Welcome To The White House_"walking The Plank To A Dhimmi Nation"_chapter 8

8 Welcome to the White House Direct relations were established between the White House and the Muslim community under Bill Clinton from 1992-2000, and were strengthened under George W. Bush’s administration from 2000-2008. Bill Clinton was the first to commend Islam in public speeches, and the first to issue invitations to the White House on Islamic holidays such as a yearly dinner celebrating the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan that continued through George W. Bush’s Administration and into the Barrack Obama’s. The State Department established an Islamic website in 2000, proving that Bill Clinton’s administration was actually sanctioning Islam in the White House while the pledge of allegiance and nativity scenes were being systematically removed from schools and public institutions. Furthermore, the date was prior to 9/11. Madeline Albright formally encouraged Muslims to apply for the Foreign Service as she endorsed the website at the White House hosted Islamic dinner in 2000: "I am pleased that since last year the State Department has inaugurated a new website entitled Islam in America." Its purpose is to help people everywhere learn more about the positive force that Islam has become in American life and about the growing role of Muslim Americans as they are there to play a role in ensuring the security, prosperity, and freedom of our land. Equally vital are the international exchange and people-to-people programs we conduct with Muslim-majority nations. These efforts bring distinguished Muslim visitors to our shores to exchange views and promote understanding... We are strongly encouraging young Muslim Americans to apply to the Foreign Service as part of our overall effort to attract talent and promote diversity…”1

1

“American Government Officials And Politicians are Interested In Islam,” http://www.riseofislam.com/islam_in_america_04a.html

A 2009 program sponsored by the department called Citizen Exchange Program gives a grant to the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the National Peace Foundation to cosponsor a citizen exchange project between the U.S. and the Middle East. The ISNA is instrumental in financing and exercising control over most of the mosques in the United States, and is an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood that created Hamas. The program is apparently a oneway exchange, as it is meant to explore Islam, the functions of Islamic institutions in the United States, and the activities of interfaith work. Professionals from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will visit the United States, and American professionals will visit the Middle East. 2 Former Reagan Defense official, and President of the Center for Security Policy, Frank Gaffney Jr., wrote a lengthy article in 2003 describing how Islamists and individuals from the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) were invited into the White House. According to Gaffney, Grover Norquist was a conservative coalition builder against Communism in Central America, Africa and Afghanistan who he knew personally. Norqist formed the Islamic Institute in 1998 as an outreach organization, initially financed by Abdurrahman Alamoudi who was also Bill Clinton’s Islamic Affairs Advisor and financial supporter. Its stated purpose was to cultivate Muslim-Americans and Arab-Americans with conservative family values. Their professed confidence in capitalism made them potential Republican Party allies for the 2000 Presidential election. Alamoudi, convicted in 2004 on terror financing related charges, cultivated ties with the Democratic Party during the Clinton Administration and donated to its candidates. His donations enabled his access to the White House, leading to oversight of selection, training and certification for Muslim chaplains in the U.S. military. Self described supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah, Alamoudi was the Saudi billionaire who helped Bill Clinton write the 1995 Educational Guidelines that were distributed to American schools across the nation, profoundly effecting what our children learn in school in spite of States sovereignty regarding education. Alamoudi addressed the Annual Convention of the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP) in 1996 with the following statement:

2

Rabinowitz, Beila & Mayer, William; “State Department Funding ISNA’s Propagation of Islam via Citizen Exchange Program,” April 25, 2008, http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3442

“If we are outside this country we can say ‘Oh, Allah destroy America.’ But once we are here, our mission in this country is to change it.” Alamoudi was caught on tape complaining that Osama bin Laden had not killed enough Americans in the U.S. embassy bombings in Africa. Alamoudi was also one of Al-Qaida’s top fund-raisers in America, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.3 Alamoudi and his business partner, Khalid Mahfouz, founder of terror-tied Muwafaq Foundation, funded a software company in 1994/1995 named Ptech. Ptech was given control of some US top-secret IT programs, and Ptech had redesigned, and ran the FAA system on September 11, 2001.4 Khalid Mahfouz had previously endeared himself to George W. Bush in the late 1980s with a $25 million bailout of the Harken Energy Company which Bush had financial interest in.5 In 1998, Alamoudi wrote two personal checks for $10,000 each to help start Norquist’s Islamic Institute. According to Gaffney, Alamoudi also made payments in 2000 and 2001 totaling $50,000 to a lobbying firm Norquist was associated with. Alamoudi was arrested and charged in 2004 for engaging in illegal financial transactions with the Libyan government through a charity used by Qadhafi to finance terrorist operations. According to an affidavit filed at the time, Alamoudi admitted to trying to take $340,000 in sequentially numbered $100 bills to Syria, en route to Saudi bank accounts. Alamoudi told authorities in Britain that once the Libyan funds were in the Saudi banks, he could withdraw from them in $10,000 increments to pay the expenses of organizations that he was associated with in the United States. He admitted to undertaking other similar transactions involving amounts of $10,000- $20,000. In addition to the initial $20,000 from Alamoudi, the Islamic Institute was able to receive funding from other secretly affiliated organizations. The Washington Post described such organizations as a:

3

“Lawsuit’s Claim: CAIR No Longer Even Exists,” November 24, 2008, http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php? fa=PAGE.view&pageId=81925 4

“The Sheik and the Secretary of State,” National Corruption Index.org, January 12, 200,9 http://forum.thedailyshow.com/tds/board/message?board.id=guest-suggestions&thread.id=557 5

“Ptech,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptech

“Secretive group of tightly connected Muslim charities, think tanks and businesses based in Northern Virginia used to funnel millions of dollars to terrorists and launder millions more.” Published tax returns and foundation records later showed that the majority of the Norquist’s Islamic Institute funds came from Arab Persian Gulf states and their U.S. funding system, a number of which were later raided by federal anti-terrorism task forces, such as The Holy Land Foundation in Texas. Shut down in 2007, The Holy Land Foundation was found to have been funding Hamas and terrorist organizations overseas. So the Islamic Institute was effectively an Islamic charity meant to spread Islam. Norquist, trusted in Washington, was toasted in 2003 at a black-tie dinner for his nationwide initiatives to memorialize Ronald Reagan. Attended by nearly 300 conservative activists and politicians at Washington’s Mayflower Hotel, it was hoped that the event would bring in votes and campaign contributions for Republicans. Most in the audience were unaware that Norquist had been enabling causes of radical Islamists funded by Saudi Arabia during Bush’s Administration. With untold consequences for the nation, the Director of Norquist’s Islamic Institute, Khaled Saffuri, and deputy to Alamoudi regarding its affairs, enabled Islamists to influence the American military, the prison system, the educational system from K-12 through university level, and the political arena. A Palestinian by birth, Saffuri reportedly supported families of suicide bombers. He was also active in Muslim-supported operations in Bosnia. Saffuri would later denounce President Bush for shutting down the Holy Land Foundation. At Norquist’s suggestion in the summer of 1999, Gaffney moved his Center for Security Policy into Norquist’s new office space, which also housed the “Wednesday Group” meetings and the Saffuri-headed Islamic Institute. Gaffney attended the weekly meetings, which Saffuri also attended in the late 1990’s. Though the meetings were supposed to be comprised of conservative activists and libertarians, Gaffney noted that participants rarely, if ever, addressed national security issues.

In 2000, Saffuri was George W. Bush’s presidential campaign National Advisor on Arab and Muslim Affairs in an effort to obtain votes and donations from states with significant Muslim populations. In February 2001, Insight Magazine reported: “In September 2000, on Karl Rove’s way to the airport to catch his flight back to Texas, Khaled Saffuri, executive director of the Islamic Institute, joined Rove in his car. Saffuri explained to him that the vote of the ArabAmerican community, which includes both Muslims and Christians, still was up for grabs. The community is prosperous and could be the source of considerable campaign contributions. If Bush would mention in public just a few of the issues that concern Arab-Americans, Saffuri told Rove, he would win their hearts, their minds and their support.” President Bush held a meeting in Austin on May 1, 2000 with Alamoudi, Saffuri, and some other immoderate Muslims. The National Journal reported on the event: “It was the summer of 2000, and for George W. Bush, the meeting held the promise of an unusual but important endorsement for his presidential bid. Conservative activist Grover Norquist had persuaded the Republican nominee to sit down with leaders of the Muslim American Political Coordinating Committee, a confederation of four Muslim community groups.” Gaffney recounted that influential Washington conservatives, would-be politicians, thinktank associates, journalists, and an increasing number of lobbyists attended the Islamic Institute presentations. The topics included the plight of Palestinians under Israeli occupation, the misunderstood Islamist government of Sudan, the supposed innocent process of selecting Muslim chaplains for the armed forces, the so-called honored status of women in the Muslim world. Discussions include efforts to promote Islamic causes and candidates within Republican circles. A few weeks after 9/11, Gaffney spoke up about the fact that Alamoudi’s American Muslim Council (AMC) was among the groups invited to the White House. Gaffney wrote of his observation that the AMC’s website featured a link called: “Know Your Rights,” which led to a

statement urging Muslims not to talk to the FBI. A linked statement was in the name of the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom (NCPPF). The NCPPF is a legal aid office for terrorists, and an organization which the AMC was a member. The link disappeared and was subsequently denied after Gaffney brought it to Norquist’s attention. While the link was active, the AMC had been scheduled to meet with the President to discuss how Muslims could supposedly help with the war on terror. Sami al-Arian, a professor at South Florida University, was then president of the NCPPF. He was also Secretary of the worldwide governing council of the terrorist organization, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) who Alamoudi had addressed in 1996 and has been held responsible for suicide-bombings. Despite al-Arian’s radical Islamist sympathies, the Bush campaign met with him to gain Muslim support in Florida. A photograph of Bush with al-Arian in March 2000 received considerable attention after al-Arian was arrested on forty terrorism-related charges in February 2003 and sentenced to 57 months in prison. With credit for time served, Al-Arian was supposed to serve the balance of 19 months and then be deported. He was not deported however, because in March 2008 he refused to testify when the Department of Justice issued a subpoena for him to appear before another grand jury. As a result, contempt charges followed in June 2008, and in September 2008 Al-Arian was released from detention on bond and placed under house arrest to await the trial for contempt.6 Al-Arian’s arrest in 2003 was made possible by the Patriot Act, enabling U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies to share the wiretaps of Sami al-Arian coordinating Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) operations from his Tampa office. Recognizing that the Patriot Act was a threat, the Islamists were determined to discredit it and its architect, then Attorney General John Ashcroft. Various Islamic groups together with the ACLU, the pro-Castro National Lawyers Guild and waged a national campaign against the Patriot Act, and Ashcroft left his position early in Bush’s second term. Norquist was part of the coalition to rescind the Patriot Act and also behind efforts to abolish a section of the 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act permitting “secret evidence.” With secret evidence, prosecutors can withhold classified information from foreign

6

Sami Al-Arian; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_Al-Arian

suspects if authorities have reason to believe the disclosure of such information could compromise the sources and methods through which it was obtained. Banning secret evidence became an Islamist priority when undisclosed classified information linked Sami al-Arian’s brother-in-law, Mazen al-Najjar, to terrorist activities. In order to keep Islamist financial support, in the second presidential debate with Al Gore, Bush formally pledged that if elected, he would comply and prohibit the use of secret evidence. The pledge complied with Saffuri’s previous suggestion to “mention in public just a few of the issues that concern Arab-Americans.” Grover Norquist was awarded for being a “champion of the abolishment movement against secret evidence” in July 2001 at an event held by Sami al-Arian called the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom. On the morning of September 11, 2001, Islamist groups were reportedly scheduled to meet with President Bush to hear his plan to abolish the secret evidence provision in the Patriot Act. Al-Arian had arranged to participate in the meeting from Florida by telephone. According to his website, his teaching schedule at the University of South Florida would not allow him to be at the White House in person that day. In February 2003, Sami al-Arian was arrested again, this time charged with being an alleged leader of the Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in the United States, and Secretary of the “Shura Council,” a worldwide group governing the PIJ. Al-Arian’s attorneys rested without defense. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Moody criticized al-Arian for doing nothing to stop terrorist bombings perpetrated by Islamic Jihad saying: “You lifted not one finger. To the contrary, you laughed when you heard of the bombings…You are a master manipulator. The evidence is clear in this case. You were a leader of the PIJ.” 7 Sami Al-Arian son, Abdullah, was the subject of national media attention when he was escorted out of the White House event by the Secret Service in June 2001, where al-Arian was one of 150 Muslim-American activists in a White House briefing.

7

“Ex-Professor get 4 Years in South Florida Case,” May 1, 2006 http://news.oneindia.in/2006/05/01/ex-professorgets-over-4-years-in-florida-jihad-case-1146512148.html

Abdullah’s removal led to a walkout by other attendees at the meeting, who labeled the incident as “racial profiling.” The Deputy Director of the Secret Service issued a written apology to Abdullah, and President Bush personally called Abdullah’s mother to express regret and to promise that nothing like that would happen again. Probably as a result of Abdullah’s expulsion, the Secret Service was notified that they could provide only physical security possibilities, such as potential assassins. Agents were informed they were not to protect the President from embarrassments such as resulting from meetings with terrorist-apologists, or even from actual terrorists. If unarmed Islamists could find a way to access the President and his subordinates, law enforcement and intelligence professionals understood they could do nothing unless the President’s life was threatened. In the aftermath of 9/11, Grover Norquist gained access for several individuals and groups as part of Muslim outreach efforts, and established Islamist connections with the Bush administration. A memo dated early in 2001 was an effort to coordinate Muslim and ArabAmerican public events. Invitees to the White House events were chosen by Norquist’s Islamic Institute. According to Gaffney, Norquist’s Islamist friends exploited President Bush after 9/11 by sponsoring meetings and hosting White House dinners that only pro-Islamist Muslim-American and Arab-American communities received invitations to, excluding non religious Middle Easterners. The White House invitation list included key members of the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations (CAIR). CAIR’s executive director, Nihad Awad is another self-professed Hamas-supporter and, as will be discussed in a later chapter, harbors a radical agenda. According to Gaffney, The Washington Post featured a photograph of President Bush touring the Washington Islamic Center with Nihad Awad and Khaled Saffuri. As Gaffney put it, the photo was part of a public relations coup that would: “…exploit the President’s laudable and strategically sensible desire to show that neither he nor the American people would hold all Muslims responsible for the murderous actions of the few.” Nihad Awad and CAIR continuously opposed Bush’s policies on Homeland Security and the War on Terror. They even sued Attorney General Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Moeller.

The White House invitation list also included Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, who had attended a rally two days prior to 9/11 to support a former AMC executive, Jamil Al-Amin, former Black Panther currently serving a life sentence for killing a policeman. Al-Amin converted to Islam when he was in prison from 1971-1976 for robbery. At the rally Shaykh Yusuf declared, “This country is facing a terrible fate...This country stands condemned. It stands condemned because of what it did – and lest people forget Europe suffered two world wars after conquering the Muslim lands” 8 “What it did” implies guilt, but states absolutely nothing. Could it mean that Hitler was working in Islamic interests in WWII? After all, Hitler had Islamic allies in WWII, and he raised an army of 20,000 Bosnian Muslims.9 Nevertheless, Gaffney wrote that shortly after 9/11, the FBI went to Yusuf’s house to question him about the attack on the World Trade Center. Yusuf’s wife informed the agents that Yusuf was not home because he was meeting with the President. The FBI checked out her story and found that Yusuf had attended an “inter-religious” meeting in the Oval Office arranged by Suhail Khan as Grover Norquist’s White House stand-in. 10 In September 2001, Muzammil Siddiqi, the president of the Board of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), was also on the White House invitation list. With deep ties to Saudi Arabia, Siddiqi was previously a top figure in the Muslim World League (MWL), whose American headquarters were raided in March 2002 on suspicion of ties to terrorism during the U.S. government’s Operation Green Quest. 11He was Chairman of the Religious Affairs

8

Hanna Rosin and John Mintz, “Muslim Leaders Struggle With Mixed Messages,” Washington Post, October 2, 2001 9

“Bosnian Muslims Volunteer En Masse Into Nazi SS,” http://www.srpska-mreza.com/History/ww2/hanjar.html 10

Jonathan Kaufman, “Islamerican: Meet Hamza Yusuf, ‘Rock Star’ of a Leader Among U.S. Muslims,” The Wall Street Journal, February 15, 2002 11

“Guest CV: Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi,” IslamOnline.net, http://www.islamonline.net/livedialogue/english/Guestcv.asp?hGuestID=uY6w39

Committee of the Muslim Students Association in the U. S. and Canada, and a member of the Fiqh Council, another organization that has been raided. 12 Siddiqi opposes Muslims serving in the U.S. military or defending the United States. Siddiqi said in an article entitled, “Basic Principles of Involvement in War in Islam,” in 1991. “Islam will not allow a Muslim to be drafted by non-Muslims to defend concepts, ideologies, and values other than those of Islam…A Muslim shall not defend non-Muslim lands.” Siddiqi wrote in 1996 of his desire for the United States to become a Muslim country through “gradual change,” and said that Islamic Shari’ah Law should become America’s law. “Allah’s rules have to be established in all lands, and all our efforts should lead to that direction.”13 At the inter-religious prayer service for the 9/11, victims held at the National Cathedral on September 14, 2001, Siddiqi would not condemn terrorism in statements heard worldwide. 14 Siddiqi was later photographed with President Bush in the Roosevelt Room of the White House as he presented him with a Koran. The invitation list included Agha Saeed, founder and president of the American Muslim Alliance (AMA). Saeed created the American Muslim Political Coordination Council (AMPCC), an umbrella group to unite the American Muslim Council (AMC), the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations (CAIR), and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). Eric Erfan Vickers, a black radical American attorney on the invitation list had converted to the Islam. He was affiliated with several Wahabbi groups before he was the AMC executive director from June 2002 until February 2003. In defense of al-Arian, Vickers declared

12

“Guest CV: Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi,” IslamOnline.net, http://www.islamonline.net/livedialogue/english/Guestcv.asp?hGuestID=uY6w39. 13

Schlussel, Debbie; Adam’s Gadahn’s Extremist American Imam,” May 28, 2004 http://www.debbieschlussel.com/columns/column052804.shtml 14

Charles Krauthammer, “The Silent Imams,” Washington Post, November 23, 2001

“What has happened to professor Arian…is happening to Muslims and people of Middle Eastern descent all over this country. They are being discriminated against.” 15 In 2003, Vickers wrote to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, requesting the organization look into the U.S. government investigation of Muslim groups with possible terrorist ties, referring to the investigation as “un-American practices by the U.S. government.” He wrote, “I am writing to request that the United Nations begin an immediate inquiry into the political repression of Muslims and Arabs . . . by the United States government.” 16 Mahdi Bray, also on the list of what Gaffney described as the “Wahhabi Lobby” was usually as a coordinator for political activism. By mid-October of 2003, Bray had overseen the training of nearly 1,000 Islamic activists.17 Bray leads several pro-Islamist organizations in America, and is a former member of the radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). He hosts a radio talk show that reflects the views of, and is sponsored largely by Wahhabi Saudi Arabia. In November 2003, some of the above Muslim groups were finally excluded from the White House invitation list dinner, presumably due to the arrests of their associates. Gaffney wrote that the ISNA, CAIR, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the Muslim Students Association and several other Wahhabi-backed groups and individuals then depreciated the White House events as: “…the events were nothing more than props shamelessly used by the Bush Administration.”

15

Segment entitled, “Should FBI Director Robert Mueller deliver the keynote address to the American Muslim Council tomorrow?” Hardball with Chris Matthews, MSNBC, June 27, 2002 16

“ Eric Erfan Vickers,” A Guide to the Political Left http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp? indid=751 17

“MAS Freedom Near to Reaching Goal of 1,000 Trained Activists,” Freedom Foundation Press Room, October 16, 2003, http://masnet.org/pressroom_release.asp?id=560

After the exclusion of the groups, the FBI Director and supervisory agents continued to meet with representatives of the AMC, CAIR and ISNA, even though associates of each had been the object of law enforcement action. The FBI had once allowed the groups to provide sensitivity training to FBI agents in Quantico, Virginia. The “community outreach,” program has allowed Islamists to gain power and influence in America while exploiting their relationships with U.S. Federal agencies. 18 With less than 3% of America’s population Muslim, there is still an Islamic dinner at the White House every year. More recently there is a USPS stamp and the State Department has a new publication called “Being Muslim in America.” America was not founded on Islam yet the White House officially endorses Islam at the taxpayer’s financial, political, social, and religious expense.

18

Gaffney, Frank; “A Troubling Influence,” December 9, 2003, http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/Read.aspx? GUID=C7CD908B-6D7E-49EB-A0A9-DA0A18745A29