FTR#415—Campaign Preview—(Two 30-minute segments) (Sources are noted in
parentheses.) (Recorded on 7/1/2003.)
Note: FTR#’s 260-316, 317, 324,
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Summary of FTR#414—(Note: The massive volume of “For The Record”
programs about 9/11 and related topics is summarized and analyzed in the
periodically-updated description for FTR#391. It
is recommended that listeners use this description and e-mail it to others.
Also: The “meat” of the book “Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile” has been digested
into an extended description for FTR#305.
Listeners can now e-mail this quintessentially important book to people around
the world. In addition, the professional history of the late Paul Manning, the
book’s author, is presented in the description “About
Paul Manning.” This enables listeners to acquaint others with Mr.
Manning’s journalistic credentials. Understanding the Bormann organization is
essential to comprehending the concept of “the Underground Reich.”) Reviewing information from previous broadcasts about the Al Taqwa
milieu and the Muslim Brotherhood, this program sets forth the intersections
between Al Taqwa and the Republican Party’s ethnic outreach organization in
anticipation of the 2004 presidential campaign. The broadcast presents the observations
of a top counterterrorism expert concerning the Bush administration’s “war on
terror.” Rand Beers concluded that the administration was making the country
less safe, not more safe, and he went to work for John Kerry, a leading
Democratic candidate for President. Before highlighting some of the key points
of the Al Taqwa/Republican connection, the broadcast underscores the fact that
former Bush (Sr.) Secretary of State James Baker’s law firm is representing
Prince Sultan in the trillion-dollar lawsuit against the Saudi elite. (Youssef
Nada is also a defendant in that lawsuit.) Baker is a key member of the Carlyle
Group, and was present at that company’s annual investor conference in
Washington, D.C. (along with members of the Bin Laden family.)
Program Highlights Include: Al Taqwa head
Youssef Nada’s work on behalf of the Third Reich in World War II; the Al Taqwa
connection to the Republican Party; Karl Rove’s role in forming the Al Taqwa
milieu’s connections to the Republican Party; the intercession of Bush intimate
and business partner Talat Othman on behalf of the Al Taqwa-connected elements
targeted in the Operation Green Quest raids of 3/20/2002; review of the links
between the Saudi elite, the Al Taqwa milieu and the Islamofascist Muslim Brotherhood.
1.
The broadcast begins by presenting the observations of a top
counterterrorism expert concerning the Bush administration’s “war on terror.”
Rand Beers concluded that the administration was making the country less safe,
not more safe, and he went to work for John Kerry, a leading Democratic
candidate for President. (In
connection with this, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 407, 412.) “Five days before
the war began in Iraq, as President Bush prepared to raise the terrorism threat
level to orange, a top White House counterterrorism adviser unlocked the steel
door to his office, an intelligence vault secured by an electronic keypad, a
combination lock and an alarm. He sat down and turned to his inbox. ‘Things
were dicey,’ said Rand Beers, recalling the stack of classified reports about
plots to shoot, bomb, burn and poison Americans. He stared at the color-coded
threats for five minutes. Then he called his wife: ‘I’m quitting.’ Beers’s resignation surprised Washington, but what
he did next was even more astounding. Eight weeks after leaving the Bush White
House, he volunteered as national security adviser for Sen. John F. Kerry
(Mass.), a Democratic candidate for president, in a campaign to oust his former
boss. All of which points to a question: What does this intelligence insider
know?” (“Former Aide Takes Aim at War on Terror” by Laura
Blumenfeld; The Washington Post;
6/16/2003; p. 1; accessed at www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A62941-2003Jun15?
.)
2.
“ ‘The
administration wasn’t matching its deeds to its words in the war on terrorism.
They’re making us less secure, not more secure,’ said Beers, who until now has
remained largely silent about leaving his National Security Council job as
special assistant to the president for combating terrorism.’ As an insider, I
saw the things that weren’t being done. And the longer I sat and watched, the
more concerned I became, until I got up and walked out . . .’” (Idem.)
3.
“ . . . Much of
what he knows is classified and cannot be discussed. Nevertheless, Beers will
say that the administration is ‘underestimating the enemy.’ It has failed to
address the root causes of terror, he said, ‘The difficult, long-term issues
both at home and abroad have been avoided, neglected or shortchanged and
generally underfunded.’ The focus on Iraq has robbed domestic security of
manpower, brain power and money, he said. The Iraq war created fissures in the
United States’ counterterrorism alliances, he said, and could breed a new
generation of Al Qaeda recruits. Many of his government colleagues, he said,
thought Iraq was an ‘ill-conceived and poorly executed strategy.’” (Idem.)
4.
Before delving into review of the Nada/Al Taqwa/Republican party link,
the program sets forth the role of Bush associate James Baker’s law firm as the
counsel for Saudi Prince Sultan, a defendant (along with Al Taqwa principal
Youssef Nada) in the trillion-dollar lawsuit filed against alleged financiers
of Al Qaeda on behalf of survivors of the victims of the 9/11 attacks. “ . . . Baker
Botts, Sultan’s law firm, for example, still boasts former secretary of State
James Baker as one of its senior partners. Its recent alumni include Robert
Jordan, the former personal lawyer for President Bush who is now U.S.
ambassador to Saudi Arabia.” (“A Legal Counterattack” by Michael
Isikoff and Mark Hosenball; Newsweek Web
Exclusive; 4/16/2003; p. 4; accessed at http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/901320
.)
5.
Nada is being represented by King and Spalding in the same lawsuit. “ . . .King and
Spalding (the Arab Bank and Youssef Nada.)” (Idem.)
6.
Next, the program reviews information from FTR#414 concerning Karl Rove’s role in helping to coalesce the
Islamist element in the Republican Party. It should be noted that the Islamist,
Al Qaeda and Al Taqwa elements that were raided on 3/20/2002 were linked
directly to the Republican party’s ethnic outreach organization. “ . . . That brief
conversation [between Norquist and Karl Rove] in Austin, Texas, helped start a
new chapter in Mr. Norquist’s career—and in the political lives of Muslims in
this country. The following year, Mr. Norquist started the nonprofit Islamic
Free Market Institute. In collaboration with Mr. Rove, now Mr. Bush’s chief
political adviser, he and other institute leaders courted Muslim voters for the
Bush 2000 presidential campaign. Mr. Norquist even credits gains among Muslims
with putting Mr. Bush in a position to win the critical Florida contest . . .
To run the nonprofit’s day-to-day operations, Mr. Norquist turned to Khalid
Saffuri, a Palestinian-American raised in Kuwait who had been an official of
the American Muslim Council, a political group in Washington. The institute’s
founding chairman was a Palestinian American, Talat Othman, who had served with
Mr. Bush on the board of Harken Energy Corp. and later visited the president in
the White House, according to records obtained by the National Security News
Service.” (“In Difficult Times, Muslims Count On Unlikely Advocate”
by Tom Hamburger and Glenn R. Simpson; The
Wall Street Journal; pp. A1-A8.)
7.
On April 4, Treasury Secretary O’Neill met with powerful Islamist
Republicans whose spheres of interest overlap those of the institutions and
individuals targeted on March 20. (“O’Neill Met Muslim Activists Tied to
Charities” by Glenn R. Simpson [with Roger Thurow]; Wall Street Journal; 4/18/2002; p. A4.)
8.
A principal figure in the group that interceded on behalf of the
(alleged) Al Qaeda/Al Taqwa-connected targets of the Operation Green Quest
raids was Talat Othman, a close business and political associate of President
Bush. (For more about the Bush/Othman relationship, see—among programs—FTR”s 356, 368, 376.) “Among the Muslim
leaders attending [the meeting with O’Neill] was Talat Othman, a longtime
associate and supporter of President Bush’s family, who gave a benediction at
the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia in August 2000. . .But he
also serves [with Barzinji] on the board of Amana Mutual funds Trust, an
investment firm founded by M. Yacqub Mirza, the Northern Virginia businessman
who set up most of the entities targeted by the Treasury and whose tax records
were sought in the raid.” (Idem.)
9.
As Mr. Emory hypothesized in FTR#353,
the Norquist/GOP/Islamist links are part of the Republican Party’s ethnic
outreach program. “The case also highlights conflicts between the Bush
administration’s domestic political goals and its war on terror. GOP officials
began courting the U.S. Muslim community intensely in the late 1990’s, seeking
to add that ethnic bloc to the party’s political base.” (Idem.) (For
more about the fascist heritage of the GOP’s ethnic outreach organization, see,
among other programs, RFA #37, FTR#’s
29, 48, 113, 248, 346, 353.)
10.
The Amana organization (on the board of which Othman serves) has
numerous areas of overlap with organizations described as being implicated in
terrorism and the milieu of Al Queda. “Two nonprofits affiliated with Mr. Mirza and named in the
search warrant, the SAAR Foundation Inc. and the Heritage Education Trust Inc.,
held large blocks of shares in Amana’s mutual funds in 1997, according to SEC
records. The SEC documents and other records detailing connections between Mr.
Othman and the Islamic Institute [on the board of which Mr. Othman serves] and
the raided groups were compiled by the National Security News Service, a
Washington based nonprofit research group.” (Idem.)
11.
Further details have emerged about the links between Al Taqwa and the
GOP/Bush administration. “Mr. Othman also is on the board of Mr. Saffuri’s [and
Norquist’s] Islamic Institute, the GOP-leaning group that received $20,000.00
from the Safa Trust, one of the raid’s targets. The president of the Safa
Trust, Jamal Barzinji, is a former
business associate of Switzerland based investor Youssef Nada, whose assets
were frozen last fall after the Treasury designated him a person suspected of
giving aid to terrorists.” (Idem.)
12.
Othman’s links to Bush are profound. “Mr. Othman has ties to the Bush family going
back to the 1980’s, when he served with George W. Bush on the board of a Texas
petroleum firm, Harken Oil & Gas Inc. Mr. Othman has visited the White
House during the administrations of both President Bush and his father George
H.W. Bush.” (Idem.) (For more about Harken Oil and George W. Bush,
see FTR’s 284, 355, 368.)
13.
Next, the program reviews other areas of intersection between the
labyrinthine network attacked in the 3/20 raids, the Al Taqwa milieu, and the
Republican Party. [FTR#342 documented
the role of six members of the Bin Laden family in the founding of Al Taqwa.] A
recent Wall Street Journal article
described some of the organizations targeted in the raids. “These include Al-Taqwa Management, a
recently liquidated Swiss company the U.S. government believes acted as a
banker for Osama bin Laden’s al Queda terrorist network. . .Two people affiliated with the companies and
charities are linked by records to entities already designated as terrorist by
the U.S. government. Hisham Al-Talib, who served as an officer of SAAR, the
International Institute of Islamic Thought and Safa Trust Inc., another Mirza
charity, during the 1970’s was an officer of firms run by Youssef M. Nada,
records show. Mr. Nada is a Switzerland-based businessman whose assets have
been frozen by the U.S. for alleged involvement in terrorist financing, and is
alleged by U.S. officials to be a key figure in the Taqwa network. . .Jamal
Barzinji, an officer of Mr. Mirza’s company Mar-Jac and other entities, also
was involved with Mr. Nada’s companies in the 1970’s, according to bank
documents from Liechtenstein. A message was left yesterday for Mr. Barzinji at
his address in Herndon. Mr. Barzinji and Mr. Talib live across the street from
each other. A third business associate of Mr. Nada, Ali Ghaleb Himmat (who also
has been designated by the Treasury as aiding terrorism), is listed as an
official of the Geneva branch of another charity operated by Mr. Mirza, the
International Islamic Charitable Organization.” (“Funds Under
Terror Probe Flowed From Offshore” by Glenn R. Simpson [with Michael M.
Phillips]; Wall Street Journal;
3/22/2002; p. A4.)
14.
Reviewing information from FTR#343,
Nada himself is alleged to have been agent of the Abwehr, the military
intelligence service of the Third Reich. “But Yussef Nada is even better-known to the Egyptian
[intelligence] services, who have evidence of his membership in the armed
branch of the fraternity of the Muslim Brothers in the 1940’s. At that time,
according to the same sources, he was
working for the Abwehr under Admiral Canaris and took part in a plot
against King Farouk. This was not the first time that the path of the Muslim
Brothers crossed that of the servants of the Third Reich.” (Dollars for Terror: The United States and
Islam; by Richard Labeviere; Copyright 2000 [SC]; Algora Publishing; ISBN
1-892941-06-6; pp. 140-141.)
15.
Information presented in FTR#347
highlights the fact that members of the Bin Laden family were present
(along with Bush associate and Prince Sultan counsel James Baker III) at the annual
investor conference of the Carlyle Group in Washington D.C. on 9/11. FTR#347 discusses the fact that members
of the Bin Laden family were flown out of the United States after 9/11, before
they could be questioned by the F.B.I. “Like everyone else in the United States, the group stood
transfixed as the events of September 11 unfolded. Present were former
secretary of defense Frank Carlucci, former secretary of state James Baker III,
and representatives of the Bin Laden family. This was not some underground
presidential bunker or Central Intelligence Agency interrogation room. It was
the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, C.C., the plush setting for the annual investor
conference of one of the most powerful, well-connected, and secretive companies
in the world: the Carlyle Group. And since September 11, this little-known
company has become unexpectedly important. That the Carlyle Group had its
conference on America’s darkest day was mere coincidence, but there is nothing
accidental about the cast of characters that this private-equity powerhouse has
assembled in the 14 years since its founding. Among those associated with
Carlyle are former U.S. President George Bush Sr. [as well as George W. Bush] .
. . and Osama bin Laden’s estranged family. . .And as the Carlyle investors
watched the World Trade towers go down, the group’s prospects went up.”
(“Carlyle’s Way” by Dan Briody; Red
Herring; 1/8/2002; accessed at www.redherring.com/vc/2002/0111/947.html.)
16.
A very important article from the Washington
Post draws more closely the connecting links between Al Taqwa, the Muslim
Brotherhood, the targets of the 3/20 raids, and Al Qaeda. (This article is
presented as supplemental information to underscore the broader links of the
milieu linked to the Republican ethnic outreach committee. This article is
reprised from FTR#382.) “Six
months after they raided the Northern Virginia headquarters of some of the
nation's most respected Muslim leaders, federal agents say they are pursuing a
trail of intriguing clues in a top-priority search for evidence of tax evasion
and financial ties to terrorists. Federal and European investigators say that
several lines of inquiry have emerged from their review of documents and computer
files they carted off in a dozen panel trucks from offices and homes affiliated
with the Herndon-based SAAR Foundation, a tight-knit cluster of prominent
Muslim groups funded by wealthy Saudis. One avenue of investigation is the
alleged transfer of millions of dollars from the SAAR network to two overseas
bankers who have been designated by the U.S. government as terrorist
financiers. Another is the network officials' history of ties to the militant
Muslim Brotherhood.” (“U.S.
Trails Va. Muslim Money, Ties” by Douglas Farah and John Mintz; Washington Post; 10/7/2002; p.1;
accessed at www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52054-2002Oct6.html
.)
17.
Note the connections between the SAAR
Foundation, its founder al-Rajhi and the Third Reich-connected milieu that we
have examined in connection with al Taqwa and the Muslim Brotherhood. “A third part of
the investigation concerns a key mystery: whether an astonishing $1.8 billion
in gifts passed through the SAAR Foundation in a single year, 1998. SAAR
leaders reported that sum on a tax form, but later said it was a clerical
error. Agents are struggling to sort through and translate rooms full of
documents -- many in Arabic -- and chasing leads in 17 countries. U.S.
officials call the investigation one of the highest priorities of Operation
Green Quest, the U.S. Customs Service task force formed after the Sept. 11
attacks to wage a financial war on terror. The probe is part of a global
crackdown the U.S. government has launched to stem the funding of terror groups
since Sept. 11, 2001. That crackdown has targeted a number of large Muslim
charities here and abroad. The SAAR network consists of more than 100 Muslim
think tanks, charities and companies, many of which are linked by overlapping
boards of directors, shared offices and the circular movement of money,
according to tax forms and federal investigators. The network, named for
Sulaiman Abdul Aziz Rajhi, the patriarch of the Saudi family that funded it,
gives to charities, invests in companies and sponsors research, all with a goal
of fostering the growth of Islam. The
SAAR Foundation officially dissolved in December 2000, and many of its functions
were taken over by another group, Safa Trust, run by many of the same people.”
(Ibid.; pp. 1-2.)
18.
Touching on the Florida lawsuit filed
by the heroic John Loftus, culminating in the 3/20 raids against the
SAAR-related entities, the program sets forth some of the particulars about the
connections to Youssef Nada and the Al Taqwa milieu. (For more on this lawsuit,
see FTR#’s 357, 362.) “Government officials say the investigation of the SAAR
groups, which began with a probe of anti-Israel activists in Florida in 1996
and intensified after the Sept. 11 attacks, has not traced money from the SAAR
entities to the al Qaeda terrorist network. But U.S. and European investigators
say they have uncovered information in the Bahamas and Europe that in recent
years some SAAR entities’ funds have moved to two men, Youssef Nada and Ahmed
Idris Nasreddin, designated by the United States as terrorist financiers.”
(Ibid.; p. 2.)
19.
Note that Pier Felice Barchi, attorney
for Ahmed Idris Nasreddin (as well as Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
and Youssef Nada), has some very interesting connections. Reflect on the Barchi comments below against
the information provided about him in FTR#’s
357, 358, 359, 377.) “The funds moved through two offshore banks in the Bahamas
that the pair controlled, officials said.
The institutions, Bank al Taqwa and Akida Bank Private Ltd., have been
designated conduits for terrorist funds by the U.S. Treasury Department. In
recent months they were shut down by Bahamian authorities under U.S. pressure.
In an August report, Treasury said that the banks “have been involved in
financing radical groups” including Hamas and al Qaeda, both before and after
the Sept. 11 attacks. Bank al Taqwa and Akida Bank were described by the
Treasury Department on Aug. 29 as “shell companies” that were “not functional
banking institutions.” Nada and Nasreddin said they have done nothing wrong and
pointed out that thousands of businesses use offshore havens like the Bahamas.
In March, Nada told reporters he is a legitimate businessman and has never funded
terror. Nasreddin could not be reached for comment, but his Geneva-based
lawyer, P.F. Barchi, said in May that his client has no links to terror and
abhors violence.” (Idem.)
20.
The SAAR/Al Taqwa link is discussed at
greater length. “U.S.
officials say they believe that the SAAR network moved a total of about $20
million to offshore accounts, much of it through Bank al Taqwa and Akida Bank
to Nada and Nasreddin firms. But
because of the complex nature of the wire transfers, which sent money through
myriad accounts, officials say they have had difficulty tracking SAAR entities’
money around the world. In 1998, for example, SAAR moved $9 million to the
Humana Charitable Trust, which a SAAR tax form said was based in the tax haven
of the Isle of Man. U.S. investigators said they found no evidence the trust
existed. Panama, another tax haven, was also the destination of millions of
dollars. “Looking at their finances,”
one U.S. official involved in the probe said, “is like looking into a black
hole.” Much about the SAAR entities
remains in dispute, including the reported $1.8 billion in gifts in 1998. For
years, the foundation operated on annual budgets of about $1.5 million. Then it
reported on its 2000 tax form that it had taken in $1.8 billion in contributions
two years earlier. . . . U.S. officials say that they believe the reference to
$1.8 billion was no mistake. “We are still looking at it as a real
transaction,” a U.S. official said. But investigators acknowledge that they
haven't found evidence that sums of that size coursed through the network.”
(Ibid.; pp. 2-3.)
21.
The SAAR links to the Muslim
Brotherhood and that institution’s links to other Islamist terror groups are
delineated in the passage that follows. “Another focus of the probe is the SAAR leaders’ links to
the Muslim Brotherhood, a 74-year-old group which is under investigation by
European and Middle Eastern governments for its alleged support of radical
Islamic and terrorist groups. For decades the brotherhood has been a wellspring
of radical Islamic activity; Hamas, the militant Palestinian group, is an
offshoot of it. European officials are particularly interested in the
brotherhood's ties to leading neo-Nazis, including the Swiss Holocaust denier
Ahmed Huber. A number of central figures in the SAAR network, including Rajhi,
were for decades involved in the brotherhood, where they befriended Nada, said
representatives and friends of the SAAR officials. The one-time radicalism of
SAAR network members has mellowed since they moved to the United States, SAAR
associates said. Nada, 73, a native of Egypt, has been one of the brotherhood's
leading figures for years, and European officials say his network of banks and
companies, including Bank al Taqwa and Akida Bank, are intimately tied to the
brotherhood. European officials say the two banks handled tens of millions of
dollars for the brotherhood over the years.” (Ibid.; p. 3.)
“A wealthy construction magnate, Nada controls firms
across Europe and the Arab world. Nasreddin, of Ethiopian descent, operates a
business empire intertwined with Nada's out of Milan. Founded in Egypt, the
Muslim Brotherhood has over the decades helped stir a revival in Islamic pride
and militant opposition to secular Arab regimes. Governments in Egypt, Syria
and Iraq have harshly cracked down on the group since the 1950s. The
organization, viewed as heroic in much of the Arab world, has recently
moderated some of its radical stances.” (Idem.)
22.
Ibrahim Hassaballa, another of the Al
Taqwa-linked individuals, is discussed in connection with the SAAR/Safa Trust
nexus. “Investigators
said they have also uncovered numerous ties between SAAR entities and Bank al
Taqwa. Samir Salah -- a founder of the Safa Trust, SAAR's successor, and an
officer of other SAAR companies -- helped establish Bank al Taqwa in the
Bahamas in the mid-1980s, according to a Treasury document. In a letter to The Washington Post, Salah said he had
no role with the bank. Ibrahim Hassaballa, another officer of some SAAR-related
companies, also helped set up Bank al Taqwa in the Bahamas, according to the
document. Hassaballa did not respond to numerous requests for comment.” (Ibid.; pp. 3-4.)
23.
Underscoring the duplicitous nature of
many of the Isamofascist elements associated with the SAAR network, the
discussion highlights the use of that nexus by Saudis’ intent on masking their
involvement with terrorism. Again—note the links to the Muslim Brotherhood. “Terrorism
specialists say the significance of the SAAR network is that it could offer
wealthy Persian Gulf financiers a circuitous route for money they don't want
traced. “A rich Saudi who wants to fund radical ideas or terrorists like Hamas
and al Qaeda knows he can't send the money directly, so he filters it through
companies and charities, often in the U.S. or Europe,” said Rita Katz, a
terrorism expert at the private SITE Institute in Washington. The SAAR
organizations are run by approximately 15 Middle Eastern and Pakistani men, a
number of whom live in two-story homes on adjoining lots in Herndon that were
developed by one of their affiliated firms in 1987. SAAR representatives say
most were born into devout Muslim families and some fell under the sway of the
Muslim Brotherhood. In the 1960s and 1970s, funded largely by Persian Gulf and
particularly Saudi money, the men who would later form the SAAR network fled
their homelands amid crackdowns on the brotherhood.” (Ibid.; p. 4.)
24.
The World Assembly of Muslim Youth
(formerly headed by Al Taqwa associate Jamal Barzinji and a member of the Bin
Laden family suspected of helping Al Qaeda) is among the institutions linked to
SAAR. (For more on this link, see FTR#356, 357.) Note also that SAAR
became one of the biggest landlords in the Washington, D.C. area in the
1980’s.) “In
Saudi Arabia and the United States, they helped launch groups that would evolve
into some of the nation's and the world's leading Islamic organizations,
including the Muslim Students Association, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth
and the Islamic Society of North America. In 1984, Yaqub Mirza, a Pakistani
native who received a PhD in physics from the University of Texas in Dallas,
used money from the Rajhis to start SAAR in Virginia, with the goal of
spreading Islam and doing charitable work. Mirza also sought out business
ventures for SAAR. By investing the Rajhis' money with Washington real estate
developer Mohamed Hadid, he made SAAR one of the region's biggest landlords in
the 1980s. The SAAR network also became one of South America's biggest apple
growers and the owner of one of America's top poultry firms, Mar-Jac Poultry in
Georgia. “The funds came very easily,” said a businessman who dealt with SAAR.
“If they wanted a few million dollars, they called the al-Rajhis, who would
send it along. . . .” (Idem.)
25.
Further developing the discrepancy
between the moderate face put forward by SAAR’s defenders and the extremist
reality of the organization’s influence, the program revisits the Loftus
lawsuit filed in Florida against Sami al-Arian and others. (Be sure to visit
Loftus’ website at www.john-loftus.com
for more information about the lawsuit and the 3/20 raids.) “Despite their
moderate public face, the SAAR groups” leaders have had close dealings with
people who were more radical. Among them were Muslim activists who ran two
vehemently anti-Israel organizations affiliated with the University of South
Florida in Tampa. Despite the Florida activists' denials, federal officials
have been investigating them for years based on suspicions that they organized
support for Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which the U.S. government has declared a
terrorist group because it organizes suicide bombings in Israel. Steve Emerson,
a terrorism expert who has studied SAAR for six years, said that “although the
SAAR network presents a moderate profile, they have contacts and connections to
Islamic groups here and abroad that are under investigation for ties to
terrorism.” (Ibid.; pp. 4-5.)
26.
Some of the group’s correspondence
belies their “moderate” pretensions. “In a letter to a SAAR official, the Tampa groups described
the SAAR network as their main funding source. SAAR allies said the money went
only to conferences and publications. Some of the Tampa activists later joined
a SAAR affiliate in Virginia. One of them, Bashir Nafi, was deported as an
alleged Islamic Jihad operative in 1996.
The investigation of SAAR began after a 1995 raid of the Tampa groups'
offices yielded many documents showing close ties with the SAAR organizations,
U.S. officials said. Leesburg scholar Alalwani, in a 1993 letter to the Tampa
groups that he said was also on behalf of several other SAAR leaders, described
donations sent to the Florida activists. “We consider you a part of us and an
extension of us,” the letter said. “All your institutions are considered by us
as ours. . . . We make a commitment to you; we do it for you as a group,
regardless of the party or facade you use the money for.” After the 1995 Tampa
searches, investigators widened that probe, launching a related investigation
of the SAAR network, which lasted into the late 1990s.” (Ibid.; p.
5.)
27.
In the context of the documented links
of the SAAR/Al Taqwa/Muslim Brotherhood/Al Qaeda nexus to the Bush family and
the Republican Party, it is interesting to contemplate the fact that the
Clinton White House pushed for a more rigorous investigation of the milieu—to
no avail. “In
1998, National Security Council aides in the Clinton White House pushed the FBI
to intensify that SAAR investigation. But knowledgeable sources said the FBI
declined because of fears that a probe would be seen as ethnic profiling. The
sources said U.S. officials also pressed senior Saudi officials to investigate
SAAR and other Saudi-funded charities.
“At the end of the day the progress can best be described as marginal,”
said one U.S. official. . . U.S. officials dispute that account, saying that
FBI officials never gave SAAR officials such blanket clearance. Customs revived
the probe after the Sept. 11 attacks, with help from Europeans probing Bank al
Taqwa's Italian and Swiss operations.
“We are looking for patterns and connections, so it is very
complicated,” said a U.S. official. “The al Taqwa-SAAR nexus is a very high
priority.’” (Idem.)