FTR#464—I Told You So—More About the Subversion of Operation Green Quest—(Two
30-minute segments) (Sources are noted in parentheses.) (Recorded on
6/13/2004.)
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#464—(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.”) Presenting
more information about the subversion of Operation Green Quest (the
investigation into terrorist financing), this program highlights the structural
economic relationships that bind the Bush milieu to that of the Saudis. These
relationships helped spawn the Islamist element in the Republican Party’s
ethnic outreach wing, which overlaps the milieu targeted in the 3/20/2002
Operation Green Quest raids. Central to the development of the Bush/Saudi
relationship is the milieu of the BCCI investigation. Not only did key players
in BCCI invest in Bush’s unsuccessful energy businesses, but that investment
almost certainly was for the purpose of currying favor with “the House of
Bush”—the Saudis did not need to invest in unsuccessful oil drilling
operations! Moreover, it appears that the Bush/Saudi/BCCI connection is a
central factor motivating those who are frustrating the investigation into
Operation Green Quest. Central to the theme of this program is FBI chief Robert
Mueller’s role in covering up the Justice Department’s investigation of the BCCI
case when he was the US attorney in charge of the investigation, as well
as the role of the bureau in the
frustration of Operation Green Quest.
Program Highlights Include: The Saudi investment in Bush’s Harken Energy; the connections of BCCI
players such as Khalid bin Mahfouz in the Saudi financing of Harken; the role
of Abdullah Bakhsh of the BCCI in elevating the position of Talat Othman to
that of director of Harken Energy; Othman’s eventual succession to the position
of adviser to Bush, Sr.; review of the development of GOP operative Grover
Norquist’s Islamic Institute and the connections of the GOP/Islamist milieu to
terrorism; Talat Othman’s delivery of a Muslim benediction at the GOP
convention in 2000; review of the connections between the targets of the
Operation Green Quest raids of 2002 and the Al Taqwa network; the relationship
between Sami al-Arian and the targets of the 3/20/2002 raids; Talat Othman’s
intercession on behalf of the targets of the Operation Green Quest raids;
federal employees’ “accidental” destruction of key documents in the al-Arian
investigation; review of the FBI’s alleged stonewalling of other federal
agencies involved in combating terror.
1. Tracing the history of the
Bush/Saudi relationship, the broadcast begins with discussion of the role of
rich Saudis in the financing of Harken Energy—one of W’s failed oil ventures.
For the purposes of this program, do not fail to note the presence in the
Harken machinations of people closely associated with the BCCI milieu. “ . . . And yet,
with the Bush name now on its marquee, suddenly all sorts of marvelous things
started to happen to Harken—new investments, unexpected sources of financing,
serendipitous drilling rights in faraway countries. All thanks to people who
now found Harken irresistible—many of them close to BCCI, the Saudi-dominated
bank that had political connections all over the world and whose biggest
shareholder was Khalid bin Mahfouz. It was a phantom courtship.” (House of Bush/House of Saud; by Craig
Unger; Scribner [HC]; Copyright 2004 by Craig Unger; ISBN 0-7432-5337-X; p.
118.)
2.
The Saudis’ backing of Harken makes no sense in terms of the petroleum
business—it only makes sense in the context of the purchasing of political
influence. “Even
if Harken had not had its liabilities, for Saudi billionaires, whose wealth
came from the biggest oil reserves in the world, investing in Harken was at
best truly a case of selling coals to Newcastle, ice to the Eskimos. ‘Think
about it,’ explains Bush’s friend and business partner James Bath. ‘It doesn’t
make sense. What we would consider a big oil drill here [in Texas] would be
laughable to them.’” (Idem.)
3.
Through the BCCI, the Saudis were able to gain a significant foothold
in the U.S. “
‘You had this terribly complicated dance,’ recalls a former senior Senate
investigator into BCCI. ‘It was not just that the Saudis used BCCI to buy
power. There were people in the United States who saw the opportunity to make
scads of money. They weren’t exactly raping the system. It was more like consensual
sex.’” (Ibid.; p. 119.)
4.
“Neither George
W. Bush nor Harken, it should be said, had any direct contact of any kind with
bin Mahfouz or BCCI. Bin Mahfouz professed no knowledge of any intention to
create a special relationship with Bush or Harken and, according to his
attorney, ‘does not recall that the matter of BCCI’s relationship with Harken’
was brought up at BCCI board meetings or ‘in any other fashion.’ Likewise,
Harken officials, including George W. Bush, said they were unaware of their new
investors’ links to BCCI. On paper, there was no relationship whatsoever
between the two institutions or their principals.” (Idem.)
5.
“But like so much
of what went on with BCCI, this elaborate dance often took place through
convoluted financial transactions and third parties. It was not essential for
the key players in this aspect of the Saudi-Bush drama even to know each other
to have productive relationships. In fact, for many of the participants, the
less they knew the better.” (Idem.)
6.
Examining the history of the evolution of the Harken/Saudi/BCCI milieu
and its influence on Bush and events that took place during his presidency, the
broadcast highlights Abdullah Taha Bakhsh. It was as Bakhsh’s protégé that
Talat Othman made his entrée into the Bush camp. Othman is a key player in the scenario we are examining in this
program. “Before
the deal could be finalized, however, the financing from UBS ran into unrelated
difficulties and fell apart. As a result, still another financier was needed to
rescue Harken. This time, Stephens introduced Harken to a new investor,
Abdullah Taha Bakhsh, a real estate magnate from Jeddah, whose subsequent
injection of capital resulted in his ownership of 17.6 percent of Harken’s
stock.” (Ibid.; p. 121.)
7.
“A well-known
Saudi investor, Bakhsh had been a founding member of the board of Investcorp,
the enormous global investment group. Bakhsh had had business dealings with the
most prominent people in Saudi Arabia, including members of the Saudi royal
family. He also had at least two ties to BCCI. According to the [Wall Street] Journal, he had been chairman of the Saudi Finance Co., a holding
company partly controlled by BCCI shareholders. In addition, he was well
acquainted with bin Mahfouz.” (Idem.)
8.
There were denials all around concerning a causal relationship between
Bakhsh’s role on Harken’s board and the BCCI relationship. Note that bin
Mahfouz’s lawyer is Cherif Sedky, whom we will view later on in connection with
the 3/20/2002 Operation Green Quest raids. “All parties concerned—bin Mahfouz, Bakhsh, and
Harken—have denied that Bakhsh’s role in Harken had anything to do with BCCI or
his relationship to bin Mahfouz. ‘Mr. Bakhsh was not in any way representing
Khalid bin Mahfouz’s interests in any investment by Mr. Bakhsh in Harken Energy,’
says Cherif Sedky. . . .” (Idem.)
9.
More about the Bakhsh/Harken/Bush/Othman relationship: “ . . . Yet there
is evidence that Saudi favors to Bush interests had begun to pay off. In August 1990, Talat Othman, a Chicago
investor of Arab descent who represented the interests of Abdullah Taha Bakhsh
on the board of Harken Energy, was granted unusual access to the president and
attended White House meetings with him to discuss Middle East policy—at a time
of crisis during which the Gulf War was brewing. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.]
The White House, George W. Bush, and Harken all denied that Othman’s presence
was related to Bakhsh’s investment.” (Ibid.; p. 125.)
10.
Next, the program highlights the role of then US Attorney Robert
Mueller in helping to derail the BCCI investigation. Mueller is now head of the
FBI. (For more about Mueller, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 310, 349, 424, 454, 462.) “ . . . In addition, according to the 1992
Senate BCCI investigation, the Bush Justice Department went to great lengths to
block prosecution of BCCI. The Senate probe determined that federal officials
repeatedly obstructed congressional and local investigations into BCCI, and for
three years thwarted attempts by Manhattan district attorney Robert Morgenthau
to obtain critical information about the bank.” (Ibid.; p. 126.)
11.
Note
that the Senate probe into BCCI (which was headed by John Kerry) was highly
critical of the Justice Department’s conduct of the investigation. “The Senate
investigation concluded that in 1990 and 1991 the Bush Justice Department, with
Assistant Attorney General Robert Mueller leading the way, consistently put
forth the public impression that it ws aggressively moving against BCCI. But,
in fact, the Senate probe said the Justice Department was actually impeding
‘the investigations of others through a variety of mechanisms, ranging from not
making witnesses available, to not returning telephone calls, to claiming that
every aspect of the case was under investigation in a period when little, if
anything, was being done.’” (Idem.)
12.
“Specifically,
among other charges, the Senate report alleged that a federal prosecutor lied
to Morgenthau’s office about important material; that federal prosecutors
failed to investigate serious allegations that BCCI laundered drug money; and
that Justice Department personnel in Washington, Miami, and Tampa actively
obstructed and impeded congressional attempts to investigate BCCI in 1990 . .
.” (Idem.)
13.
Much
of the rest of the first side of the program is review of an excerpt from FTR#310 (recorded on 7/8/2001.) The
excerpt focuses on Robert Mueller’s appointment as head of the FBI, and notes
Mueller’s less than enthusiastic investigation of the BCCI case. Mr. Emory
notes that, had the BCCI case been thoroughly and properly investigated, it
would have implicated the elder Bush in the Iran/Contra and Iraqgate scandals,
both of which involved BCCI. Mr. Emory also notes that a proper investigation
of the case might have led to the James R. Bath/George W. Bush/Harken Energy/
Saudi relationship. That relationship involved the business connections between
George W. Bush and James R. Bath. Bath was an early investor in Arbusto Energy,
the first of W’s failed oil company ventures. He was also the business
representative of the Bin Mahfouz and Bin Laden families in Texas. Those
families may well have put up some of the initial capital for Arbusto. With
Mueller ruling the roost at the FBI, it appeared (on 7/8/2001) that an
investigation uncovering the Bush family’s business dealings with the Bin Ladens
was unlikely. As we saw in FTR#’s 454,
462, the bureau appears to be derailing the investigation into Operation
Green Quest. Bush
selected Robert Mueller, a member of his father’s Justice Department, to be FBI
director. (“S.F. Prosecutor Mueller Picked to Lead FBI, Mend Its
Image” by Zachary Coile and Bob Egelko; San
Francisco Chronicle; 7/6/2001; pp. A1-A12.)
14.
In his work for
the Bush Justice Department, Mueller was less than vigorous in his role
overseeing the prosecution of General Noriega of Panama and the BCCI case. (“In the Running for FBI
Director” by Stacy Finz; San Francisco
Chronicle; 7/1/2001; pp. A1-A6.) Both the BCCI case and the Noriega case
overlap the Iran-Contra investigation.) The elder Bush was principally involved in the Iran-Contra
imbroglio. Full disclosure concerning the BCCI case would have led to
investigation of James R. Bath, the Texas business representative of the Bin
Laden family and one of the financiers of George W.’s first oil venture.
Was Mueller
appointed to forestall any investigation of these links, thus safeguarding the
Georges Bush? (See also: FTR
#’s 182, 186, 248, 256, 277, 292, 308, 315.)
15.
The
GOP recruited Islamists to its cause for the 2000 campaign. A number of the
individuals and institutions recruited by Norquist are implicated in the events
in, and around, 9/11. Many of them were also focal points of Operation Green
Quest. The Norquist/Islamist milieu also overlaps the Harken/Bush/BCCI milieu.
(For more about the Norquist/Islamist link, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 356, 357, 359, 415, 435, 447, 454,
455, 462.) “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.” (House of Bush/House of Saud; by Craig
Unger; Scribner [HC]; Copyright 2004 by Craig Unger; ISBN 0-7432-5337-X; pp.
205-206.)
16.
“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.)
17.
“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.)
18.
“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.)
19.
“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.)
20.
Note
that Harken director and political ally of George Bush Sr. and George Bush Jr.
Talat Othman gave a Muslim benediction at the Republican convention. Be sure to
review the discussion of Othman above, and note Othman’s role in interceding
with then Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill on behalf of the targets of the
3/20/2002 Operation Green Quest raids. (Othman’s intercession with O’Neill is
discussed in—among other programs—FTR#’s
356, 357, 376, 454.) “ . . . ‘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. [Italics are Mr. Emory’s] 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.)
21.
Norquist’s
Islamic Institute significantly overlapped individuals and institutions targeted
in the Operation Green Quest raids of 3/20/2002. A summary account of those
raids and the investigation into the SAAR foundation and the Safa trust
follows: “ . .
. In the early morning hours of Wednesday, March 20, 2002, 150 federal
agents—many with their guns drawn—raided fourteen offices and homes in the
suburbs of Washington, D.C. FBI and Customs agents loaded seven panel trucks
with more than five hundred boxes of documents, computers, and financial
records of more than one hundred charities, think tanks, and businesses
affiliated with the Herndon, Virginia—based SAAR Foundation. Most of the
interrelated businesses and charities were run out of a single office at 555
Grove Street, a brown brick and glass three-story office complex on a quiet street.”
(Blood from Stones: The Secret
Financial Network of Terror; by Douglas Farah; Broadway Books [HC]
{subsidiary of Random House}; Copyright 2004 by Douglas Farah; ISBN
0-7679-15262-3; p. 152.)
22.
“The SAAR
Foundation, the backbone of the cluster, takes its name from Sulaiman Abdul
Aziz al Rajhi, head of one of Saudi Arabia’s wealthiest families, who funneled
millions of dollars through the cluster of businesses and charities. The al
Rajhi name was on the Golden Chain list of early al Qaeda supporters that was
found in the Benevolence files in Sarajevo.” (Ibid.; pp. 152-153.)
23.
“The SAAR
Foundation was incorporated in Herndon, Virginia, on July 29, 1983, and
formally dissolved on December 28, 2000. However, many of the foundation’s
functions were taken over by the Safa Trust, an organization registered at the
same address and run by several of the same board members. Law enforcement
officials dubbed the maze of the overlapping companies, with shared directors,
the Safa Group. The groups often financed each other, sending the money in
circles. The scores of Safa organizations are controlled by about fifteen
Middle Eastern and Pakistani men who serve with each other on a host of
institutional boards. Four senior leaders of the network are Iraqis who had
lived in Saudi Arabia, and have been members of the Muslim Brotherhood.” (Ibid.; p. 153.)
24.
Note
the role of Yaqub Mirza in the genesis of the organizations associated with
SAAR and Safa Trust. “In the United States, the men used Saudi money to launch
some of the nation’s leading Muslim organizations. In 1983, with money from the
al Rajhi family, the SAAR Foundation was born. The director was Yaqub Mirza, a
Pakistani native with a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Texas. Other
groups were formed shortly afterward. Five of the top Safa executives live in
spacious homes on adjoining lots in Safa Court in Herndon, a twenty-two-acre
parcel of land bought by one of the SAAR-affiliated firms in 1987.” (Idem.)
25.
“In time, the
Safa network owned or invested in scores of businesses worldwide: dairy farms
in Zimbabwe; schools in Ivory Coast; a huge poultry business in the state of
Georgia; an Islamic mutual fund in Washington state; an investment company in
Malaysia; shell companies in Panama; and commercial apple orchards in Chile. By
the late 1980’s, the SAAR Foundation had become one of the Washington, D.C.,
region’s biggest landlords. ‘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.’ At the same time, the leaders of the SAAR
Foundation incorporated and sat on the boards of charities and nonprofit
organizations. Many were branches of Saudi charities that operate worldwide. .
. .” (Ibid.;
pp. 153-154.)
26.
The
program notes the significant overlaps between the SAAR network and the Al
Taqwa network. (For more about the Al Taqwa/SAAR/Safa Trust link, see—among
other programs—FTR#’s 356, 357, 382,
415, 423, 425, 432, 433, 435, 454, 455. For more about the Norquist links
to the targets of Operation Green Quest, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 356, 357, 415, 425, 435, 454, 455,
462.) “ . .
. Operation Green Quest was launched in October 2001 as part of the Customs
Service initiative to track bin Laden’s financial empire. In a small,
windowless conference room Green Quest agents charted the Byzantine
relationships among the more than one hundred Safa network entities, a
spiderweb of overlapping names and organizations. Green Quest investigators
also charted the relationship among the Safa network entities and the Muslim
Brotherhood through the Al Taqwa Management empire of Yousef Nada. U.S.
officials said they had tracked about $20 million from Safa entities flowing
through Nada’s Bank al Taqwa, but said the total could be much higher.” (Ibid.;
pp. 154-155.)
27.
“The ties
between Nada and Safa leaders were many and long-standing, as were their ties
to other Brotherhood leaders. Two members of the Safa Group helped set up Bank
al Taqwa in the Bahamas and several Safa leaders loaned Nada money. In 1976,
two other men who later became prominent in the Safa Group founded Nada
International, a Brotherhood bank in Liechtenstein. For a time, Sulaiman Abdul
al Rajhi, the SAAR Foundation founder, worked for Nada at that bank. Nada
International was designated a terrorist financier by the Treasury Department
after 9/11. . . .” (Ibid.; p. 155.)
28.
Do
not Fail to take note of the role in the SAAR/Safa Trust milieu of Cherif
Sedky, the above-mentioned lawyer for Khalid bin Mahfouz. The milieu targeted by the 3/20/2002 Green Quest raids is the
BCCI/Harken milieu. It should not be surprising, therefore, to see the FBI,
under Mueller, covering up Operation Green Quest. “
. . . SAAR lawyers said the $1.8 billion was reported because of a clerical
error, despite the fact that the ten-digit number, $1,783, 545, 883, was
repeated at least seven times on the form. Cherif Sedky, the foundation’s
treasurer, said that he ‘did not recall’ that amount of money flowing through
the company. . . . There is another thread in the Safa network that has drawn
scrutiny from federal investigators, For the last five years of its existence,
the treasurer of the SAAR Foundation, the group’s central entity, was Cherif
Sedky, an American lawyer representing the al Rajhi family. Sedky is also the
representative and business partner of Khalid bin Mahfouz, one of the
wealthiest men in the world and longtime banker to the Saudi royal family. . .
.” (Ibid.; p. 156.)
29.
The
Operation Green Quest raids were triggered by a raid on the aforementioned Sami
al-Arian, the supporter of Bush and associate of Grover Norquist. “ . . . The Safa
Group might have escaped scrutiny in 2001, if not for a raid that occurred
seven years earlier, leading to another thread of investigation. In 1995, the
FBI raided the home and offices of Sami al-Arian, a Kuwaiti-Palestinian
computer science professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa. The
feds suspected al-Arian, a slight, bearded, and balding man, was secretly
funneling money to terrorists. They believed he was a senior member of the
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a group that unleashes suicide bombers against
Israelis.” (Ibid.; p. 158.)
30.
“Al-Arian was a
vocal activist on Palestinian causes, and he frequently spoke at Islamic
conferences. At one 1991 conference, al-Arian, dressed in the flowing robes of
an imam, was videotaped shouting in Arabic ‘Let us Damn America, let us damn
Israel. Let us damn their allies until death.’ In the early 1990s, al-Arian set
up organizations to raise money for orphans and widows and the study of Islam.
He used the organizations to sponsor Muslim conferences, including one that
featured Omar Abdul Rahman, the blind Sheik who instigated the 1993 World Trade
Center attack.” (Idem.)
31.
“Al-Arian also
sponsored the U.S. visa of Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, who joined al-Arian on the
university faculty from 1992 to 1994. But Shallah suddenly disappeared in
October 1995, immediately following the assassination of PIJ leader Fat’hi
Ibrahim Shikaki. Shallah resurfaced a few days later at Shikaki’s funeral in
Damascus, where the slain leader’s body was taken with full military honors.
Shallah, standing by the casket, had been named Shikaki’s successor. Al-Arian
said he was ‘shocked’ at Shallah’s ties to PIJ. But the FBI finally swooped
in.” (Ibid.;
pp. 158-159.)
32.
“The raid on
al-Arian led to the Safa Group. The FBI found letters documenting Safa
entities’ financial support of al-Arian to the tune of tens of thousands of
dollars a year. In a September 7, 1993, letter, Safa Group leaders told one al-Arian-led
group: ‘We consider you a part of us and an extension of us and we as a part of
you,’ adding that their financial donation of tens of thousands of dollars was
‘for you as a group, regardless of the party or façade you use the donation
for.’” (Ibid.;
p. 159.)
33.
“But the al-Arian
and Safa Group investigations languished. In the 2000 elections al-Arian
supported George W. Bush, urging Muslims to vote Republican as the best hope of
ending discrimination against Arab-Americans. Al-Arian and his family were
photographed with a beaming Bush and his wife, Laura, during a Florida campaign
stop. Al-Arian liked to boast that he had delivered ‘considerably more’ than
the 537 votes that gave Bush his victory in Florida and allowed him to capture
the White House. On June 20, 2001, al-Arian was invited to the White House as
part of a large delegation of Muslims to be briefed by presidential adviser
Karl Rove.” (Idem.)
34.
Bush
associate Talat Othman, a director of Norquist’s Islamic Institute, went to bat
on behalf of the targets of the Operation Green Quest raids of 2002. “In 2002, during
the presidency of George W. Bush, Othman again won access to the White House
and met with Secretary of the Treasury Paul O’Neill to discuss U.S. government
raids on Muslim charities that were allegedly funding terror.” (House of Bush, House of Saud; p. 125.)
35.
Is it a “coincidence” that
federal employees in Tampa “accidentally” destroyed key paperwork in 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.)
36.
Reviewing
information presented in FTR#462,
the program highlights the FBI’s attempts at monopolizing the Operation Green
Quest investigation. Other agencies
allege that the bureau is actively subverting their efforts at pursuing the
case. “ .
. . 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.” (“Whose War on Terror?”; Newsweek; 12/10/2003; p. 1; accessed at: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3068377/
.)
37.
“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.)
38.
“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 decadelong record of lethargy in which FBI offices failed to aggressively
pursue terror-finance cases.” (Idem.)
39.
“‘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.’ . . .” (Ibid.; pp. 1-2.)
40.
Note
that Yaqub Mirza, who set up the organizations targeted in the investigations
into SAAR and Safa Trust, is alleged to have influence high inside the FBI.
Mirza has not been charged by the Operation Green Quest investigators. “ . . .
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].” .” (“Perilous Power Play: FBI vs. Homeland
Security” by Rita Katz & Josh Devon; National
Review; 5/27/2003; p. 2; accessed at: http://www.nationalareview.com/script/printage.asp?ref=/comment/comment-katz-devon0
.)
41.
“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 that 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.)
42.
“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.)
43.
“ . . . 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.)