Prosecutors: Architect of Pentagon’s Muslim chaplain program funded al Qaeda

"The architect of the Pentagon’s program to train Islamic clerics to minister to Muslim soldiers provided financial support to both al Qaeda and Hamas through a series of Islamic charities, federal prosecutors alleged in a new court ruling," according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Journal’sGlenn Simpson reports that Abdurahman Alamoudi (aka Abdur Rahman Alamoudi), a leading Muslim political activist in Washington who founded and funded several Islamic pressure groups, was arrested in late September after British authorities found him in London with $340,000 in cash from Libya.

Alamoudi founded the American Muslim Council (AMC) in 1990, and persuaded the Clinton Administration to let him set up a Muslim chaplain corps in the Pentagon, whose officers his organization would approve for duty as chaplains.

The Center for Security Policy has reported on Alamoudi and his terrorist support operations, but the new federal prosecutor filing is the first to connect him with Osama bin Laden’s organization.

The federal allegation is likely to raise further questions about Washington-based pressure groups that Alamoudi helped start, including the Islamic Institute, founded by activist Grover Norquist and run by Alamoudi’s then-deputy, Khaled Saffuri. Alamoudi provided at least $20,000 in seed money to help start the Islamic Institute, which identifies heavily with the Republican Party.

Norquist has been the most prominent Republican activist opposing Attorney General John Ashcroft and demanding repeal or defeat of key anti-terrorist legislation. His organization allegedly has been taking in hundreds of thousands of dollars from Wahhabi sources in the Arabian peninsula.

According to the Wall Street Journal, one of Alamoudi’s lawyers is Stanley Cohen, who also represents a leader of Hamas and who once said he would consider defending Osama bin Laden. Another Alamoudi lawyer, Kamal Nawash, who is presently running as a Republican for the Virginia state senate, represented the alleged terrorist at the time of the arrest but is said not to be representing him any more. Shortly after the arrest, Nawash told reporters that Alamoudi "has no links whatsoever to terrorism."