UPDATE: I moved this post up to the top, lots of folks are coming here to read the affidavit. Welcome Readers, and please spread the word!
For your reading pleasure, the 39-page affidavit of Special Agent Thomas Carroll, Special Agent for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is available online at PACER (Case #07-258, Federal District Court, Boston MA). Or you can read the unsealed affidavit here.
The DOJ's statement released earlier today lists a number of alleged falsehoods attributed to Imam Muhammed Masood, mostly concerning his immigration status, where he lived, and whether he ever went back to Pakistan from 1991-1993. But those allegations were just the tip of the iceberg. The affidavit is chock full of alleged tall tales. Somebody is very "creative" with the truth. I'll report more on what's in the affidavit later this evening, but feel free to discover for yourself!
I'll be on the Michael Graham show tomorrow morning (July 25, 2007) at 6:30 AM, WTKK, 96.9 FM TALK in the Boston area. We're discussing this latest development in the Immigration Imams saga.
UPDATE: "Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive,” as Sir Walter Scott said. What a mind-blowing affidavit! Shades of The Great Imposter. Some of the highlights:
- Muhammed Masood first came to the U.S. in 1987, via a J-1 Visitor Exchange Visa. That visa allows foreign nationals to visit the U.S. temporarily. Participants are expected to return to their home countries after their temporary stay. In fact, participants must return to their countries for at least two years prior to re-entering the U.S.
- Masood attended Vanderbilt University in 1987, attending for the fall semester. He then transferred to Boston University to study economics in 1988.
- Masood was sponsored for a J-1 visa by the U.S. Agency for International Development (US AID), a federal government agency that paid for Masood's expenses through the program. According to the Academy of Educational Development, which administered the grant that sponsored Masood, the total amount of taxpayer funds provided for Masood's program was some $85,800 . According to AED, Masood did not complete his MA degree at BU, he did not return to Pakistan, and he was reported as a "non-returnee."
- Masood claimed in repeated, sworn testimony that he returned to Pakistan from 1991 to 1993, as required by the J-1 visa. He claimed that he worked in a mosque in Faisalabad. He claimed that he was a professor of Islamic Economics at the University of Agriculture in Pakistan between 1991-1993. He said that he lived in a small apartment, that it was very hard for him to be away from his family. He said that he missed the birth of his son in March 1992. But according to evidence uncovered by federal agents, none of this is true. The affidavit presents page after page after page of falsehoods. What sort of religious leader conduct himself this way?
- There is no record of Masood's exit and re-entry to the U.S. Masood later came up with a convoluted story about two white men and two "possibly Pakistan" men who helped him to avoid customs when he reportedly came back to the U.S. in 1993. These helpful, mysterious people wearing suits (but no badges) whisked him through unmarked doors at the JFK airport.
- The University of Agriculture in Pakistan provided written documentation that Masood was not employed by them between 1991-1993.
- Hospital records show that Masood was present for his son's birth in March 1992 in Massachusetts, he was the translator and helper for his wife. She was discharged to his care.
- And there is much more. The localRoxbury in December 1992 for failure to pay rent to BU, a letter of complaint to BU about their housing in May 1993 (where he and family were illegally living, since he was no longer a student there). Masood was most definitely residing in Massachusetts from 1991 to 1993, not in Pakistan.
- There are a number of falsehoods after that as well. Masood claimed to live in New Hampshire in order to get a NH driver's license in 1999, when he lived at the Sharon mosque. Masood filed false information on his MassHealth applications for himself and his family, including false social security numbers for some of his cjhildren.
- When Masood applied in April 2001 with the Immigration Service for a Special Immigrant Religious Worker, the petition package was written on ICNE letterhead, but it was signed by Muhammad Khalil, director of Dar Ehya Essunah. Familiar name? As the affidavit says, "Khalil is currently incarcerated for fraudulent sponsorship of multiple religious worker visas, and the Dar Ehya Essunah was his sham mosque in Brooklyn, NY. Jeez, Louise.
- His petition package also stated that Masood had been the Imam at the Islamic Society of Greater Worcester from August 1993 to August 1997. Uhmmm, try again.
It's getting late and I'm getting tired. But this affidavit reads like one lie after another. So will the Muslim American Society still claim that this is all just a "reckless witch hunt"? What would it take for the MAS to admit that their guy is a detriment to our country and to ICNE Muslims? Would you want a pathological liar teaching your children anything, let alone religious instruction?
Two other interesting items in the affidavit:
- Among documents provided by the ICNE was a flyer circulated at the ICNE from April 2005, which offered an award of $90K for "anyone who could show a degree from B.U. for a 'muslim scholar.' " Not everyone at ICNE thought well of Masood. ICNE members have been skeptical about Masood's degrees and his visa status for years. The DOJ and ICE agents didn't dream this stuff up.
- The affidavit states that while Masood worked full-time as Imam at the ICNE in Sharon between 1999 and 2001, Masood was paid by the Islamic Academy of New England (IANE), not the ICNE. The IANE was reportedly incorporated separate from its founder, the ICNE, by Masood and Basyouny Nehela (imam of the Islamic Society of Boston) in August 1999. Strange goings on there. Who master-minded that financial and legal arranegment? Why was the school separated from the ICNE?
Next hearing is August 9, 2007 at the Boston Federal Courthouse. Should be a zinger!
Incredible stuff! Great work. Rhetorical though it is, "What sort of religious leader conduct(s) himself this way?" the answer is a Muslim religious leader. A Pakistani born as a Muslim described his world growing up: "But always fresh and on guard was our ability to lie. At school, at home, or on the street. Everywhere the lie was the basis of our daily lives. If we were asked for directions, our name, what kind of work our father did, how we paid for something, if we came with the bus, if we were hungry, even if a doctor asked where it hurt; on each question you came up with a fitting lie. Not only because lying had become a second nature, but because we often had started to believe in our own lies without realizing that we lied, but also our fear to lose prestige. We depleted our family members quickly because we used their deaths as an excuse for being late. But afterwards the dead family members praised us for our ingenuity when it came to lying."
So "takiyaa," lying to infidels to advance Islam, is a piece of cake when your ingrained Muslim upbringing values clever lies more than truth.
Posted by: Fran | August 08, 2007 at 11:24 AM
Well done.
Your blogging is excellent.
CP
Posted by: carpundit | August 08, 2007 at 08:46 PM