Free Republic

U.S. allows Muslim 'fox in the henhouse' Guest panelist threatened America, openly supported terror groups Posted: March 20, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern Editor's note: WorldNetDaily is pleased to have a content-sharing agreement with Insight magazine, the bold Washington publication not afraid to ruffle establishment feathers. Subscribe to Insight at WorldNetDaily's online store and save 71 percent off the cover price. By Kenneth R. Timmerman © 2004 Insight/News World Communications Inc. The congressionally funded United States Institute of Peace hosted an event yesterday in Washington on reforming Islam, with a guest panelist who has threatened the United States and openly supported...

Insight on the News - National Issue: 03/02/04 Special Report Saffuri's Ties to Terror Suspects By Kenneth R. Timmerman The rise of Khaled Saffuri to political prominence within the U.S. Muslim community has all the ingredients of a Horatio Alger success story. Brought up as a stateless exile in Kuwait, Saffuri came to America as a student in 1982, went to college in San Diego, and soon gravitated into the world of Muslim activism. A talented fund-raiser and behind-the-scenes power broker, Saffuri built bridges to politicians in both parties by generously contributing to their election campaigns, from California libertarian Rep....

<p>The terrorist organization Hamas invested millions of dollars during the past decade in real-estate projects nationwide, including in suburban Maryland, as part of a scheme to raise cash to fund acts of terrorism, records show.</p> <p>The investments — involving the construction of hundreds of new homes, including many in Oxon Hill — were handled through BMI Inc., a defunct Secaucus, N.J., investment firm founded by Soliman S. Biheiri, an Egyptian and Hamas supporter, according to a newly released sentencing declaration by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).</p>

Special ReportSaffuri's Ties to Terror Suspects Posted Feb. 23, 2004 By Kenneth R. Timmerman Saffuri (above) has formed relationships with several questionable allies, including Sami al-Arian, who was arrested last year. The rise of Khaled Saffuri to political prominence within the U.S. Muslim community has all the ingredients of a Horatio Alger success story. Brought up as a stateless exile in Kuwait, Saffuri came to America as a student in 1982, went to college in San Diego, and soon gravitated into the world of Muslim activism. A talented fund-raiser and behind-the-scenes power broker, Saffuri built bridges to politicians in both...

Friends in high places WASHINGTON -- The rumpled, balding figure was spotted darting into the offices of Republican power broker Grover Norquist last July. When Sami Al-Arian emerged more than two hours later, someone was waiting for him. Conservative activist Frank Gaffney, whose think tank on national security issues has offices on the same floor, was eager to confirm a tip that the suspected Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative was next door. Best known for his high-profile campaign for a "Star Wars" national missile defense system, Gaffney for months had been quietly pursuing another project: trying to convince the Bush administration...

FRN Columnists' Corner "Mission Creep " By Gary Aldrich After September 11, 2001, a task force composed of the Customs and Treasury Departments, the I.R.S. and the Secret Service established “Operation Green Quest.” This investigation was designed to find money being moved about to fund new terrorist activity, and was staffed by top financial investigators from each of the four agencies. The Department of Justice has decided to move the investigation to the F.B.I., and Customs officials are hopping mad about it. Some critics are calling the move a blatant power grab by the F.B.I. I disagree. From the time...

Almost exactly six months ago, at the start of the liberation of Iraq, the Center for Security Policy warned that a "fragging" incident at the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom "could be the precursor for a far larger and more dangerous problem, both for the military and for American society more generally. Call it the ‘Fifth Column syndrome.'" This ominous forecast was prompted by a disturbing possibility: Sergeant Asan Akbar, the alleged perpetrator of a lethal grenade attack on his superiors who commanded the 101st Airborne on the eve of the unit's "jump off" into Iraq, "could have gotten murderous...

<p>A task force of federal agents has ratcheted up a two-year-old antiterrorism investigation aimed at several Virginia-based Islamic charities suspected of diverting millions of dollars to terror network al Qaeda and other militant radicals.</p> <p>Led by agents of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI, the task-force probe has targeted a number of people tied to several private companies and interrelated Islamic charities operating out of business fronts in Herndon and Falls Church.</p>

HOMELAND INSECURITY D.C. imam tied to hijackers subject of Green Quest probe Detained at JFK last Oct., but then released after State 'pulled' warrant Posted: August 16, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Paul Sperry © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com WASHINGTON – A Muslim cleric who had closed-door meetings with two of the 9-11 hijackers was detained last October at a New York airport after federal authorities identified him as the subject of a post-9-11 terror money-laundering investigation, according to a U.S. Customs incident report obtained exclusively by WorldNetDaily. But the cleric, Anwar Nasser Aulaqi, was released soon after being taken into custody,...

U.S. Probes Fortune in Cash Found in Iraq By JEANNINE AVERSA .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - Piles of U.S. currency, hundreds of millions of dollars so far, are being found in Iraq, even though the country has been under economic sanctions for nearly 13 years. Investigators - on the ground in Iraq and in the United States - are trying to track the money back to where it came from, a Herculean task, both officials and outside experts say. The experts say there are plenty of possibilities, including oil and cash smuggling schemes, illegal trade deals, sham businesses...

Even as war rages in Iraq, federal agents have begun to unlock the secrets of an unlicensed, unregistered Islamic charity in upstate New York that allegedly pumped millions of dollars into Baghdad. Flouting U.S. economic sanctions, the group shipped cash out of Syracuse, laundered it in banks in Jordan and then illegally funneled it into Iraq, according to an unsealed federal indictment. Operating under the name Help the Needy, the organization described itself as a tax-exempt nonprofit that provided food and humanitarian assistance to the "starving children and suffering Muslims of Iraq." But it lacked charitable status, misrepresented itself in...

Jim Moran is sorry. Not for what he said, really, but for the way it came out. As he put it, "I've got to be more careful in the future to not say things I don't believe." After a series of statements that were insulting and offensive to Jews and that attacked Israel, this seven-term Democratic congressman from the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington managed to top them all. At a March antiwar rally in Reston, Va., he blamed Jews for the impending war with Iraq. As reported by The Connection newspapers of Northern Virginia, Moran said that "if it...

FORTUNE interviews deputy assistant treasury secretary Juan Zarate. While U.S. troops storm Iraq, another battalion in D.C. is busy trying to prevent the next terrorist attack. But they're not soldiers--they're bureaucrats chasing the al Qaeda money trail. Leading the charge is deputy assistant treasury secretary Juan Zarate. At just 31, the former prosecutor (and Harvard baseball player) has been working since Sept. 11 to locate and shut down al Qaeda's many financial conduits. As a result of these efforts, President Bush has frozen more than $125 million in assets owned by 263 individuals and entities. We caught up with Zarate...

Saturday, March 22, 2003 - Two Iraqi brothers have been arrested and charged on suspicion of sending more than $7 million from Denver to Iraq through an unlicensed money transmitting business. Maitham Abdulla Jaber Al Samar and his brother, Qassim Abdulla Jaber Al Samar, both 39, were arrested Thursday night in Denver without incident and appeared Friday before a U.S. magistrate.Their arrests followed a lengthy investigation by the FBI's Denver- based Joint Terrorism Task Force.The arrest of the brothers, who live in Denver, came a day after the Indiana Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested Mazin Al Saeed, of Elkhart, Ind....

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hoping to cut off financing schemes that could aid terrorists, federal agents have launched a series of raids that nabbed nine people across the country on charges they were illegally moving money abroad or selling fake passports.</p>

<p>A financial-crimes task force that has targeted terrorists' efforts to raise illicit cash expanded operations yesterday to more than a dozen U.S. cities and outposts in Europe and the Middle East in what was described as a major crackdown on international terrorism.</p>

SEATTLE – More than $12 million was channeled to Iraq through a Pacific Northwest company in violation of U.S. sanctions, according to a federal grand jury indictment that names 12 people. "We have not ruled out the fact that any of these monies could have gone to fund terrorist activities or bolster the regime of Saddam Hussein," Leigh Winchell, special agent in charge of investigations for U.S. Customs in Seattle, told WorldNetDaily. According to the indictment released today, Hussain Alshafei, an Iraqi native and naturalized U.S. citizen, was a point man for a worldwide ring that forwarded funds to a...