HAMAS AND THE CONVICT CONNECTION: PATRICK DUNLEAVY
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.9332/pub_detail.asp
Contributor Patrick Dunleavy is the former Deputy Inspector General for New York State Department of Corrections.
There is an old saying “War and Politics Makes for Strange Bedfellows” Now it seems we may add a third part to the equation: Prisons.
In the present situation in Gaza with its current government run by HAMAS, designated a terrorist organization by the US State Department, it seems that some convicts from America’s past have run to support it with political statements and funds.
Several domestic terrorists currently serving life sentences for killing law enforcement officers are attempting to inject themselves into the current situation in the Middle East including calling for the end to Israel.
Clark Edward Squire.
Inmates such as Herman Bell, Anthony Bottoms, James Dixon York, and Clark Edward Squire who were members of the Black Liberation Army as well as David Gilbert, a member of the Weather Underground, have in the recent past posted statements on the Internet calling for the end of “US/Zionist Imperialism in Palestine.” They also encouraged the use of any means necessary – including violence – to achieve the goal of “driving the Zionist oppressors out of your land.”
These same convicts have also come out in opposition to the US involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan, and North Africa.
They consider themselves political prisoners in a corrupt regime, not criminals.
Their view of the United States was articulated most accurately in this recent statement;
“The real terrorist is the American government, state terrorism unleashed against the world.”
Who said it? If you would have guessed Al Qaeda spokesman Anwar Al Awlaki or Osama bin Laden’s chief lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahri, you would have been wrong. The statement comes from Bernadette Dohrn. Dohrn you may recall is the former member of a domestic terrorist organization who along with her husband, Bill Ayers, admitted to setting bombs at several government buildings during the turbulent 60’s and early 70’s .. Although charges against Ayers were dropped, Dohrn pled guilty to aggravated battery in exchange for a sentence of probation. Over the years they have maintained their relationship with the other members of their group, now incarcerated, through visiting and talking on the prison telephone. The inmate they most frequently communicate with is David Gilbert. He is currently serving seventy five years to life in Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York near the Canadian border. Gilbert’s lenghty sentence was meted out after he was found guilty in the murder of two police officers and a Brinks guard during a botched hold up attempt.
David Gilbert.
In addition to Ayers and Dohrn, Gilbert has also received visits from several advocates for the Palestinian Solidarity Movement, a HAMAS sympathizer. While the Movement states that it is nonviolent, we must remember that many of the 60’s domestic terrorists began in non violent protest organizations only to become completely commited to violence and any means necessary to achieve their objectives. Dohrn, Ayers, and Gilbert were all members of the Students for a Democractic Society (SDS), a non-violent student activist organization begun in 1962. The SDS expressed a desire to use civil disobedience and other nonviolent means to cause change with social, political, and economic policy within the government However , after several years of non-violent protest, a segment within that group, which included Dohrn, Ayers, and Gilbert, became disillusioned with the results and wanted to take action — violent action — against the United States government.
They called themselves the Weather Underground or the Weathermen, after a line in a Bob Dylan Song; “you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”[1]
Dohrn loudly announced the objective of the new organization with this communiqué [2]:
“Hello, I’m going to read a declaration of a state of war…Within the next 14 days we will attack a symbol or institution of American injustice.”
The connection between 60’s radicals and radical Islamic organizations such as HAMAS and Hezbollah began many years ago when several of the 60’s radicals were in prison with a number of Palestinian inmates in New York State. The Palestinians were in prison at the time for violent crimes including kidnapping, firebombing a Jewish Deli in New York City, and opening fire with automatic weapons on a vanload of Hasidic students. Three of them had active ties to HAMAS, Hezbollah, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. This melding of the minds to identify a common enemy, that being “the corrupt US / Zionist Imperialism” was formed over the years in prison together. They exchanged ideas on such topics as safe houses, demonstration tactics and financing. They also shared friends and contacts and some shared visitors with David Gilbert. Others attended the prison mosque with members of the Black Liberation Army who had converted to Islam. The prison chaplain at the time was himself a Palestinian with Jordanian citizenship. The chaplain made national headlines in 2003 when he was indicted (pdf) by the United States Attorney General’s Office for funneling funds into a suspicious charity suspected of providing support to Sunni insurgents in Iraq in violation of the War Powers Act.
These were not the only funds to be misdirected. Other inmate donations were sent to the Holy Land Foundation, which was found guilty in 2008 of sending millions of dollars, raised through donations under the guise of helping with relief efforts in Gaza, to HAMAS .
Viva Palestina, an organization founded in the UK by British Member of Parliment George Galloway , uses the same method, stating that it “is a charity that seeks to take practical steps needed to help the people of Palestine and especially the besieged in the Gaza Strip.”
However a large portion of the the resources raised were given in the form of cash directly to HAMAS leaders.
In addition to fund raising Viva Palestina has organized several convoys of vehicles loaded with supplies attempting to enter into Gaza through the Egyptian border crossing at Rafah. Participating in the convoy was New York City Councilman Charles Barron. Barron is a former 60’s radical and member of the Black Panther Party who still maintains contact with members of the Black Liberation Army currently in prison for the killing of four New York City Police officers.
Following the truck convoy, Galloway announced that he would next attempt to enter Gaza directly by sea with ships. Viva Palestina joined with several other groups in this endeavour including the Free Gaza Movement.
Ayers and Dohrn were both involved, along with others, in helping to organize the Free Gaza Movement shipments sent from Turkey. The flotilla ships attempted to by pass an Israeli blockade of Gaza in May 2010 and were met by Israeli naval vessels. In the ensuing confrontation nine people were killed and seven Israeli commandos were injured.
Four months prior to that Ayers and Dohrn were in Egypt attempting to enter the Gaza Strip and meet with HAMAS leaders. During this much publicized demonstration several indivduals required medical attention after a confrontation with Egyptian police when they attempted to stop traffic. Ayers’ recounting the event in the Rag Blog was giddy and euphoric using words like “spirited, or gallant effort” as he described the demonstrators commitment to disrupt social order.
Concievably he was recalling his past violent conflicts with police in Chicago in 1969 during the “Days of Rage” perhaps sighing to himself; “oh if only David could be here.” While Gilbert in his prison cell reponds, “We stand with you in the fight!”
Alas old radicals’ memories die hard or are gilded by nostalgia. The names of the police officers
killed in the line of duty by these so called activists or political prisoners are forever etched in our memory. Indivduals like Rocco Laurie, Gregg Foster, Waverly Brown, Edward O’Grady, Werner Foerster, [3] and others must not be forgotten when it comes to dealing with the old 60’s radicals and their new causes. For HAMAS, becoming a cause célèbre for the old radicals is a tactic they will use to their advantage.
History can be a cruel teacher if we fail to learn from it.
Notes:
[1]Subterranean Homesick Blues, Bob Dylan, copyright 1965, renewed 1993 Special Rider Music.
[2]The Weather Underground: report of the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Ninety-fourth Congress, first session 1975.
[3] National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. Laurie & Foster were NYPD officers, Brown & O’Grady were Nyack Police Officers, Foerster was a New Jersey State Trooper.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributor Patrick Dunleavy is the former Deputy Inspector General for New York State Department of Corrections. He is the author of the upcoming book, “The Fertile Soil of Jihad: Terrorism’s Prison Connection,” details of which can be found at his website, and he can be contacted at: mail@ptdassociates.com.
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