By Debbie Schlussel

**** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE ****

When I learned at the beginning of last week of a federal raid of an Islamic meat plant where halal slaughtering was supposed to be performed, I responded to some readers by telling them that I figured this was because the meat plant and/or the people who run it were involved in terrorism.  And I was right.

Sometimes “Halal Orignal [sic] & Crispy” Refers to Victims, Not Food

I figured this because, as I told some readers, while Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were involved, so were FBI agents.  And while ICE is the exclusive federal agency in investigating immigration law violations and enforcing immigration law, the FBI is the lead agency on terrorism.  And as I’ve always noted on this site, when the FBI is involved in a case involving Muslims–even an immigration case, it’s generally actually a terrorism case with immigrants involved and perhaps immigration violations.

I also noted that in a video news report (see below), Dr. Syed Hamid, a man who operated the plant, had his beard dyed with red henna, the Jeri Curl of jihadists. Other news reports said that the US Department of Agriculture had no knowledge of the raid. So, I knew it was terrorism.

I didn’t get a chance to post anything on it as I’d planned, but in my e-mails to readers, I also noted that I figured the plant was likely funding and money laundering for terrorists.  It wouldn’t be the first time Muslims used a halal slaughterhouse, meat plant, or chicken farm to funnel money to terrorists.

As I’ve previously noted on this site many times, in 2002, Mar-Jac poultry–a Gainesville halal slaughtering plant tied to Saudi Arabia–was raided by U.S. Customs Agents as part of Operation Greenquest.  (That was before Famous But Incompetent became the lead agency “investigating” terrorism and when Customs agents’ Greenquest–under the direction of Marcy Forman-Friedman–did great work stopping the financing of Islamic terrorism.)  It was believed that Mar-Jac was laundering money to Al-Qaeda, but, sadly, the feds never prosecuted most of the people tied to the place.  And they got away with it.  Some of them fled.

As I also noted to a few readers, slaughterhouses are one of the best ways to launder money without getting caught.  Who can prove how many chickens you had that actually lived and how many died and weren’t salable for human consumption?  No-one can.  And that’s why it’s easy to massage numbers and camouflage what amount of money is coming in and what’s going out.  It’s very hard to prosecute, and I suspect that–and the uber-political correctness of the Bush Justice Department toward Muslims–were part of the reason lazy federal prosecutors never went after Mar-Jac to the extent it should have . . . or much of any extent at all after the 2002 Customs raids.

As I wrote to reader S.N., a week ago:

This isn’t the first time that the FBI has raided a halal slaughterhouse, but they NEVER prosecute them, unlike with Rubashkin.  It’s usually all for show.

What happens is that slaughterhouses are the easiest way in the world to launder money.  No-one knows how many animals were actually healthy and slaughtered for meat and how many were sickly.  They can say, hey, we lost money on the sick animals we didn’t slaughter and lost money (when there were no such sick animals and the money was sent to the “Homeland”).  That’s what happened with a Muslim slaughterhouse they raided in 2002, but NEVER prosecuted.  The money went to Al-Qaeda and HAMAS.  That’s what they thought here, which is why they had a lot of firepower for the raid and why the FBI and not just ICE was involved.  Stay tuned.  I’ll post something on it.

Also, they can lie about how much meat or other halal foods went rotten.  Who will know?  How will federal agents prove how much was actually thrown out and how much money was laundered through if it isn’t on the books?  Even a forensic accountant would have  his work cut out for him.

Looks like I was right on almost all counts (with the exception that I think we’ll see a prosecution this time, unlike what we saw under Bush with Mar-Jac):

The FBI this month arrested a second Chicago man allegedly involved in an international terrorist plot with Western European targets. . . .

The man was taken into custody Oct. 3 before he boarded a flight at O’Hare International Airport to Philadelphia, the first stop on a trip to Pakistan, where he planned to meet people with known ties to terrorist organizations that have carried out fatal attacks that resulted in the deaths of U.S. citizens, a source said. He has not been charged.

After that arrest, dozens of FBI agents from the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Oct. 18 raided a Grundy County meat-processing plant that specializes in Islamic foods.

The owner of the plant, Tahawar Hussain Rana, also of Chicago, was arrested at his North Side home the same day as the raid on First World Management Services in Kinsman, northwest of Dwight. Agents seized records from the plant, as well as a related North Side business also raided the same day, said the source, who is familiar with the investigation.

Rana financially supported the man involved in the terrorist plot, as well as the man’s family, the source said. The man was on Rana’s payroll but did little if any legitimate work, the source said.

Well, I’m sure he did plenty of “legitimate work” . . . for the jihad, for the same guys with which these FBI agents’ superiors constantly break pita with at Ramadan Iftar dinners.

**** UPDATE: Chicago News Bench has more on Mr. Rana and his extremist neighborhood.