SOLDIERS OF ALLAH…PREYING ON INNOCENT CIVILIANS
Exclusive: Soldiers of Allah – Preying on Innocent Targets in Their Quest for Jihad
Renee Taylor
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.4933/pub_detail.asp
The massacre of four police officers in Lakewood, Washington, by Maurice Clemmons, comes less than six months after Arkansas experienced the horrific drive-by shooting that killed one soldier and wounded another in front of an Army recruiting center in Little Rock.
Clemmons’ ties to Arkansas have been well-publicized in the days since the murders. Clemmons, a former inmate at the Cummins prison in Grady, Arkansas, had a history of violent criminal behavior. His sentence was commuted by then-governor, Mike Huckabee, who has had much to answer for. Huckabee’s record of pardons is deplorable and that, added to the “catch and release†system that allows violent criminals ample opportunity to continue to terrorize, murder and maim, should cause law makers to take yet another look at both the pardon system and the laws that allow career criminals like Clemmons to go free.
Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, born Carlos Bledsoe, the shooter in the Little Rock case, had yet another factor that influenced his criminal behavior – a conversion to Islam. It may also be a factor in the Clemmons case. As reported by Capt. Matt Bruce, host of The Captain’s America radio program on WSRQ radio in Sarasota, Florida, and other outlets, as well as the Seattle Times, reports that Clemmons was a prison convert to Islam are under investigation. Blogs purported to be loosely tied to the Muslim Brotherhood claim Clemmons a martyr for carrying out one of their prime directives – to kill police officers. The silence by the general media regarding the details of Clemmons’ “deeply held religious beliefs†further fuels the speculation regarding the Islam conversion.
Having lived in Seattle prior to moving to Arkansas as a teenager, Maurice Clemmons had a large network of friends and acquaintances ready and willing to aide in his escape. At the time of this writing, four men are in custody and law enforcement is promising charges to be brought against anyone and everyone who assisted Clemmons after his murderous rampage. The question of the Islam conversion is but one of many.
How is it that Clemmons, with his long-standing criminal record that spans across Arkansas and Washington, was allowed to remain out of prison? According to a statement by his bail bond agent, Jail Sucks Bail Bonds, on their website:
Clemmons has no felony convictions in the state of Washington that we are aware of, he has been charged with several crimes; Rape of Child 2nd, Assault 3rd, and several counts of Malicious Mischief. He was held in July as a Fugitive from Justice (I assume for the Arkansas matter) but that was dismissed for an unknown reason. We had no knowledge of his criminal history or convictions in Arkansas. In July he posted bond with another bond company in Seattle on these same charges. In September he was returned to custody by DOC for a parole violation (unknown what the violation was). In November he was given a mental health evaluation by Western State Hospital to evaluate his competency to stand trial. Shortly after they determined he could, Pierce County set his conditions for release and bail. The other bond company exonerated him off their bond on November 12th, 2009, we are told for non-payment or failure to follow contract. We posted bond on November 23rd. As a requirement of the bond, given the charges and size of the bond, we required Clemmons to be on a GPS bracelet and to check in weekly and also to have two co-signers and put up a piece of property as collateral. We met with Clemmons twice during the week of the 23rd, once when he was released and again on the 24th. Nothing at that time seemed out of the ordinary. None of the people co-signing for him said anything about his mental status or previous convictions in Arkansas, which again, we had no knowledge of or really any way of knowing about. We were also not aware he had been notified that he was facing a life sentence here in Washington as well, if convicted of the Rape of Child case (the only reason I am aware of this is from reading a report on it). Had we known this, we would not have posted this bond. Had we known Clemmons was telling people he was “Jesus” or that the “world was going to end” soon and to “watch the news”, we never would have posted this bond.
Legal technicalities and lack of communication are major factors in this tragedy. Although Clemmons was telling people he was “Jesus,†he was deemed mentally competent by Western State Hospital, allowed to post bond and commit a heinous crime that has forever changed the lives of four families. Jail Sucks Bail Bonds went through the necessary motions to write Clemmons’ bond that set him free, as Clemmons and his as-of-yet-unnamed co-signers on the bond did not disclose his prior conviction history in Arkansas. That disclosure could have come with an FBI or NCIC background check, but those often take weeks to process, which is not feasible in the bail bonding business.
Law enforcement, prosecutors and judges, for the most part, do have access to nationwide criminal backgrounds on arrestees, but the same judges and prosecutors continue, whether for political reasons or individual state laws, open the doors and allow the criminal to walk free. While an arrestee has the right to “reasonable bond,†what constitutes “reasonable bond†in a case such as Clemmons?
The Islam conversion connection cannot be immediately dismissed. While the Islam connection in the recent Fort Hood murders was largely ignored or even excused by the mainstream media, it is a belief system that plays a big part in the actions of radical Islamists, whether they be al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Iraq or an apparent lone shooter in Fort Hood, Nadil Malik Hasan. Until the government begins to take seriously the fact that the enemy is actively recruiting angry young men in our prisons, neighborhoods and the local mosques and begins to treat such activity as part of the War on Terror and not “isolated incidences,†criminals such as Hasan, Bledsoe and now perhaps Clemmons will continue to be soldiers of Allah – preying on small, innocent targets in their quest for jihad.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Renee Taylor is a licensed private investigator with The Taylor Company, an investigations and research company based in Warren, Bradley County, Arkansas, as well as an Arkansas licensed bailbond agent for Bryce’s Bailbonding, Inc.
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