===The Wahhabi Lobby In White House=== Although the Saudi government is primarily responsible for the financing of terrorism, the cooperation at high levels of the Republican government in propagating its Wahhabi version of Islam in the U.S reveals the depth of the conspiracy. On September 26, 2001, George W. Bush gathered fifteen prominent Muslim and Arab-Americans at the White House, where he proclaimed that, “the teachings of Islam are teachings of peace and good.” This assemblage of Muslim “moderates” was a necessary diplomatic manoeuvre to deny that the Bush administration was at war with Islam. However, many of the leaders present were part of a large network of Islamic organisations, created through Saudi funding for the spread of Wahhabi Islam, and often with ties to terrorist activities. Since 1975, the Saudis have spent as much as seventy billion dollars towards this international project, making it the largest propaganda campaign in history.249 Unlike other parts of the world, where the progress of Wahhabi preaching has been impeded by stubborn adherence to traditional interpretations of Islam, the American Islamic community is relatively new, and therefore, more vulnerable to Saudi influence. Out of thousands, the Wahhabis reportedly control as many as eighty percent of mosques in the U.S., giving them control over the appointment and training of Imams, the content of preaching, and of literature distributed in Islamic bookstores.250 To win political clout in America, the Saudis deliberately imitated the model of the Jewish lobbying groups. With Saudi backing, American Muslims started organisations like the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which was similar to the anti-Defamation League; the American Muslim Council (AMC), which was modelled on the American Jewish Committee; the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), which was similar to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and so on. In support of Elhussein’s contention, it was discovered, in October 2001, that not only was a secretive group of prominent Muslim charities and businesses in Northern Virginia funneling millions of dollars to foreign terrorists, but it was part of a suspicious agenda designed to sway the Muslim vote in favour of the Republican party. The probe of the groups in Herndon, Virginia, was the largest federal investigation of its kind in the world. The network was centred around the SAAR Foundation, named after its chief sponsor, Sulaiman Abdul Aziz al Rajhi, head of one of Saudi Arabia’s wealthiest families. The treasurer of SAAR was Cherif Sedky, an American lawyer for the Rahji family, and representative and business partner of Khalid bin Mahfouz. The Safa Group, as the network of organisations are referred to in Herndon, had transmitted more than $26 million in untraceable money overseas, and leaders of the organisation committed and conspired to provide material support to terrorist organisations. The president of Safa, Jamal Barzinji, is a former business associate of Youssef Nada.251 The ties between Nada and Safa were many, as were ties to other Muslim Brotherhood leaders.252 According to David Kane, of Homeland Security, there was no innocent explanation “for the use of layers and layers of transactions between Safa Group companies and charities other than to throw law enforcement authorities off the trail.” The express purpose of the Safa Group, “set up primarily with donations from a wealthy Saudi family, was to fund terrorism and hide millions of dollars.” Kane insisted that the complex nature of “the myriad financial transactions and the fact that much of the money was sent to tax havens with bank secrecy laws make it impossible to trace the final destination of much of the money.”253 The Safa trust provided funds for a political group called the Islamic Free Market Institute. The non-profit Islamic Institute was started by Grover Norquist, in collaboration with Karl Rove, former President Bush’s chief political adviser. Grover Norquist is the president of the noted anti-tax lobbying group, Americans for Tax Reform, and is a well-connected Conservatism activist with close ties to business and to the media. The institute was founded in 1999, and has helped to arrange meetings between senior Bush officials and Islamic leaders. Its chairman was Khaled Saffuri, a Palestinian-American raised in Kuwait who had been an official of the American Muslim Council, a political group in Washington. Saffuri, who has met with many top-level administration officials, including Secretary of State Colin Powell and FBI Director Robert Mueller, is listed as the treasurer of National Muslims for a Greater America, a defunct political action committee that received contributions from individuals connected to the Safa Group. The Islamic Institute’s founding chairman was a Palestinian American investor from Chicago, Talat Othman. According to the Chicago Tribune, in August 10, 2003: “In 1990, media reports implied that Othman was a front man for Bakhsh, who had acquired a 17.6 percent stake in Harken Energy Corp. in the 1980s. Serving alongside Othman as a Harken corporate officer: then-presidential son George W. Bush.”254 Othman was later granted privileged access to George W. Bush when he became president, attending White House meetings with him to discuss Middle East policy, according to records obtained by the National Security News Service.255 On July 21, 2000, the Republican national convention opened with a duaa, or Muslim benediction, that was offered by Othman. The Safa Group was linked to Abdurahman M. Alamoudi, a politically connected Muslim activist, who was welcomed at the White House by former President Bill Clinton and President Bush for his work on behalf of Muslim causes. In the mid 1990s, he helped recruit as many as a hundred “Islamic lay leaders” for the U.S. military. In 2000, Alamoudi reportedly attended a terrorist summit in Beirut, with leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah and al Qaeda. According to an article by Frank Gaffney, Alamoudi had contributed $20,000 to help found Norquist’s Islamic Institute.256 However, Alamoudi recently pleaded not guilty to an eighteen count federal indictment alleging that he laundered money and violated immigration and customs laws, by accepting $340,000 from the Libyan government, which is considered a state sponsor of terrorism.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 13:20:00 +0000
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