The Article wrote:NEW YORK — Federal prosecutors took steps Thursday to seize four U.S. mosques and a Fifth Avenue skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization long suspected of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government.
In what could prove to be one of the biggest counterterrorism seizures in U.S. history, prosecutors filed a civil complaint in federal court against the Alavi Foundation, seeking the forfeiture of more than $500 million in assets.
The assets include bank accounts; Islamic centers consisting of schools and mosques in New York City, Maryland, California and Houston; more than 100 acres in Virginia; and a 36-story glass office tower in New York.
Confiscating the properties would be a sharp blow against Iran, which has been accused by the U.S. government of bankrolling terrorism and trying to build a nuclear bomb.
A telephone call and e-mail to Iran's U.N. Mission seeking comment were not immediately answered. Nor was a call to the Alavi Foundation.
It is extremely rare for U.S. law enforcement authorities to seize a house of worship, a step fraught with questions about the First Amendment right to freedom of religion.
The action against the Shiite Muslim mosques is sure to inflame relations between the U.S. government and American Muslims, many of whom are fearful of a backlash after last week's Fort Hood shooting rampage, blamed on a Muslim American major.
The mosques and the skyscraper will remain open while the forfeiture case works its way through court in what could be a long process. What will happen to them if the government ultimately prevails is unclear. But the government typically sells properties it has seized through forfeiture, and the proceeds are sometimes distributed to crime victims.
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Prosecutors said the Alavi Foundation managed the office tower on behalf of the Iranian government and, working with a front company known as Assa Corp., illegally funneled millions in rental income to Iran's state-owned Bank Melli. Bank Melli has been accused by a U.S. Treasury official of providing support for Iran's nuclear program, and it is illegal in the United States to do business with the bank.
The U.S. has long suspected the foundation was an arm of the Iranian government; a 97-page complaint details involvement in foundation business by several top Iranian officials, including the deputy prime minister and ambassadors to the United Nations.
"For two decades, the Alavi Foundation's affairs have been directed by various Iranian officials, including Iranian ambassadors to the United Nations, in violation of a series of American laws," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.
There were no raids Thursday as part of the forfeiture action. The government is simply required to post notices of the civil complaint on the property.
As prosecutors outlined their allegations against Alavi, the Islamic centers and the schools they run carried on with normal activity. The mosques' leaders had no immediate comment.
Parents lined up in their cars to pick up their children at the schools within the Islamic Education Center of Greater Houston and the Islamic Education Center in Rockville, Md. No notices of the forfeiture action were posted at either place as of late Thursday.
At the Islamic Institute of New York, a mosque and school in Queens, two U.S. marshals came to the door and rang the bell repeatedly. The marshals taped a forfeiture notice to the window and left a large document sitting on the ground. After they left a group of men came out of the building and took the document.
The fourth Islamic center marked for seizure is in Carmichael, Calif.
The skyscraper, known as the Piaget building, was erected in the 1970s under the shah of Iran, who was overthrown in 1979. The tenants include law and investment firms and other businesses.
The sleek, modern building, last valued at $570 million to $650 million in 2007, has served as an important source of income for the foundation over the past 36 years. The most recent tax records show the foundation earned $4.5 million from rents in 2007.
Rents collected from the building help fund the centers and other ventures, such as sending educational literature to imprisoned Muslims in the U.S. The foundation has also invested in dozens of mosques around the country and supported Iranian academics at prominent universities.
If federal prosecutors seize the skyscraper, the Alavi Foundation would have almost no way to continue supporting the Islamic centers, which house schools and mosques. That could leave a major void in Shiite communities, and hard feelings toward the FBI.
The forfeiture action comes at a tense moment in U.S.-Iranian relations, with the two sides at odds over Iran's nuclear program and its arrest of three American hikers.
But Michael Rubin, an expert on Iran at the American Enterprise Institute, said the timing of the forfeiture action was probably a coincidence, not an effort to influence Iran on those issues.
"Suspicion about the Alavi Foundation transcends three administrations," Rubin said. "It's taken ages dealing with the nuts and bolts of the investigation. It's not the type of investigation which is part of any larger strategy."
Legal scholars said they know of only a few cases in U.S. history in which law enforcement authorities have seized a house of worship. Marc Stern, a religious-liberty expert with the American Jewish Congress, called such cases extremely rare.
The Alavi Foundation is the successor organization to the Pahlavi Foundation, a nonprofit group used by the shah to advance Iran's charitable interests in America. But authorities said its agenda changed after the fall of the shah.
In 2007, the United States accused Bank Melli of providing services to Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs and put the bank on its list of companies whose assets must be frozen. Washington has imposed sanctions against various other Iranian businesses.
I think this is going to be a disaster for Muslim-American relations. Couldn't they have picked a better time to do this than off the heels of the Fort Hood shootings?
There is no surer aphrodisiac to a man than a woman who is interested in him.
Molyneux wrote:If they've got the evidence to back themselves up, then why the fuck should they have waited?
Well, if you take the article at its word...
"Suspicion about the Alavi Foundation transcends three administrations," Rubin said. "It's taken ages dealing with the nuts and bolts of the investigation. [...]"
Considering what a large siezure this is, and considering that it involves religious institutions, I wouldn't be surprised at the government getting all the firepower it could before it acted. To do any less could be absolutely disasterous politically for all those involved.
It's not the long-term wait before busting them I have a problem with. It's that they waited for a tense moment in Muslim/American relations to do it. Are they *trying* to cause an us vs. them mentality? I know elements in the government obvoiusly have an interest in doing so, but I thought the Obama administration had set itself against that.
There is no surer aphrodisiac to a man than a woman who is interested in him.
I guess it doesn't occur to you to turn that around? You know, that there are Muslim interests that want to increase tension between the US and the Muslim world? Note I did not say ALL Muslims, only that there are a few who really do watch to make the situation worse instead of better.
Saying "Ooo! We shouldn't touch them, it might annoy the Muslims!" when there is (apparently) proof of working against US interests on our own soil and/or breaking the law is also a form of prejudice. Why are so intimidated, that you consider arguing that criminals go free because the Muslims might be annoyed?
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
I never once argued that criminals ought to go free - I only question the timing of the crackdown. If they've been spying for THREE SEPARATE ADMINISTRATIONS, then surely there's no urgency in issuing the crackdown today as opposed to in a week or two, when the hysteria and tensions around the Ft. Hood incident dies down?
Unless you intend to imply that there is a connection between the Ft. Hood shooting and these four mosques such that the shooting forced the administrations' hand? If so, enlighten me as I can't see any connection other than likelihood to encourage hysteria and anti-Muslim (not anti-Terrorist/anti-Iranian but anti-Muslim) sentiment.
There is no surer aphrodisiac to a man than a woman who is interested in him.
Sela there is the possibility, that now that they have their ducks in a row, if the US government were to wait, that news of the investigation would leak, and potentially damning evidence could be destroyed.
"I believe in the future. It is wonderful because it stands on what has been achieved." - Sergei Korolev
^ that. It could be that, through sheer coincidence (which can and does happen) the investigation came to a logical point for this action in the same week as the Ft. Hood incident. In which case, the actions of a lone madman should not be allowed to adversely impact either the on-going investigation or the safety and security of the US and its citizens.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
Molyneux wrote:If they've got the evidence to back themselves up, then why the fuck should they have waited?
Well, if you take the article at its word...
"Suspicion about the Alavi Foundation transcends three administrations," Rubin said. "It's taken ages dealing with the nuts and bolts of the investigation. [...]"
Considering what a large siezure this is, and considering that it involves religious institutions, I wouldn't be surprised at the government getting all the firepower it could before it acted. To do any less could be absolutely disasterous politically for all those involved.
Sorry, I should have been more clear; I was responding to the "But a Muslim just shot a bunch of people! Why do they have to piss off the Muslims now?" comment.
I suppose it might well be a coincidence - it makes more sense than saying the Obama administration took steps with the goal of undoing the progress they'd made in improving American-Muslim relations.
There is no surer aphrodisiac to a man than a woman who is interested in him.
Just conjecture, but Fort Hood might have prompted the Alavi Foundation to attempt to destroy various bits of evidence out of fear so the feds had to jump the gun.
A teenage girl is just a teenage boy who can get laid.
-GTO
We're not just doing this for money; we're doing this for a shitload of money!
