Jamaat ul-Fuqra/MOA Compound: Dover, TN

My last post focused on the Jamaat ul-Fuqra/Muslims of the Americas (MOA) presence in Commerce, GA. Before stumbling on to information about the place, I had found virtually nothing. The same goes for this next location. This group continues to serve their reputation for being good at keeping a low profile. But, let's shine a spotlight on them anyway or as Baron calls it, looking through my "virtual magnifying glass".

The Muslims of the Americas, as I have said before, are the American front organization for Pakistani Islamic cleric Sheikh Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani. It is designed to put a friendly face on the the organization as a group of simple, flag-waving, well-mannered Muslims seeking a rural lifestyle away from the distractions of Western urban life. It is an attempt to claim legitimacy.

While there may be some degree of accuracy to this claim for some of the group's members, the deeper criminal operatives that belong to the group have used the seclusion of these communities as cover to operate "off the grid". The group's compounds have been used as launching pads for bombings and murders; as safe houses for criminal fugitives; and as indoctrination and training grounds. The compounds in Colorado and California had to be virtually abandoned after members were implicated in extensive white-collar criminal schemes as well as violent crimes. The Department of Homeland Security has said that they are a threat.

One of the other known locations of Sheikh Gilani's followers is a rural hilltop in Stewart County, TN near the town of Dover. The group has lived here since at least the early '90s. It is home to approximately 17 families. As their counterparts in other settlements do, they live in mobile homes in a very rural wooded area. A black and white sign indicates the entrance. A white guardhouse stands nearby.

One of the male residents works for the TN Department of Transportation in Nashville. One of the females operates a home-based business called "Mecca Cosmetics".

The village was the focus of a news story ("Muslim village shares rural life in Tennessee," Feb. 20, 2002) by a Nashville reporter writing for The Tennessean. He wrote:

The Stewart County Muslims refused to discuss with The Tennessean any links between their village and other Muslims of the Americas sites in the United States. Nor would they discuss Gilani or the Pearl kidnapping.

The general manager of the local newspaper points out that the group had an open community meeting last year specifically to allay fears that Stewart Countians might have had about Islam and the Muslims in their midst, especially in light of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

[...] "We've had no trouble with them whatsoever,'' said Sheriff John Vinson.

Doug Wamsley, an assistant district attorney in Jefferson County, Colo., prosecuted members of the Muslims of the Americas and al-Fuqra.

"My belief is that the groups are one and the same,'' Wamsley said.

"I've been asked a number of times, 'Well, do you think they're dangerous?' And I have to go back and say, based on everything we found, I can't come to any other conclusion.''

The reporter went to the compound, or at least the entrance, and spoke with one of the residents.

[...] asked later about whether the Dover Muslims are tied to other Muslims of the Americas enclaves, he shook his head dismissively.

My research has shown, however, that MOA members do visit other MOA locations. The reporter's encounter ended this way:

At the mention of Pearl or al-Fuqra, [he] grew silent.

"It would do me no good to talk to you,'' he said, almost laughing. He made it clear he considered such inquiries disparaging and unfair. It was not the kind of attention he wanted. He smiled, shook hands and waved goodbye.

Now, the location of this compound is somewhat concerning because of its proximity to a couple of other places nearby. I have written previously about the curious location of Fuqra compounds and/or surveillance near significant infrastructure targets. (See here, here, and here) This one is no different.

The property seems to lie right along a powerline easement. If you follow the easement for a little over 7 miles east, you'll find yourself at the TVA's Cumberland Fossil Plant, a plant that produces more power than any other plant in the TVA system. (click image to enlarge - courtesy of MSN Virtual Earth)


Go 12 miles northeast from the encampment and you'll run into Fort Campbell, home of the Army's 101st Airborne Division as well as a couple of Special Forces units. [click image to enlarge - courtesy of the TN DOT]


Finally, you can click here to see an aerial view of the place. (Courtesy of Flash Earth, a mashup of aerials from Google Maps and MSN Virtual Earth) There are a number of trailers visible. The road they are on is not labled, but all of the addresses I found were located on Dreamwood Lane which is the next road over, which just has one structure. Maybe it's their mosque, I don't know.
Perhaps that is where all of their mail is delivered.

For now, that is the bulk of what I have discovered about this place. As you can see, these encampments deserve a closer look.

Feel free to discuss it or add anything else in the comments, or email me if you prefer.

MOA/Fuqra Community: Commerce, GA

Since seeing the map and list of suspected compounds for the group Jamaat ul-Fuqra that was published in the report, "Identifying the Links Between White-Collar Crime & Terrorism" by the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), I have been trying to hunt down information on each one of those locations. So far, I’ve looked at the compounds in Buena Vista, CO; Baladullah, CA; Hancock, NY; York, SC; Red House, VA; and Meherrin, VA.

Some are easier to find information about than others. Some have a higher profile than others. One of the reasons this group has a reputation for being “elusive” and secretive is because they are good at it.

Another location suspected of being linked to the organization can be found near Commerce, GA. It’s located about eight miles northeast of Commerce, off Georgia Highway 326, also called the Old Carnesville Road. Just past a little place called Erastus and across the Franklin County line, a turn down Riverbend Road on the east side of the highway leads to Madinah Road. (Commerce is in Jackson County. You have to drive east across Banks County to get to Franklin County.)

The jamaat, or community, is called Madinah Village.

Last year, the community built a mosque, or Jaami'a Masjid [aka Medina Masjid aka Masjid Jaamia Muhammadiyya] and a Madrassah, with future plans for establishing a full-time Islamic Academy. One of the residents owns a local pottery studio. There is another location in Commerce that is supposedly an MOA Da’wah Center, but I have found conflicting information on what, if anything, is actually at that address (e.g., a home / an Islamic art & cultural center / a DUI driving school).

A local source tells me,

"The Muslims seem to pretty much keep to themselves. They are visible in terms of the dress of the women, who you see around from time to time, and I have noticed three or four people with Muslim-sounding names in the police arrest reports, all for traffic offenses, I think, who had Medinah Way addresses. Apparently that is a street in the community. I can recall no case where someone I thought was likely Muslim was charged here with a serious crime."

Regarding the size of the group, he says, "I have no idea how many members are in the community, but there are probably a couple dozen or more."

As for the city of Commerce,

"...There are other Muslims in the community who seem to have little, if any, connection with the community to which you refer. Some are doctors, some are blue collar workers, some are native-born and some are immigrants. While we are still rural, we too have people of all ethnic and religious groups scattered about. I would have to say that I know of no problems between Muslims and others...."

It seems that one of the members hosted a community meeting a few years ago to explain the Muslim way of life to the community. "The turnout was not very good." And, reportedly, "...he became defensive when some law enforcement agent began asking questions."

Click on this link to see an aerial view of the Madinah Village compound from MSN Virtual Earth.

You can see a few mobile home trailers that are characteristic of these communes. It also looks like there are a couple of chickenhouses there in an open area and some other structures scattered among the woods. Without land records, I'm not sure of the size of the property that actually belongs to the "Village".

Again, this is just one of nearly two-dozen locations in the U.S. that the "Muslims of the Americas (MOA)" call home. It is just another one of the places that deeper elements of the Fuqra organization can use as a safe haven. Hopefully, we can shed some light on a few others in the near future.

Digest # 3 of Jamaat ul-Fuqra Coverage

Once again, here is a reference to my recent posts related to my independent research on the domestic Islamic group, Jamaat ul-Fuqra.

Exclusive
Exclusive: Document reveals clues about investigation of NY Muslim compound prior to 1993 WTC attack

Eyes On JF
Government Investigation of Jamaat ul-Fuqra

The Value of Open Source Intelligence
OSINT

A Peculiar Place on a Country Road
Gates of Vienna Exposes Another Suspicious Place in VA
Muslim Teachers College

Exclusive: Document reveals clues about investigation of NY Muslim compound prior to 1993 WTC attack

A reader noted in the comments of an earlier post that a 1999 news story from the Village Voice mentioned that law enforcement officers in New York had been investigated for carrying out a “confidential, covert investigation” of a “Muslim community” in the Hancock/Deposit/Tompkins area, what we know as the headquarters compound of Shiekh Gilani’s followers in the U.S., and that a report had been published.

I have obtained a copy of the report. The 15-page document from the City of New York Department of Investigation (DOI) is entitled, “Final Report of an Investigation of Mismanagement and Misconduct by the Bureau of Water Supply Police” [March 1992].

Both the Village Voice mention and the report itself appear to hint that the motivation for the investigation was racially-motivated and unwarranted. Well, it was unwarranted in that the officers carrying out the “covert” investigation did not have a warrant to do so, but it appears their concerns were not, shall we say, unmerited. The racial implication was given because the officers had also reportedly investigated the Jewish Defense League (JDL). They also reportedly investigated a group known as the Weathermen. Both the Weathermen and the JDL have been labeled terrorist organizations.

Could it be that these officers were merely concerned about domestic terrorists operating in the area near a water supply reservoir and dam? It seems that is what sparked their investigation. Maybe they were uneasy about the possibilities that existed. A federal agent had inquired to the neighbors about the place and it seems these officers took it upon themselves to find out what they could.

The “covert investigation” started in the summer of 1988 and continued through most of 1991. It appears that neither the officers who conducted the “covert investigation” nor those who subsequently investigated them had any organizational knowledge of this Muslim community in New York and its connections elsewhere.

But, by 1988, Sheikh Gilani’s Fuqra organization had carried out several assassinations and bombings in the U.S. In August of 1989, detectives searched a storage locker used by Fuqra members in Colorado. The locker contained explosives, shape charges, pipe bombs, guns, silencers, IEDs, targeting packages, and among other items, a human silhouette firing range target on which “FBI Anti-Terrorist Team” was written around the bullseye. At the very same time the officers were surveilling the community in upstate NY, Fuqra was the subject of a massive investigation in Colorado involving 150 individuals with local, state, federal, and private entities from 15 states including the New York City Police Department.

One incident that was noted in the report was rather peculiar. On December 24, 1988, there was a "fire in a trailer at the compound, which...went unreported until a neighbor saw the smoke and called the fire department...the fire department was denied access and reported hearing live ammunition discharging as a result of the fire." Later, one of the officers secretly entered the compound undercover with a garbage man to surveil the fire damage.

Following this in January 1989, the officers used a fixed-wing plane to take aerial photographs of the compound. They also attempted to obtain night vision equipment to conduct surveillance. In the summer of 1991, an officer accompanied an Air National Guard helicopter mission searching for marijuana and diverted the aircraft over the compound to take additional photographs. The officers' investigation continued right up until the time they themselves were investigated.

The report cited lack of protocols in documentation and oversight and recommended the replacement of the Administrator for the Bureau of Water Supply Police.

Albeit, their law enforcement protocols may have been lacking in this instance, their interest in this Muslim community was not unjustifiable. The methods they used to carry out this investigation may have been inappropriate and I understand why there were concerns. The officers conducted an illegal search, ran background checks from vehicle license numbers, and used both a plane and Air National Guard counterdrug helicopter to take aerial photographs of the compound. But, the DOI report is interesting for another reason, however. It is interesting because of what it reveals about the substance of the investigation in the context of what we now know.

We now know that the pre-9/11 approach to terrorism was that it was an issue to be addressed by law enforcement and legal professionals. Action was only to be taken after the fact and political correctness was to be observed. Granted, we have the advantage of hindsight in a post-9/11 world. However, that advantage is not so pleasant given what was required to gain it.

The DOI “closing memorandum” is dated March 4, 1992. Among the conclusions:

“The BWSP investigation lacked any reasonable factual basis. It was the product of irrational fears acted upon by a police unit suffering from inadequate training, ignorance of the law, poor management, supervisory paralysis, and boredom.”
(emphasis added)

Irrational fears? Let me add some rationality to them. The first attack on the World Trade Center occurred less than one year later on February 26, 1993. Six people were killed & over 1,000 were injured. Participants in the plot were reportedly trained at the Muslim compound in question. The plot also included plans to attack other New York landmarks, such as the UN building, FBI offices, and city tunnels. (Some members of the NY compound are NYC bridge & tunnel workers). Members of Fuqra were convicted in the conspiracy.

View or download the DOI report below:



[UPDATE: Welcome, Michelle Malkin readers! I hope you'll check out some of my other posts on this topic. Stay tuned for more to come.]

OSINT

As I began posting information related to Jamaat ul-Fuqra, I posted a disclaimer noting that my information was being gathered from open sources. I said that not only did bloggers have power to inform as citizen journalists, but to become a better informed citizenry themselves. In addition to that, I said that bloggers who post information, including investigative research, in an open source venue could serve as “virtual tipsters” or informants because the government -- while its investigative abilities are vast -- is not omnipresent and all-knowing.

I wanted to write this post to further discuss the value, uses, opinions, history, future and sources related to open source intelligence.

A number of disciplines comprise the information used by the intelligence community. They include ELINT (Electronic Intelligence), SIGINT (Signals Intelligence), COMINT (Communications Intelligence), MASINT (Measurements & Signatures Intelligence), IMINT (Imagery Intelligence), HUMINT (Human Intelligence), and OSINT (Open Source Intelligence). Agencies employ analysts in each of these fields as well as all-source analysts who help put the puzzle pieces together.

OSINT actually accounts for a large majority of the information that is collected (some say 80-90%), but it receives a miniscule amount of the funding (as little as 1% according to one source).

The 9/11 Commission recommended in its report that the CIA should create a new division or “Open Source Agency” that would report to the Director for National Intelligence.

On November 8, 2005, they announced just that, and the birth of The DNI Open Source Center took place. Pajamas Media covered the story here. The Department of Defense is also stepping up its domestic surveillance activities, which does make sense when you consider that there are foreign supported organizations (like JF) operating here.

It is imperative that the value of open source information be properly recognized.

China has recognized this and even published a book on how to exploit available scientific and technical information. A review of the document by the (U.S.) National Counterintelligence Executive had this to say, “One of the most startling revelations in Sources and Techniques is the extent to which the Chinese military and defense industries rely on open-source information, particularly US and British, for weapons modernization.”

We also know from daily news reports that that terrorist groups use the internet to communicate in chat rooms and message boards, and to post information about their activities, etc. This is open source information that can be exploited.

The GWOT is changing the way intelligence agencies do business. Many of the traditional sources and covert collection methods still work, but they must be accompanied and complimented by new sources and methods.

Consider newspapers. The average citizen can sit in their living room and read online newspapers from Singapore to Zimbabwe. That would have been impossible 20 years ago.

Also, the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is becoming more common. People are using openly available mapping and imagery to display information. Some software that has been around for years requires a little more technical skill to fully utilize. Google Earth is among one of the most recent and more simple to use programs. With its features download placemark and datalink files created by other users, you can find everything from historical stormtracks of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico to live traffic cams in Germany.

Now, with the emergence of bloggers, a new component is added to the mix. A distributed network of observers, citizens, researchers, professionals, academics, dissidents, soldiers, engineers, photographers, and so on can openly report information from anywhere in the world. This can only be advantageous to the intelligence community.

Fellow blogger New Victorian put it this way:

...the next great intelligence network is the blogosphere. Millions of people, distributed all over the world, sharing information rapidly at little or no cost, putting the bits they know and hear together to form new patterns, to notice things that seem out of place.

Just yesterday, the RAND Corporation published a report on “State and Local Intelligence in the War on Terrorism." The abstract: “Examines how state and local law enforcement agencies conducted and supported counterterrorism intelligence activities after 9/11. The report analyzes data from a 2002 survey of law enforcement preparedness in the context of intelligence, shows how eight local law enforcement agencies handle intelligence operations, and suggests ways that the job of gathering and analyzing intelligence might best be shared among federal, state, and local agencies.”

I searched the report to see how open source information played into all this. Page 65 says this:

Internet searches are an important source of information for local police, and they are conducted frequently (62 percent of the local law enforcement agencies surveyed reported using the internet as an information source). The utility of the FBI weekly intelligence bulletin is less certain. [9] It is used frequently but is considered less useful by some. One respondent indicated that the information is less helpful when it is not specific to a region, [10] and another that it is useful but mostly repetitive.

“Open” sources of information are used extensively by local police organizations. As one respondent explained,

About 70–80 percent of our intelligence comes from open sources—those open to the public—such as the newspaper, media, internet, public, and community. The media spends billions of dollars on information gathering. The remaining 20–30 percent comes from undercover surveillance, informants, and federal databases (which are developed from operations). Reasonable suspicion must still exist to review open sources—we can’t just review them willy-nilly. CNN is a good source because the information is often correct, unlike other stories. All information must be verified. The internet is a source that was not previously used until about five years ago. [11]

You can download the full report here.

In an article, written earlier this year by Stephen C. Mercado of the CIA, entitled, "Reexamining the Distinction Between Open Information and Secrets", Mercado states (emphasis added):

"We need to rethink the distinction between open sources and secrets. Too many policymakers and intelligence officers mistake secrecy for intelligence and assume that information covertly acquired is superior to that obtained openly. Yet, the distinction between overt and covert sources is less clear than such thinking suggests. Open sources often equal or surpass classified information in monitoring and analyzing such pressing problems as terrorism, proliferation, and counterintelligence. Slighting open source intelligence (OSINT) for secrets, obtained at far greater expense when available at all, is no way to run an intelligence community. Also, we must put to rest the notion that the private sector is the preferred OSINT agent. In the end, I would contend, the Intelligence Community (IC) needs to assign greater resources to open sources."

As for his comment regarding the "notion that the private sector is the preferred OSINT agent," I make no claims of advantage over intelligence professionals. My goal, especially with regard to the information I've published on Jamaat ul-Fuqra, is to simply report what I've found out and disseminate that with the knowledge that fellow citizens AND government professionals may read it. And, having monitored recent traffic to this blog, I can attest, government professionals are reading it.

In conclusion, I have listed some additional reading material that may be of use to readers (and fellow bloggers) interested in open source intelligence.

Additional reading:

Review Essay. Richard S. Friedman. "Open Source Intelligence," PARAMETERS, US Army War College Quarterly, Summer 1998, pp. 159-165.

Article. Stephen C. Mercado. "Open–Source Intelligence From the Airwaves: FBIS Against the Axis, 1941-1945," Studies in Intelligence, Fall-Winter 2001. Center for the Study of Intelligence, CIA.

Article. Stephen C. Mercado. "A Venerable Source in a New Era: Sailing the Sea of OSINT in the Information Age." Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 48, No. 3, 2004. Center for the Study of Intelligence, CIA.

Article. Herman L. Croom. "The Exploitation of Foreign Open Sources." Studies in Intelligence, Summer 1969.

NATO Open Source Intelligence Handbook (PDF via OSS.net)
NATO Open Source Intelligence Reader (PDF via OSS.net)
NATO Intelligence Exploitation of the Internet (PDF via OSS.net)

OSS.net

Global Voices

Pajamas Media

Muslim Teachers College

The Gates of Vienna blog posted a piece a few days ago, Jamaat ul-Everywhere, on another curious location in rural Virginia, near Randolph. The site, now seemingly abandoned, used to be a Muslim Teachers College.

At the end of the post, Baron left a few questions unanswered. Among them, "Was there any interaction between the college and the MOA compounds in Red House and Meherrin?"

An informed source tells me that the Randolph site was not part of MOA/Fuqra and that there was no affiliation.

The site was actually run by a rival group led by W.D. Muhammad. W.D. is the son of Elijah and Clara Muhammad.

These individuals have a long history as leaders of the Nation of Islam (NOI).

W.D. succeeded his father as head of the NOI in 1975. He diverted from his father's racist emphasis and stressed a more orthodox Islam in the Sunni tradition. He renamed the organization the World Community of Al-Islam. He emphasized religious education.

Louis Farakhan served as spokesman for the NOI under W.D. until he broke away in 1977. He then revived the NOI and returned the group to its racist traditions.

This Beliefnet article describes W.D. Muhammad as the "most important Muslim you've never heard of." He gave the first Muslim opening prayer on the floor of the U.S. Senate in 1992. He also made attempts to reach out to Jewish and Catholic audiences. He has met with a number of dignitaries, including the Pope and even addressed a crowd at the Vatican once.

He founded the American Society of Muslims(ASM), but stepped down as its head in 2003, although he remains their spiritual leader.

His father, Elijah Muhammad, assumed leadership of the NOI in 1934, following the mysterious disappearance of his predecessor, W.D. Fard, who had started the organization in 1930. Malcom X served as the spokesperson for the NOI under Elijah before parting ways later on.

UPDATE: I suppose I should clarify that I believe the Muslim Teachers College was operated by the ASM, not the NOI.

Government Investigation of Jamaat ul-Fuqra

Recently, while conducting some more background research (via Lexis-Nexis) looking for additional past media coverage of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, I ran across two stories that contained some very interesting information.

On February 15, 2002, The New York Post ran a story with the headline, "GOV'T STEPS UP PROBE OF 'TERROR' SECT". This story ran amidst the coverage of the kidnapping of WSJ journalist Daniel Pearl. Sheikh Gilani had been the man Pearl was going to see and he had been briefly arrested on suspicion of his involvement.

The Post story is brief, just 219 words, but it contained this information.

Federal officials have intensified their investigation of possible terrorist ties of a sect of black Muslims in upstate New York and three other states, it was reported yesterday.

...The Justice and Treasury departments have begin a comprehensive review of Muslims of America.

Fast forward to 2005. Another article, this time appearing in the New York Times on March 31, 2005. Headline: Homeland Report Says Threat From Terror-List Nations Is Declining."

The story mentions a secret Homeland Security Department document, outlining current threats and intended to guide department funding.

This is the first time the two-year-old department has prepared what will now be an annual Integrated Planning Guidance Report, a document that is listed as ''sensitive'' but not classified, meaning it was not intended to be released publicly.

The goal, said Brian Roehrkasse, a department spokesman, is to better focus the department's $40 billion in annual spending toward the most serious threats.

Al Qaeda, not unexpectedly, tops a list of adversaries in the report, although the authors question if the group can still pull off attacks similar in scale to those of Sept. 11, 2001.

Other predicted possible sponsors of attacks include Jamaat ul-Fuqra, a Pakistani-based group that has been linked to Muslims of America; Jamaat al Tabligh, an Islamic missionary organization that has a presence in the United States; and the American Dar Al Islam Movement.

So, it seems that the investigation launched in 2002 might have contributed to the Homeland Security report's assessment. It further confirms to me the seriousness of this group's presence. Reading this gave me some additional confidence that our government is aware of this group and is watching them.

That doesn't mean that they know everything and for all we know, the investigation is ongoing. I still believe it is imperative that we, as citizens, do all we can to find out more ourselves, so that we are aware and if we can help roll these groups up, all the better. I can tell you, we are bringing attention this group.

There has been some discussion as of late about the potential value of blogs to intelligence professionals. I plan to post more on this subject this week.

Gates of Vienna Exposes Another Suspicious Place in VA

Baron Bodissey adds yet another impressive contribution to the ongoing Jamaat ul-Fuqra investigation.

He took another "field trip" to a rural location very near the other two known JF compounds. This one to a seemingly-defunct property that housed a Muslim "school" and is now run by a "hunting club". He poses a number of questions worth considering.

Read his post here. And, commend him for his work.

It's unclear at this point what this particular location is or was. But, we know there is more light to be shed on these shadowy places. We know they exist. We know their history. We know there is more than one group out there. We know that the GWOT will take time. I know that he and I and many other bloggers believe that we will only be safer if these places are given a serious look. If we can help expose them, then so be it.