Superbowl Trumps Security
By Debbie Schlussel
FrontPageMagazine.com | February 1, 2006

If you're a terrorist laundering money to Hezbollah or smuggling illegal aliens over the border, this is the week to do it. At least, in Michigan -- the heart of Islamic America. Just make sure you and the aliens aren't wearing NFL or Superbowl t-shirts.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Special Agent in Charge Brian Moskowitz a/k/a "Abu Moskowitz" is taking ICE agents all over Michigan off the job of protecting us...so that they can help NFL billionaires.

While Abu Moskowitz is telling any press who will listen and pander--like his buddy, Detroit News fabricator David Shepardson--that he is having his agents enforce laws against counterfeiting by investigating those who produce counterfeit items and finding "terror links" (as he claimed to ESPN), his agents say otherwise.

In fact, according to Abu M's agents, all persons at baseball's All-Star festivities caught by ICE agents selling counterfeit items were released on the spot, in exchange for relinquishing the t-shirts and hats they were selling. And none of their information was even taken by the agents. How there could then be an investigation is a question only Einstein (or perhaps, lesser light, Abu Moskowitz, could answer--but the pandering reporter didn't bother to ask).

Still Abu Moskowitz lied to Shepardson (who, as usual, never bothers to fact-check) and The Detroit News, fertilizing richly:

Operation Gridiron is similar to efforts to find and deter fraud during last summer's Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Detroit, said Brian Moskowitz, the special agent in charge of ICE.

During the baseball sweeps, authorities confiscated about 16,000 illegal hats worth about $250,000, he said. The investigation is ongoing with an eye toward tracing the merchandise back to its maker.

"What you're looking at is a $250 billion loss to U.S. industry," Moskowitz said of general trademark theft. "This represents organized crime and potential threats to the safety of the public. This is not a victimless crime."

Hmmm...organized crime and threats to the safety of the public -- and Abu Moskowitz had his agents release the suspects without even identifying them?! Not very swift...assuming this is really a big threat. And it isn't. Unless you are a member of the Rooney or Allen families...or any of the other select, elite NFL billionaires sharing in the pot. We're all for capitalism, but let them pay for their own trademark police.

We once wrote that ICE--because it's too cheap to spend money on oil changes for agent's "G" cars, but spends thousands on important law enforcement activities like re-decorating Abu Moskowitz's office -- should be called the "Anti-Pimp My Ride." But we were wrong. It's now the "Pimp My Law Enforcement."

Here's what Abu M told ESPN back in July:

"A lot of people ask 'What the heck are you guys in Homeland Security doing with counterfeiters?'" said Brian Moskowitz, special agent in charge of ICE in Michigan and Ohio. "First and foremost, we're looking for vulnerabilities in our trade system; vulnerabilities that criminals -- and by proxy, terrorists -- could exploit."

The cost of the raid may be staggering, but Moskowitz sees it as important work.

"Our focus is not the individual vendor," Moskowitz said. "It's the criminal organizations behind the vendors.

"But it's something more than someone buying a hat at a cheap price. It's fueling activity that might be worse than the counterfeiting. At the end of the day, this stops if people don't buy."

Again, "terrorists," "criminal organizations," and "activity...worse than the counterfeiting." Yet, Abu Moskowitz is releasing them without even a modicum of investigation.

Well, at least he's consistent on that year-round. We just hope we don't see him at any Superbowl parties.

We won't feel any safer with him around...unless Mohammed is wearing a phony Matt Hasselbeck jersey.

Ellie