September 29th, 20231WASHINGTON, D.C. – A federal terrorist watchlist, mostly consisting of Muslim Americans, is Islamophobic and being used for “harassment and humiliation” and should be withdrawn, civil rights advocates argue.
Formally known as the Terrorist Screening Dataset, or “TSDS”, the watchlist is made up of more than 1.5 million people,...
December 2nd, 20220DEARBORN — Abed Hammoud, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney, has been named the new co-chair of BRIDGES (Building Respect in Diverse Groups to Enhance Sensitivity).
Hammoud has extensive experience in law, practicing at both the state and federal levels, including his eight years serving as assistant U.S. Attorney and 15 years as...
November 18th, 20220The U.S. Department of Justice has decided to investigate the killing of renowned Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, with Israel saying it does not plan to cooperate.
The investigation by the FBI comes after months of pressure from rights groups, Democrats and Abu Akleh’s family on the Biden administration to push...
November 17th, 20220A report says the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have failed to track data on domestic terrorism, including White supremacist violence, despite being required by a new law to do so.
This week, U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, released a new report...
November 10th, 20220DETROIT — A federal agency has released a report, after a 2020 request from U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-Michigan), on how the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) can eliminate the potential for discrimination in travel screenings.
The report comes out of years of requests by Arab Americans and Muslim Americans to their...
October 26th, 20220JACKSON COUNTY — Three men who were arrested on charges of plotting to kidnap the governor of Michigan and planning an attack on the state Capitol building were found guilty this week.
The Michigan Attorney General’s Office said Wednesday that a Jackson County jury found Joseph Morrison, Paul Bellar and Pete Musico guilty on all...
September 30th, 20220With Michigan teens back in school, parents and teachers should be aware about online safety, as tech-savvy teens are falling for online scams at a higher rate than seniors, according to researchers behind a new study.
SocialCatfish.com released the study on the "State of Internet Scams 2022" using 2022 data from the FBI IC3 and...
July 9th, 20220DEARBORN – Members of the Arab American community met with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials to discuss ongoing efforts to improve the treatment of Arab and Muslim American communities at ports of entry.
The roundtable discussion at the Lebanese American Heritage Club (LAHC) on Friday, June 24, was also attended by...
June 24th, 20220DEARBORN — The Dearborn Police Department and the FBI-Violent Crimes Task Force have apprehended Abdulawahab Ahmed Musleh for a June armed robbery in Dearborn and have connected him with other armed robberies in the area.
On Wednesday, June 15, around 3 p.m., the Dearborn Police Department responded to a call about an armed...
June 24th, 20220DETROIT — A local outreach program of the FBI, the FBI Detroit Citizens Academy, aims to educate and address the public on different societal issues such as crime, terrorism, drugs and violence.
The FBI Citizens Academy is a national program with several branches around the country, including one based in Detroit.
The program is...
May 27th, 20220An Iraqi asylum seeker living in Ohio was arrested and charged by federal authorities for aiding and abetting a failed plot to assassinate former President George W. Bush.
According to authorities, Shihab Ahmed Shihab, 52, told an FBI informant in November that he wanted to target Bush because he was “responsible for killing many...
April 15th, 20220A federal grand jury in Flint returned an indictment on Wednesday, charging Michael Angelo (Angelo), Hassan Kamal Fayad, Mirna Kamal Fayad, Cory Justin Mann, Thomas Reed Quartz and Rosina Angelo with conspiring to defraud the IRS and other crimes.
According to the indictment, from approximately 2011 to 2022, Angelo owned and operated...
April 14th, 20220A man suspected of threatening mosques in Metro Detroit has been arrested, officials said.
The FBI is investigating threats made by a 60-year-old man who allegedly made statements about blowing up mosques in the Metro area, Dearborn police said in a statement Wednesday.
They said state police received information about the threats at...
January 17th, 20220MLK Day, since being signed into law as a national holiday by President Reagan, has come to symbolize a moment of national reflection on the state of race relations in America. Although Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the end of his life was a staunch champion against militarism and economic exploitation, seminal moments such as his...
August 31st, 20210After the release of the FBI’s annual hate crime statistics, a civil rights group is asking the Biden administration to make federal assistance to local law enforcement agencies contingent on their reporting and compiling of hate crime data.
The FBI’s latest statistics on hate crimes show the biggest spike since 2008. The report...
August 23rd, 20211DEARBORN — U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn) has sent a letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, calling for a complete and thorough audit of the No-Fly and Selectee Lists to ensure innocent American citizens have not been...
August 1st, 20210BEIRUT — The amount of ammonium nitrate that blew up at Beirut port last year was one fifth of the shipment unloaded there in 2013, the FBI concluded after the blast, adding to suspicions that much of the cargo had gone missing.
As the first anniversary approaches on Aug. 4, major questions remain unanswered, including how a huge...
June 11th, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to look at a decade-long class-action case involving the FBI’s use of an informant to spy on several LA and Orange County mosques, the Courthouse News reported Tuesday.
For more than a year, the FBI planted an informant in the mosques and instructed him to coerce and gather...
May 2nd, 20210DETROIT — FBI Special Agent in Charge Timothy Waters announced on Thursday, April 29, that the Michigan Muslim Community Council (MMCC) has received FBI Detroit’s Community Leadership Award for 2020.
The field office said the MMCC is a committed member of FBI Detroit’s multicultural engagement council and in that role has...
February 11th, 20210GRAND RAPIDS — A trial for five of the men accused of plotting to kidnap Governor Whitmer has been postponed until October.
The trial was postponed to give defense lawyers more time to receive and analyze evidence.
U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker decided to reschedule the trial from March until Oct. 12 in federal court in...
February 6th, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. – FBI Director Christopher Wray has named Paul M. Abbate as deputy director. As deputy, he oversees all FBI domestic and international investigative and intelligence activities. Abbate most recently served as the associate deputy director.
Abbate joined the FBI as a special agent in 1996 and was assigned to the...
January 21st, 20210The FBI is offering a public reward for tips that lead to the “location, arrest and conviction” of the person or persons responsible for planting pipe bombs near the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. on Jan 6.
The reward is set at $75,000 and was originally set at $50,000. The FBI’s Washington Field Office posted the...
January 12th, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. — After a mob of supporters of outgoing President Trump broke into the U.S. Capitol Building last Wednesday, the FBI has launched a nationwide investigation into the incident.
FBI officials have said they are considering a litany of charges, including conspiracy and sedition, and are relying on a partnership with...
November 18th, 20200WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an annual hate crimes report released this week, the FBI announced that 2019 saw a record high number of hate crime murders in the United States.
Hate crimes are described by the FBI as an offense “motivated by bias toward race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender and gender...
October 29th, 20200LANSING — Multiple felony charges have been filed against the self-proclaimed leader and an associate of the national White Supremacist group, “The Base.”
Following an investigation by Michigan State Police and the FBI, the two were found to be linked to a December 2019 incident in Dexter. During this incident, a family was...
October 16th, 20200LANSING — Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office is reporting that there is now a 14th person charged in the plot to kidnap Governor Whitmer.
Ryan Jarvi, a spokesperson for Nessel’s office, told local news outlets that a 14th person was arrested in the plot to kidnap Whitmer, but would not provide further details regarding the...
October 8th, 20200LANSING — On Thursday, Attorney General Dana Nessel announced charges against seven Michiganders for plotting to kidnap Governor Whitmer.
“I’d like to announce that my office has filed additional charges in addition to the charges already announced by the U.S. Attorney’s office,” she said. “I’d like to announce the...
September 29th, 20200WASHINGTON, D.C. (REUTERS) — U.S. security officials are warning that violent domestic extremists pose a threat to the presidential election next month, amid what one official called a “witch’s brew” of rising political tensions, civil unrest and foreign disinformation campaigns.
FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security...
