Al-Arian’s hometown paper traces Norquist link; White House urged to be more careful

The hometown newspaper of jailed Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Sami Al-Arian is reporting links between the terrorist, other suspected terrorist financiers, and libertarian activist Grover Norquist.

The St. Petersburg Times, which broke major stories about Al-Arian running terrorist support operations out of the Tampa, Florida, area, reports on the alleged connection to Al-Arian and several groups that federal agents have raided or shut down in connection with terrorist financing. According to the report,

* Norquist’s group, the Islamic Institute, received tens of thousands of dollars from pro-Hezbollah operative Abdurahman Alamoudi, and Norquist himself accepted an award shortly before 9/11 for a group headed by Al-Arian.

* Al-Arian visited the Islamic Institute as recently as last summer – something which the Institute’s Chairman, Khaled Saffuri, first denied. Saffuri is a former Alamoudi acolyte.

* “Norquist’s aggressive courting of suspected radicals like Al-Arian was making many conservatives uneasy,” according to former White House speechwriter David Frum.

* Norquist’s group received tens of thousands more from the Safa Trust and the International Institute for Islamic Thought, raided last year under Operation Green Quest as suspected funders of terrorism;

* “Among the more than 50 targets of the [Operation Green Quest] raid were people and organizations connected to Norquist and the Islamic Institute.”

* Norquist has taken advantage of President Bush’s Muslim outreach program by giving Islamic extremists access to the White House and to the president himself.

Norquist, Saffuri, and the White House would not comment for the article.

File: Who brought the Islamic Jihad leader to the Bush campaign and the White House?