What in the world does Islam have to do with these charges?” (Detroit News, 29 October 2009).

The War on Terror only serves as a pretense for the capitalist rulers to attack and intimidate the “unwanted population at home” and apparently just being of Muslim faith is enough to trigger a murderous assault.

While working in a warehouse and trucking firm the mosque uses for various services and storage, Imam Abdullah and several of his followers were surrounded by FBI agents and local police from the Joint Terrorism Task Force. According to various accounts, the Imam and his followers were ordered out of the warehouse. Four men were allowed to surrender, but the task force unleashed a dog to charge the Imam who shot at it to defend himself. Under the pretext that the Imam shot at the federal agents (the dog was considered the FBI agent) the remaining agents opened fire. The autopsy, which was held up for months because the Dearborn Police feared it would incite the community, showed the Imam was shot 21 times. Even worse, these FBI sharpshooters managed to strike the Imam only 3 times in the chest, the majority of bullets entered the upper thighs and groin. The mortally wounded Imam was then handcuffed, while the dog was airlifted to a veterinarian hospital.

Not content with the murderous onslaught and subsequent arrest of numerous mosque members (the majority of whom have since been released on personal bond), the FBI went after Imam Abdullah’s son who at last report was fighting extradition from Canada.

The source of the FBI information centered on three undercover informants whom local Muslims said had enticed the Imam and his followers to fence a few stolen items to earn needed cash. “A bunch of petty theives” is how Imam Abdullah El-Amin of the Muslim Center of Detroit described the informants.

I opened this letter saying the War on Terror took a sinister turn here in Detroit and here’s why.

Detroit was the venue for the first federal terrorism trial after 911. The accused were Moroccan immigrants, two of whom were acquitted and two were convicted. At the time, United States Attorney General John Ashcroft boasted that a terrorist sleeper cell was broken up. As it turned out, the prosecuting attorney had concealed exculpatory evidence, and all convictions were vacated. The lead prosecutor, who celebrated the frame-up conviction with a big cigar on the front page of the daily paper, is now under federal criminal investigation for his handling of the case.

Similarly, in 2006, the FBI made a big deal of three Palestinian-American kids who bought about 80 cell phones on sale from Walmart with an intent to make a few thousand dollars for themselves reselling them to college students. All terrorist charges were dropped.

The FBI no longer wants to be embarrassed by their inability to frame up innocent civilians based solely on racial profiling. The killing of Imam Abdullah represents an ominous turn away from judicial prosecution to outright lethal force in order to intimidate anyone who doesn’t fit the “American Way”.

I want to thank Workers Vanguard and the Spartacist League for letting this atrocity be publicized.

With warmest greetings,
Matt P.