[sixties-l] Weapons of Mass Insurrection (fwd)

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    Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2002 14:54:01 -0800
    From: radtimes <resist@best.com>
    Subject: Weapons of Mass Insurrection

    Weapons of Mass Insurrection

    <http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/2002/12-02-2002/vo18no24_insurrection.htm>

    Vol. 18, No. 24
    December 2, 2002
    by William Norman Grigg

    Revolutionary zeal unites Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam with urban
    street gangs and
    radical Muslim regimes, creating a serious threat to America's internal
    security.

    '^A'I am God," taunted the D.C. sniper in a message left
    for police during the rampage that killed 10 American
    citizens. This profane boast led many commentators
    to conclude that a Muslim extremist probably did not
    commit the murders, since devoted practitioners of
    Islam would recoil from such blasphemy. But
    suspected sniper John Allen Muhammad is a convert
    to Islam who reportedly changed his name following
    9-11 as a gesture of solidarity with Osama bin
    Laden's terrorist cadres. Assuming that no pious
    Muslim would refer to himself as deity, and that
    Muhammad did commit the crimes, how do we
    account for this apparent contradiction?
    One important clue is that Muhammad is not an
    orthodox Muslim, but rather an adherent of the
    Chicago-based Nation of Islam (NOI). While
    professing a belief in the Koran, the NOI preaches a
    bizarre amalgam of mysticism, science fiction, and
    warped theology, wrapped up in race war rhetoric.
    Though no evidence has emerged that any NOI
    member apart from Muhammad was involved in the
    sniper killings, this connection presents the troubling
    possibility that the terror war's next battlefield may be
    America's cities with street gangs allied to the
    international terrorist network providing the foot
    soldiers.
    The Bush administration continues to speak
    ominously of the potential threat of "weapons of mass
    destruction" in Iraq, and preparations are underway for
    American soldiers to conduct "urban warfare" in
    Baghdad. But if the terror network succeeds in turning
    our nation's street gangs into a "weapon of mass
    insurrection," urban warfare on the home front will
    become a horrifying reality.
                               The Farrakhan Factor
    Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan burst onto the
    national scene as a "black leader" when he conducted
    his so-called "Million Man March" in 1995. A few
    months later, Farrakhan embarked on a "World
    Friendship Tour," visiting radical Muslim regimes in
    Iran, Nigeria, Sudan, Libya, Iraq, and Syria.
    Farrakhan, while in Teheran, laid a wreath at the tomb
    of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who could be
    regarded as the Lenin of modern radical Islam. Farrakhan expressed his love
    and
    respect for Khomeini, and warned: "We will use American Muslim unity as a
    lever of
    pressure against the arrogant policies of the United States." In a separate
    public
    address, Farrakhan praised Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution while a crowd of
    tens of
    thousands chanted "death to America!"
    While in Tripoli, Farrakhan was warmly received by terrorist dictator Muammar
    Qaddafi, who reportedly promised a large cash donation to help the Nation
    of Islam
    "mobilize oppressed minorities to play a significant role in American
    political life."
    According to Qaddafi, "Our confrontations with America used to be like
    confronting a
    fortress from outside. Today, we have found a loophole to enter the
    fortress and
    confront it within." Alluding to a decades-old, Soviet-inspired black
    separatist vision,
    Qaddafi told Farrakhan that "American blacks could set up their own state
    within the
    United States with the largest black army in the world."
    This wasn't the first time Farrakhan had brokered a deal between Qaddafi
    and urban
    street gangs. Consider Jeff Fort, leader of the Black P Stone Nation gang
    (sometimes
    known as El Rukn, Arabic for "The Foundation"). He is now serving an
    effective life
    prison sentence for a 1986 conspiracy to organize terrorist acts on behalf
    of Libya. In
    the late 1960s, when the gang was known as the Blackstone Rangers, Fort took
    control of the outfit and "formed a ^A'nation' consisting of many street
    gangs," notes a
    1995 Chicago Crime Commission report. That "nation" is active in "narcotic
    sales,
    drive-by shootings, battery, assault, extortion, intimidation, and murder."
    But the "nation" has always been more than just a criminal syndicate. Lance
    Williams
    of the University of Illinois-Chicago School of Public Health points out
    that "the
    Blackstones were the only [street] organization that had a main pillar of
    politics of the
    Black Power movement from their inception." But more importantly, the
    Rangers also
    benefited from federal largesse under the rubric of the "War on Poverty."
    In 1966, as a
    reward for arranging a gang truce with the Eastside Disciples, the Rangers
    were
    provided with a $972,000 federal grant for "job training" programs through
    the (now
    defunct) Office of Economic Opportunity.
    This was the first of many such disbursements of federal aid to Fort and
    his comrades
      including a young race hustler-turned-minister named Jesse Jackson. As
    Kenneth
    Timmerman documents in his study Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson,
    Jackson frequently conscripted Fort's gangbangers to picket businesses
    targeted for
    "donations." Jackson claims to have baptized Fort, although the latter's
    conversion
    appears less than genuine. After being convicted for cocaine trafficking,
    Fort converted
    to the Black Nationalist variant of Islam in prison.
    In his new Islamic guise, Fort took the name "Malik" and tried to have the
    gang
    recognized as a religious order called the "Moorish Science Temple of
    America, El
    Rukn tribe." As Timmerman points out, "The advantage of official
    recognition was that
    they could then hold private ^A'religious' services in prison without
    surveillance." On the
    pretext of conducting religious business, Fort continued to run his
    criminal syndicate
    by telephone from behind prison bars. One of his most ambitious schemes was
    to turn
    El Rukn into an asset of the international terrorist network.
    In 1987, while serving a federal prison term in Texas, Fort learned that
    "Nation of Islam
    leader Louis Farrakhan had received $5 million from the Libyan government,"
    notes a
    1997 Justice Department report. Accordingly, "Fort developed a plan to
    perform acts of
    terrorism within the United States in return for an annual payment of $1
    million from
    Libya. In telephone conversations from inside prison, Fort discussed
    destroying a
    federal building, blowing up an airplane, killing a Milwaukee alderman, and
    committing a
    ^A'killing here and there' with his fellow gang members. Fort instructed
    gang members to
    meet with representatives from the Libyan government, which the gang
    members did
    on two occasions. Fort also instructed the gang members to purchase a
    hand-held
    rocket launcher, which they also did."
    This was more than idle talk. Several El Rukn members "traveled to Libya,
    trained for
    terrorist operations in abandoned buildings, and sought to arm themselves with
    rocket-propelled grenades," wrote crime analyst John P. Sullivan in the
    November
    1997 issue of Crime & Justice International. After the plot was uncovered,
    authorities
    charged Fort and several other El Rukn members in a 50-count indictment for
    conspiracy to commit terrorist acts. Convicted of the offense, Fort was
    sentenced to
    an additional 80-year term.
    While Fort remains behind bars, his network remains intact. Just as
    importantly, the
    man who facilitated Fort's liaison with Qaddafi remains at large. "Louis
    Farrakhan was
    the person who introduced Jeff Fort to the people in Libya," testifies
    Lance Williams. "I
    happened to be [present] ^Å when Farrakhan had Qaddafi speak via satellite and
    brought some of the El Rukns up on the stage and said these are my ^A'angels of
    death.'"
    Williams recalls that "Farrakhan was afraid that the government was about
    to get him
    like they got Malcolm [X] and so he used the Blackstone Rangers as a
    shield. But they
    didn't know what they were getting into." This suggests an interesting
    parallel with
    accused senior sniper John Allen Muhammad, who told friends in Tacoma,
    Washington, that he had helped provide security at the "Million Man March."
                               The "Five Percenters"
    Urban studies author Mark Goldblatt notes that Muhammad may be connected to "a
    virulently racist black group called the Five Percent Nation of Gods and
    Earths, to
    which several of today's most popular rap acts have acknowledged
    longstanding ties."
    The "Five Percenters," who split off from the Nation of Islam in 1964,
    retain the NOI's
    belief that black people represent the image of the "original man" "the
    fathers and
    mothers of civilization." According to the group's creed, "the blackman
    [sic] is god and
    his proper name is ALLAH...." Men who belong to the movement (which doesn't
    call
    itself a religion) call themselves "gods," and refer to their wives and
    girlfriends as
    "earths."
    Notes Goldblatt: "One letter from the [D.C.] sniper contained the demand
    that police
    call the author ^A'God' and a stock Five Percenter phrase, ^A'word is bond,'
    along with five
    stars, also used by the group." (Urban gangs that use the five-point star,
    or some
    variation thereof, as a symbol are sometimes called "five-point" gangs.)
    The concept
    behind the group's name is that 85 percent of the population are hopelessly
    ignorant
    and exploited by another cunning and evil 10 percent. Only the enlightened
    five percent
    understand the truth, and they are engaged in a war with the conniving 10
    percent for
    global control.
    Goldblatt points out that this ideology is woven into recordings by "some
    of the more
    influential hip-hop performers." A number entitled "Can I See You" by the
    rap act Sunz
    of Man is practically a Five Percenter doxology: "Camouflaged for the
    mission; use
    your third eye to see the Israelite; detect those who tell lies carry .45s
    in these last
    days and times I was born to survive a soldier, and I strive, with a duty
    to civilize these
    85 an original black man with a plan to run these devils off our land; now
    listen real
    close while I explain the operation." (Punctuation in the original.)
    According to Jonathan Moore of the University of Chicago Divinity School,
    "the Five
    Percenters were founded by Clarence 13X, who broke away from the Nation of
    Islam
    in 1964.... In 1967 Clarence 13X opened the ^A'Allah School in Mecca,' and
    this Harlem
    institution still serves as the headquarters for the Five Percenters."
    Above the
    headquarters entrance is inscribed the legend: "The Black Man is God."
    As with the Blackstone Rangers/El Rukn, the Five Percenters benefited from
    Establishment generosity in the 1960s. The Harlem property serving as the
    movement's headquarters was provided to them by New York City "thanks to
    Clarence
    13X's close relationship with Mayor John Lindsey," according to crime
    reporter Alex
    Todorovic.
    The movement also has schools in major cities coast to coast. Predictably,
    the Five
    Percenters are well represented in the prison system. The group's violent
    tendencies
    led prison officials in South Carolina to place 70 members of the group in
    solitary
    confinement in 1995, offering to release them if they signed a pledge to
    disaffiliate from
    the movement. Federal Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Fay Pollard describes the
    Five Percenters not as a conventional gang, but as a "security-threat group."
    The group poses a potential threat outside prison walls as well. "If
    they're calling
    themselves a ^A'five-point nation' and aligning themselves with the other
    five-point gangs,
    that's really frightening," a former Chicago street gang leader told THE NEW
    AMERICAN. The individual, who defected from his gang and became a grand jury
    witness in his early 20s, observed that a coalition of "five-point gangs"
    would "be a very
    powerful network, like an army occupying our major cities."
    How big would that "army" be? The Chicago Crime Commission, citing FBI
    estimates,
    reports that as of 1995 there were nearly a half million gang members
    active in 700
    cities nationwide.
                               Building the Urban "Army"
    According to transnational crime analyst John P. Sullivan, "Gangs operating
    in urban
    areas have gone through three generational changes from traditional turf
    gangs, to
    market-oriented drug gangs, to a new generation that may mix political and
    mercenary
    elements." Such third-generation gangs of which the Blackstone Rangers/El
    Rukn
    would be representative are not only "politicized," but also
    "internationalized."
    Subsequent to Farrakhan's 1996 trip to Libya, the Nation of Islam and its
    offshoots
    began intense efforts to mold disparate street gangs into an
    internationalized,
    third-generation urban army.
    In April 1996, about 500 representatives of black and Mexican gangs met in
    the Watts
    section of Los Angeles for the fourth annual LA Gang Truce Rally a
    celebration of
    Mexican and black gang unity. Gang colors and "Black Power" symbols were
    displayed
    alongside symbols of the "Aztlan Nation" (the mythical Chicano homeland in our
    Southwest). The featured speaker at that event was Tony Muhammad, the West
    Coast representative of the Nation of Islam. Speaking on Farrakhan's
    behalf, Tony
    Muhammad retailed the same message that Qaddafi had given to Farrakhan gang
    bangers should unite in an armed struggle against bourgeois society:
    When we come together as one army, we can take Watts, we can take
    South-Central,
    we can take Los Angeles and then the West Coast, because God is going to
    send the
    Original Man. And when I say the Original Man that includes Mexicans that
    includes
    La Raza that includes the Brown, that includes the Yellow. God is going to
    bring us
    together, and from that he is going to raise a mighty army that's ready to
    move for God.
    So I'm not telling you to give up your weapons. I'm just telling you to
    turn them
    somewhere else.
    The late Khalid Abdul Muhammad, a former Nation of Islam spokesman, lent
    critical aid
    to another element of that "mighty army" the New Black Panther Party.
    Organized in
    1989 by Dallas native Aaron Michaels, the New Black Panthers claim 26 chapters
    across the country and in Europe.
    In a June 16th interview with Black World, New Black Panther national
    chairman Malik
    Zulu Shabazz declared: "Black people are in desperate need of an army to
    organize for
    our aims and interests." According to Shabazz, black street gangs will play an
    important role in the army his group is assembling: "We have Crips, Bloods and
    Blackstone Rangers in the New Black Panthers and we have alliances with
    various
    street organizations." The group is also reaching out to "our brown
    brothers and
    sisters, so-called Latinos and Hispanics. We have alliances with the red
    community,
    indigenous community. We have a general policy of alliances with peoples of
    color."
    He also boasts, "I can pick up the phone and contact Reverend Al Sharpton,
    Mr. Kweisi
    Mfume and any leader in the Pan African and [Black] nationalist community."
                               Ideology, Not Theology
    To what end are these alliances being forged? In a 1996 interview conducted
    in Dallas,
    THE NEW AMERICAN posed this question to New Black Panther Party founder Aaron
    Michaels. "We are seeing the beginnings of a new civil war," he replied,
    explaining that
    while the initial spark would come from conflict between races, the
    conflagration would
    eventually become a full-blown, Marxist-inspired class war:
    The next civil war that will be fought in the United States will not be a
    civil war between
    black and white. It will be between the haves and the have-nots. It's
    already happening.
    You see white people, poor white people, fighting against the
    government.... We have a
    low-intensity war that is being fought right now. On the front lines,
    you'll see more of
    the race hate groups coming up. And you'll see escalation between civil rights
    organizations and race hate groups. It began in the late 1980s, and it's on
    a peak now
    with the resurgence of the Black Power movements nationally and
    internationally.
    It is this revolutionary aspiration, rather than the religious vision
    expressed in the
    Koran, that unites Farrakhan with the likes of Qaddafi and Khomeini. And it
    is this
    same commitment to revolution that binds Farrakhan's aberrant cult with
    radical
    groups and street gangs within our own borders.



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