President Clinton meeting with Abdulrahman Alamoudi in the 1990s. [Source: PBS]March 13, 1996:
Clinton Administration Criticized for Meetings with Radical Muslim Activist
President Clinton meeting with ABDULRAHMAN ALAMOUDI in the 1990s.President Counterterrorism expert STEVEN EMERSON, head of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, criticizes the Clinton administration for its ties to Abdulrahman Alamoudi in a Wall Street Journal editorial.
Alamoudi is a prominent Muslim activist and heads an organization called the AMERICAN MUSLIM COUNCIL (AMC). Emerson notes that on November 9, 1995, PRESIDENT CLINTON AND VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE MET WITH ALAMOUDI AS A PART OF A MEETING WITH 23 MUSLIMS AND ARAB LEADERS.
And on December 8, 1995, National Security Adviser ANTHONY LAKE, MET WITH ALAMOUDI AT THE WHITE HOUSE ALONG WITH SEVERAL OTHER AMERICAN ISLAMIC LEADERS.
Emerson notes that Alamoudi openly supports Hamas, even though the US government officially designated it a terrorist financier in early 1995 (see January 1995), and he has been the primary public defender of high ranking Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzouk, who the US declared a terrorism financier and then imprisoned in 1995 (see July 5, 1995-May 1997).
He notes that Alamoudi’s AMC also has close ties to other Islamist groups such as the MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD, and in 1994 the AMC CO-SPONSORED A TRIP TO THE US for SUDANESE LEADER HASAN al-TURABI, a well-known RADICAL MILITANT who is hosting Osama bin Laden in Sudan at the time.
Emerson concludes, “The president is right to invite Muslim groups to the White House. But by inviting the extremist element of the American Muslim community—represented by the AMC—the administration UNDERCUTS MODERATE MUSLIMS and strengthens the groups committing terrorist attacks.” [Wall Street Journal, 3/13/1996]
It will later be reported that in 1994, US intelligence discovered that the AMC helped pass money from bin Laden to Sheikh Omar Abdul-Rahman, BUT IT IS NOT KNOWN IF CLINTON WAS AWARE OF THIS (see Shortly After March 1994).
But ALMOUDI’S POLITICAL INFLUENCE IN THE US WILL NOT DIMINISH AND HE WILL LATER BE COURTED BY FUTURE PRESIDENT BUSH (see July 2000).
He will eventually be sentenced to a long prison term for illegal dealings with Libya (see October 15, 2004).”
DUH, of course they knew...
President Clinton meeting with Abdulrahman Alamoudi in the 1990s. [Source: PBS]