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Rounded Up: Artificial Terrorists and Muslim Entrapment After 9/11

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Rounded-up tells of the entrapment of two Muslim men from Albany, NY - Yassin Aref and Mohammend Hossain. I live in Albany and I have followed the case from the beginning.

I bought the book on Friday and started to read. I could not put it down until I was done. The book is so readable, it just kept me turning the pages. Even the appendixes in the back are so compelling, I had to read to the very end.

After all of the information I had gathered about this case, I thought I knew everything about it. Dr. Shamshad Ahmad's book has shown me there was a lot of facts I did not know. The FBI's tactics in this case are far worse than I understood.

The book makes me even more sad, more angry than I had been before at this injustice done to the two innocent men, Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain, who are now serving 15-year prison sentences.

It is very hard to believe that in my country, the United States of America, based on the rule of law, that the government can just pick two innocent men off the streets and imprison them - solely because of their religion. But, that is what has happened.

This book explains, in a very compelling manner, about the wrongful prosecution of innocent Muslims in America.

In a time and place where Muslims have learned it's prudent to be silent, we should be especially grateful to Shamshad Ahmad for having the courage to write his book "Rounded Up." The book opens with a quote from the Prophet Muhammad, "The highest form of jihad is to speak the truth in the face of an unjust ruler," and Ahmad's book is the embodiment of this quote. Understated and powerful, with respect for fact, each page is testament to his belief that the truth can indeed set us free.

"Rounded Up" tells of an FBI instigated fake terrorist plot that not only terrorizes a whole community, but also sends two members of the Albany, New York, Muslim community to prison for 15 years each. Ahmad's perspective is unique because of the many vantage points he occupies simultaneously as, Muslim, immigrant, U.S. citizen, mosque president, and professor of physics.

Government press conferences, political photo-ops, and news flashes about "terrorists" are juxtaposed with community disbelief and impotence to counter the effects of a frenzied media circus feeding on duplicity and omission. Initial feelings of impotence are ultimately overcome by two bold initiatives from a diverse Albany community that has come together through tragedy: the Muslim Solidarity Committee, which gives direct support to the two convicted men and their families, and Project SALAM (Support and Legal Advocacy for Muslims) which addresses the wider context of what is happening nation wide.

Not to be missed - and perhaps to be read first - are the appendices. Taking samples from government transcripts of sting tapes, Ahmad illustrates how lack of context, omission, and mistranslation contribute to distortions of reality that are then fed to an eager press in the "war on terror." Thank you to Shamshad Ahmad for documenting this individual case of a cruel, tragic, scenario that is, unfortunately, being played out over and over again in cases across the country.

Shamshad Ahmad has done an admirable job in describing the FBI's entrapment of Yassin Aref, Imam of the Albany NY mosque and Mohammed Hossain, a member of that mosque, a US citizen and businessman. It was a particularly emotional subject for him as he is president of the mosque and is friends with Yassin and Mohammed. Despite this, he handled the telling of the story in a clear, logical style and kept his cool.

The book shows how the FBI used every trick in their repertoire including mistranslations to make a case against the two men and how those techniques were buttressed by secret evidence that was never disclosed to the defense lawyers. High level security on the tops of buildings colored the portrayal of the defendants as dangerous as did periodic release to an initially gullible media of photo ops designed to inculcate suspicion.

The appendices are especially important to read because they show how the tapes were manipulated many times by omissions and insertions to twist the meanings and context of the conversations of the defendants.

If you want to see how your tax dollar is being wasted and how the FBI, and the justice system from the district attorney, district, appellate and supreme courts acted in concert to deny justice to two men who were stung, framed and entrapped, this is the book for you. When you finish reading it, you will say to yourself, as did I, why doesn't the FBI find something else to do when they get up in the morning.

**THIS REVIEW WRITTEN BY YASSIN AREF (see ** at end)
Rounded Up by Shamshad Ahmad is the true testimony by someone who witnessed everything and saw the entire drama of the Aref-Hossain case unfold. He does not just tell you what happened, rather he explains how it happened and why. Further, he tells you what he and others think and felt about the entire situation. The credibility of this witness is that no one brought him in and forced him to testify. He is not receiving any financial benefit from this book, and he is not a politician who is looking for any political achievement.

This book, and its author's message, is to convey the truth. It is a sad story, but Shamshad narrates it to you in a beautiful, interesting way and helps you understand what happened.

Thank you, Shamshad, for asking the serious questions about the case and its issues that many people have in their minds but are afraid to ask. I, my family, the American people, and Muslims throughout the world need to know the answers. President Obama promised to "change course" and build a new era. Now the world is waiting, and asking:
-when will the Justice Department review the cases of hundreds of Muslims who have been targeted, prosecuted, and imprisoned by the Bush Administration for political reasons, and who received long prison sentences for crimes they did not commit?
-when will America put the 9/11 tragedy and the Bush era behind them to build good relations with the world in all humanity's interest of peace, justice, and saving lives and the planet?
-when will Guantanamo and all secret prisons be closed?
-when will prisoners be treated fairly and receive their rights, especially in Bagram, Abu Ghraib, the ADX, and the CMUs?
-when will the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan end?
-when will the Palestinians live in peace in their land and have their state?
-when will the discrimination against Muslims in the United States stop, and when will the government remove surveillance on their mosques and schools and stop targeting and setting up their kids?

Shamshad's book is an honest and clear view that tells the world how Muslims feel and what's in their minds and hearts, what they need and what their concerns are. I know he raises hundreds of necessary and serious questions about me being targeted, persecuted, and imprisoned, and about my trial and the verdict, but he also asks many other important questions and brings up many doubts about the fairness of the trial and its judgment. Shamshad's book is necessary for anyone who needs to know what happened and what went wrong, why America transferred from the "land of freedom" into a "police state," and how it changed from the "country of dreams" to an "empire state."

My hope is that people will read this book with open minds and clear intentions to understand the problem, and then they will do all they can to fix it, because, as they say, "Discovering and knowing the disease is half of the cure."

Shamshad again proves he is an honest man, a brave leader, faithful and smart, one who tells the truth, speaks loud, and asks the right questions--not to deepen the wound, not to build hate, rather to seek the truth and a solution. In this book he will tell you what you are never going to hear from hypocrites or from fearful Muslims or their corrupted politicians and leaders.

Dear Shamshad, thank you for writing the book. I am glad that you are back home. I was really moved by your closing words: "No place is better than home." I do believe so too! But like all homeless immigrants, I don't know where we should return to, or where we can stay.

**Yassin Aref is one of the defendants in the Aref-Hossain case, which is the subject of Rounded Up. He wrote this review from the Communication Management Unit at the federal prison in Marion, Illinois, where he is incarcerated.

Rounded Up
Artificial Terrorists and Muslim Entrapment After 9/11
By Shamshad Ahmad, Ph.D.

There is intimacy, honesty, and a level of trust in "Rounded Up" that may disturb and dishearten the reader. For only an immigrant could believe in and be so seduced by the myth of America. "Rounded Up" is an immigrant's story in which the myth collides head on with the nightmare. The hopes of those who see the United States as a beacon of light, prosperity, and freedom are caught in a web of the unseen and unexpected, and then are targeted and crushed by a post 9/11 hysteria and the FBI.

In Rounded Up, we see how easy it is easy to attack a poor, immigrant community, unskilled in the use of English, unfamiliar with the culture and its laws, isolated and marginalized by its economic status, its recent arrival in this country, its race, and a misunderstood religion often purposely and dishonestly portrayed as violent by the U.S. government.

We also see, with 9/11 as backdrop, how the U.S. government, through the auspices of the FBI, has released a reign of terror upon the Muslim community nationwide and has simultaneously denigrated the Constitution and cowed the American public into supporting their wave of intolerance, unprecedented in recent American history. Sadly, this Orwellian war on civil rights is done in the name of national security, and it is 1984 in Albany, New York, although the calendar reads 2003 and 2004.

Rounded Up is a story from the community of working-class Muslims in Albany. Two of them are persecuted by the FBI in a fabricated and dishonest "sting" conducted over two years. Appendices A and B, a summary and brief analysis of official FBI surveillance transcripts, contain the essence of the case. These repeatedly demonstrate that the two men are neither terrorists nor willing participants in any criminal activity, and that it is only by the dishonesty of the FBI and its paid informant that this tragedy occurs. That the FBI was assisted by the compliance of the court-- which apparently did not comprehend that in a country that respects the rule of law, secret evidence is unacceptable--is both incomprehensible and frightening. The immediate result is that two innocent men are falsely convicted and sentenced to fifteen years for "money laundering." As one local journalist remarked, this case really stinks.

Fortunately, the story does not end here. An unlikely group of peace activists, lawyers, and concerned citizens have stood valiantly against this homegrown terror. The Muslim Solidarity Committee (MSC) is dedicated to keeping on until Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain are released from prison and some semblance of justice is salvaged for their families and the community. While the FBI continues to practice entrapment under the euphemisms "sting" and "preemptive prosecution" nationwide, the MSC continues to represent what is still good about America.

With atypical courage, Shamshad Ahmad--member of the MSC, a Muslim, founder and president of the Masjid As-Salam mosque--is willing to speak out in a time of extreme repression when many are cowering in the shadows. If you care about living in a country that respects the rule of law, read this book. The democracy you save may be your own.


John Amidon served in the USMC and is a member of Veterans For Peace.

Well, I don't deny the criticism towards FBI.... given by the authors and the reviewers. But I do question that this has been done for no apparent reason. Why just Albany? Why is the FBI not 'rounding-up' other Imams (in & around Albany, NY)? Things don't happen without a smoking gun..and so is this case. Yes...the legal system is not perfect.....there may be a possibility that FBI played dirty. But I seriously doubt the main theme in this case/book.

Surprisingly, all the reviewers have given a 5 star rating..... :) Good way to create a Christian-name login just for the sake of giving a 5* rating and righting a positive review for self promotion.