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<font size=3><br>
</font><font size=5>New COINTELPRO campaign directed at Arabs, Muslims
and South East Asians <br><br>
</font><font size=3>By Abdus Sattar Ghazali<br><br>
Al-Jazeerah, March 5, 2005<br><br>
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<a href="http://www.aljazeerah.info/10%20o/New%20COINTELPRO%20campaign%20directed%20at%20Arabs,%20Muslims%20and%20South%20East%20Asians%20By%20Abdus%20Sattar%20Ghazali.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://www.aljazeerah.info/10%20o/New%20COINTELPRO%20campaign%20directed%20at%20Arabs,%20Muslims%20and%20South%20East%20Asians%20By%20Abdus%20Sattar%20Ghazali.htm<br>
<br>
</a>BERKELEY, CA: Similar to the COINTELPRO operation against the African
Americans during the 1960s, the Arab, Muslim and South East Asian
communities are currently facing a new FBI counter intelligence program,
says Dr. Hatem Bazian, Professor at the Near East and Ethnic Studies
Department, University of California, Berkeley.<br><br>
COINTELPRO is the acronym for a series of FBI counterintelligence
programs designed to neutralize political dissidents. In the 1960s and
1970s - the program was directed against the civil rights movements, and
especially against the community leadership of African Americans,
Latinos and Native Americans. In the 1980s there was a program
against Central American solidarity groups.<br><br>
In a speech entitled, the New COINTELPRO campaign directed at Arabs,
Muslims and South East Asians, Dr. Bazian said that the present FBI
operations directed at Arabs and Muslims and South Asians, which it deems
to be the enemies of state, have similarities between what took place in
1960s and what is taking place now.<br><br>
He added that all sub-divisions - such as ethnic groupings, immigrants or
indigenous and ideological differentiations of the Muslims, Arabs and
South Asians are included as target by the counter Intelligence
operation. <br><br>
Dr. Bazian went on to say that as pinpointed by Brian Glick author of War
At Home, four methods were employed by the FBI during the height of the
Cointelpro poperation during 1960s and the same methods are being
employed now which are: 1) Infiltration. 2) Psychological warfare from
outside. 3) Harassment through the legal system. 4) Extra legal force and
violence.<br><br>
He graphically explained how the community has been affected by the
arrests, raids or search warrants against the Muslim, Arab and South
Asian individuals, groups and organizations. In the hour long speech at
the UC Berkeley campus, he also exposed the media frenzy created by the
FBI and the Department of Homeland Security by pre-arranging media
coverage of these arrests, raids or search warrants.<br><br>
Through legal harassment, he added, the government can set in motion a
great size of fear which begins to permeate every sector of the targeted
community. A number of areas in the US have been hard hit by the
government legal campaign and it will take sometimes before we are
recovered both financially and organizationally to national
level.<br><br>
Dr. Bazian argued that the arrests, raids or search warrants campaign is
redirecting the agenda of the Muslim, Arab and South Asian individuals,
groups and organizations while the legal cases are draining resources of
the community.<br><br>
<b>Infiltration in the Arab, Muslim and South East Asian
community<br><br>
</b>Explaining the infiltration in the Arab, Muslim and South East Asian
groups and organizations, Dr. Bazian said: “In my opinion the period of
recruitment was put into place immediately after 9/11 and is still
underway, three years removed after the tragic events.” The Infiltration
is underway, under the premise of security America from the sleeper
cells, he added.<br><br>
He believes that the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI arms
have reached the limit in the recruitment campaign and every major Arab
and Muslim and South East Asian organization or center must have someone
on the job of collecting information for big brother. “The discredit and
disrupt phase has just started and rest assure that it will kick into
high gear in the next few years, considering the personnel inducted by
the Bush administration in his second term.”<br><br>
Dr. Bazian said that the Israeli centric members of the American society
is offering its services for collecting information about the Muslims for
its own ideological reason which is to benefit of the security of Israeli
political and economic interests in America. “Many Israeli centric
individuals and organizations view with great alarm the increase in
numbers and assertiveness of American Muslim and Arab communities. Since
it has potential in the long run of causing the reconsideration of the
existing policies vis a vis Israel and the Middle East.” <br><br>
“The infiltration program directed by the Israeli centric grouping has
longer experience in this field and is also able to recruit from a
diverse group of personnel that speak Arabic and served possibly in some
capacity in the occupied territory. The Israeli centric groups include
the Front Page Magazine and Campus Watch of Denial Pipes. The
Anti-Discrimination League (ADL) has for a long time been engaged in
collecting information as well,” he added.<br><br>
He believes that at this point that the Department of homeland Security
and the FBI have already developed a database which contains the name of
every local, regional and national leader in the Arab, Muslim and South
East Asian communities. <br><br>
The current infiltration program has a two fold goal: one, arrest those
who might express support to Ben Laden; and second, which is more
important these days, focusing on the pro-Palestinian sentiments among
the targeted communities. When we look at all the cases emerged after
9/11, the overwhelming majority cases that we are confronted have to do
more with the Palestinian issue rather than Osama Ben Laden and the US
while many of the pro-Israeli activists have been constantly trying to
make that link, thus discrediting pro-Palestinian activists for speaking
out for Palestine.<br><br>
<b>Psychological warfare from outside<br><br>
</b>Second major tool employed during the height of Cointelpro operation
was psychological warfare from outside at the targeted group, Dr. Bazian
said, which is now done through 24/7 negative campaign against the
Muslims, Arabs and South East Asians in the mainstream media. <br><br>
Under the psychological warfare, during 60s and 70s, the security
agencies planted false media stories and published bogus leaflets and
other publications in the name of targeted groups. They forged
correspondence, sent anonymous letters, and made anonymous telephone
calls. They spread misinformation about meetings and events, set up
pseudo movement groups run by agents, and manipulated or strong-armed
parents, employers, landlords, school officials and others to cause
trouble for activists. <br><br>
At present the security agencies provide negative stories about Muslims,
Arabs and South East Asians that often have no connection to what is
taking place, he said adding the it is intended to maintain a siege
mentality among members of targeted groups. <br><br>
It is thought that constant external psychological pressure would lead to
behavior modification in the targeted group. A basic behavior
modification program has been directed at the Arabs, Muslims and South
Asians to bring about a complete change in their world view. <br><br>
“The message from the negative campaign is that the problem is in what
you believe and with whom you associate. And if you change it completely,
leave those whom you associate with, then you will be accepted as normal
and positive member of the American community.”<br><br>
Dr. Bazian pointed out that the leading cases of arrest of individuals,
the exposure of some secret groups training in a hamlet and account of
money movements, all intended to keep the psychological pressure on the
targeted community. Yet a number of these cases are real and the evidence
was with the prosecution, but the overwhelming numbers of all others are
nothing more than a psychological tool to employ for the specific purpose
of containment.<br><br>
The number of cases directly related to 9/11 are limited to one or
possibly two, however the continuous stream of arrests and charges
brought against Arabs, Muslims and South East Asians are intended to
maintain the psychological pressure, he said. “We have 266 other cases
that we are dealing with in the courts today. None of them have anything
with the activities of 9/11. Three years since 9/11, we don’t have
their actual names from the 1000 arrests and 266 cases. <br><br>
<b>Harassment through the legal system<br><br>
</b>Dr. Bazian argued that one of the most powerful tool at the disposal
of the FBI and the DHS is the legal system which can be deployed as an
instrument of control rather than basic adjudication of dispute between
various parties, including the government.<br><br>
“During the early days of the 20<sup>th</sup> century the Justice
Department perfected the use of legal system in a campaign of harassment
and intimidation directed towards anarchists and communists alike,
presently we are witnessing once again the use of legal system in a well
designed campaign directed against the leadership and activists in the
Arab, Muslim and South East Asian communities.”<br><br>
Dr. Hatem Bazian summarized the goal of harassment through legal system
in the following 10 forms: <br><br>
<b>First:</b> Through the legal process the FBI and the DHS structures
immediately put the individuals and organizations out of business, since
an arrest or search warrant is intended to halt all activities carried
out by the identified subject. <br><br>
<b>Second:</b> By arresting or charging or serving a search warrant the
FBI and DHS can immediately produce negative responses in the community
towards those individuals and groups targeted. It is common to speak in
private and they most likely to say that they must have done something
otherwise the FBI would not have come after it.<br><br>
<b>Third:</b> The legal process allows for media frenzy to take place,
and a wider negative campaign permeated the society towards targeted
individuals and groups.<br><br>
<b>Fourth:</b> Through the arrests and raids and searches, the FBI and
the DHS people are able to indirectly set the agenda of activities of the
community organizations since Immediately after the arrest, the targeted
communities, groups or individuals would begin to mobilize for some type
of a legal response. <br><br>
<b>Five: </b>Another more damaging outcome of the approach is the real
possibility of split and fallout among the community members, who begin
to point the finger at each other and those who are arrested, charged or
searched. <br><br>
<b>Six:</b> The legal process allows for new and less experienced people
emerge at the local community scene. And their initial task is figuring
out who is who and what needs to be done when the group is under siege.
These are the moments that make it possible for infiltration to take
position and power in the community. <br><br>
<b>Seven:</b> The legal process is very expensive and if the community
groups, for most part the second and third generation immigrants and
their limited resources are required to mount a large number of legal
battles then their financial position is greatly impacted. Take for
example, Prof. Sami Al Arian’s case in Florida, where the retainer for
the lawyers was upwards than $ 650,000 and the financial cost of the law
suit is expected to go for about 2.5 million dollars by the end of this
legal battle.<br><br>
<b>Eighth:</b> The legal harassment also leads to disrupting national
networks built over years of trust and relationship developed over
generations. When legal battle developed one of its outcome is the
destruction of those relations and the planting of seeds of doubt and
mistrust among people who had long standing relations for over a
generation. <br><br>
<b>Nine: </b>The regional and national panel of organizations and rules
begin to take more of a localized characteristic, due to the
pre-occupation with the legal battle governed by the specific association
and reference to them. As such Chicago Muslims of South East Asia begin
to focus mainly on their own field. While (Muslims in) Dallas and New
Jersey will be pre-occupied with their own set of legal cases that will
be against furthering the national networks. <br><br>
<b>Ten:</b> Fear is a very important commodity and its introduction as an
instrument of control is a strategic one. Fearful people will accept a
variety of initiatives that under normal conditions will be considered
unthinkable.<br><br>
The legal tools are intended to bring about fear and provide a lesson to
everyone in the Muslim, Arab and South East Asian communities. <br><br>
<b>The extra legal force and violence<br><br>
</b>The extra legal force and violence happened in the 60s and 70s but
not yet deployed against the Muslim, Arab and South East Asian
communities, Dr. Bazian said. However, he added, that one can argue that
this has been used through the massive arrests and torture of prisoners
in the US. This is something that we accept but we don’t have yet extra
legal force and violence against the community directly but we should be
watchful for this in the future.<br><br>
One the positive developments in encountering the government campaign,
Dr. Bazian sees an increasing resistance emerging in the Muslim, Arab and
South East Asian communities in many places with concentration of Muslim
and Arab population such as Chicago, New York and Texas. <br><br>
In this perspective, he pointed out that the 650,000 dollar retainer to
lawyers of Professor Sami Al Arian of the University of South Florida was
raised by the community on a national level. The government has handed
Dr. Sami Al Arian, who is in solitary confinement for three years, a 49
count indictment which allows foreign intelligence sources, Israeli
sources, to be admitted into the court against him.<br><br>
Another important development, according to Dr. Bazian, is coalition
building across the racial and ethnic lines. The coalition of the
Japanese community was in the forefront to the support of the Muslim,
Arab and South East Asian communities. This was followed by the Asian Law
office as well as many other ethnic communities which came to develop
modes of collation building for the long term, Dr. Hatem Bazian added.
<br><br>
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