By Debbie Schlussel

On Monday, Sami Samir Hassoun, a Chicago resident and Lebanese national, was charged in federal court for trying to blow up what he believed was a bomb in Chicago’s Wrigleyville neighborhood near Wrigley Field.  He was set up by an FBI informant at the FBI’s instruction, and the FBI created the fake bomb.

Who is Sami Samir Hassoun & Why Did the FBI Target Him?

And, if you read the criminal complaint and accompanying affidavit from FBI Special Agent Samuel Hartman as I did, it raises several questions the FBI isn’t answering or is deliberately obfuscating:

*  Who is Sami Samir Hassoun, and why did the FBI specifically choose him as a target?

*  Why are Chicago taxpayers funding a Muslim-dominated festival also sponsored by the Saudi and Jordanian governments?

Hassoun is a 22-year-old Lebanese national, who has been in the U.S. for three years and is a “lawful permanent resident,” which apparently means he has a green card and was on his way to getting U.S. citizenship.  Although the federal documents don’t say so, I can tell from his name that he is also a Shi’ite Muslim, which means he’s very likely a Hezbollah supporter.  Statements in the affidavit also indicate his family is likely involved in Hezbollah.  And, despite the FBI’s public claim (like all of its other phony denials in terrorism cases) that Hassoun was not “connected with any terrorist group,” it’s clear the agency knows otherwise.

The affidavit states that an FBI informant who speaks Arabic was specifically assigned by the FBI, probably by Agent Hartman or his supervisor, “to meet and befriend” Hassoun and report back on the “friendship” and associated communications.  But the document does not indicate why an informant was assigned specifically to befriend and entice Hassoun into planning terrorist attacks on America.  The FBI doesn’t just assign informants to befriend and convince Muslim targets to plan terrorist attacks.  There simply aren’t enough informants, and the FBI is more intent on politically correct pandering to Muslims than it is on targeting them.  Clearly, the FBI must have known Mr. Hassoun was somehow tied to Islamic terrorist groups–in this case, Hezbollah–and wanted to stop him from his path to citizenship.  The affidavit also does not state how and why Hassoun came to America and the reasons he was granted a green card (other than Citizenship and Immigration Services rubber-stamping of green card applications, including those of Muslims).

Agent Hartman states that Hassoun said he

received a package from relatives in Lebanon that . . . contained an Arabic language manual on how to construct non-traceable explosives . . . [and] certain metal parts to be used in the construction of an explosive device . . . .  [H]e claimed that his relatives would send additional parts.

Sounds like a Hezbollah family to me.  In a footnote, agent Hartman writes that Hassoun said he was devising a toy that explodes.

Also, among Hassoun’s targets–in addition to poisoning our water supply and getting Mayor Richard Daley–was the Chicago Arabesque Festival, one of Mayor Daley’s Islamo-Pandering projects.  I did a little research into this “festival,” and discovered it is a Muslim-dominated event paid for by the City of Chicago and was co-sponsored by the Saudi Arabian and Jordanian governments, both Sunni governments. All of the people running it have Islamic names and  a video posted below shows many of the women in attendance wearing hijabs (Islamic headscarves).  Vendors at the event include the HAMAS charities Palestine Children’s Relief Fund and the United Holy Land Fund.

In the indictment, the FBI informant is described as surprised that Hassoun would target “Arab people.”  It appears that the FBI–specifically Agent Hartman and which ever Assistant U.S. Attorney he is working with– is fudging the translation for the political correctness of the criminal complaint, since Arab Muslims wouldn’t care about killing fellow “Arabs,” but they would look down on killing fellow Muslims.  (The words “Islam” and “Muslim” don’t appear in the indictment, so it’s pretty clear which religion the feds are trying to whitewash.) But the Arabesque is sponsored by two Sunni governments, along with dumb American infidels, and a Shi’ite–especially one associated with Hezbollah–would have no problem hitting those targets.

And there are questions about the Chicago Arabesque Festival.  In his affidavit, FBI Agent Hartman downplays what this is:  a tax-funded party for and promotion of Muslims using the cover name, “Arab.”  That’s what they do at Arab festivals all over the country.  Dearborn’s “Arab American Festival” does the same thing.  But it is not about Arabs.  It’s about MUSLIM Arabs and Arab MUSLIMS.  Same thing, here.

But Agent Hartman calls it,

a non-religious, non-political festival sponsored by the Chicago Commission on Human Relations Advisory Council on Arab Affairs that was designed to promote public awareness, understanding, and appreciation of the cultural heritage of the Arab world.

Does a festival sponsored by the Saudi and Jordanian governments sound “non-religious” and “non-political” to you? Only if you’re a moron. And Agent Hartman is no moron. He knows better.

The Chicago Commission on Human Relations Advisory Council on Arab Affairs is a Muslim-dominated commission, promoting Muslims (NOT Christian Arabs), paid for with Chicago tax dollars. The few Christians on the commission are pan-Muslim in their outlook, their politics, their behavior.  The commission board members are shown on the commission’s website, posing with Jim Zogby of the openly pro-HAMAS, pro-Hezbollah Arab American Institute.  To say that anything connected with this commission is “non-political” is an extremely naive or knowingly false statement.

This tax-funded commission is unconstitutional, bigoted, and totally absurd that any tax dollars would go to promote this. But, after 9/11, that’s all the rage. Aside from that, how does Chicago have the money–in these tough times–to spare for promoting pan-Arabism, while people in Chicago are on the streets and going hungry?

Don’t ask me, but perhaps Mr. Hassoun didn’t have such a bad idea about bombing the thing (though he said his “bomb” there would be just a diversionary, minor explosion before a major explosion elsewhere).  But he went with Wrigleyville, instead.

Still, how did Mr. Hassoun get here, why he was here, and why did the FBI choose him as a target?  I think I’ve hinted at the answers in my analysis above.  But the questions remain.  And, clearly, the FBI isn’t telling us the whole–or the real–story.

There are many more Sami Samir Hassouns in our midst, whom the FBI isn’t targeting.  And that’s the scary part.  Even scarier is that American taxpayers–who give Chicago a great deal of money–are forced to fund a “festival” promoting the culture  and “understanding” of his fellow extremist Muslims.