Wall Street Journal: Norquist leads influence operation that legitimizes ‘Muslim militants’

The Wall Street Journal has confirmed the Center for Security Policy’s concerns about a prominent conservative activist whose foreign-funded Islamic outreach activity may be damaging the credibility of US counterterrorism programs and unwittingly inflicting political damage on President George W. Bush.

The Center has long expressed concerns that many of the Islamic "leaders" and groups involved are sympathetic to what the Bush administration itself describes as international terrorist organizations, and that have called for attacks on American troops.

In a June 11 page-one story, the Journal reports that activist and lobbyist Grover Norquist is responsible for connecting radical Muslims with Bush during the 2000 campaign through a foreign-funded group he founded called the Islamic Institute. According to the article, "The Sept. 11, 2001 attacks hurt that relationship and sparked charges from some conservatives that Mr. Norquist has provided Washington access and legitimacy to Muslim radicals."

Among the radicals was Sami Al-Arian, the former University of South Florida professor whom the FBI arrested earlier this year under a 50-count terrorism and racketeering indictment alleging that he was Secretary of the "Shura Council" or worldwide governing body of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Norquist and others at his Islamic Institute claim they hardly know Al-Arian, even though Norquist received an award from Al-Arian’s group shortly before the 9/11 attacks praising him for his efforts to fight "secret evidence" anti-terrorism laws.

The June 11 story is the second time this year that the Wall Street Journal has linked Norquist with Al-Arian.

The Islamic Institute "has also taken contributions from an Islamic charity in northern Virginia that is under investigation as a possible front for financing terrorism," the Wall Street Journal reports, adding,"The institute . . . has been dependent from the start on foreign donations. Its main supporter has been the Persian Gulf state of Qatar, from which it has received hundreds of thousands of dollars since 1998. In 2001, the last year for which complete records are available, roughly 80% of the institute’s $641,000 in contributions came from foreign governments, companies and individuals writing checks on foreign banks."

Some conservative leaders are concerned that the relationship is unhealthy for the president and the nation. "We have to acknowledge that we’re at war and that it’s very possible some of the Muslims [involved with Norquist] want to establish a fifth column in this country," according to a senior conservative leader in the article.

The Journal reports that during the 2000 campaign, the Islamic Institute’s director, Khaled Saffuri, "brought prominent American Muslims to Austin to meet presidential candidate Bush at the Texas governor’s mansion." [See photograph. The paper does not report that those individuals included the former leader of the Communist Party of Pakistan and open supporters of the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist groups.] Saffuri previously was a senior figure in the American Muslim Council.

While their Islamic Institute was taking money from foreign governments, Saffuri and Norquist lobbied candidate Bush "specifically" to "denounce the Justice Department’s use of undisclosed evidence against suspected terrorists in deportation proceedings." At the time, the US was using such evidence against comrades of Sami Al-Arian of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The foreign-funded efforts worked, according to the Journal: "Mr. Bush did just that in the debate on Oct. 11, 2000. Twice during the debate, Mr. Norquist says, Mr. Rove phoned him at home to draw attention to the remark and urge him to ‘put the word out’ among Muslims. Mr. Rove says he doesn’t remember making such calls."

"The push to change the Justice Department’s secret-evidence policy collapsed after Sept. 11, 2001," the article continues, "but the Islamic Institute continued to lobby the Bush administration . . . to convey their concerns to Attorney General John Ashcroft and other top administration officials about investigations, arrests and detentions of Muslims." [What the article didn’t say was that Norquist lobbied to water down President Bush’s anti-terrorism legislation and worked to undermine Ashcroft politically, New York Times.]

Recognizing Norquist’s access to the administration and Capitol Hill, according to the Journal, "Foreign donors such as Qatar can count on Mr. Norquist and the institute to help open doors to members of Congress and others in official Washington."

"Allowing these sorts of organizations to meet with the president and his senior subordinates is a very bad idea," Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney says in the article. Norquist’s foreign-funded activities could "lend legitimacy and ‘undesirable influence over policy’ to individuals hostile to American interests."

Norquist and White House political chieftain Karl Rove flatly reject the idea that they might be part of a foreign-funded influence operation. "This is nonsense," Norquist tells the Journal, calling his critics racists and bigots. "’What’s the evidence’ of undesirable influence?’ adds Rove. ‘There’s no there there.’"