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<h1><font size=6 color="#FF0000"><b>2 articles follow<br><br>
</i></font>Justice Department clears FBI in imam
shooting</b></h1><font size=3>
<a href="http://www.detnews.com/article/20101013/METRO/10130420/Justice-Department-clears-FBI-in-imam-shooting" eudora="autourl">
http://www.detnews.com/article/20101013/METRO/10130420/Justice-Department-clears-FBI-in-imam-shooting<br>
<br>
</a></font><h4><b>Robert Snell / The Detroit
News</b></h4><font size=3>There were no federal crimes broken when four
FBI agents killed a Detroit mosque leader during a raid last year,
according to a U.S. Justice Department report released today. <br><br>
The report comes almost two weeks after Attorney General Mike Cox’s
office issued a similar finding, saying the agents were justified and
broke no laws in shooting Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah. <br><br>
The report comes almost one year after an Oct. 28 raid at a Dearborn
warehouse that ended with Abdullah shot 20 times by FBI agents after he
allegedly fired a weapon and killed an FBI dog. <br><br>
The gunfire took place during an attempted arrest in connection with an
indictment involving stolen goods and other alleged crimes. <br><br>
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Thomas E. Perez met with
Abdullah’s family today to discuss the findings. <br><br>
<i>rsnell@detnews.com<br><br>
<br>
</i>From The Detroit News:
<a href="http://www.detnews.com/article/20101013/METRO/10130420/Justice-Department-clears-FBI-in-imam-shooting#ixzz12HCpwei5">
http://www.detnews.com/article/20101013/METRO/10130420/Justice-Department-clears-FBI-in-imam-shooting#ixzz12HCpwei5</a>
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<a href="http://michigancitizen.com/rights-groups-dismiss-cox-probe-of-imans-death-p9076-1.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://michigancitizen.com/rights-groups-dismiss-cox-probe-of-imans-death-p9076-1.htm<br>
</a></b></font><font size=3> <br>
</font><font size=4><b>Rights groups dismiss Cox probe of Iman’s
death<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3 color="#333300"><i>Cox rules death justified;
U.S. Justice case remains open<br><br>
</i><b>By Zenobia Jeffries<br>
</b></font><font size=3>Wed, 13 Oct, 2010 <br>
</font><font size=3 color="#333300"><u>The Michigan Citizen<br><br>
</u>DETROIT Michigan may be finished investigating the FBI fatal
shooting of Detroit Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, but the federal probe
continues and questions remain.<br><br>
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) says it is continuing investigation
of the FBI arrest team and its four members who shot Abudllah to death
Oct. 28, 2009, in a Dearborn warehouse during a sting operation.<br><br>
Civil rights and justice activists await a real investigation.<br><br>
Although the DOJ’s office declined to give the status or details of its
investigation, spokesperson Xochiti Hinojosa sent an e-mail response to
the Michigan Citizen stating, “Our investigation is open.”<br><br>
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, in his report released Sept. 30,
concluded that the FBI agents involved in the fatal shooting acted in
self-defense and therefore their “use of deadly force ... was legally
justified.” <br><br>
The report states that Abdullah did not comply with officers’ orders.
Cox’s office will not bring charges.<br><br>
Cox used the shooting agents’ testimony, along with the FBI investigative
report, Dearborn Police Department investigative report, video and audio
tapes of the raid, the federal criminal complaint obtained by the FBI
against Abudllah and 10 others, and meetings and interviews with the
Detroit Police Department, Wayne County Medical Examiner and Dr. Cyril H.
Wecht, an independent pathologist who reviewed the autopsy report at the
request of the Michigan Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR-MI).<br><br>
Both the medical examiner and Wecht determined the cause of death was
multiple gunshot wounds.<br><br>
The four agents shot Abdullah a total of 21 times two of the agents
firing six and eight shots respectively after releasing an FBI K-9
attack dog on him. <br><br>
The medical examiner’s report does not identify the cause of Abdullah’s
facial injuries. <br><br>
However, Wecht determined that the lacerations and abrasions on
Abudllah’s face and hands were caused by dog bites. <br><br>
Cox concluded that the injuries were not dog bites. <br><br>
The Cox report states, “The Wayne County Medical Examiner noted, during
the Attorney General interview, that Abdullah’s face is lacking puncture
wounds which are typically found in persons who have been subjected to
known dog bites.” (See photo)<br><br>
Phone calls by this newspaper to the medical examiner were not
returned.<br><br>
Cox stated one of the theories of the facial wounds indicated the cause
as“... the action of the slide on the pistol Abdullah was firing
(extremely close to his face)...” Yet, in another section of the report,
Cox notes there was no gun powder residue on the body, indicating there
were no close range shots.<br><br>
In a telephone interview with this newspaper, Wecht called the Assistant
Attorney General’s telephone interview with him a “perfunctory pro
forma.”<br><br>
“The Assistant Attorney General didn’t seem to be too interested [in what
I had to say],” Wecht said. “For Cox to say the lacerations are from a
fall ... you don’t get those kinds of [injuries] by falling from standing
on a flat surface. “There’s no way [you] can sustain multiple lacerations
from falling down ... or sliding on a pistol. That’s totally ridiculous.
Whatever the ultimate conclusions are, are not matters I have
addressed.”<br><br>
Wecht says he was skeptical of any report produced by the AG.<br><br>
“I no more expected the Michigan Attorney General to produce a critical
report on the FBI than I expect to wake up tomorrow morning with a head
full of hair on my bald head. The whole thing smells,” Wecht
said.<br><br>
Another theory Cox stated for the facial injuries was “being turned over
by agents to facilitate handcuffing.” It was a reference to the fact
Abdullah was lying face down, dead, when agents handcuffed him and then
rolled him over.<br><br>
The FBI did not respond to questions about handcuffing a dead
man.<br><br>
According to the Dearborn police investigation cited in Cox’s report,
Abdullah shot the dog three times, the weapon “pointed in the direction”
of the arresting agents. <br><br>
Abdullah’s weapon had no prints on it, which Cox says is not uncommon.
<br><br>
“We got exactly what we expected from the Michigan Attorney General,
[that’s why] we called for an independent investigation,” said Heaster
Wheeler, Executive Director of the Detroit Branch NAACP. “We want the
U.S. DOJ and their Civil Rights’ department to do a full-scale
investigation not a review, just looking to see if procedure was
properly followed. [This] needs to be thoroughly done.”<br><br>
Wheeler, who joined CAIR-MI and a coalition of local religious leaders
and community activists calling for a federal investigation, says the
AG’s office has never been a friend to the community of color or civil
rights.<br><br>
“We never get anything from the state,” Wheeler told the M.C. “We got
what we expected, which is nothing.”<br><br>
Dawud Walid, Executive Director of CAIR-MI, called the AG’s conclusions
“odd,” and raised several concerns surrounding the report. <br><br>
CAIR-MI is questioning the circumstances by which Cox’s office began the
investigation (Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s office declined to
investigate); the excessive use of law enforcement officers (including
the FBI K-9); shooting a human defending himself against a dog attack;
and entrapment.<br><br>
Walid says, by “default,” the case went to Cox’s office because Worthy’s
office declined to investigate.<br><br>
Spokesperson Maria Miller said that the Prosecutor’s office declined to
investigate because the FBI would not turn over classified
information.<br><br>
Walid questions the accuracy of Cox’s report.<br><br>
“If Cox’s office was not given access to the information that Worthy’s
office requested to conduct a thorough investigation, then that would
bring into question the veracity of Cox’s results,” he wrote in a letter
to Judiciary Committee Chair Congressman John Conyers.<br><br>
According to Special Agent Jason Pack at FBI headquarters in Washington
D.C., none of the information was deemed classified.<br><br>
“The shooting review team inspectors here in Washington tell me that
there was no classified information associated with the shooting
investigation,” Pack told the M.C.<br><br>
CAIR-MI is requesting Conyers “hold hearings on the misuse of
confidential informants in houses of worship, religious organizations and
peace groups, if a thorough review of the FBI protocol of using
confidential informants is not conducted by the U.S. Attorney General’s
office as requested by Conyer’s office in January.”<br><br>
On Oct. 6, CAIR-MI filed a lawsuit against the Wayne County Sheriff for
its refusal to release information relating to the fatal shooting. The
Sheriff Dept., which was part of a multi-jurisdictional law enforcement
task force that executed a series of raids culminating in the death of
Imam Abdullah, denied Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests
submitted by CAIR-MI pertaining to the case. <br><br>
CAIR-MI recently filed similar suits against the Michigan State Police,
Dearborn Police and Detroit Police departments for non-release of public
information.<br><br>
Spokesperson for the FBI Detroit Field Office Sandra Berchtold told this
newspaper that even though other law enforcement was involved in the
raid, only FBI agents were inside the warehouse. All others were used on
the perimeter.<br><br>
<i>(Editor’s note: We were hesitant to publish the photo because of the
desensitizing nature of violence on Blacks. Permission was given by the
family through CAIR-MI to publish this photo to show the discrepancy in
the AG’s report.)<br><br>
<br><br>
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