A Troubling Influence - An Islamic Fifth Column penetrates the White House

FrontPageMagazine ^ | 12/09/03 | Frank J Gaffney Jr.

[kattracks]

Why We Are Publishing This Article by David Horowitz

The article you are about to read is the most disturbing that we at frontpagemag.com have ever published. As an Internet magazine, with a wide circulation, we have been in the forefront of the effort to expose the radical Fifth Column in this country, whose agendas are at odds with the nation’s security, and whose purposes are hostile to its own. In his first address to Congress after 9/11, the President noted that we are facing the same totalitarian enemies we faced in the preceding century. It is not surprising that their domestic supporters in the American Left should have continued their efforts to weaken this nation and tarnish its image. Just as there was a prominent internal Fifth Column during the Cold War, so there has been a prominent Fifth Column during the war on terror.

By no means do all the opponents of America’s war policies (or even a majority) fit this category. Disagreement among citizens is a core feature of any democracy and respect for that disagreement is a foundational value of our political system. The self-declared enemies of the nation are distinguished by the intemperate nature of their attacks on America and its President – referring to the one as Adolf Hitler, for example, or the other as the world’s “greatest terrorist state.” They are known as well by their political choices and associations. Many leaders of the movement opposing the war in Iraq have worked for half a century with the agents of America’s communist enemies and with totalitarian states like Cuba and the former USSR.

We have had no compunction about identifying these individuals and groups. America is no longer protected by geographical barriers or by its unsurpassed military technologies. Today terrorists who can penetrate our borders with the help of Fifth Column networks will have access to weapons of mass destruction that can cause hundreds of thousands of American deaths.  One slip in our security defenses can result in a catastrophe undreamed of before.

What is particularly disturbing, about the information in this article by former Reagan Defense official, Frank Gaffney, is that it concerns an individual who loves this country and would be the last person to wish it harm, and the first one would expect to defend it. I have known Grover Norquist for almost twenty years as a political ally. Long before I myself was cognizant of the Communist threat – indeed when I was part of one of those Fifth Column networks – Grover Norquist was mobilizing his countrymen to combat it. In the early 1980s, Grover was in the forefront of conservative efforts to get the Reagan Administration to support the liberation struggles of anti-Communists in Central America, Africa and Afghanistan.

It is with a heavy heart therefore, that I am posting this article, which is the most complete documentation extant of Grover Norquist’s activities in behalf of the Islamist Fifth Column. I have confronted Grover about these issues and have talked to others who have done likewise. But it has been left to Frank Gaffney and a few others, including Daniel Pipes and Steven Emerson, to make the case and to suffer the inevitable recriminations that have followed earlier disclosures of some aspects of this story.

Up to now, the controversy over these charges has been dismissed or swept under the rug, as a clash of personalities or the product of one of those intra-bureaucratic feuds so familiar to the Washington scene. Unfortunately, this is wishful thinking. The reality is much more serious. No one reading this document to its bitter end will confuse its claims and confirming evidence with those of a political cat fight. On the basis of the evidence assembled here, it seems beyond dispute that Grover Norquist has formed alliances with prominent Islamic radicals who have ties to the Saudis and to Libya and to Palestine Islamic Jihad, and who are now under indictment by U.S. authorities. Equally troubling is that the arrests of these individuals and their exposure as agents of terrorism have not resulted in noticeable second thoughts on Grover’s part or any meaningful effort to dissociate himself from his unsavory friends.

As Frank Gaffney’s article recounts, Grover’s own Islamic Institute was initially financed by one of the most notorious of these operatives, Abdurahman Alamoudi, a supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah who told the Annual Convention of the Islamic Association of Palestine in 1996, “If we are outside this country we can say ‘Oh, Allah destroy America.’ But once we are here, our mission in this country is to change it.” Grover appointed Alamoudi’s deputy, Khaled Saffuri to head his own organization. Together they gained access to the White House for Alamoudi and Sami al-Arian and others with similar agendas who used their cachet to spread Islamist influence to the American military and the prison system and the universities and the political arena with untold consequences for the nation.

Parts of this story have been published before, but never in such detail and never with the full picture of Islamist influence in view. No doubt, that is partly because of Grover Norquist’s large (and therefore intimidating) presence in the Washington community. Many have been quite simply afraid to raise these issues and thus have allowed Grover to make them seem a matter of individual personality differences. This suits his agendas well, as it does those of his Islamist allies. If matters in dispute reflect personal animosity or “racial” prejudice, as Grover insists, then the true gravity of these charges is obscured. The fact remains that while Grover has denied the charges or sought to dismiss them with such arguments on many occasions, he has never answered them. If he wishes to do so now, the pages of frontpagemag.com are open to him.

Many have been reluctant to support these charges or to make them public because they involve a prominent conservative. I am familiar with these attitudes from my years on the Left. Loyalty is an important political value, but there comes a point where loyalty to friends or to parties comes into conflict with loyalty to fundamental principles and ultimately to one’s country. Grover’s activities have reached that point. E.M. Forster, a weak-spirited liberal, once said that if he had to choose between betraying his country and his friends, he “hoped [he] would have the guts” to betray his country.

No such sentiment motivates this journal. In our war with the Islamo-fascists we are all engaged in a battle with evil on a scale that affects the lives and freedoms of hundreds of millions people outside this nation as well as within it. America is on the front line of this battle and there is no replacement waiting in the wings if it fails, or if its will to fight is sapped from within. This makes our individual battles to keep our country vigilant and strong the most important responsibilities we have. That is why we could not in good conscience do otherwise, than to bring this story to light.

 

[Trollstomper]

Just so. Denial and Deception.

[general_re]

Whatever.

[Sabertooth]

We all know that Bush was not scheduled to meet with anyone regarding anything at the White House on the morning of Sept. 11. Like Al-Arian, he was in Florida.

Good point. I've just sent the following e-mail to Frank Gaffney for clarification. I'll post any reply I receive.

Subject: A Troubling Influence - Footnotes 27 and 28

Dear Mr. Gaffney,

I've followed with interest your articles on attempts by various Islamist groups to access higher levels of the US Government in the past year.

I have a question about your recent article, "A Troubling Influence - An Islamic Fifth Column penetrates the White House," posted by Frontpage Magazine.com. You wrote:

"Ironically, pro-Islamist groups had been scheduled to meet with President Bush on the morning of September 11 to hear what he planned to do to deliver on his secret evidence campaign pledge."27

"But that day, the executive mansion complex was shut down, for fear that a fourth hijacked aircraft was headed its way. I watched bemused as Grover Norquist and the White House official responsible for Muslim outreach, Suhail Khan, escorted the displaced Islamists into the conference room we share.(Al-Arian had arranged to participate in the presidential meeting via phone. According to his website, his teaching schedule at the University of South Florida would not allow him to be there in person.)"28

As I recall, on September 11th, 2001, President Bush was in Florida at the time the World Trade Center was attacked, about 9 AM. Yet you wrote that "pro-Islamist groups had been scheduled to meet with President Bush on the morning of September 11 to hear what he planned to do to deliver on his secret evidence campaign pledge."

How is it that a meeting was scheduled for Islamist groups to meet with President Bush that morning, when he was in Florida at the time?

Can you clear up this apparent discrepancy?

Thanks for your time,

xxx xxxxx,
Los Angeles, California

ps. Since I'm uncertain as to how to best contact you, and couldn't find contact info at FrontpageMag.com, I'm sending a copy of this letter both to Center For Security Strategy.org, and to your contact at Townhall.com. Thanks again.

[A Navy Vet]

And here I thought the adults were back in charge of national security. Sigh.

[HardStarboard]

>>>First, let's call them radical Islamists, because "only a few" have been, to date, brought up on terrorism charges.<<<

Thanks for your interesting reply. Your a lot deeper into this situation than I - I need to do some research.

Technically your quote above is accurate. However, I see little differentiation between those that collect money to finance terrorists, those that actually wire the bombs, and those that pull the triggers.

As I remember this professor in Florida, Sami was his last name, has been accused (or convicted?) of raising money for the Palestinian terrorists. Wasn't he in one of the Arab groups to visit the WH?

Keep me posted on developments in this flap. I think Norquist is a huge potential danger to Bush - if not physically, then politically.

[William McKinley]

I'm not sure what your bottom line is; nor that the "6%" can be stipulated to be Muslim.

My bottom line is that there is no way Bush got 70% of the Muslim vote. It undoubtably went to Gore by, if I had to make a reasoned estimate, about a 2-1 margin.

A reason that does not seem to be affecting his lead in Fla, is most probably because it never did.

Which means you have gotten to what my bottom line was.

[Trollstomper]

"Technically your quote above is accurate. However, I see little differentiation between those that collect money to finance terrorists, those that actually wire the bombs, and those that pull the triggers."

AGREE 1000%, as the Presidnt AG, SecTreas and SECDEF has said repeatedly. I was just being super senstive to the doubting Thomases. That is why Norquist trafficking of these people into the White House and movement is so troubling and must stop.

"As I remember this professor in Florida, Sami was his last name, has been accused (or convicted?) of raising money for the Palestinian terrorists. Wasn't he in one of the Arab groups to visit the WH?"

Dr. Sami Al_Arian, much reprised in the Gaffney article and elsewhere in this string and in exceleltn peices in the St Pete Times by Mary Jacoby, and in Insight Magazine by Mike Waller, et a, He is in jail awaiting a Jan 05 trial on 50 terror-related counts, principally stemming from his role as worldwide secretary of the Shura (Executive Council) of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (the bus and cafe bombings targeting civilians that we have seen on TV every fortnight or so and which have killed the equivalent of 48,000 Israelis in hte past 3-4 years (using the US/Isr poo. ratio) --a little shy of what we lost in Vietnam. He was the number two in charge, roughly, and the head of finance.

Sami came to the White House in June of 01 (which Grover denied on the Hewitt show last week but has long since been documented on the front page of the W Post, WSJ, Newsweek, etc following Sami's arrest on Feb 20, 2003.) -- and Sami was scheduled to be on a conference call to the White Hosue about "secret evidence" on 9/11.

He headed a legal aid consortium for terororists called the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedoms which gave Grover it's annual award in 2001. (by the way, NCPPF is run by Kit Gage, Executive VP of the National Lawyers Guild, identified by the US COngress and well known as a soviet front organzation. an ad hoc effot it effectiveley coordinates betweenteh ACLU, NLG, and a stable of terrorist lawyers and their clients and their "soidarity committess and front groups.)

Grover has had Sami in his office and has appeared at numerous conferences and events with Sami over the past 5 years.

Al Arian was funded by the same organizations that fund Norquist and some of whose leaders have been listed as unindicted co-conspirators or arrested, including for AlQaeda support (see above thread re Operation GreenQuest, Alamoudi etc.)

Al Arian sent letters to the editor of the WSJ, in my possession and already public, in which email he copied Norquist on encapsulated draft versions for his emandations -- a suggestion of a collaborative relationship to the reasonable observer.

The last time Al Arian was seen visiting Grover's office for over 2 hours, July 17, 2002, was the day last summer when he joined Alamoudi at the National Press Club to sue President Bush and SECSTATE Powell. The lawyer for the case is Hamas and Alamoudi attorney Stanley Cohen.

Grover has in the past striven to deny that he actually "knows" AlArian. This is demonstrably risible.

I hope these examples are helpful. There is more, and at any rate all of this implies that there are other private interactions. Bear in mind this is only one of several such individuals and groups Norquist has introduced, worked with and fo and defended over the past 5-plus years. (E.g., see "Kamal Nawash" post by Sabertooth above.) Read Gaffney's article,"A troubling Influence" -- the point of departure for this thread, and his 81 very useful endnotes

[Trollstomper]

Insightful and contributive as expected and exampled in past.

[Trollstomper]

"We all know that Bush was not scheduled to meet with anyone regarding anything at the White House on the morning of Sept. 11. Like Al-Arian, he was in Florida. "

The meeting was to have taken place later after the President's scheduled return. Whether that technically would have been "morning", ie., before 1200hrs is not clear, but could perhaps be clarified and is anyway not the main point at all (but a welcomed sudden expression of interest in facts, much of which could,per below, are contained in the article).

I believe that in the original Sami on line "diary" entry of his "recollections" he spoke of the events of that "morning" and what he was supposed to have been doing, i.e., the White House telecon to the meeting with the President. Perhaps both Al Arian and Gaffney are using poetic license re "morning" (This meeting also was refernced on the American Muslim Council's website.)

1) Gaffney provided the cite for this from Sami's website and diary. The Presidenet as you may know, often vists three cities in different parts of the country in one day. The FLa school trip was almost over at 9 am when the towers's new arrived. Rather than return to the WH he took a base hopping trip.

2) The scheduled meeting took place, replete with WH Muslim liaison contact point, above mentioned Suhail Khan (foremer Director of the Islamic Institute baord), and the major Muslim and Arab groups Norqusit/Saffuri/Kahn work with, in the Norquist conference room at 1920 L, that same afternoon as the WH complex was closed down. Gaffney and other's witnessed this and exhanged salutations.

3) It should also be noted that the President often is schedule or announced to groups to be scheduled to attend or possibly attend thir White House meetings. If something happend that takes precedence, in this case the attacks, then he does't show and a staff desingate does his apologies and runs the event.

What at a minimum is clear, as Gaffney documents, Al Arian and the Muslim groups certainly had been told and believed and wrote that they were to meet with the President in the White House that day.

I hope this information and practicum helps to clear up any confusion and allow you all to appreciate the larger and obvious point.

[Sabertooth]

The meeting was to have taken place later after the President's scheduled return. Whether that technically would have been "morning", ie., before 1200hrs is not clear, but could perhaps be clarified and is anyway not the main point at all (but a welcomed sudden expression of interest in facts, much of which could,per below, are contained in the article).

< -snip- >

The Presidenet as you may know, often vists three cities in different parts of the country in one day. The FLa school trip was almost over at 9 am when the towers's new arrived. Rather than return to the WH he took a base hopping trip.

Yeah, these thoughts crossed my mind as well, or perhaps the meeting was scheduled for mid-day, rather than the morning. As I said, it's an "apparent discrepancy."

Still, I thought it worth the follow-up, given the scruting being brought to bear on others in all of this.

I hope this information and practicum helps to clear up any confusion and allow you all to appreciate the larger and obvious point.

I suspect William McKinley would concur. Thanks for the info.

[Trollstomper]

clear now. ;)

thanks, excellent.

[swarthyguy]

One of these is Yaqub Mirza the chief financial officer for the Operation Grrenquest entities above referenced as cited by the US Govt. to be the subject of the largest terror finance investigation in the world. Mirza also signs at least $20,000 of checks to Grover and Saffuri. He was also an investor, along with Desingated Terrorist Yassin Qadi, in the raided and lcosed Boston software firm PTECH.

Tidbit Connections PING!!!!

[general_re]

Please. You're the last one who ought to be castigating others for arguing on the merits, with your thus-far imaginary claims of insider knowledge. When you contribute something objectively verifiable, original, or insightful - besides a bunch of Google suggestions and clapped-out magazine articles - then you can reasonably expect to have your claims of insiderdom better received. But so far, you've done nothing of the sort, presenting nothing that anyone here A) didn't already know, or; B) couldn't have easily found out given five minutes of looking. Nor have you even remotely "demonstrated" your background, as you rather artlessly claim, apparently under the impression that if you assert a thing loudly enough and often enough, you can get someone to believe it.

Which, come to think of it, is pretty much the sum total of your posts. You've been running around here dropping hints about how you know things the rest of us don't, but so far you've managed to avoid posting anything that even remotely resembles objectively verifiable inside knowledge, and now I'm calling bullshit. Unless you're prepared to verify that you are who you claim you are, I suggest you drop this habit of arguing from your own non-existent authority, using bombast and bluster about who you supposedly are to try knocking down anyone who questions you, and instead try coming up with something insightful and/or original. Unless and until you can do that, you can pretty much consider yourself stomped, troll.

[aristeides]

Al-Arian and Islamist leaders were scheduled to meet with President Bush the morning of 9/11 in the White House? Maybe that's why the White House apparently was not a target of the hijackers.

Weren't there reports that an attempt was planned to assassinate Bush that day at the hotel he was staying at in Florida? I wonder if there were plans to assassinate him in Washington.

[swarthyguy]

Weren't there reports that an attempt was planned to assassinate Bush that day at the hotel he was staying at in Florida?

Yes, there was a report in the local newspapers about a group of ME men in a van, with TV equipment, outside the gate of his hotel, claiming they had an interview scheduled. They were turned away. They apparently hung around for a while and then left.

Shades of Massoud's hit. Intriguing, too, if there was an actual appointment of some kind. Arranged and midwifed by whom?

[Shermy]

http://www.longboatobserver.com/showarticle.asp?ai=1874

[Sabertooth]

Weren't there reports that an attempt was planned to assassinate Bush that day at the hotel he was staying at in Florida? I wonder if there were plans to assassinate him in Washington.

I don't recall the Florida hotel story. I remember something about a cryptic message to the effect of "Air Force One is next," after the President departed Florida. Something about AF1 codes being compromised too.

The story lingered a bit, was later debunked, then semi-undebunked, IIRC. I'm not certain of the final status.

[Trollstomper]

The same could be said for yyou, "in spades" and to be generous. I think there is a reasonable consensus that I have contributed considerably here, and answered many questions, if not all substantive fact-based ones, and none of my facts or corrections have been refuted on the merits, disproven or even coherently argues. Including by yourself. COntrary to your assrtion, I have very evidently provided information no one appeared to know or be researching themselves, and everytime I have, the snipers ignore it and scramble for another rock or ditch or descend to this kind of diversion and direct or implied an hominem, which you will recall is the weakest of the 7 forms of rhetoic, if here the most practiced.

I make no "imaginary claims" (your imagining does not make it so) -- and not least I am actually in Washington and know the main players in this drama quite well. Short of outing myself, what would you like me to do to assuage your concerns in this regard: tell you Grover's license plate, detail his travel starting in the 1980's to foreign countries, tell you how many articles about him will appear in the Washington Post this week and next, tell you who will be arrested next? tell you what expert evidence will be introduced, What?!?. I could do all of this but you would find some other blinder to wear while flailing at me and the facts of the case as presented ably.

(seeing that Gaffney is "out", and his documents are available, why don't you better spend your time impressing us with your mastery of his case and your masterful rebuttal of same? That way you won't have to shake at chimeras.)

The absence of evidence my friend is not evidence of absence. I may question your points or posts, but I don't question your livilhood or bona fides, were you to assert them. In the professional world one doesn't do, or need to do that. Try arguing the facts not the bloodline or quals of the carrier.

Sorry for your frustration.

[swarthyguy]

"Air Force One is next," after the President departed Florida. Something about AF1 codes being compromised too.

The story lingered a bit, was later debunked, then semi-undebunked, IIRC.

Retold in Woodward's Bush at War -

The call said "Angel is Next". Angel being the codeword for AF1.

[Sabertooth]

Thanks for the insight on the Florida Hotel thing.

I don't think I was ever aware of that.