How U.S. extremists fund terror
Jan 5, 2004 - WorldNetDaily - Sherrie Gossett

The 'tip of the iceberg'

Al-Najjár and other leaders of Islamic Jihad remain the focus of an ongoing federal investigation into the activities of Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations in the United States.

John Loftus, a lawyer for federal whistleblowers within the U.S. intelligence community, filed a lawsuit in March 2002 in Hillsborough County, Fla., alleging for more than a decade U.S. federal agents were told to drop key terrorist investigations due to politics with Saudi Arabia.

"As long as the Saudis were pumping billions into oil contracts, they could do no wrong," Loftus said.

The former Justice Department prosecutor says he had highly classified information from several of his confidential clients concerning a Saudi covert operation in Florida, whose tactics called for intimidating or murdering Palestinians who were willing to work with Israel for peace.

Specifically, Loftus said the Saudi government was laundering money through Florida charities run by USF's al-Arian for the support of terrorist groups in the Middle East, including al-Qaida, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Loftus told WND, "They want to make sure no Palestinian cooperates with Israel.

"They need the bogeyman of the Israeli oppressor in order to maintain control over their people. If there were to be a democracy in Palestine, they're afraid it would spread to Saudi Arabia."

Loftus believes the indictments handed down in the post-9/11 world are evidence the FBI is now being allowed to do its job.

"I believe we'll see more indictments like that of Alamoudi coming down," Loftus said, adding that those issued thus far are, "just the tip of the iceberg."

Loftus once held some of the highest security clearances in the world, with special access to NATO Cosmic, CIA codeword, and top-secret nuclear files.

Grover Norquist and the Islamic Institute

In terms of who "fixed the cases" and how the entities could operate for more than a decade immune from prosecution, Loftus points a finger at Republican power broker Grover Norquist.

Last month, Frank J. Gaffney Jr., formerly a senior official with the Reagan Defense Department and currently president of the Center for Security Policy in Washington, wrote a scathing indictment of Norquist's relationship with controversial Islamists, including Alamoudi who is currently in jail on suspicion of being a senior terrorist operator.

"[Norquist] is the guy that was hired by Alamoudi to head up the Islamic Institute, and he's the registered agent for Alamoudi, personally, and for the Islamic Institute," Loftus said.

Norquist's Islamic Institute had the stated purpose of cultivate Muslim-Americans and Arab-Americans whose attachment to conservative family values and capitalism made them potential allies for the Republican Party in advance of the 2000 presidential election.

As Gaffney's article recounts, the Islamic Institute was initially financed by 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 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." Gaffney wrote.

In the U.S.-based English language newspaper Al Zaitohnah, dated June 2, 2000, Alamoudi stated: "We are the ones who went to the White House and defended what is called Hamas."

Gaffney pointed out that in addition to the seed money from Alamoudi, Norquist's Islamic Institute has also received funding from organizations described by the Washington Post as a "secretive group of tightly connected Muslim charities, think tanks and businesses based in Northern Virginia [and] used to funnel millions of dollars to terrorists and launder millions more" – a number of whom are currently part of the "largest federal investigation of terrorism financing in the world."

Says Loftus, "Grover Norquist's best friend is Karl Rove, the White House chief of staff, and apparently Norquist was able to fix things. He got extreme right wing Muslim people to be the gatekeepers in the White House. That's why moderate Americans couldn't speak out after 9-11. Moderate Muslims couldn't get into the White House because Norquist's friends were blocking their access. "

Alamoudi was at one time "regional representative" for ISNA's Washington, D.C., chapter. In 1998 he moderated a panel at an ISNA conference, called "Guilty Until Proven Innocent: Prisoners of Conscience in the U.S." The panelists included Sami al-Arian.

Alamoudi, like al-Arian, insists he's a community-minded "moderate" who is innocent.

A 'queer alliance'

While as the media has pointed out Alamoudi's behavior does not necessarily impugn others, it contributed to another controversy: the joining of conservative Christian and Jewish clerics with ISNA to fight homosexual marriage.

The Alliance For Marriage has ISNA director Syeed sitting on its board.

While Syeed is thought of by many as a moderate, ISNA's track record was enough to leave writer Evan Gahr howling over the "queer alliance."

Andrew Sullivan, homosexual Republican blogger and author, quipped, "Hey, it's one thing the mullahs and Richard John Neuhaus can agree upon."

Sherrie Gossett, a researcher and writer formerly with the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, is a contributing reporter for WND. Her original news stories have been widely cited by the press, including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Boston Herald, Agence France-Presse, Chicago Sun-Times, National Review, Washington Times, Times of London, Boston Phoenix, Annenberg Online Journalism Review and Fox News.

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