Author: Daniel Pipes
Publication: DanielPipes.org
Date: August 12, 2008
URL: http://www.danielpipes.org/article/5834
Aafia Siddiqui, 36, is a Pakistani mother
of three, an alumna of MIT, and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Brandeis University.
She is also accused of working for Al-Qaeda and was charged last week in New
York City with attempting to kill American soldiers.
Her arrest serves to remind how invisibly
most Islamist infiltration proceeds. In particular, an estimated forty Al-Qaeda
sympathizers or operatives have sought to penetrate U.S. intelligence agencies.
Such a well-placed infiltrator can wreak great
damage explains a former CIA chief of counterintelligence, Michael Sulick:
"In the war on terrorism, intelligence has replaced the Cold War's tanks
and fighter planes as the primary weapon against an unseen enemy." Islamist
moles, he argues, "could inflict far more damage to national security
than Soviet spies," for the U.S. and Soviet Union never actually fought
each other, whereas now, "our nation is at war."
Here are some American cases of attempted
infiltration since 2001 that have been made public:
* The Air Force discharged Sadeq Naji Ahmed,
a Yemeni immigrant, when his superiors learned of his pro-Al-Qaeda statements.
Ahmed subsequently became a baggage screener at Detroit's Metro Airport, which
terminated him for hiding his earlier discharge from the Air Force. He was
convicted of making false statements and sentenced to eighteen months in jail.
* The Chicago Police Department fired Patricia
Eng-Hussain just three days into her training on learning that her husband,
Mohammad Azam Hussain, was arrested for being an active member of Mohajir
Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi (MQM-H), a Pakistani terrorist group.
* The Chicago Police Department also fired
Arif Sulejmanovski, a supervising janitor at its 25th District station after
it learned his name was on a federal terrorist watch list of international
terrorism suspects.
* Mohammad Alavi, an engineer at the Palo
Verde nuclear power plant, was arrested as he arrived on a flight from Iran,
accused of taking computer access codes and software to Iran that provide
details on the plant's control rooms and plant layout. He subsequently pleaded
guilty to transporting stolen property.
* Nada Nadim Prouty, a Lebanese immigrant
who worked for both the FBI and CIA, pleaded guilty to charges of: fraudulently
obtaining U.S. citizenship; accessing a federal computer system to unlawfully
query information about her relatives and the terrorist organization Hizballah;
and engaging in conspiracy to defraud the United States.
* Waheeda Tehseen, a Pakistani immigrant who
filled a sensitive toxicologist position with the Environmental Protection
Agency, pleaded guilty to fraud and was deported. WorldNetDaily.com explains
that "investigators suspect espionage is probable, as she produced highly
sensitive health-hazard documents for toxic compounds and chemical pesticides.
Tehseen also was an expert in parasitology as it relates to public water systems."
* Weiss Rasool, 31, a Fairfax County police
sergeant and Afghan immigrant, pleaded guilty for checking police databases
without authorization, thereby jeopardizing at least one federal terrorism
investigation.
* Nadire P. Zenelaj, 32, a 911 emergency operator
of Albanian origins, was charged with 232 felony counts of computer trespass
for illegally searching New York State databases, including the record of
at least one person on the FBI's terrorist watch list.
Three other cases are less clear. The Transportation
Security Administration fired Bassam Khalaf, 21, a Texan of Christian Palestinian
origins, as an airport baggage screener because lyrics on his music CD, Terror
Alert, applaud the 9/11 attacks. FBI Special Agent Gamal Abdel-Hafiz "showed
a pattern of pro-Islamist behavior," according to author Paul Sperry,
that may have helped acquit Sami Al-Arian of terrorism charges. The Pentagon
cleared Hesham Islam, an Egyptian immigrant, former U.S. Navy commander, and
special assistant to the deputy secretary of defense, but major questions
remain about his biography and his outlook.
Other Western countries too - Australia, Canada,
Israel, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom - have been subject to infiltration
efforts. (For details, see my weblog entry, "Islamists Penetrate Western
Security.")
This record prompts one to wonder what catastrophe
must occur before government agencies, some of which have banished the words
"Islam" and "jihad," seriously confront their internal
threat?
Westerners are indebted to Muslim agents like
Fred Ghussin and "Kamil Pasha" who have been critical to fighting
terrorism. That said, I stand by my 2003 statement that "There is no
escaping the unfortunate fact that Muslim government employees in law enforcement,
the military and the diplomatic corps need to be watched for connections to
terrorism."
