Let's keep the Dem's on the run!
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Posted on 10/15/2003 2:07:38 AM PDT by kattracks
To Muslim political groups in Washington, American Muslim Council founder Abdurahman Alamoudi is a respected political leader.
To the Clinton administration, Alamoudi was credible enough to be allowed to certify Islamic chaplains for the Pentagon.
To the Libyan regime of Muammar Qadhafi, Alamoudi has been a paid agent worthy of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.
To the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, Alamoudi is a bankroller of terrorists abroad and here at home.
And to U.S. Magistrate Judge Theresa Buchanan, Alamoudi is a danger to society and a flight risk as he awaits trial in jail as an alleged key figure in an international terror network.
Alamoudi’s arrest on September 29 was a crushing blow to the self-appointed groups in Washington that claim to represent American Muslims.
Federal prosecutors allege that Alamoudi broke US law by traveling to Libya, and meeting with officials who sought to use his Washington political contacts to lift sanctions on the terrorist-sponsoring regime. A criminal complaint contends that Alamoudi met with leaders of the World Islamic Call Society (WICS), a para-statal Islamic “charity” which Qadhafi founded and controls. WICS would give Alamoudi a cut from the funds he was able to unfreeze.
But the case became even more serious at Alamoudi’s detention hearing, when US Attorney Steve Ward gave a detailed outline of Alamoudi’s intimate connections with global terrorists and politically active Muslim organizations in the US.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Brett Gentrup testified that in a phone call to an unnamed individual, Alamoudi discussed in detail the tactical nature of terrorist attacks. In the transcripts, Alamoudi states, “The Jewish Community Center. It is a worthy operation,” referring to the 1994 bombing of one such center in Argentina that killed 86 people. “Even though we are very sorry for the death of the innocent. You have to choose the target so as not to put the Muslim in an uncomfortable situation.”
FBI Special Agent Todd Price testified that the Portland, Oregon branch of Alamoudi’s American Muslim Foundation made payouts to two individuals—Patrice Lumumba Ford and Ahmed Bilal—apprehended last October by the government on terrorist charges. Bilal pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to aid the Taliban, while Ford is awaiting trial on more serious charges of conspiracy to wage war on the US and providing material support to al-Qaeda.
As proof, the government produced copies of checks bearing the recipients’ names, drawn on the accounts of the Portland branch of the AMF. In a classic Wahhabi sleight-of-hand maneuver, Alamoudi’s lawyer May Kheder claimed that AMF Portland has no affiliation with the national organization. Special Agent Price quickly laid that fallacious claim to rest by reading from the Foundation’s IRS form 990 which clearly lists Portland as an affiliate. Kheder’s tactic was reminiscent of a recent claim by Executive Director Nihad Awad of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in attempting to explain away the arrest of CAIR-Texas founder Ghassan Elashi. “The fact that he was once associated with one of our almost twenty regional chapters,” said Awad in submitted testimony to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, “has no legal significance to our corporation.”
As the evidence continues to mount in the case against Alamoudi, the outlook becomes ever bleaker for the many Wahhabi-backed Muslim groups in which he played an integral role. Since the early 1980’s, Alamoudi has held posts with as many as fifteen American organizations supportive of the Wahhabi cause. Six of those groups have been raided by US federal agents since September 11, 2001, and more are currently under the scrutiny of federal investigators.
Soliman Biheiri, an advisory board member at Alamoudi’s most successful project, the American Muslim Council (AMC), was convicted yesterday on two counts of violating US immigration law. US prosecutors have cited Biheiri as, “the financial toehold of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States.” At Alamoudi’s detention hearing, Special Agent Price reviewed the translated text of a Libyan website that identifies Alamoudi as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood as well. Although Alamoudi no longer serves with the AMC, the federal affidavit alleges that he maintains oversight of the group.
Alamoudi’s AMC, which was once called “the most mainstream Muslim group in the US,” by the spokesman for the FBI director, has enjoyed unfettered access to the Bush administration since September 11, 2001. In meetings with high level officials like FBI Director Robert Mueller and Senior Policy Advisor Karl Rove, the AMC has lobbied to oppose the Administration’s policies in the War on Terror and to further their radical agenda.
One aspect of that agenda includes the recruitment of radical Muslims to serve as military chaplains. The American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council (AMAFVAC), which has come under suspicion in a widening probe of espionage activities by Muslim US Servicemen at Guantanamo bay, was first overseen by Alamoudi. Formed as a spinoff of the AMC and headed by former AMC official Qaseem Uqdah, the AMAFVAC is one of two Islamic organizations certified by the Department of Defense to endorse military chaplains. In fact, at the swearing-in ceremony of the first Muslim chaplain, Captain Abdul Rasheed Muhammad, it was none other than Abdurahman Alamoudi who pinned the crescent moon insignia on Muhammad’s uniform.
Even a look at Alamoudi’s legal team turns up familiar faces in the domestic Wahhabi network. One of Alamoudi’s lawyers is Kamal Nawash, an outspoken apologist for Hamas and Palestinian terrorists, who has previously served as the legal advisor at the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), a group that has worked alongside Alamoudi in opposing to the Bush Administration’s War on Terror.
Though he was not present in the courtroom, Nawash sprung to Alamoudi’s defense in an Islam Online article in which the lawyer states, “[Alamoudi] has no links whatsoever to violence or terrorism. On the contrary, he supported the US war on terrorism.”
Nawash was equally quick to politically distance himself from Alamoudi in preparation for his upcoming Virginia state senate election campaign. The Washington Post reported that in August, Nawash returned two campaign donation checks of $5,000 to Abdurahman Alamoudi and his wife, Shifa. While taking up Alamoudi’s defense in court, it seems that the political danger of associating with a lawbreaking supporter of terrorist causes was too much.
Kamal Nawash has his own set of political connections that would be devastated if US attorneys sufficiently connect the dots during Alamoudi’s criminal trial. Grover Norquist, a Republican lobbyist well connected to the Bush administration through Policy Advisor Karl Rove, has been instrumental in Nawash’s campaign, personally hosting a fundraiser at his residence on August 6th. Norquist also served as the Founding Chairman of the Islamic Institute, which received its initial funding from none other than Abdurahman Alamoudi.
The arrest and detention of Alamoudi is another in a succession of important victories in the War on Terror. The expanding probe into groups tainted by Alamoudi’s criminal extremism will only yield more.
Evan McCormick is the Henry M. Jackson National Security Fellow at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC. He is a recent graduate of Boston University.
Let's keep the Dem's on the run!
Click the Pic!
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