U.S. Border Patrol agents captured a radical Muslim cleric attempting to sneak into the United States across the California-Mexican border this morning.
Said Jaziri was discovered hiding in a Mexican registered BMW. The terrorism supporting cleric has been banned from France and Canada, as well as the United States, police sources told the Law Enforcement Examiner.
Jaziri, who gained notoriety when he ordered his followers to "execute" the controversial Danish cartoonist who drew pictures of the prophet Mohammed, was arrested, as was the BMW's driver Kenneth Robert Lawler.
Jaziri, 44, had been deported from Canada to Tunisia in 2007 after Canadian immigration officials discovered that he had fabricated statements on his refugee application. Prior to that he had been imprisoned in France on terrorism-related charges.
While serving as Imam at a Wahabbi mosque in Montreal, Canada, Jaziri advocated civil unrest and the institution of Sharia law in Canada and the U.S. His detractors accused him of attempting to incite civil unrest among the Islamic population is Canada.
He also advocated stoning of homosexuals, whom he branded diseased.
In 2006, he led protests over cartoonist Kurt Westergaard's illustrations that satirized Islam and were published in a Danish newspaper and later other publications and Internet web sites. (cartoon collection here)
After the Canadian government deported him he alleged police and intelligence agents physically and mentally tortured him during the flight from Montreal to Tunisia. His deportation case garnered him support from the Muslim community as well as Amnesty International when he claimed he would be tortured forcibly returned to Tunisia.
According to Border patrol sources, Jaziri had allegedly paid a Tijuana-based smuggling ring thousands of dollars to sneak him across the border. He old the "coyotes" that he wished to be taken somewhere secure in the United States.
He reportedly told U.S. law enforcement officials he had flown from Africa to Europe and then to Central America and finally Chetumal, Mexico, at which point he traveled by jitney bus to the Mexican border town of Tijuana.
Counterterrorism experts believe that radical Muslims and Islamic terrorists routinely sneak into the U.S. across the Southwest border since many of them are indistinguishable from Mexican illegal aliens.
He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. Kouri writes for many police and security magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer and others. He's a news writer and columnist for AmericanDaily.Com, MensNewsDaily.Com, MichNews.Com, and he's syndicated by AXcessNews.Com. Kouri appears regularly as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Fox News Channel, Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, etc.
