Feds sieze skyscraper, 4 Mosques, $500 million in assets

[jimmy olsen]

Interesting, I wonder what inane threat Ahmidenijad will make in response.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33894877/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/

updated 5:13 p.m. PT, Thurs., Nov . 12, 2009

NEW YORK - Federal prosecutors Thursday took steps 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 seeking the forfeiture of more than $500 million in assets of the Alavi Foundation and an alleged front company.

The assets include Islamic centers in New York City, Maryland, California and Houston, more than 100 acres in Virginia, and a 36-story 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 seeking a nuclear bomb.

A telephone call and e-mail to Iran's U.N. mission seeking comment were not immediately answered.

Religious backlash possible
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 soldier.

"No action has been taken against any tenants or occupants of those properties," U.S. attorney's office spokeswoman Yusill Scribner said. "The tenants and occupants remain free to use the properties as they have before today's filing. There are no allegations of any wrongdoing on the part of any of these tenants or occupants."

The mosques and the skyscaper 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.

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.

Prosecutors said the Alavi Foundation, through a front company known as Assa Corp., illegally funneled millions in rental income back 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.

Skyscraper erected under shah
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 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 imprisoned Muslims in the U.S. educational literature. The foundation has also invested in dozens of mosques around the country and supported Iranian academics at prominent universities.

Timing a coincidence?
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.
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"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.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. 

[Strix]

I approve. Obama might be on to an excellent way to pay for Health Care.

[HisMajestyBOB]

Interesting, I wonder what inane threat Ahmidenijad will make in response.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33894877/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/

He'll make a lot of noise and send a sternly worded letter.
Much like our responses to his nuclear program.

[Grallon]

I am appalled that enemies of the West are allowed to run rampant like this!

Seize their assets, seize them!  Shred them to pieces goddammit!  Are you waiting for them to plant portable nukes in your midst!?

All muslims must be purged!




G.

[Admiral Yi]

Bad timing.  Should have waited for a rebound in the mosque market.

(grallon  )

[garbon]

If only they'd grabbed the NYC one sooner. Would've been a great, edgy location for fashion week.

[jimmy olsen]

Wow Grallon   

[garbon]

Wow Grallon  

Yay, he says the same thing that he says all the time.

[jimmy olsen]

Wow Grallon   

Yay, he says the same thing that he says all the time.

That was frenzied and over the top even for him.

[garbon]

That was frenzied and over the top even for him.

For my part I advocate nuking the shit out of iranians (all muslims in fact) while we have the capacity to do so - and before *they* do so to us.  For if we don't - they certainly will.

If you want the end of muslim terrorism -you have to eliminate all muslims.  It's quite simple.

And before someone comes hollering about genocide I'll confine myself to remark that the destruction of one nasty infectious apendange on the human body is not genocide; it's merely the amputation of a gangrenes limb.

Compassion?  If the muslim vermin is to die tomorrow I'm ready to slit my own throat today!  So by all means, do *not* waver on my account!

I suppose there were more exclamation marks, but it was basically the same tired sentiment.

[Eddie Teach]

Possibly just the exclamation marks, but Grallon's rant seemed a lot funnier than it normally does.

[grumbler]

Possibly just the exclamation marks, but Grallon's rant seemed a lot funnier than it normally does.

Agreed.  Sometimes his fanaticism is creepy, but in this case it was simply risible.

Understood, garbo, that it was the same message, but delivery counts for a lot.

[Caliga]

I am appalled that enemies of the West are allowed to run rampant like this!

Seize their assets, seize them!  Shred them to pieces goddammit!  Are you waiting for them to plant portable nukes in your midst!?

All muslims must be purged!

KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNN!111111

[DontSayBanana]

I approve. Obama might be on to an excellent way to pay for Health Care.

Hardly.  In the end, I'm thinking that $500 million will just about pay for the legal bread and circuses this will go through.

[KRonn]

This is indeed interesting. And apparently quite legal, so far anyway, even given the freedoms that a religious group would have. Feds have been investigating for a long time and found enough problems with it to seize property. Remains to be seen how it fares as it goes through the courts.