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ABDURAHMAN ALAMOUDI (1990 – 2003)

Politically-connected Islamic activist Abdurahman Alamoudi,

founder of Pentagon’s Muslim chaplain program and State Department 

civilian ambassador, convicted of operating on behalf of

foreign intelligence agencies and later identified by Treasury 

Department as top Al-Qaeda fundraiser

When Abdurahman Alamoudi was arrested by U.S. authorities in September 2003 for receiving $340,000 from Libyan intelligence and involvement in an assassination attempt against Saudi Crown Prince (now King) Abdullah, it should have shaken the political establishment to the core. Not only was Alamoudi the most prominent Islamic activist leader in America at the time, he had infiltrated the highest levels of political power. During the Clinton Administration, no other Muslim leader was received at the White House more than Alamoudi. Alamoudi was also charged by the Defense Department to establish the military’s Muslim chaplain corps, and appointed by the State Department to serve as a civilian ambassador, taking six taxpayer-funded to the Middle East. He also met with GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush in Austin to court him on the issue of the use of secret evidence in terrorism cases. He also co-founded, with GOP strategist Grover Norquist, the Islamic Free Market Institute, a freemarket think tank funded with $35,000 in seed money from Alamoudi. Just days after the 9/11 attacks, he appeared with President Bush and other Muslim leaders at a press conference at the Islamic Center of Washington D.C. despite his public comments a year at a rally just steps from the White House  identifying himself as a supporter of the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist organizations.

Alamoudi pled guilty to the charges and was sentenced to 23 years in prison. In July 2005 the Treasury Department revealed that Alamoudi had been one of Al-Qaeda’s top fundraisers, saying that his arrest was a “severe blow” to the terror group’s international fundraising operations.

Many of the military Muslim chaplains he recruited,  and the other individuals  he  placed  in  high  positions  throughout  the  government,  remain  in  positions of responsibility to this day.

SOURCES

Steven Emerson, “Friends of Hamas in the White House,” Wall Street Journal, March 13, 1996

Larry Cohler-Esses and Edward Lewine, “He works for the State Department, backer of terrorists lectures on tolerance,” New York Daily News, October 31, 2000

Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, “Terror Watch: Who, and what, does he know?” Newsweek, October 1, 2003

J. Michael Waller, “D.C. Islamist agent carried Libyan cash,” Insight on the News, October 27, 2003

Mary Beth Sheridan and Douglas Farah, “Jailed Muslim had made a name in Washington,” Washington Post, December 1, 2003

Mary Beth Sheridan, “Government links activist to Al Qaeda fundraising,” Washington Post, July 16, 2005

Rita Cosby, “Some Muslim leaders seen with Bush expressed support for terrorist groups,” Fox News, October 1, 2001