Friends in high places (newspaper links Islamic Jihad leader Sami Al-Arian to Norquist)

St. Petersburg Times ^ | MARY JACOBY

[spodefly]

BTTT

[TLBSHOW]

The hometown newspaper of jailed Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Sami Al-Arian is reporting links between the terrorist, other suspected terrorist financiers, and libertarian activist Grover Norquist.

The St. Petersburg Times, which broke major stories about Al-Arian running terrorist support operations out of the Tampa, Florida, area, reports on the alleged connection to Al-Arian and several groups that federal agents have raided or shut down in connection with terrorist financing. According to the report,

* Norquist's group, the Islamic Institute, received tens of thousands of dollars from pro-Hezbollah operative Abdurahman Alamoudi, and Norquist himself accepted an award shortly before 9/11 for a group headed by Al-Arian.

* Al-Arian visited the Islamic Institute as recently as last summer - something which the Institute's Chairman, Khaled Saffuri, first denied. Saffuri is a former Alamoudi acolyte.

* "Norquist's aggressive courting of suspected radicals like Al-Arian was making many conservatives uneasy," according to former White House speechwriter David Frum.

* Norquist's group received tens of thousands more from the Safa Trust and the International Institute for Islamic Thought, raided last year under Operation Green Quest as suspected funders of terrorism;

* "Among the more than 50 targets of the [Operation Green Quest] raid were people and organizations connected to Norquist and the Islamic Institute."

* Norquist has taken advantage of President Bush's Muslim outreach program by giving Islamic extremists access to the White House and to the president himself.

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr

[Victoria Delsoul]

Thanks for the update.

[Pelham]

Give Grover Norquist a ticket to Gitmo so he can hang out with his pals.

[Nogbad]

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