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Posted on 07/31/2004 5:31:06 AM PDT by SJackson
The Washington Post reports that Abdurahman Alamoudi, once embraced as a "mainstream" and "moderate" Muslim activist who courted both the Clinton and Bush administrations, will plead guilty today to accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from Libya in violation of U.S. law and attempting to hide it from the government:
Abdurahman Alamoudi has agreed to admit guilt to three counts, including one related to the mysterious movement of $340,000 he allegedly received in a London hotel room from a charity funded by the Libyan government, sources familiar with the case said yesterday. The other two counts cover tax violations and lies on his immigration forms...
Court documents to be made public today will trace in rich detail an explosive allegation that Alamoudi made in plea negotiations with prosecutors -- that Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi plotted to assassinate Crown Prince Abdullah, de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia...
His arrest last September shook the U.S. Muslim community and reverberated through Washington's political elite. As leader of the American Muslim Council, Alamoudi met on occasion with senior Clinton and Bush administration officials. He also helped found the Pentagon's Muslim chaplain program and is particularly well known in the Muslim community of Northern Virginia, where he helped run a number of charities and political groups.
Local Muslim leaders have protested the government's prosecution of Alamoudi, portraying him as a moderate with no ties to radical groups. But prosecutors have sketched a different picture in the indictment, alleging that Alamoudi hid his ties to a top leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
His sympathy for Hamas was no secret. In 2000, independent terrorism investigator Rita Katz, Director of the SITE Institute, while working undercover, taped Alamoudi voicing his open support for the terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah in Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House. Alamoudi stated before an excited, cheering crowd:
I have been labeled by the media in New York to be a supporter of Hamas...Anybody support Hamas here? Hear that, Bill Clinton? We are all supporters of Hamas. I wish they added that I am also a supporter of Hezballah...Does anybody support Hezballah here? I want you to send a message. It's an occupation, stupid...Hamas is fighting an occupation. It's a legal fight.
Despite this defiant public declaration of support for terrorists, Alamoudi was welcomed in GOP elite circles at the behest of power player Grover Norquist. Insight magazine reported:
Norquist was Alamoudi's most influential Washington facilitator, authorities believe, noting that Norquist reminds friend and foe alike that he is close to the president's powerful political strategist, Karl Rove.
Norquist, who previously has denied any suggestion that his work facilitated any wrongdoing, not only introduced Alamoudi to Washington GOP power circles but also Sammy Al Arian, whom prosecutors arrested earlier this year for alleged terrorist activities. Federal law-enforcement sources say they are focusing on some of Norquist's associates and financial ties to terrorist groups.
Alamoudi ran, directed, founded or funded at least 15 Muslim political-action and charitable groups that have taken over the public voice of Islamic Americans [see sidebar, p. 34]. Through a mix of civil-rights complaints, Old Left-style political coalitions and sheer persistence, Alamoudi helped inch the image of U.S.-based Islamists toward the political mainstream and induced politicians to embrace his organizations. He sought to secure the support first of the Clinton administration in seeking to repeal certain antiterrorist laws, but when Bill Clinton failed to deliver, Alamoudi defected to Bush, then governor of Texas. Alamoudi and other Muslim leaders met with Bush in Austin in July 2002, offering to support his bid for the White House in exchange for Bush's commitment to repeal certain antiterrorist laws.
That meeting, sources say, began a somewhat strained relationship between the self-appointed Muslim leaders and the Bush team. Some senior Bush advisers voiced caution to Rove, who is said to have disregarded such concerns, seeing instead an opportunity to bring another ethnic and religious group into the GOP big tent. A photo of the Austin event shows Bush with Alamoudi standing over his left shoulder, flanked by the former head of the Pakistani Communist Party, several open supporters of the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist groups and other individuals Insight is trying to identify.
Canceled checks obtained by Insight show Alamoudi provided seed money to start a GOP-oriented Muslim group called the Islamic Institute, which Norquist originally chaired and now is led by former Alamoudi aide and former AMC staffer Khaled Saffuri. A White House memo obtained by Insight prepared for coordinating Muslim and Arab-American "public-liaison" events with the White House shows that the Islamic Institute was instrumental in establishing the connection. The memo, from early 2001, provides lists of invitees and the name, date of birth and Social Security number of each. Norquist, as the first chairman of the Islamic Institute, tops the list.
Alamoudi and others, including Norquist, tried to keep critics at bay by branding them as "racists" and "bigots."
(More here from Frank Gaffney, "A Troubling Influence." See also Mona Charen, Kenneth Timmerman, Insight, The American Spectator, Cal Thomas, Malkin, and Debbie Schlussel.)
Norquist owes a public apology to fellow Republicans whom he has smeared as bigots for raising fundamental questions about Alamoudi and the Islamist-supporting apparatus in America. More importantly, Norquist owes answers about why he partnered with a known terrorist sympathizer, whether or not he now defends Alamoudi, when he plans to stop hiding behind the race card, and what exactly he plans to do to disavow Islamist influences.
What percentage of my money do you think the government is entitled to take?
Paging Michael Moore. Candidate for your next "documentary".
There's really nothing new to say. I don't think anyone disputes that these events have occurred. The issue is how to interpret them. Either Grover Norquist is especially unlucky at having his former associates arrested for terrorism activities by the FBI, or Muslim terrorists are especially unlucky with the FBI after associating with Grover Norquist. The result looks the same either way. The people who know which it is don't talk about stuff like that. So we'll never know.
People who imagine that Grover Norquist is some new guy who arrived on the scene coincident with Muslim terrorism will have an easier time believing the Malkin/Gaffney interpretation. People who know what Grover Norquist has been doing for the last 20 years have a hard time believing that interpretation. But I don't claim to "know" one way or the other. I don't expect to ever find out.
IIRC, several FRN members know Grover Norquist personally and don't appreciate the charges against Mr. Norquist.
Some of us don't appreciate that a man who's apparently so close to the White House and GOP leadership has brought dangerous islamists into the White House -- especially those who appeared with President Bush shortly after 9/11, in some short of show of unity or something.
If a 'rat activist and a 'rat President were entangled in the same thing, we'd be writing and calling every major media outlet, we'd be out in the streets, etc.
Just because he's right on taxes and wants to slap Reagan's name on more buildings than Klansman Byrd doesn't make him immune. I'm not automatically saying that he's guilty of anything, but perhaps we should look cautiously at his *whole* record -- not just the parts we like, while sweeping the uncomfortable aspects under the rug.
How would I know what Jews think, their thoughts arent heterogenious.
I dont know what youre reading or who youre talking to, so theres no was you can expect me to explain it. You should have linked the source of your complaint.
I believe the ghetto uprising, clearly a Jewish undertaking, was just over 61 years ago. You missed the 60th anniversary by over a year. Perhaps you and the article author are discussing distinctly separate Warsaw uprisings. One or both of you should be able to figure that out.
Certainly many Poles colluded with the Nazis, many resisted, and to my knowledge Poland was the only occupied government without a collaborationist government.
So what does any of this have to do with Grover Nordquist and his terrorist pals?
That's what Hillary said about Bill and Monica.
The charges, longstanding and long denied, appear to be true.
I'm not defending Norquist. I'm merely pointing out that he has friends at FRN. I am a member of FR but not of FRN and I have no loyalty to Norquist. Rather, my loyalty is to those at FR and elsewhere who are willing to question Norquist's judgement and motives.
ABC Radio: Berger and Clinton Funneling Money to Hamas?
AP: FBI Sent Hamas Money in Clinton Days
EVote.com cache page unavailable NEW YORK, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday she would
return $50,000 in campaign contributions from an American Muslim group. ...
www.evote.com/news_section/2000-10/10262000Muslim.asp
POLITICS AND THE FIRST LADY: 2001
Washington detains al-Amoudi under the charge of receiving assets from Libya
Libya-USA, Politics, 10/1/2003
Feds Arrest Va. Man For Libya Ties
A federal affidavit filed to support the complaint alleges numerous links between al-Amoudi and Libyan entities. |
9/29/2003: Al-Amoudi Update |
The charges against Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi, an official of the American Muslim Council, have to do with making undisclosed trips to Libya, and accepting large sums of money from the Libyan mission to the UN: Man Charged in Violating Libya Sanctions.
A criminal complaint unsealed Monday alleges Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi violated U.S. law by accepting, either personally or through the American Muslim Foundation he heads, $10,700 from the Libyan mission to the United Nations and by failing to disclose numerous trips to Libya on his passport.
Such actions are illegal under U.S. economic sanctions imposed in 1986 following terrorist bombings tied to Libya in Vienna and Rome.
Al-Amoudi, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Ethiopia, made an initial court appearance in Alexandria, Va., but neither he nor his attorney would comment on the charges. He was arrested Sunday at Dulles International Airport after a flight from London, officials said.
The charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years and up to $250,000 in fines, prosecutors said.
Clinton Emissary Said to be Bin Laden Bag Man Free Republic
American Muslims and U.S. Foreign Policy: What are their major objectives, and how are they being implemented?
Terrorism in Tampa - Sami Al-Arian - Tampa Bay Online 3-25-03 Timeline / Links to Stories from 2-1-95 until arrest in right hand column
Al-Arian in White House Complex CNN
The Florida professor indicted last week on terrorism charges was granted entry to the White House complex and briefed by a senior administration official as part of a 160-person group in June 2001, according to a White House official.
Officials would not release the name of the senior administration official who briefed the group. A member of the president's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives also briefed them, according to the White House.
Sami Al-Arian, 45, was arrested Thursday and charged with conspiracy to commit murder in connection with his alleged support of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which the State Department has labeled a terrorist organization. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.
Al-Arian, who taught at the University of South Florida, has five children and denied any links to terrorism.
The White House said Al-Arian entered the Eisenhower Executive Office Building with the American Muslim Council as part of what the White House called an "outreach meeting."
"This demonstrates that the Justice Department is pursuing terrorism regardless of whether someone attended a White House meeting or not," White House spokesman Taylor Gross said.
This meeting was the only time Al-Arian was on the White House grounds during the Bush administration. However, the White House official said Secret Service records show Al-Arian also visited June 23, 2000, during the Clinton administration.
MUSLIM INTERN FOR REP. DAVID BONIER KICKED OUT OF MEETING WITH BUSH ADMINISTRATION BY SECRET SERVICE 7-5-01
OK, fair enough. I'm willing to give Norquist a fair shot, but I do resent that those of us who doubt him are sometimes smeared as bigots and the like.
Don't worry. I'm with you completely. I simply wanted to point out that Norquist has friends here who get very defensive when their beloved buddy criticized. Don't be surprised if this thread gets locked or even pulled.
No problem - thanks. :)
I totally agree. Grover is a brillant man. Most of his attackers here couldn't carry 5% of his IQ. But I too don't know why he doesn't drop the Muslim gig until it's a little safer.
What evidence to you have that leads you to this belief? Grover is political. If you've read his writings, he is of the opinion that muslims or arabs in general, are an untapped pool of voters. He was trying to make them as loyal to republicans as the cubans in florida are/were. Then 9/11 happpened.
You need rest, a doctor or serious medicine. This is just silly.
Simply another "untouchable" escapade, everyone back to sleep.
"Move along, nothing to see here."
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