EXCLUSIVE -‘QAEDA' TIES TO PILGRIM GIS

New York Post ^ | 10/02/03 | NILES LATHEM

[kattracks]

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is investigating a trip by 100 Muslim members of the U.S. armed forces for a pilgrimage to Mecca that was paid for by a Saudi charity accused of financing al Qaeda, The Post has learned.

The so-called "Hajj Tour" in March 2001 for Muslim servicemen and chaplains was organized by the Muslim World League, a major charity group financed in part by the Saudi royal family and which is dedicated to the spread of Wahhabism, the extreme form of Islam embraced by Osama bin Laden.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Terror Close to Home In Venezuela, a volatile leader befriends Mideast, Colombia and Cuba *** Venezuela is providing support--including identity documents--that could prove useful to radical Islamic groups, say U.S. officials. U.S. News has learned that Chavez's government has issued thousands of cedulas, the equivalent of Social Security cards, to people from places such as Cuba, Colombia, and Middle Eastern nations that play host to foreign terrorist organizations. An American official with firsthand knowledge of the ID scheme has seen computer spreadsheets with names of people organized by nationality. "The list easily totaled several thousand," the official says. "Colombians were the largest group; there were more than a thousand of them. It also included many from Middle Eastern `countries of interest' like Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, Lebanon." The official adds: "It was shocking to see how extensive the list was." U.S. officials believe that the Venezuelan government is issuing the documents to people who should not be getting them and that some of these cedulas were subsequently used to obtain Venezuelan passports and even American visas, which could allow the holder to elude immigration checks and enter the United States. U.S. officials say that the cedulas are also being used by Colombian subversives and by some Venezuelan officials to travel surreptitiously.

The suspicious links between Venezuela and Islamic radicalism are multiplying. American law enforcement and intelligence officials are exploring whether there is an al Qaeda connection--specifically, they want to know if a Venezuelan of Arab descent named Hakim Mamad al Diab Fatah had ties to any of the September 11 hijackers. The United States deported Diab Fatah to Venezuela for immigration violations in March 2002. A U.S. intelligence official says that Diab Fatah is still a "person of interest" and that his family in Venezuela is "a well-known clan associated with extremist and illicit activity" in northern Venezuela. But when U.S. officials sought Diab Fatah for further questioning, they were told by Venezuelan officials that he was not in the country. Diab Fatah may also be tied to the Caracas mosque of Sheik Ibrahim bin Abdul Aziz, which has caught investigators' attention. One of the mosque's officials, also a Venezuelan of Arab descent, was recently arrested in London for carrying a grenade on a Caracas-London flight. ***

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[livius]

You know, of course, that Carlos the Jackal is a convert to Islam.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

No I didn't. Interesting, like the fact that Carlos the Jackel's brother runs Hugo Chavez's Venezuela Bolivarian "education" department. A little bird told me.

[xzins]

Ping to this article.

reference our conversation yesterday.

this is bad.

I'm guessing that the chief of chaplain's office is under enormous pressure right about now.

[LTCJ]

Thanks for the ping.

Heads need to roll.

[xzins]

If you're in command, listen closely to your brigade chaplain. He'll be picking up chaplain chain scuttlebutt about the climate in the chief's office.

I imagine they're in full defense posture at this point, battening the hatches, manning the barricades.

[LurkedLongEnough]

"Groups with connections to terrorists seem to have focused on our military. We need to find out why," said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has called for hearings.

Does this imply that Schumer would exploit a connection between the terrorists and the [evil] U.S. military for political purposes???

[livius]

Carlos converted to Islam about 10 years ago in the Sudan. I gather he's quite the little Muslim activist in jail now, where he recently married his looney French ultra-left lawyer.

Remember that one of the first official acts of Chavez (during a victory lap in France) was to attempt to visit Carlos in jail, even before meeting the French President. He has also written adoring letters to his terrorist idol.

[Lijahsbubbe]

Counter-terrorism officials and congressional officials are questioning the Pentagon's decision to let the league pay for the trip because, even at that time, its connections to al Qaeda and other terrorist groups were well known in intelligence circles.

What's going on here? Aren't officials at the Pentagon supposed to be smarter than this? They knew of the league's connections, and they're investigating this more than two years later?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Bump!

[piasa]

The Pentagon bureaucrats were too busy fighting Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz's reforms every step of the way to bother themselves with tiny details like national security.

[TADSLOS]

The more we dig, the more we find...

[swarthyguy]

Should be the biggest story here, in TVland and everywhere.

[petitfour]

Holy Cow!

The so-called "Hajj Tour" in March 2001

Arrangements for such a trip would have been made months prior to this. They would have been approved by the Clinton Pentagon.

And more of the war on the US becomes clear.

[piasa]

bttt