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Autor: Antimulticulture@somewhere.com (2003-12-02 22:35:25)
Pentagon Madrassas
By Evan McCormick
http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=11063
December 2, 2003
When federal authorities arrested a Muslim military chaplain nearly one
month ago at Guantanamo bay on suspicions of espionage, the danger of our
radical Islamist enemies infiltrating the American infrastructure at
dangerous levels came into the daylight.
Federal agents confirmed the bad news with the arrest of Abdurahman
Alamoudi, the founder of the militarys Muslim Chaplaincy program and an
American-Muslim leader well connected to the White House. On October 23,
Alamoudi was indicted on charges that include financial dealings with
al-Qaeda and Hamas, passport fraud, illegal procurement of citizenship, and
engaging in prohibited activities with state sponsor of terrorism, Libya-a
relationship that dates back nearly eight years.
Within days of the arrest, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism
held a hearing in which expert witnesses testified that the Graduate School
of Islamic Social Sciences (GSISS), an unofficial but primary training body
for Muslim chaplains, is part of a network of Saudi-financed entities that
are currently under investigation by US authorities for links with terrorist
groups.
But just when it seemed that the US Military had no sensible choice but to
immediately overhaul the way it brings Muslim chaplains into its ranks,
prominent DOD officials chose instead to ignore the problem. When pressed
by members of the Subcommittee about the process of approving groups that
certify and endorse chaplains, Defense Deputy Under Secretary Charles Abell
stated that the DOD only requires that the endorsing agencies maintain
tax-exempt status with the IRS.
This hands-off policy has led the Pentagon to overlook the fact that the
groups it deals with in placing Muslim chaplains are vocally radical and
linked with several ongoing Federal terror investigations.
This is just the latest example in a troubling history of official ignorance
about the fact that extremists are exploiting the chaplaincy program as a
platform for subversion of US forces. In order to end this vulnerability to
our enemies in the War on Terror, officials must face the problem and act
immediately.
Alamoudi and the American Muslim Council
In March 1991, Colonel Meredith Stanley, Executive Director of the US Armed
Forces Board of Chaplains, met with a delegation from the American Muslim
Council. The meeting was arranged to allow the AMC to air concerns of US
soldiers stationed in Saudi Arabia. At the meeting, AMC founder Abdurahman
Alamoudi- a reputed Muslim Brotherhood member who held a Yemeni passport,
and who would not (fraudulently, according to prosecutors) become a US
citizen until 1996-- urged the US military to create an Islamic Chaplaincy
corps in response to the rapidly increasing numbers of Muslims in the US
military ranks.
The surge in American Muslim soldiers to which Alamoudi was referring
occurred during the first Gulf War, and came largely at the hands of radical
Wahhabi agents operating at US army bases in Saudi Arabia with the
permission of US Military officers. In an interview with the Saudi-owned
London weekly al-Majallah, Canadian Communist-turned-Wahhabi Bilal Philips
revealed that he was employed by the Saudi military and put in charge of
setting up a "Saudi Camp for Cultural Information" at the US army
barracks
in Al-Khubar, Saudi Arabia and at least two other US camps. Philips claims
that in the five months after Iraqi forces withdrew from Kuwait, his
operatives converted 3000 American soldiers to Islam, and that "a
considerable number of US officers and men asked us to deliver such
lectures...the US Army welcomed our work." Demonstrating the typical
Wahhabi worldview, Philips told al-Majallah that, "Western culture, led by
the United States, is the enemy of Islam."
While US officers in the Middle East unknowingly presented Wahhabi
extremists an opportunity to subvert US troops, their counterparts back home
were opening another avenue of infiltration for political Islamists. Until
at least 1998, the Defense Department retained Abdurahman Alamoudi as an
unpaid consultant to review and nominate chaplain candidates. His first
known recruit, Army Captain Abdul Rasheed Muhammad, became the first Muslim
chaplain for US Armed Forces in December 1993. At Muhammads swearing-in
ceremony in December of that year, Alamoudi pinned the crescent moon
insignia on the chaplains uniform.
Rasheeds connections to major Saudi-funded, Wahhabi entities made him an
ideal choice for Alamoudi. In the August 1994 issue of the Muslim World
League Journal, an MWL official reported that Rasheed Muhammad was given a
personal audience with King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, and afterwards lauded the
government and the League for their services to Muslims. Rasheed reportedly
"offered to work closely with the MWL to begin an ongoing interaction with
the MWL in shaping and developing a vital Islamic presence within US armed
forces."
The MWL, an arm of the Saudi government, is suspected by US authorities of
providing logistical and financial support to al-Qaeda terrorist
operations. Documents seized in 2002 reveal that al-Qaeda operatives met at
MWL offices in Bosnia to discuss the use of the MWLs Pakistani offices as
the place from which "attacks [would] be launched." US federal
agents
raided the Virginia offices of the MWL in March of 2002 for suspected ties
to terrorist organizations.
The organizations that helped to place Rasheed Muhammad have maintained
their relationship with the chaplain, highlighting the value of his position
from an operational perspective. In 2001, the Muslim World League
reportedly financed Rasheed Muhammad in leading a Hajj trip to Saudi Arabia
for at least 100 US soldiers. In 2002, he spoke at the AMC Imam Leadership
Conference; a conference that Alamoudi chaired. At the conference, he
appeared along with Stanley Cohen, the radical lawyer for Hamas and first
American attorney to say on 9/11 that he would defend Osama bin Laden.
Cohen is now representing Alamoudi in court.
In 1998, the Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs division of the AMC
officially split from the group and assumed the responsibility of certifying
chaplains. The new organization, the American Muslim Armed Forces and
Veterans Affairs Council (AMAFVAC), was formed by Qaseem Uqdah, an AMC
official who was Alamoudis protoge on the issue of Muslims in the US armed
forces. In June 1995, when Alamoudi toured several US Naval bases in
Florida to meet with military officers and announce the forthcoming
selection of the first Muslim Naval chaplain, Uqdah was at his side.
Graduate School of Islamic Social Sciences
According to a recently unsealed federal Affidavit, the organization that
acts as the feeder training body for the Muslim Chaplaincy program is part
of a terrorism financing ring that operates in Virginia. The Graduate
School of Islamic Social Sciences (GSISS) in Leesburg is part of a network
of Saudi-backed entities designated "the Safa Group" by criminal
indictments
that allege the entities have moved large amounts of money, "directly to
terrorist fronts since the early 1990s." The affidavit supports search
warrants for the March 2002 Operation Greenquest, in which federal agents
raided the offices of GSISS and numerous other foundations and companies
including the Muslim World League.
Taha Jaber Al-Alwani, who has headed the School since at least 1995, is also
Chief Financial Officer at the raided International Institute of Islamic
Thought (IIIT). According to the affidavit, IIIT was one of the groups
through which Saudi sources transferred money to the leader of Palestinian
Islamic Jihad fundraising in the US, Sami al-Arian. The Affidavit includes
a letter in which Al-Alwani states that he considers Al-Arian and PIJ to be
"a part of us and an extension of us."
While the Department of Defense has stressed that GSISS is not technically
an approved endorsement body, evidence shows that the group plays a major
role in the Chaplain certification process. As of June 2002, nine of the
fourteen Muslim chaplains serving in the US military had received their
religious training at GSISS. Others like Captain Yee, who received his
training in Syria, had to obtain a letter of equivalency stating that their
training met GSISS standards before receiving ecclesiastical endorsement
from the Pentagon-approved organizations.
Islamic Society of North America
The second organization approved by the Pentagon to certify Muslim chaplains
is the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). Spun off from the
Saudi-created Muslim Students Association in the early 1980s, ISNA was
designed to oversee the spread of Wahhabi Islam through mosques and Islamic
training centers in the US and Canada. Now they act as a main endorsing
agent for Muslim chaplains in the US armed forces.
ISNAs senior leadership and national conferences are a virtual whos who of
alleged terrorist supporters in the United States. In addition to hosting
indicted PIJ Leader Sami al-Arian at the national convention in 2001, ISNAs
Majlis Council features Imam Siraj Wahhaj; alleged to have been an
unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
One ISNA officer, Louay Safi, is identified by name as part of the Safa
Group in the same Federal Affidavit that implicates GSISS. Another, Jamal
Badawi, has previously served as a member of the Fiqh Council, one of the
targets of Operation Greenquest.
Senators from both parties are frustrated by the obfuscations of senior
Defense Department witnesses, and with campaign season rapidly approaching,
Pentagon officials may be unwittingly setting the President up for a scandal
ripe for exploitation by his opponents. All at the hands of Islamist
extremists who are seeking to exploit the Military chaplain program in order
to subvert US strategy in the war against terrorists.
In a recently leaked internal memo, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
emphasized the importance of taking the War on Terror to the sources of the
Islamic extremism that feeds our enemies with recruits faster than we can
interdict them, specifically Madrassas run by radical clerics. But what
good is it for the Secretary to rightly bemoan the existence of Madrassas
abroad if the Pentagon is funding virtual Madrassas within its own ranks?
--
JimB
http://www.geocities.com/UAM01
Union Against Multi-Culty