Top Islamist organizer laundered Libyan money; Suspect tied to Clintons, Norquist

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A central organizer of jihadist political activism in the United States has been arrested on charges relating to his alleged funding of Washington influence operations with cash laundered from the Libyan government through Saudi Arabia.

Abdurahman Muhammad Alamoudi was arrested September 28 for “terrorism” related charges, according to Al Jazeera. Alamoudi founded and inspired several prominent Muslim pressure groups and their spinoffs, including the American Muslim Council (AMC) and its sister American Muslim Foundation. When Alamoudi’s aide Khaled Saffuri spun out of the AMC to run the Islamic Institute, Alamoudi provided seed money to help the group, then chaired by GOP activist Grover Norquist, to get started.

Federal agents filed an affidavit alleging that Alamoudi laundered Libyan cash through Saudi Arabian banks to fund his political and propaganda activities in Washington. Alamoudi publicly has supported the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist groups.

Al Jazeera is reporting, “Alamoudi worked with the US State Department under the Clinton administration in the 1990s as a goodwill ambassador to Muslim countries and was often in touch with the White House.”

Thanks to Norquist and the Islamic Institute, the Alamoudi arrest is likely to taint the Bush administration as well – a prospect the Center for Security Policy has been warning about for quite some time. A close confidant of political strategist Karl Rove, Norquist has tried to dominate the White House’s Muslim outreach portfolio.

The Washington Post is reporting that “White House officials did not respond to inquiries” about a June 2001 meeting that Rove had with Alamoudi and members of his organization.

Alamoudi’s arrest is also likely to fuel the controversy surrounding the selection and vetting of Muslim chaplains in the U.S. military, following the arrest of Capt. “Yosuf” Yee, chaplain to the al Qaeda terrorist prisoners in Guantanamo.

The Washington Post reported September 25, “One of the training centers is the Virginia-based American Muslim Armed Forces and Veteran Affairs Council, which vetted Yee in the late 1990s for service as an Army chaplain. The council is closely affiliated with a group based in Alexandria called the American Muslim Foundation, whose president is Abdurahman Alamoudi. Last year, federal agents investigating the possible financing of terrorists raided Alamoudi’s offices. He was one of the key figures in the Muslim community who helped begin the Islamic chaplain program in the military in the 1990s, government officials and Muslim activists said.”

In the recent past, Norquist has tried to dismiss security concerns about Alamoudi and other friends, political allies and donors as being motivated by “racism and bigotry.”

Center for Security Policy

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