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Just after 9/11, I appeared on FOX News Channel’s “O’Reilly Factor” to discuss imam Fawaz Abu Damra, chief cleric of the Cleveland Mosque, and read his surveilled statements supporting terrorism and the elimination of Christians and Jews at his mosque. The occasion was a fundraiser he did with Islamic Jihad chief Sami Al-Arian ( in Tampa), in which he openly stated that Al-Arian was in charge of armed operations for Islamic Jihad, to which the funds would go. I had written extensively about Abu Damra and his work with Al-Arian on behalf of Islamic Jihad.
A friend told me that “Friday is going to be a great day.” And he was right. Today, Abu Damra was re-arrested and charged with lying about his connections to terrorist groups, so he can be deported.
This is absurd because Damra should have been deported without this latest accusation. But that’s the folly of our immigration laws. Damra’s original crime (for which he was convicted and jailed for months) was not enough to deport him. So, the feds had to charge and arrest this terrorism fundraiser with another crime. That’s our ludicrous immigration system at “work.” See Pat Campbell’s apt comments about this. Stay tuned for a column on this, next week.

Abu Moskowitz vs. Abu Damra? Not Really
We hope that , Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Special Agent in Charge for Michigan and Ohio, won’t pat himself on the (spineless) back, for this arrest–in which his role was merely a formality. This was not his investigation, as the case was set in motion in 1995 and in stone in 2003 (when Al-Arian was indicted). There would be no way–despite how much Abu M’s “former” Islamic terrorist buddy craved it–that Abu M could get away with not directing the arrest. We know that other such vital investigations by Moskowitz’s ICE agents into Islamic terrorism and illegal immigration have, indeed, been ended due to Hamad’s undue influence on Abu Moskowitz.
Abu M’s tough statements against terrorism, in today’s news stories about Damra’s arrest, were just that–statements, and not anything reflecting his real shirking of initiative and shutdown of important investigations in the Islamic terrorism and illegal immigration arenas, as we have documented extensively on this site.