Khan Says He Didn't Open Door to Al-Arian
Posted March 3, 2003
 Media Credit: Ken Helle Reuters
Al-Arian (right): conflicting information regarding his invitation to the White House.
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Former White House aide Suhail Khan tells Insight Online he was not involved in organizing a Muslim outreach event at the White House in June 2001 that was attended by Sami Al-Arian, the former University of South Florida professor arrested Feb. 20, 2003, by the FBI on terrorism charges. Khan was working in the White House Office of Public Liaison, but was not involved at the time in organizing events geared toward the Muslim community, he said.
"I only learned that the professor had come to the White House when I saw CNN," he said. Khan's comments followed an initial Insight Online article [see "Controversial Professor Arrested in Florida Was White House Guest"] that reported via sources that he had invited Al-Arian to the White House.
Less than an hour after the story was posted at Insight Online, references to Khan were removed by editors because of conflicting information about the former White House aide's involvement with the Al-Arian invite, one of at least two White House visits by Al-Arian the magazine now has confirmed.
Continuing questions about how Al-Arian gained access to the White House, despite reported warnings from the U.S. Secret Service that the professor was a suspected terrorist, and Khan's alleged involvement prompted the former aide's comments.
White House sources tell Insight Online that the meeting Al-Arian attended had been solicited by the American Muslim Council (AMC), which provided the list of attendees.
"We did not solicit this meeting or chose who would attend," the White House sources said, speaking on background. "The AMC has had other briefings at the White House under other administrations, and their people were cleared by the Secret Service."
The decision to bring the radical Muslim group into the Bush White House, as part of an effort to "reach out" to the Muslim community, "spans a number of offices at the White House," the officials said. Al-Arian and the AMC delegation met with Karl Rove, the president's top political adviser, and with John Dilulio, who then headed the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
The White House officials could not confirm that the Secret Service raised any objections to the presence of Al-Arian or any other members of the AMC delegation. However, published reports quoting unidentified sources said that the Secret Service had in fact raised security flags about Al-Arian and others.
No matter how Al-Arian gained access to the White House complex, the sources said, the ultimate decision to override Secret Service or other national security "flags" rests with a handful of senior aides to President Bush whom the sources said need to do a better job of vetting guests. "We were fairly new to the White House when this happened," one of two White House sources said.
Insight Online reported in its initial version of its online story (to which Khan later responded) that on Sept. 24, 1999, Al-Arian and his Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace held a rally in front of the White House at Lafayette Park to protest the use of secret evidence in deportation proceedings of non-U.S. nationals suspected of terrorism. A variety of Muslim groups and civil-liberty organizations have questioned the use of secret evidence -- then and now.
Insight Online also reported, based on an e-mail message obtained by the magazine, that rally organizers advertised Khan as one of their featured speakers. However, Khan says he was in California at the time, working on the ultimately unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign of Rep. Tom Campbell to unseat Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).
"I don't know how my name appeared on the list of speakers," Khan said in reference to the e-mail that listed him. "I didn't even get invited to it or receive a phone call from the organizers." Beyond that, he said, "I've never spoken at a rally in my life."
Khan didn't know why the organizers had used his name, but pointed out that Campbell was cosponsoring legislation with Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.) to repealon constitutional grounds the use of secret evidence. Additionally, Khan said, as a board member of the Islamic Institute, he was friendly with Institute founder Grover Norquist, who was working with Barr and Al-Arian on the issue at the time.
Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform and the founding chairman of the Islamic Institute, has been a strong promoter of the White House outreach effort to American Muslims, and hired two top aides to former AMC Chairman Abdurahman Alamoudi to run his Islamic Institute.
Alamoudi was video-taped at a rally in front of the White House on Oct. 28, 2000 telling the crowd that he supported Hamas and Hezbollah, two groups on the United States' international terrorist list.
In an angry email critique of the first online story about Al-Arian's visit to the White House and to Norquist's offices, he said that "nobody who knows me thinks I have a close relationship with Sami Al-Arian."
Norquist continued to deny that Al-Arian visted his office for more than a few minutes despite numerous witnesses who confirmed this to the magazine, including one of Norquist's close associates. He also insisted that he "was proud to stand with President Bush and Bob Barr in opposing the misuse of secret evidence." In fact, Norquist has advocated the repeal of secret evidence, while the president has instructed Attorney General John Ashcroft to expand its use in terrorist-related cases.
The Al-Arian arrest in late February has raised considerable concerns about security at the White House and further fueled Muslim uneasiness about the use of expanded federal powers to crack down on suspected terrorists and their support networks.
Kenneth R. Timmerman is a senior writer for Insight.
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