Day: October 9, 2017

More details have emerged on the extraordinary planning the 64-year-old went to before he opened fire on a 22,000-strong crowd from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. At least 58 people were killed during the rampage.
Authorities said Paddock “extensively” planned the attack after discovering he set up cameras around the hotel to spy on police, even hiding one in a food service cart.
But now, a Wall Street Journal report reveals Paddock may have also had “target practice” in the desert near his home two days before the massacre.
Investigators have reportedly uncovered video footage from a home-surveillance system that shows Stephen Paddock driving alone to an area on the outskirts of Mesquite, Nevada, where locals go for target practice.
MORE: What happens to hotel room 32135 now?
VEGAS SHOOTING: Millionaire gunman’s plans

The footage shows Paddock heading to the area on the Friday before the Sunday attack, the official told the Journal. It was one spot where he reportedly practised shooting.
The video footage shows Paddock driving along a road that leads to a spot in the desert where everyone goes to shoot, the law-enforcement official added.
However, a range manager told the Journal Paddock had no military service record and never used his arsenal at the only shooting range within 32km of his home.
A spokeswoman for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.

COPS DESCRIBE 12 MINUTES OF HELL
Las Vegas police officers described in harrowing detail the tense 12 minutes they spent trying to breach the mass murderer’s lair — and the paranoia that gripped them once they were inside, the New York Post reports.
Smoke hung thick inside the room — tinged with the scent of spent gunpowder and sporadically illuminated by a blinking fire-alarm light — when officers first stepped into Mandalay Bay’s Room 32-135, where Paddock, now dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, spent the previous three days building his sniper’s nest, according to the police in an interview with CBS TV’s 60 Minutes.
The sight — and the seeming impossibility that a lone man in his 60s could have caused such carnage — only intensified the officers’ paranoia as they worked to clear the hazy hotel room, they said.

“It was still very much in my brain there’s 50 other dudes in here somewhere,” Detective Matthew Donaldson recalled. “You know, we were still clearing that room, the curtains, moving the curtains. I wanted to make sure somebody wasn’t hiding between the windows and the curtains.”
They had reason to fear Paddock had help, though investigators later determined he acted alone: The first person to reach the room, Mandalay Bay security guard Jesus Campos, was met with a hail of gunfire when he had approached the door just minutes before.
By the time Paddock was done shooting at Campos, who escaped with a leg injury, the door to his room looked like “Swiss cheese,” Officer David Newton told 60 Minutes.

Newton and other officers coming from the floor below struggled to open a stairwell door that Paddock had jammed shut with metal shims and screws.
Then they saw his splintered door room and a nearby room-service cart with wires hanging off it, prompting fears it was booby-trapped. It was later revealed that Paddock had installed a camera on the cart to watch for anyone coming to stop him.
As officers prepared to blast open what was left of Paddock’s door, they worried that the slightest noise could give away their positions — and lead to another volley of gunfire from the room.
They eventually blasted open the door, revealing “an armory” inside, according to Sgt. Joshua Bitsko.
Along with hundreds of spent casings, officers found Paddock’s lifeless body on the floor. As cops stepped over the corpse and peered through smoke, the totality of Paddock’s sick project came into focus.
“Days of planning,” Bitsko said. “He had toolboxes, power tools to run wires for his surveillance systems. For everything that he had, it took him days to finish.”
Seeing the level of preparation only innervated police as they scoured the suite and adjoining room for any sign of accomplices.
When they found no one else, they left as quickly as they came.
“And then — once that scene was static it was — it was essentially a crime scene. It was, like, ‘Stop what you’re doing. Get out,’ ” Donaldson said.

PADDOCK: ‘I WAS BORN BAD’
The Sun reports Paddock boasted in text messages about his father Benjamin being a bank robber who escaped jail in 1969.
He wrote: “I didn’t have anything really to do with him but the bad streak is in my blood. I was born bad.”
The escort described him as “obsessive” and “paranoid” and said he would rant about conspiracy theories, including claiming 9/11 was an inside job by the US government.
The woman, 27, saw Paddock around nine times from November 2015 to June 2016 when he would visit Las Vegas without his girlfriend Marilou Danley, 62.
MORE: Sex worker reveals how gunman acted out violent rape fantasies

Paddock — who made $5.8 million in 2015, mostly from gambling — would pay her up to $10,000 a time.
They even stayed in the Mandalay Bay, from where he was to open fire on a music festival, slaughtering 58 before killing himself.
The escort, who does not want to be named, said: “When I first met Stephen I had left an abusive relationship and was starting all over again with nothing but the clothes I was wearing.
“He seemed like he wanted to help. We would go to the casinos together and he would spend hours drinking and gambling.

“But when he would have a winning streak, we would go back and have really aggressive and violent sex.”
The Sun was reportedly shown text messages which appeared to show Paddock discussing tying her up “as you scream for help”.
The escort broke off contact when she started a new relationship.
She said: “He had a dark and twisted side. But even so, I could never have imagined he would do something like this.”

GUNMAN HAD ‘VANILLA PROFILE’
The owner of a casino where Stephen Paddock gambled says the Las Vegas gunman didn’t drink alcohol or show any signs of trouble when he was a customer there. Steve Wynn said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday” that Paddock had “the most vanilla profile one could possibly imagine.”

He says Paddock didn’t run up debts or have a gambling problem. Wynn said butlers, waiters and massage employees knew Paddock and his girlfriend.
Wynn also described some of the security measures his casino put in place in recent years that include magnetometers and training of housekeeping staff to report suspicious actions like a do-not-disturb sign remaining on a door for an extended period of time.
FBI RETURNS LOST BELONGINGS
Officials say they’re beginning to return personal belongings to concertgoers who were in one corner of the festival grounds.
Deputy Clark County Fire Chief John Steinbeck announced that items are being returned to people at a Family Assistance Center in the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

For now, items are being returned to people who were in the area in and around the VIP tent and bleacher seating east of the stage at the Route 91 Harvest festival.
Federal agents have spent almost a week collecting evidence amid thousands of personal items like cellphones, baby strollers, lawn chairs, backpacks, shoes and purses left behind when people scattered late October 1.

A Las Vegas prostitute who was hired by murderer Stephen Paddock has spoken out about their ‘violent’ sex sessions and how he bragged about having ‘bad blood’.
The woman, who spoke anonymously, said she would spent hours drinking and gambling in Sin City with Paddock, who she described as ‘paranoid’ and ‘obsessive’.
If he hit a winning streak, he would take her back to his room for ‘really aggressive and violent sex’ including living out rape fantasies, she said.

Paddock also boasted about his bank-robber father, saying that ‘the bad streak is in my blood’ and ‘I was born bad’, according to texts seen by the Sun on Sunday.
The 27-year-old woman said Paddock, 64, would often rant about conspiracy theories including how 9/11 was orchestrated by the US government.
The escort, who said Paddock paid her $6,000-a-time for their meetings, also had texts in which he described tying her up ‘while you scream for help’.

She spoke out after family members revealed that Paddock often consorted with prostitutes who were laid on by hotels while he paid regular visits to the city.
Officials close to the investigation into the shooting revealed that Paddock may have hired an escort in the days before the massacre.
A receipt from Paddock’s hotel room showed two people ordered room service in the days before the attack.

Meanwhile investigators said they are interviewing other call girls in the hope of ascertaining a motive for the worst mass shooting in American history.
In Paddock’s room, officials found a piece of paper containing a number of phone numbers but they reiterated no suicide note was found.
Law enforcement have said they are ‘confident’ Paddock carried out the Mandalay Bay massacre from his hotel room alone.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said on Friday that investigators are sure no one else was in the room before he shot dead 58 and injured almost 500 on Sunday.
Earlier, NBC News had reported a mysterious charger that did not match any of Paddock’s cellphones – raising the possibility that another person had been with Paddock beforehand.
However, later police said that they have now matched all the cell phones and all the chargers and that they belong to Paddock.

It was earlier revealed that Benjamin Paddock, Stephen’s father, was an FBI most-wanted bank robber and confidence man known as ‘Big Daddy’.
Nenjamin was captured in Las Vegas in 1960 – then escaped and lived on the run for a decade.
He was described as psychopathic, armed and dangerous and suicidal – and the public were told not to approach the man known as ‘Chromedome’ and ‘Old Baldy’.
Stephen was just seven years old and living in Arizona when his father Benjamin Paddock was nabbed by the FBI for a series of bank robberies.
At the time, Stephen’s mother tried desperately to shield her young son and his three siblings from the devastating news that their father was living a double life as a bank robber and con-man.
‘We’re trying to keep Steve from knowing his father is held as a bank robber,’ a neighbour told the Tucson Daily Citizen on July 29, 1960. ‘I hardly know the family, but Steve is a nice boy. It’s a terrible thing.’

“This is Middle America,” Mr. Grimm declared moments after taking the stage. Before the national anthem, he not so subtly invoked Mr. Trump to cheers: “I know no one here is going to be taking a knee.”
With his law enforcement credentials, tart tongue and square jaw, Mr. Grimm, the rare elected Republican in New York City, was once seen as a future star. Troubles with the law cut short his career.
There was no doubt that Mr. Grimm made an impression in his two terms, after winning in the Tea Party wave of 2010. In 2014, he beat back a Democratic challenger while under federal indictment, only to give up his seat when he pleaded guilty to tax fraud for underreporting wages at a restaurant he owned and filing false tax documents.
“I know what he did was wrong. He did his time,” said Cathy Reid, a Staten Island Republican who arrived to support Mr. Grimm’s comeback in a three-wheeled motorcycle, wearing a black helmet with an “If I’d shot you when I wanted, I’d be out by now” sticker on it.
“Every business does that,” she said. “He was made an example of.”
While Mr. Grimm said he was “truly sorry” for his transgressions, saying he wished he was “perfect but I am not,” he also made light of them. He said he first began working for his father at age 11. “Yeah, it was off the books,” he joked.
Some in Staten Island said they welcomed Mr. Grimm’s blunt manner, especially after seeing his outspoken advocacy after Hurricane Sandy.
“He got down and dirty,” said Thea Friscia.
On the way to the rally, her friend Cathy Bannon stopped at a dollar store to pick up a “Welcome Home” balloon, like for those returning from hospital stays, in a show of support. “Michael was the only one who stood with us,” she said.
Another woman, Maria Romagnuolo, added that Mr. Grimm had gotten her disabled son a “mobility scooter” after the storm. “He’s one of us,” she said.
Mr. Donovan, a former Staten Island district attorney, is expected to have the support of much of the Republican political apparatus both in New York and nationally. He has $300,000 cash on hand.
Mr. Grimm ended June with $420,000 in unpaid campaign legal bills. He entered into a “confidential settlement” with the law firm he owed, according to spokesman Michael Caputo. He also owed nearly $150,000 in tax restitution payments. Mr. Grimm borrowed money from family and “a friend” to pay off that debt, Mr. Caputo said, adding that the lenders would be disclosed on a future financial disclosure form.
At his rally, the signs had the required Federal Election Commission disclosures either added with stickers or taped onto them.
Jessica Proud, a spokeswoman for Mr. Donovan, dismissed Mr. Grimm’s candidacy: “We’re not really concerned about a challenge from a convicted felon who was rated one of the most liberal Republicans in Congress.”
The bigger fear among national Republicans is that Mr. Grimm would lose the primary to Mr. Donovan and then seek to stay on the ballot as a third-party candidate, dividing the vote and opening a pathway for Democrats.
“He’s keeping all of his options open,” Mr. Caputo said.
A former campaign adviser to Mr. Trump, Mr. Caputo is helping Mr. Grimm make the case he would be a stronger ally to the president. “It’s time to make anti-Trump Republicans pay a price at the polls,” Mr. Caputo said.
Mr. Grimm once famously threatened to throw a reporter who asked about the federal investigation off a balcony during a television interview. “I’ll break you in half,” Mr. Grimm said then. “Like a boy.”
He initially blamed the reporter for his question but later apologized.
When Mr. Grimm was sentenced to prison, the judge in his case told him, “Your moral compass, Mr. Grimm, needs some reorientation.”
Mr. Grimm said on Sunday that he had matured. Still, he remained ever combative.
“I took my lumps like a man,” Mr. Grimm said. “We took more than we should have.”
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Facebook Inc.’s platform was a crucial messaging tool for President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, according to the campaign’s digital director — who told CBS’s “60 Minutes” that he hand-picked pro-Trump “embeds” from the company to help him use the platform in targeted ways.
“Twitter is how (Trump) talked to the people; Facebook was going to be how he won,” Brad Parscale told “60 Minutes,” according to an excerpt of an interview that the program intends to air tonight. The social media platform was particularly valuable because it allows for targeted messaging, Parscale said, according to the excerpt.
Facebook’s employees showed up for work at his office multiple days a week to provide guidance on how to best use the company’s services, Parscale said in the interview excerpt. “I wanted people who supported Donald Trump,” he said — and he questioned the workers about their political views.

Parscale didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A Facebook spokesman said the company provided the Trump campaign with the same guidance and services it offers any major advertiser.
Facebook has found itself at the center of multiple inquiries into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election. The social-media giant said it has so far found $100,000 in advertising spending linked to a Russian troll farm that has ties to the Kremlin. The company turned over details on the ads to Congress and to special counsel Robert Mueller 3rd, who is leading the criminal investigation into Russia’s campaign meddling and possible links to Trump’s associates.
A person familiar with the company’s work for the Trump campaign took issue with Parscale’s use of the word “embeds” to describe its employees because it implies that the campaign work was their sole focus. The workers had tasks for other clients as well, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the matter is sensitive.

The company offered Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton the same opportunity, the person said.
Although federal election law generally bars corporations from aiding political campaigns, there’s nothing wrong with a company providing training and services to a campaign if it offers the same services to every client spending similar amounts, said Larry Noble, former general counsel of the Federal Election Commission.
“If you’d do it for any customer, it’s OK,” Noble said, adding that the services have to be offered to all customers. “It can’t be just for political campaigns.”
Facebook was especially useful in reaching rural voters, Parscale told “60 Minutes,” according to the published excerpt. “So now Facebook lets you get to … 15 people in the Florida Panhandle that I would never buy a TV commercial for,” he said.

Exactly a year after U.S. intelligence issued a stern warning about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, the Trump administration has failed to fill key homeland security posts responsible for preventing another Kremlin assault on the voting system.
Not only that, the White House hasn’t even nominated someone to replace now-White House chief of staff John Kelly as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), or someone to run its units responsible for protecting the nation’s strategic infrastructure, which includes federal, state and local voting systems. Both are in the hands of “acting” officials.
“The administration is having a hard time finding individuals that want to do the job, could do a good job, and could pass Senate confirmation,” a congressional expert tells Newsweek, speaking candidly only on the basis he not be quoted by name.
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President Donald Trump delivers remarks at the Homeland Security Department’s headquarters in Washington on January 25. He announced two immigration-related executive orders, including one to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico. Jonathan Ernst/REUTERS
“The second thing is, the administration doesn’t seem to want to have anybody head up to the Hill and testify on issues that would be hot-button issues, namely anything to do with election security, cyber security, or the Russian acts from last year.”
Unless the administration puts its own political appointees in place at DHS, analysts say, the department will struggle to get protective systems up and running in time for the 2017 primaries and state and local races, let alone the 2018 elections. Acting department heads just don’t have the same powers of persuasion as people appointed by the president.
DHS‘s National Protection and Programs Directorate, or NPPD, responsible for thwarting foreign cyberattacks on the nation’s infrastructure, is currently being run by Acting Undersecretary Christopher C. Krebs, a former Microsoft lobbyist and cybersecurity policy chief.
“It being vacant hurts,” Erik Rasmussen, a former U.S. Secret Service prosecutor and special agent, tells Newsweek. “The head of that unit has deep cyber operational control and has a critical role to play in any critical infrastructure decision.”
Nor were several congressional officials responsible for homeland security oversight able to identify anyone in charge of the Election Infrastructure Cybersecurity Working Group, which, according to an NPPD announcement in July, was embarking on an ambitious program to integrate DHS with “not only state and local election officials, but also other federal agencies.”
DHS is also launching a Government Coordinating Council to liaise with the bipartisan U.S. Election Assistance Commission and 25 state and local officials, but “the membership and structure is still being finalized,” a department official tells Newsweek.
Three months later, the elections unit, “has not gone out and talked with state election officials to determine what exactly [they] need to increase their own cybersecurity defenses, and what kind of authorities the federal government might need to be able to help provide that assistance,” the congressional expert said. They are “just starting to look at it right now.”
At a press conference last week, Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that members of the panel shared a “general consensus” of agreement on the conclusions of last January’s intelligence community assessment that the Kremlin’s effort to interfere in the 2016 presidential campaign was directed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. “The overall theme of their involvement in the U.S. election was to create chaos at every level,” Burr said, declining to share another conclusion of the intelligence agencies that Putin’s aim was to tilt voters away from Hillary Clinton and toward Donald Trump.
The entrance to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Cyber Crimes Center is seen in this U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) building in Fairfax, Virginia, U.S. on July 21, 2015. Courtesy Josh Denmark/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Handout via REUTERS Reuters
Burr also said he was, “pleased with the progress” the homeland security department was making to prevent further election interference. But Democrats on Capitol Hill unanimously disagreed with that statement.
In a statement to Newsweek, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, called Trump “irresponsible and reckless” for “leaving  leadership positions at our cybersecurity agencies unfilled…almost ten months into this administration.”
Likewise, New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan, a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told Newsweek, “what we urgently need is a genuine effort from congressional Republicans and the Trump administration to work with us…especially given the fast-approaching 2017 election…” On Thursday, the committee approved a bill introduced jointly by Hassan and Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio that would enlist “‘white-hat’—that is, ethical—hackers to help identify unique and undiscovered vulnerabilities in the DHS networks and information technology.”
Three weeks ago, DHS surprised election officials in 21 states with the news that Russian hackers had tried to access their voter information. On September 28, according to The Huffington Post, election officials in Wisconsin and California said DHS had “provided them with additional information showing that Russian hackers actually scanned networks at other state agencies unconnected to voter data.”
At a September 27 hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, the panel’s top Democrat, Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill, said she was “worried about how long it’s taken us to notify the states about the potential efforts to scan voter registration files in their states…” And she asked Trump administration officials, including acting DHS secretary Elaine Duke, “what is our strategy going forward? How are we going to do what needs to be done to notify the American public if this is going on, and prevent it from actually happening in all of these various ways that Russia played around in our democracy?”
Duke responded that DHS had learned to “notify the right senior [state] official” about Russian election intrusions.
Christopher Wray, who Trump appointed to replace James Comey as FBI Director, told McCaskill that, “We are surging more resources specifically focused on the upcoming elections…”
When they issued their joint statement on Russian election meddling last October 7, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper claimed that DHS was “providing several services to state and local election officials to assist in their cybersecurity,” including, “‘hygiene’ scans of Internet-facing systems, risk and vulnerability assessments, information sharing about cyber incidents, and best practices for securing voter registration databases and addressing potential cyber threats.”
Rasmussen, now a top cyber official with the global investigations firm Kroll, called the hygiene scan “a really good program,” but said, “I’m not sure how many entities actually use it.”  In any event, he said, ”there are still too many voting platforms—vote by mail, paper vote, online vote, machine vote at a polling station—that are really vulnerable to outside sabotage or manipulation.”
DHS did not respond to several questions about its cybersecurity measures related to the elections.
“Overall,” says the congressional homeland security expert, “our assessment is that DHS is just really getting serious about this right now.”
How serious remains to be seen. As Laura Rosenberger, a senior former Obama administration national security official, puts it: “The person at the very top continues to deny that this is even an issue.” Last week, Trump tweeted that the Senate Intelligence Committee should be investigating “fake news,” not Russia’s election meddling and alleged collusion with him and his associates.
“I don’t know where you go from there,” Rosenberger added. “We need a whole government strategy on this, and that requires White House leadership.”
It’s not likely to come, former Obama White House Counsel Bob Bauer wrote this week.
“A whole government approach would require an executive fully prepared to work with the Congress to meet this challenge,” Bauer said. “President Donald Trump has given no such indication: quite the opposite.”

In 2008, during the largest terrorism funding trial in U.S. history, United States v. Holy Land Foundation, a document published in 1991 outlined Muslim plans to take over America.  An Explanatory Memorandum:  On the General Strategic Goal for the Group, seized in a 2004 FBI raid of the Virginia home of a Muslim Brotherhood operative, was presented during the trial as evidence of “a Civilization-Jihadist Process.” It outlined the Muslim Brotherhood goal to conduct a “grand jihad in eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated.”
For several decades, this well-organized and well-funded effort to subvert our constitutional republic and replace it with an Islamic government under Islamic law has focused on infiltrating all levels and branches of the U.S. government. More recently, the Muslim Brotherhood presence within the American political landscape has intensified, accelerated, and become more visible with the establishment of several nonprofit political action organizations. The Muslim Brotherhood stated goal of transforming American society from within in preparation for an eventual takeover is clearly moving forward fueled by the efforts of these groups and their burgeoning success within the umma or Muslim community.

As early as 1987, a declassified FBI confidential informant document described the Muslim Brotherhood as “political action front groups with no traceable ties to Muslim groups” that are organizing external political support to influence both public opinion in America and the U.S. government and its leadership. The informant who disclosed this information told authorities that the MB acknowledged the need to “peacefully get inside the United States Government” for the purpose of meeting “the ultimate goal of overthrowing all non-Islamic governments.”
In 2010, one such “peaceful” group, Project Mobilize, was created by M. Yasser Tabbara to empower and engage the political potential of the Muslim community.  Its mission statement called for the exploitation of the growing political capital of the umma, the promotion of issues important to Muslim Americans and the development of strategies for political advocacy on their behalf.  In 2011, Project Mobilize began fielding its first Muslim candidates for political office.
Project Mobilize’s founder, Tabbara, is a former executive director the Chicago chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate and unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas funding trial. Other board members include Safaa Zarzour, the secretary general of another unindicted co-conspirator and Muslim Brotherhood front, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and Oussama Jammal, vice president of the Mosque Foundation, a known center for terrorism fundraising and haven for Hamas operatives.
In 2014, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., representatives from eight Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated groups announced formation of the United States Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), a political party for Muslims and the first religion-based political party in U.S. history. At the meeting, the founders disclosed their plans to expand Muslim participation in the American political process by encouraging more Muslims to vote, work on political campaigns and run for office themselves.
Oussama Jammal, who was involved in fundraising for convicted terrorist Sami al-Arian and serves as director of the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliate, the Muslim American Society (MAS), headed the new organization. MAS, created in the early 1990s, was itself begun as the U.S. branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and was designated a terrorist group by the United Arab Emirates. Mazen Mokhtar, another USCMO founding member, also had MAS ties, having served as its executive director. An Egyptian-born imam, Mokhtar served as webmaster for a site that solicited funds for Taliban and Chechen jihadists. In 2007, he was indicted by then-New Jersey Attorney General Chris Christie for tax evasion and filing false tax returns.
In 2015, a new organization, Jetpac Inc. (Justice, Education and Technology Policy Advocacy Center) was begun by Nadeem Mazen, Massachusett’s first Muslim city council member. Jetpac was established as an “open call for American Muslims to immerse themselves in local politics.” The group trains American Muslim community leaders and educates them about the political process. According to their website, they have prepared more than 15 aspiring candidates for office in Maine, New York, Rhode Island, and California. The group’s activities include development of proprietary software for social media outreach, fundraising and canvassing techniques, media communication and campaign strategy skills as well as advice on combatting negative impressions of Muslims. In addition, Jetpac teaches a course on U.S. government and politics at a Massachusetts Islamic school that focuses on grassroots organizing and the history of the civil rights movement.
Following his stint as a Cambridge City Council member, Mazen, a founding member of CAIR Massachusetts and former president of MIT’s MSA, announced plans to run for Congress as the third elected Muslim after Keith Hakim Ellison (D-MN) and Andre Carson (D-IN). Just this week, Mazen launched his campaign for Massachusetts’ 3rd Congressional District seat. A telling indicator of his more radical views is the fact that Mazen opposed President Obama’s Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) program and criticized moderate Muslim groups as promoters of “imperialistic-style” initiatives to “foist secular attitudes on Muslims.”
Another political race worth watching involves a CAIR official running for the Des Moines, Iowa, city council. Somali Muslim refugee and president of CAIR Iowa, Abshir Omar, is running as a Democratic Socialist to represent downtown Des Moines and the city’s southwest side. City council members can wield significant power and influence over all aspects of community life. Typically, they make key appointments such as city managers, police and fire department heads, library board members, parks and recreation supervisors, transportation directors, as well as administrators for arts councils, housing authorities and planning commissions.
Meanwhile, the background of Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, another Islamist operative who intends to run for governor of Massachusetts in the future, should cause grave concern. Wadud, who served on the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women, has extensive radical Islamic ties. She served as an executive board member for CAIR Massachusetts and as the general counsel for Jamaat ul-Fuqra a.k.a. Muslims of America, a group alleged to have close ties to Al Qaeda.
Jamaat ul-Fuqra was founded in 1980 by Pakistani Sheikh Gilani, who was associated with shoe bomber Richard Reid and implicated in the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl. According to the Clarion Project, Wadud posted an anti-Semitic article by Gilani on her Facebook that claimed Jewish complicity in the 9/11 and Pearl Harbor attacks.
Jamaat ul-Fuqra has done more than simply issue social media propaganda, however. The terrorist entity has approximately two dozen paramilitary training centers across the U.S. and its members participated in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. It is known to proselytize and recruit black prison inmates and reportedly seeks “to purify Islam through violence.” The Center for Policing Terrorism maintains that Jamaat ul-Fuqra “may be the best positioned group to launch an attack on the United States, or, more likely, help al-Qaeda to do so.”
Another Muslim with terrorist ties is a political candidate in Arizona. Southern Baptist convert to Islam, Deedra Abboud, a Phoenix attorney and community activist who served as the executive director of CAIR Arizona and is currently associated with the Muslim American Society, is seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. senator in her state. Abboud opposes President Trump’s policy to temporarily ban refugees from designated Muslim countries rife with terrorist activity. She also opposed the U.S. cruise missile bombing that followed Bashar Assad’s use of chemical weapons on Syrian civilians. Identifying as a feminist, Abboud defends her husband’s right under Islam to have four wives although she admits that she wouldn’t be happy with it. She helped raise bail money for deceased Muslim terrorist, Elton Simpson, when he was convicted of lying to the FBI about his plans to engage in Islamic terrorist activities in Somalia. Simpson, in the first ISIS-claimed attack on U.S. soil, tried to kill participants at the Mohammed cartoon contest in Garland, Texas in 2015. In 2009, Abboud made a statement about the acceptability of police learning Arabic to better understand the Muslim community. However, she objected to the study of Arabic as a law enforcement tool for investigating potential Islamic terrorist activity deeming it targeting.
Self-described devout Muslim and son of Egyptian immigrant parents, Abdul El-Sayed, has substantial connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and is running for governor of Michigan. A medical doctor who served as the executive director of the Detroit Health Department at age 30, his background includes serving as vice president of his MSA chapter at the University of Michigan during his college years. His wife, Sarah Jukaku, who is described as “a mental health doctor,” wears a hijab. His father-in-law is a former president and current board member of CAIR Michigan.
Quite troubling is the fact that El-Sayed is endorsed by Linda Sarsour, an advocate for the Hamas initiative for the boycott, divestment, and sanctioning of Israel and an activist who played a major role in pressuring the NYPD to discontinue its surveillance of mosques and Muslim organizations post-9/11. That surveillance effort had yielded critical intelligence about terrorist activities. Sarsour is one of El-Sayed’s biggest supporters and is reportedly helping fundraise for El-Sayed’s gubernatorial campaign. She is also a close friend of the Muslim Brotherhood-connected Huma Abedin, has family members who have been arrested for aiding and abetting Hamas, openly supports shariah law and has been a featured speaker at Muslim Brotherhood groups that were designated as unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation trial.
All of the above demonstrate that the Muslim Brotherhood is increasing its political clout in America. As more of its candidates are elected to office, deeper penetration of American society comes within their grasp. Their stated goal to destroy our society from within and replace the Constitution with the tenets of shariah could become a reality. Their adeptness at appealing to the American public by using the coded language of multiculturalism and by professing a moderate Islam has proved to be an unfortunate asset. In the words of former FBI analyst and expert on the Muslim Brotherhood, John Guandolo, who has closely studied their deceptive language and appearance, Muslim Brotherhood operatives are “suit-wearing jihadis who pretend they’re friendly but they’re not.” America should be alert and aware.

In 2008, during the largest terrorism funding trial in U.S. history, United States v. Holy Land Foundation, a document published in 1991 outlined Muslim plans to take over America.  An Explanatory Memorandum:  On the General Strategic Goal for the Group, seized in a 2004 FBI raid of the Virginia home of a Muslim Brotherhood operative, was presented during the trial as evidence of “a Civilization-Jihadist Process.” It outlined the Muslim Brotherhood goal to conduct a “grand jihad in eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated.”
For several decades, this well-organized and well-funded effort to subvert our constitutional republic and replace it with an Islamic government under Islamic law has focused on infiltrating all levels and branches of the U.S. government. More recently, the Muslim Brotherhood presence within the American political landscape has intensified, accelerated, and become more visible with the establishment of several nonprofit political action organizations. The Muslim Brotherhood stated goal of transforming American society from within in preparation for an eventual takeover is clearly moving forward fueled by the efforts of these groups and their burgeoning success within the umma or Muslim community.
As early as 1987, a declassified FBI confidential informant document described the Muslim Brotherhood as “political action front groups with no traceable ties to Muslim groups” that are organizing external political support to influence both public opinion in America and the U.S. government and its leadership. The informant who disclosed this information told authorities that the MB acknowledged the need to “peacefully get inside the United States Government” for the purpose of meeting “the ultimate goal of overthrowing all non-Islamic governments.”
In 2010, one such “peaceful” group, Project Mobilize, was created by M. Yasser Tabbara to empower and engage the political potential of the Muslim community.  Its mission statement called for the exploitation of the growing political capital of the umma, the promotion of issues important to Muslim Americans and the development of strategies for political advocacy on their behalf.  In 2011, Project Mobilize began fielding its first Muslim candidates for political office.
Project Mobilize’s founder, Tabbara, is a former executive director the Chicago chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate and unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas funding trial. Other board members include Safaa Zarzour, the secretary general of another unindicted co-conspirator and Muslim Brotherhood front, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and Oussama Jammal, vice president of the Mosque Foundation, a known center for terrorism fundraising and haven for Hamas operatives.
In 2014, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., representatives from eight Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated groups announced formation of the United States Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), a political party for Muslims and the first religion-based political party in U.S. history. At the meeting, the founders disclosed their plans to expand Muslim participation in the American political process by encouraging more Muslims to vote, work on political campaigns and run for office themselves.
Oussama Jammal, who was involved in fundraising for convicted terrorist Sami al-Arian and serves as director of the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliate, the Muslim American Society (MAS), headed the new organization. MAS, created in the early 1990s, was itself begun as the U.S. branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and was designated a terrorist group by the United Arab Emirates. Mazen Mokhtar, another USCMO founding member, also had MAS ties, having served as its executive director. An Egyptian-born imam, Mokhtar served as webmaster for a site that solicited funds for Taliban and Chechen jihadists. In 2007, he was indicted by then-New Jersey Attorney General Chris Christie for tax evasion and filing false tax returns.
In 2015, a new organization, Jetpac Inc. (Justice, Education and Technology Policy Advocacy Center) was begun by Nadeem Mazen, Massachusett’s first Muslim city council member. Jetpac was established as an “open call for American Muslims to immerse themselves in local politics.” The group trains American Muslim community leaders and educates them about the political process. According to their website, they have prepared more than 15 aspiring candidates for office in Maine, New York, Rhode Island, and California. The group’s activities include development of proprietary software for social media outreach, fundraising and canvassing techniques, media communication and campaign strategy skills as well as advice on combatting negative impressions of Muslims. In addition, Jetpac teaches a course on U.S. government and politics at a Massachusetts Islamic school that focuses on grassroots organizing and the history of the civil rights movement.
Following his stint as a Cambridge City Council member, Mazen, a founding member of CAIR Massachusetts and former president of MIT’s MSA, announced plans to run for Congress as the third elected Muslim after Keith Hakim Ellison (D-MN) and Andre Carson (D-IN). Just this week, Mazen launched his campaign for Massachusetts’ 3rd Congressional District seat. A telling indicator of his more radical views is the fact that Mazen opposed President Obama’s Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) program and criticized moderate Muslim groups as promoters of “imperialistic-style” initiatives to “foist secular attitudes on Muslims.”
Another political race worth watching involves a CAIR official running for the Des Moines, Iowa, city council. Somali Muslim refugee and president of CAIR Iowa, Abshir Omar, is running as a Democratic Socialist to represent downtown Des Moines and the city’s southwest side. City council members can wield significant power and influence over all aspects of community life. Typically, they make key appointments such as city managers, police and fire department heads, library board members, parks and recreation supervisors, transportation directors, as well as administrators for arts councils, housing authorities and planning commissions.
Meanwhile, the background of Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, another Islamist operative who intends to run for governor of Massachusetts in the future, should cause grave concern. Wadud, who served on the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women, has extensive radical Islamic ties. She served as an executive board member for CAIR Massachusetts and as the general counsel for Jamaat ul-Fuqra a.k.a. Muslims of America, a group alleged to have close ties to Al Qaeda.
Jamaat ul-Fuqra was founded in 1980 by Pakistani Sheikh Gilani, who was associated with shoe bomber Richard Reid and implicated in the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl. According to the Clarion Project, Wadud posted an anti-Semitic article by Gilani on her Facebook that claimed Jewish complicity in the 9/11 and Pearl Harbor attacks.
Jamaat ul-Fuqra has done more than simply issue social media propaganda, however. The terrorist entity has approximately two dozen paramilitary training centers across the U.S. and its members participated in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. It is known to proselytize and recruit black prison inmates and reportedly seeks “to purify Islam through violence.” The Center for Policing Terrorism maintains that Jamaat ul-Fuqra “may be the best positioned group to launch an attack on the United States, or, more likely, help al-Qaeda to do so.”
Another Muslim with terrorist ties is a political candidate in Arizona. Southern Baptist convert to Islam, Deedra Abboud, a Phoenix attorney and community activist who served as the executive director of CAIR Arizona and is currently associated with the Muslim American Society, is seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. senator in her state. Abboud opposes President Trump’s policy to temporarily ban refugees from designated Muslim countries rife with terrorist activity. She also opposed the U.S. cruise missile bombing that followed Bashar Assad’s use of chemical weapons on Syrian civilians. Identifying as a feminist, Abboud defends her husband’s right under Islam to have four wives although she admits that she wouldn’t be happy with it. She helped raise bail money for deceased Muslim terrorist, Elton Simpson, when he was convicted of lying to the FBI about his plans to engage in Islamic terrorist activities in Somalia. Simpson, in the first ISIS-claimed attack on U.S. soil, tried to kill participants at the Mohammed cartoon contest in Garland, Texas in 2015. In 2009, Abboud made a statement about the acceptability of police learning Arabic to better understand the Muslim community. However, she objected to the study of Arabic as a law enforcement tool for investigating potential Islamic terrorist activity deeming it targeting.
Self-described devout Muslim and son of Egyptian immigrant parents, Abdul El-Sayed, has substantial connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and is running for governor of Michigan. A medical doctor who served as the executive director of the Detroit Health Department at age 30, his background includes serving as vice president of his MSA chapter at the University of Michigan during his college years. His wife, Sarah Jukaku, who is described as “a mental health doctor,” wears a hijab. His father-in-law is a former president and current board member of CAIR Michigan.
Quite troubling is the fact that El-Sayed is endorsed by Linda Sarsour, an advocate for the Hamas initiative for the boycott, divestment, and sanctioning of Israel and an activist who played a major role in pressuring the NYPD to discontinue its surveillance of mosques and Muslim organizations post-9/11. That surveillance effort had yielded critical intelligence about terrorist activities. Sarsour is one of El-Sayed’s biggest supporters and is reportedly helping fundraise for El-Sayed’s gubernatorial campaign. She is also a close friend of the Muslim Brotherhood-connected Huma Abedin, has family members who have been arrested for aiding and abetting Hamas, openly supports shariah law and has been a featured speaker at Muslim Brotherhood groups that were designated as unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation trial.
All of the above demonstrate that the Muslim Brotherhood is increasing its political clout in America. As more of its candidates are elected to office, deeper penetration of American society comes within their grasp. Their stated goal to destroy our society from within and replace the Constitution with the tenets of shariah could become a reality. Their adeptness at appealing to the American public by using the coded language of multiculturalism and by professing a moderate Islam has proved to be an unfortunate asset. In the words of former FBI analyst and expert on the Muslim Brotherhood, John Guandolo, who has closely studied their deceptive language and appearance, Muslim Brotherhood operatives are “suit-wearing jihadis who pretend they’re friendly but they’re not.” America should be alert and aware.