FTR#462—Fifth Column, Part III—The Subversion of Operation Green Quest—(Two
30-minute segments) (Sources are noted in parentheses.) (Recorded on
5/30/2004.)
Note: FTR#’s 260-316, 317, 324, FTR#325 and succeeding programs are streaming on Real Audio at www.wfmu.org/daveemory. FTR#’s 01-270, 316-324 are available for download only, also on Real Audio, on their Archive Page.)
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Summary of FTR#462—(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. FTR#’s 454, 455, 456 are
compilations of much of the key documentation culled from Mr. Emory’s
investigation into 9/11. Along with FTR#391, they
should give listeners/readers a substantive grasp of this momentous event. It
is recommended that listeners use this description and e-mail it to others.
Also: The book “Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile”
is available at About Paul Manning. 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. Key material from the book is synopsized in an extended
description for FTR#305. Understanding the
Bormann organization is essential to comprehending the concept of “the
Underground Reich.”) Adding
to a body of information presented in FTR#’s 405, 433 (among other programs), this broadcast
highlights the activities of an apparent Fifth Column within the U.S.
political, economic and law-enforcement/intelligence establishments. Particular
emphasis is on the subversion of Operation Green Quest—the effort to interdict
terrorist financing. Central to the frustration of Operation Green Quest is the
FBI’s refusal to share jurisdiction on the operation with other agencies (the
Department of Homeland Security in particular), generating charges that the
bureau is deliberately undermining the investigation. In the context of the
frustration of Operation Green Quest, it is important to remember that the
targets of the 3/20/2002 Green Quest raids include members of the Bush
administration’s inner circle and that FBI chief Robert Mueller appears
compromised because of his less than vigorous investigation of the BCCI case
when he was a U.S. attorney under George Bush. In part, the subversion of
Operation Green Quest is responsible for the fact that Al Qaeda’s funding
sources remain largely intact. Note that this description contains material not included in
the original broadcast due to the limitations of time.
Program Highlights Include: The Ptech case—the investigation of a software company financed in part
by alleged Al Qaeda financier Yasin Al-Qadi; the fact that Ptech developed
software for—among other agencies—the FAA and the Air Force; the possible role
of the Ptech software in the anomalous behavior of U.S. air defenses on 9/11;
the alleged connections of Ptech director Yaqub Mirza with the highest levels
of the FBI; Mirza’s role in setting up the organizations targeted in the
3/20/2002 raids; the harassment of Green Quest investigators by both FBI and
CIA; review of the connections between the targets of the Operation Green Quest
raids and the Bush administration; the charges of FBI whistleblower Sibel
Edmonds that the terrorist support network in this country involved people in
high places with powerful political connections; details of the Sami Al-Arian
investigation that led to the Green Quest raids of 3/20/2002; the “accidental”
destruction of key documents in the Al-Arian case (this destruction threatens
the case.
1.
Beginning discussion of the failure to
interdict terrorist financing, the program opens with mention of a report from
a British intelligence analysis think-tank. This report notes that Al Qaeda’s
funding conduits have remained largely intact. “ .
. . In its annual strategic survey, the International Institute for Strategic
Studies (IISS) says al-Qaeda’s financial network has survived largely intact,
and that the war in Iraq has brought new recruits to its ranks. . . .” (“Al-Qaeda ‘May Have 18,000
Operatives’” by Mark Huband and David Buchan in London; Financial Times; 5/25/2004; accessed at www.ft.com .)
2.
FBI translator Sibel Edmonds has noted that
her disclosures concerning forewarnings of the 9/11 attacks have been muzzled.
Among her disclosures is the allegation that people in high places are blocking
investigation of her charges. She seems to imply that these people are
implicated to a certain extent in the financing of terrorism. “ . . . [Sibel] Edmonds said she had heard the details of
the Afghan asset story in an unclassified meeting at the Capitol, but she
cannot talk about the specifics because of a Justice Department gag order that
classifies as secret what she has to say. She said, however, that ‘there are a
lot of activities in the U.S. A lot of money . . . and these activities involve
money laundering, drugs, a support network for terrorism . . . people in high places . . . [people] in the
political arena.’ [Italics are Mr. Emory’s]” (“This Made Ashcroft Gag” by
James Ridgeway; The Village Voice;
5/25/2004; p. 1; accessed at: http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0421/mondo1.php
.)
3.
“ . . . .
Edmonds can’t tell what she may know because attorney General John Ashcroft
recently invoked an arcane law to make her statements ‘classified’—including
previously public statements and journalism quoting her on the case.” (Ibid.; p. 2.)
4.
“At a Senate
Judiciary committee hearing last week, Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa
summarized the Edmonds case in questioning FBI director Robert Mueller: ‘I would
also like to, on a second point, figure out why the FBI is going back in time
and classifying some pretty basic information that’s already in the public
sector in regard to classification of information that we have received in
Congress from a whistle-blower, Sibel Edmonds. We have, for instance, an e-mail
sent out by the chairman’s office last week saying that the FBI is classifying
two-year-old information that the committee got in two previous briefings. Ms.
Edmonds worked for the FBI as a translator and was fired after she reported
problems. As part of the committee’s legitimate oversight, we looked into that.
The e-mail I have is right here. And so I’m very alarmed with the
after-the-fact classification. On the one hand, I think it’s ludicrous, because
I understand that almost all of this information’s in the public domain, and
has been very widely available. On the other hand, this classification is very
serious, because it seems like the FBI would be attempting to put a gag order
on Congress.’” (Ibid.; pp. 2-3.)
5.
Supplementing previous discussion of the
FBI’s failure to cooperate with other agencies in pursuing Operation Green
Quest (FTR#’s 432, 433),
the program notes that the effort has largely been frustrated, courtesy of the
FBI. (FTR#’s 310, 424—among
other programs—note that FBI director Robert Mueller’s background suggests that
his appointment may well have been intended to block any investigations leading
in the direction of the Bush/BCCI/Bin Laden nexus that lies at the core of the
president’s past business relationships. The 3/20/2002 Operation Green Quest
raids led directly to elements connected to the GOP. Bush business associate
Talat Othman, himself connected to the BCCI milieu, interceded on behalf of the
institutions targeted in those raids. For more about the Talat Othman
intercession, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 356,
357, 390, 454.) “While the U.S.
military wages war in Iraq, the FBI and the new Department of Homeland Security
are fighting their own fierce battle—against each other. The casus belli of
this conflict is Operation Green Quest—the high-profile federal task force set
up to target the financiers of Al Qaeda and other international terrorist
groups. Ever since Green Quest was created by former U.S. Customs chief Robert
Bonner just after the September 11 terror attacks, Green Quest agents have
conducted some of the Bush administration’s best-publicized and most
controversial terrorist-finance cases—including a series of raids against the
offices of Islamic charities in the Washington area last year that drew strong
protests from American Muslim and civil-rights groups. [These were the
Operation Green Quest raids of 3/20/2002—D.E.]” (“Whose War on Terror?”; Newsweek; 12/10/2003; p. 1; accessed at:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3068377/
.)
6.
“But as the Green
Quest team made headlines, its investigations triggered a bitter dispute within
the government. Internally, FBI officials have derided Green Quest agents as a
bunch of ‘cowboys’ whose actions have undermined more important, long-range FBI
investigations into terrorist financing. Green Quest sources, in turn, accuse
the FBI of jealousy. Now that the Customs-led Green Quest operation has been
folded into the new Homeland Security Department, Newsweek has learned, the FBI and its parent agency, the Justice
Department, have demanded that the White House instead give the FBI total
control over Green Quest.” (Idem.)
7.
“One senior
law-enforcement official called the lack of coordination between the FBI and
Green Quest ‘an intolerable situation’ and noted that the bureau-not Homeland
Security—has been formally designated by President Bush as the ‘lead agency’
for terrorism investigations. ‘You can’t have two lead agencies’ conducting
terror cases, the official said.” (Idem.)
8.
Green Quest investigators from the Department
of Homeland Security charge that the FBI is deliberately sabotaging their
investigations. “The
FBI-Justice move, pushed by DOJ criminal Division chief Michael Chertoff and
Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, has enraged Homeland Security
officials, however. They accuse the bureau of sabotaging Green Quest
investigations—by failing to turn over critical information to their agents—and
trying to obscure a decades long record of lethargy in which FBI offices failed
to aggressively pursue terror-finance cases.” (Idem.)
9.
“ ‘They [The FBI]
won’t share anything with us,’ said a Homeland Security official. ‘Then they go
to the White House and they accuse us of not sharing . . . If they can’t take
it over, they want to kill it.’ If nothing else, the battle over Green Quest
illustrates the bureaucratic tensions that still plague the war on terror. The
creation of the Homeland Security Department was supposed to put an end to such
turf fights. The new department took over a diverse assortment of federal
agencies that had various responsibilities for combating terrorism, including
the Customs Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the U.S.
Border Patrol.” (Ibid.; pp. 1-2.)
10.
Among the investigations weakened by the
interagency friction is the Ptech investigation. Accused terrorist financier
Yasin Al-Qadi is one of the main investors in Ptech, which develops computer
software for, among other agencies, the Air Force and the FAA. One of the questions that suggests itself in this regard concerns the
possibility that the anomalies in the performance of air-defense units on 9/11
may be due, in part, to software sabotage by Ptech. “But
even while the White House was preaching cooperation, the various agencies that
were being folded into Homeland Security were squabbling with the FBI—the
behemoth in the domestic war on terror. One prime example of the tension is the
investigation into Ptech, the Boston-area computer software firm that had millions
of dollars in sensitive government contracts with the Air Force, the Energy
Department and, ironically enough, the FBI. In what turned into a minor
embarrassment for the bureau, the firm’s main investors included Yasin Al-Qadi,
a wealthy Saudi businessman whom the Bush administration had formally
designated a terrorist financier under the International Emergency Economic
Powers Act. Al-Qadi has vigorously denied any connection to terrorism.” (Ibid.; p. 2.)
11.
“The Ptech case
turned into an ugly dispute last year when company whistleblowers told Green
Quest agents about their own suspicions about the firm’s owners. Sources close
to the case say those same whistleblowers had first approached FBI agents, but
the bureau apparently did little or nothing in response. With backing from the
National Security Council, Green Quest agents then mounted a full-scale
investigation that culminated in a raid on the company’s office last December.
After getting wind of the Green Quest probe, the FBI stepped in and unsuccessfully
tried to take control of the case.” (Idem.)
12.
“The result,
sources say, has been something of a train wreck. Privately, FBI officials say
Green Quest agents botched the probe and jeopardized other more promising
inquiries into Al-Qadi. Green Quest agents
dismiss the charges and say the problem is that the bureau ws slow to respond
to legitimate allegations that an outside contractor with terrorist ties may
have infiltrated government computers. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.] Whatever
the truth, there is no dispute that the case has so far produced no charges and
indictments against Al-Qadi or anyone else connected with Ptech. The company
has denied wrongdoing.” (Idem.)
13.
Still more about the turf war between the FBI
and the DHS over Green Quest: “A war has broken
out on American soil, largely below the public radar screen. On May 13, 2003,
Attorney General John Ashcroft and Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge
signed a ‘memorandum of Agreement’ between the Department of justice and
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that gives the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) unprecedented unilateral control of all terrorist-financing
investigations and operations. The agreement raises questions about the need
for a Department of Homeland Security, if the FBI will be handling all relevant
terror investigations.” (“Perilous Power Play: FBI vs. Homeland Security” by Rita Katz &
Josh Devon; National Review;
5/27/2003; p. 1; accessed at: http://www.nationalareview.com/script/printage.asp?ref=/comment/comment-katz-devon0
.)
14.
“Several seasoned
government agents fear for the nation’s security should the FBI be tackling
most terrorism cases, as their ineptitude in preventing terrorism has been
established time and time again. Yet, the memorandum between Ashcroft and Ridge
places the FBI in an incredibly powerful position over Homeland Security.
According to the memorandum, ‘[A]ll appropriate DHS leads relating to money laundering
and financial crimes will be checked with the FBI.’” (Idem.)
15.
“This usurpation
creates a gigantic imbalance of power in criminal investigations, as the FBI
now has the power to create or kill any terrorist-financing investigation it
deems appropriate or inappropriate to investigate. This puts the FBI in a
position to control too much and is eerily reminiscent of the former Soviet
Union’s oppressive intelligence agency, the KGB. Like the KGB, the FBI seeks to
run itself with no checks and balances, a necessary hallmark of the American
system of government and civil rights. The memorandum makes the point that FBI
agents assigned to work in conjunction with DHS agents ‘are provided full and
timely access to all data developed in ICE’s [Bureau of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement] money laundering and financial crimes cases on an ongoing basis.’
The reciprocal is not stated in the agreement, continuing the FBI’s long-held
policy of refusing to share their information with other agencies.” (Idem.)
16.
A point of information that
raises serious questions about the FBI’s motivation for attempting to
monopolize Green Quest investigations concerns the bureau’s admission that it
did not have the ability to handle counterterrorism cases! “Amazingly, though, just after 9/11 the FBI admitted it
did not have the ability to handle counterterrorism cases. According to a May
2003 General Accounting Office (GAO) Report about interagency information
sharing, ‘the Director of the FBI testified in June 2002 that implementing a more
proactive approach to preventing terrorist acts and denying terrorist groups
the ability to operate and raise funds require a centralized and robust
analytical capacity that did not exist in the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division.’
Yet, because the FBI is so well funded and staffed compared to the other
agencies, the bureau can play the PR game better than any other agency. Thus,
while strong-arming other agencies and bullying them out of investigations, the
FBI maintains a positive face in the eyes of the American public and takes
credit for investigations in which they were only tangentially involved.” (Ibid.; pp. 1-2.)
17.
“For those who do
not fear that the FBI will be handling future terrorist financing
investigations, let’s look at the agency’s track record when it comes to
protecting the United States from terrorist financing: Even after the September
11 attacks, the FBI failed to pursue obvious terrorist financing leads. In a
hugely embarrassing moment, the FBI failed to do anything about Ptech, Inc. a company
whose prime investor was a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity, Saudi
Yassin al-Qadi. In desperation, the vice president of sales at Ptech contacted
the FBI and pleaded with them to look into the organization, as he saw in the
news that Qadi was allegedly connected to funding al Qaeda. After repeated
meetings with increasingly higher-ranking FBI officials where the employees
beseeched the agency to look into the company, the bureau did nothing, despite
knowing that Qadi was a primary financier of Ptech.” (Ibid.; p. 2.)
18.
Among the more alarming details about the
Ptech debacle concerns a statement attributed to the president of Ptech. He
allegedly told a subordinate that Yaqub Mirza—a member of the board of
directors—had connections high up in the FBI! Mirza set up
the organizations targeted in the Operation Green Quest raids of 3/20/2002! “Furthermore, the FBI was aware that Ptech provided computer
software for several government agencies, including the FBI itself, the FAA,
the U.S. Treasury, the Department of Defense, the IRS, and the White House,
proving a visible and viable threat to national security. The FBI ignored the
repeated requests of concerned employees. Frighteningly,
when an employee told the President of Ptech he felt he had to contact the FBI
regarding Qadi’s involvement in the company, the president allegedly told him
not to worry because Yaqub Mirza, who was on the board of directors of the
company and was himself a target of a terrorist financing raid in March 2002,
had contacts high within the FBI. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s].” (Idem.)
19.
“After months of
the FBI refusing to do anything substantive, it took the efforts of U.S.
Customs, now a part of Homeland Security, to raid the business in December 2002
and jumpstart the investigation into the alleged terrorist financial network.” (Idem.)
20.
The FBI had previously ignored the
organizations set up by Mirza and targeted in the 3/20/2002 Green Quest raids
(the SAAR network). “Perhaps the
FBI’s biggest blunder was in ignoring the enormous alleged terrorist financial
network of companies and nonprofit organizations mostly in Herndon, Virginia,
named by investigators as the ‘SAAR Network.’ The FBI had been aware of the
SAAR Network was funneling money to al-Arian. The FBI chose to ignore the case
for unknown reasons, though some have speculated it was due to the SAAR
Network’s close association to wealthy Saudis who funded the network.” (Idem.)
21.
“It was not until
Operation Green Quest, a joint task force headed by U.S. Customs which sought
to disrupt terrorist financing, picked up the scent of the SAAR Network that a
raid occurred. In March, 2002, Green Quest, in a victory for Americans
everywhere, raided the SAAR Network in 15 locations in the largest terrorist
financial bust in U.S. history. . . .” (Ibid.; pp. 2-3.)
22.
More about the frustration of Operation Green
Quest: “ . . . Now, the FBI is attempting
to wrest the SAAR Network investigation from Green Quest and take all the
credit for Green Quest’s dedication and hard work. The agreement between
Ashcroft and Ridge is a crushing blow to Green Quest, as it effectively
dissolves the outstanding task force. According to the memorandum, ‘The secretary of [Homeland Security] agrees
that no later than June 30, 2003, Operation Green Quest (OGQ) will no longer
exist as a program name.’ [Italics are Mr. Emory’s].” (Ibid.; p. 3.)
23.
“Green Quest,
the most successful antiterrorist-financing task squad in history of the United
States, is being disbanded because of the FBI’s lust for power and glory. At a
time when al Qaeda is resurging, the more agencies we have sharing information
and investigating terrorism, the better off this nation will be. Given the
FBI’s track record, the bureau should be punished, not rewarded for
unjustifiably bullying a new department into giving it more power, especially
after FBI Director Robert Mueller admitted the bureau does not have the
analytical capability to provide effective counterterrorism. . . .” (Idem.)
24.
Reviewing information presented in FTR#460, the program notes the allegation that among
the people enlisted by Bin Laden to assist his efforts was the chief of the
Pakistani air force. When taken in combination
with the allegedly Al Qaeda-linked Ptech (which developed software for the Air
Force and the FAA), this detail may account for some of the anomalous
behavior of air defense unites on 9/11. Might elements within Ptech, with the
assistance of Mir, have engineered a way to delay interception? “Nor was that the end of it. During his interrogation,
Zubaydah had also said that Osama bin Laden had struck a deal with Pakistani
air force chief Air Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir, and had told him that there would
be unspecified attacks on American soil on 9/11. Seven months after the Saudi
deaths, on February 20, 2003, Mir and sixteen others were killed when their
plane crashed in a northwest province of Pakistan. Sabotage was widely
speculated to be behind the crash but could not be proved.” (House of Bush/House of Saud; by Craig Unger; Scribner [HC];
Copyright 2004 by Craig Unger; ISBN 0-7432-5337-X; p. 269.)
25.
As discussed in (among other programs) FTR#’s 356, 454, Talat Othman (a close associate of both Georges
Bush) interceded on behalf of the targets of Operation Green Quest. (For more
about this, see FTR#’s 356, 376, 415.)
“And the connections
do not end there. One of the Muslim activists who met with O’Neill was Talat
Othman, a longtime friend and former business associate of President Bush. The
two served together on the board of the Texas-based oil company Harken Energy
starting in the late 1980’s and have remained close ever since. Othman sat on
Harken’s board as the representative of Abdullah Taha Bakhsh, a Saudi business
magnate and a close associate of suspected terrorist financier Khalid bin
Mahfouz. [Bin Mahfouz was one of the principal figures in the BCCI
investigation, overseen by now-FBI chief Robert Mueller—D.E.] Bakhsh now heads
an oil company that is a subsidiary of Halliburton, the energy giant formerly
run by Vice President Dick Cheney.” (“Charity Cases: Why Has the
Bush Administration Failed to Stop Saudi Funding of Terrorism?” by David
Armstrong; Harper’s; March/2004; p.
82.)
26.
More on Yaqub Mirza and Talat Othman: “In addition to his work at the Islamic Institute, Othman
serves on the board of Amana Mutual Funds Trust, an Islamic investment group
that had close ties to raided entities and yet was not itself targeted. At the
time of the Green Quest raids, in March 2002, at least four figures from the
targeted groups were affiliated with Amana, including M. Yaqub Mirza, the
individual who set up the U.S. branch of MWL, the fund-raising arm of the U.S.
branch of IIRO, and many of the other raided organizations. Despite Mirza’s
presence on the board, and despite the fact that large sums of money from the
suspect groups have moved through Amana, Green Quest agents chose not to raid
the firm.” (Idem.)
27.
As noted in—among other broadcasts—FTR#’s
356, 357, 376, 390, 415, 423, 433,
435, the milieu of the 3/20-targeted
SAAR network significantly overlaps the GOP’s ethnic outreach organization and
the Bush administration. That fact may well explain the FBI’s and CIA’s hostile
interest in the investigators of
Operation Green Quest. The investigators who were so harassed included Rita
Katz, A.K.A. “Anonymous.” “The CIA was investigating me and the SAAR investigators
from Green Quest and Customs. The CIA and the FBI investigated everyone who had
anything to do with the SAAR investigation. White vans and SUV’s with dark
windows appeared near all the homes of the SAAR investigators. All agents, some
of whom were very experienced with surveillance, knew they were being followed.
So was I. I felt that I was being followed everywhere and watched at home, in
the supermarket, on the way to work . . . and for what? . . .” (Terrorist
Hunter by “Anonymous” [Rita Katz]; CCC [imprint of Harper Collins];
Copyright 2003 by Harper Collins [HC]; ISBN 0-06-052819-2; p. 328.)
28.
“ . . . The
Customs agents were questioned. So were their supervisors. So was the U.S.
attorney on the SAAR case. One of the questions they were all asked was whether
they’d leaked material to me. They all kept saying that this was the most
preposterous idea; they all said that before I came, none of them had the
slightest clue about SAAR and 555. They said that there was nothing of value they
could give me that I didn’t have already. That it was I who gave them the
material, not the other way around. None of the investigated parties has the
slightest clue as to the real reason they were being investigated.” (Ibid.; p. 329.)
29.
“Risking criticism
for being unfoundedly paranoid, I must convey my theory about the investigation
and CIA’s involvement in it, I don’t know for certain what’s the deal with the
CIA investigating the SAAR investigators, but it sure feels as if someone up in
that agency doesn’t like the idea that the Saudi Arabian boat is rocked. The
raids on 555 had taken place already—the CIA couldn’t change that—but
investigating and giving the people behind the raids a hard time is a most
efficient way of making sure the SAAR investigation stops there. Which, come to
think of it, may be the reason the government looks so unfavorably on the
lawsuit filed by 9-11 victims’ families against several Saudi entities and
individuals, accusing them of funding terrorism and seeking damages.” (Idem.)
30.
Another example of the Saudi/Bush-linked
Fifth Column for which the program is named concerns an operational connection
between Prince Bandar and former FBI director Louis Freeh. This link was
established behind the back of the Clinton administration and served to
frustrate the investigation into the 1996 Khobar Towers investigation. Former
president George H.W. Bush was Freeh’s liaison man to Bandar. One wonders if this connection may have had something to do with
the allegation (noted above) that M. Yaqub Mirza allegedly had links high
inside the FBI. “After the Khobar Towers bombing in
1996, Clinton’s national security adviser, Sandy Berger, repeatedly met with
Prince Bandar to press for better Saudi cooperation with the FBI. But the
Saudis still refused to allow the FBI access to the suspects or relevant
materials and tried to blame Iran for the bombing. Berger got nowhere.
According to Benjamin and Simon, Bandar’s unending evasions were so frustrating
that Berger described them as ‘Groundhog
Day’ rituals, a reference to the Bill Murray movie in which one day repeats
itself endlessly.” (House of Bush/House of Saud;
by Craig Unger; Scribner [HC]; Copyright 2004 by Craig Unger; ISBN
0-7432-5337-X; p. 176.)
31.
“At the same
time Prince Bandar was stalling Berger, however, he had secretly established a
back channel to FBI director Louis Freeh. A 1993 Clinton appointee, Freeh had
never enjoyed a good relationship with the White House, partly because of the
bureau’s disastrous failure in counterterrorism. According to Benjamin and
Simon, Bandar eagerly exploited Freeh’s well-known antipathy toward Clinton to
‘undercut U.S. efforts to pursue the investigation.’” (Idem.)
32.
“Notwithstanding
Berger’s repeated efforts to get Saudi help, Bandar told Freeh again and again
that the White House had absolutely no interest in the investigation
whatsoever. But President Clinton kept after the Saudis. When he met with Saudi
crown prince Abdullah in 1998, Clinton warned Abdullah that Saudi-American
relations would suffer if the Saudis did not cooperate on the Khobar Towers
investigation. Nevertheless, Bandar continued to tell Freeh that he was the
only one in Washington who cared about the Americans who had died in Khobar
Towers.” (Idem.)
33.
“In response,
Freeh did something highly irregular. He reached out to former president Bush,
knowing full well how Bush was revered by the Saudis, and asked Bush to be his
secret emissary to get the Saudis to cooperate with the investigation. Later,
Bandar invited Freeh to his estate in northern Virginia and told him the FBI
would be allowed to watch through a one-way mirror while Saudis interrogated
the suspects. According to Elsa Walsh of the New Yorker, Freeh credited this sudden breakthrough not to the
Clinton administration’s efforts, but to former president George H.W. Bush.” (Ibid.; pp. 176-177.)
34.
“Whether it was
Bush’s phone call or pressure from Clinton that actually triggered the Saudi
cooperation is not entirely clear. But one thing was certain: the House of Saud
preferred Bush, not Clinton, in part because the Democratic administration was
violating the unwritten rule about Saudi-American relations: Don’t ask any
questions about what really goes on in Saudi Arabia. . . .” (Ibid.; p. 177.)
35.
Supplementing previous discussion about the
genesis of the GOP/Islamist link, this description presents information from
Craig Under’s book that was not included in the original broadcast. (For more
about the GOP/Islamist link, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 356, 357, 415, 433, 435, 454.) “As a result, Norquist’s Muslim strategy was sometimes
criticized—usually from the right—for giving credibility to Muslim groups that
seemed harmless, but were in fact supporting extremist interests. . . .
Nevertheless, with Norquist working behind the scenes, Bush aggressively
pursued the Islamists in hopes of winning their endorsements. In appearances on
TV, Bush and fellow campaign staffers referred not just to churches and
synagogues as places of worship, but to mosques as well. Again and again,
Governor Bush sought out meetings with Muslim leaders—often without looking
into their backgrounds. He invited the founder of the American Muslim Council,
Abdurahman Alamoudi, to the governor’s mansion in Austin. In the mid-1990’s,
Alamoudi had played an important role in recruiting as many as a hundred
‘Islamic lay leaders’ for the U.S. military. The Wall Street Journal
reported that he had arranged for ‘an arm of the Saudi government’ called the
Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences to train ‘soldiers and civilians to
provide spiritual guidance when paid Muslim chaplains aren’t available.’ The Journal added that there were
indications that there were indications that ‘the school . . . disseminates the
intolerant and anti-Western strain of Islam espoused by the [Saudi] kingdom’s
religious establishment.’ A self-proclaimed supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah,
Alamoudi reportedly attended a terrorist summit in Beirut later in 2000 with
leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Al Qaeda. But such a militant background did
not keep Alamoudi away from Norquist and Bush. According to an article by Frank
Gaffney, Alamoudi wrote two checks for $10,000 each, one an apparent loan, to
help found Norquist’s Islamic Institute.” (Ibid.; pp. 205-206.)
36.
“On March 12,
2000, Bush and his wife, Laura, met with more Muslim leaders at a local mosque
in Tampa, Florida. Among them was Sami Al-Arian, a Kuwaiti-born Palestinian who
was an associate professor of engineering at the University of South Florida. .
. . But Al-Arian had unusual credentials for a Bush campaigner. Since 1995, as
the founder and chairman of the board of World and Islam Enterprise (WISE), a
Muslim think tank, Al-Arian had been under investigation by the FBI for his
associations with Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian terrorist group. Al-Arian
brought in Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, the number-two leader in Islamic Jihad, to
be the director of WISE. A strong advocate of suicide bombings against Israel,
Shallah was allegedly responsible for killing scores of Israelis in such
attacks.” (Ibid.;
pp. 206-207.)
37.
“Al-Arian also
brought to Tampa as a guest speaker for WISE none other than Hassan Turabi, the
powerful Islamic ruler of Sudan who had welcomed Osama bin Laden and helped
nurture al Qaeda in the early nineties. . . .Nor were those Al-Arian’s only
ties to terrorists According to American
Jihad by Steven Emerson, in may 1998 a WISE board member named Tarik Hamdi
personally traveled to Afghanistan to deliver a satellite telephone and battery
to Osama bin Laden. In addition, Newsweek
reported that Al-Arian had ties to the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center.
Among his claims to fame, the magazine said, Al-Arian had ‘made many phone
calls to two New York-area Arabs who figured in the World Trade Center bombing
investigation.’” (Ibid.; p. 207.)
38.
“There were also
Al-Arian’s own statements. In 1998, he appeared as a guest speaker before the
American Muslim Council. According to conservative author Kenneth Timmerman,
Al-Arian referred to Jews as ‘monkeys and pigs’ and added, ‘Jihad is our path.
Victory to Islam. Death to Israel. Revolution! Revolution! Until victory!
Rolling, rolling to Jerusalem!’ That speech was part of a dossier compiled on
al-Arian by federal agents who have had him under surveillance for many years
because of suspected ties to terrorist organizations. In a videotape in that
file, al-Arian was more explicit. When he appeared at a fund-raising event,
Timmerman says, he ‘begged for $500 to kill a Jew.’” (Idem.)
39.
“Al-Arian would
be arrested in Florida in February 2003 on dozens of charges, among them conspiracy
to finance terrorist attacks that killed more than one hundred people—including
two Americans. The indictment alleged that ‘he directed the audit of all moneys
and property of the PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] throughout the world and
was the leader of the PIJ in the United States.’ The charges refer to the
Islamic Jihad as ‘a criminal organization whose members and associates engaged
in acts of violence including murder, extortion, money laundering, fraud, and
misuse of visas, and operated worldwide including in the Middle District of
Florida.’ Al-Arian was still facing prosecution in December 2003.” (Ibid.; p. 208.)
40.
“ . . . ‘The
Al-Arian case was not a solitary lapse. . . . That outreach campaign opened
relationships between the Bush campaign and some very disturbing persons in the
Muslim-American community.’ Nevertheless, Norquist continued to build a
coalition of Islamist groups to support Bush. On July 31, 2000, the Republican
National Convention opened in Philadelphia with a prayer by a Muslim, Talat
Othman, in which Othman offered a duaa,
a Muslim benediction. It was the first time a Muslim had addressed any major
U.S. political gathering. A third-generation American and a businessman from
Chicago of Muslim-Arab descent, Othman was chairman of the Islamic Institute.
He had also been the board member of Harken Energy representing the interests
of Abdullah Taha Bakhsh, the Saudi investor who had helped Bush make his
fortune by bailing out Harken in the late eighties. When the convention ended on
August 3, after George W. Bush had formally been nominated for president,
between his family’s extended personal and financial ties to the House of Saud
and his campaign’s ties to Islamists, it could be said that he was truly the
Arabian Candidate. . . .” (Ibid.; pp. 208-209.)
41.
Again, it was the investigation into Al-Arian
that led to the Green Quest raids of 3/20/2002. In that context, it is
frightening to note that search warrants in the Al-Arian case were
“accidentally” destroyed. Was this REALLY an accident?
The destruction of the documents threatens the Al-Arian case! “ . . . In December 2003, clerks at a federal courthouse in
Tampa accidentally destroyed search warrants in the Al-Arian case. The
documents contained affidavits from federal agents that supported 1995 searches
of Al-Arian’s home and offices and were among thousands of documents shredded
sometime between 1998 and 2002. As this book went to press, there were serious
questions as to whether the destruction of the documents might affect his prosecution.”
(Ibid.;
p. 208.)