The Washington Times
www.washtimes.com
Clinton White House axed terror-fund probe
Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON
TIMES
Published 4/2/2002
The Clinton administration shut down a 1995
investigation of Islamic charities, concerned that a public probe would expose
Saudi Arabia's suspected ties to a global money-laundering operation that raised
millions for anti-Israel terrorists, federal officials told The Washington
Times.
Law enforcement authorities and others
close to the aborted investigation said the State Department pressed federal
officials to pull agents off the previously undisclosed probe after the
charities were targeted in the diversion of cash to groups that fund
terrorism.
Former federal prosecutor John J.
Loftus said four interrelated Islamic foundations, institutes and charities in
Virginia with more than a billion dollars in assets donated by or through the
Saudi Arabian government were allowed to continue under "a veil of
secrecy."
"If federal agents had been allowed
to conduct the investigation they wanted in 1995, they would have made the
connection between the Saudi government and those charities," said Mr. Loftus,
now a St. Petersburg, Fla., lawyer who filed a lawsuit last week accusing a
Florida charity of fraud.
"Had the charities
been shut down, they would have been unable to raise the millions that since
have been used by terrorists in hundreds of suicide attacks," he
said.
Federal agents last week began a new
investigation, known as "Operation Green Quest," into the funding by charities
of suspected terrorists, raiding 14 Islamic businesses in Virginia. Agents from
the U.S. Customs Service, Internal Revenue Service, Immigration and
Naturalization Service and FBI, coordinated by a Treasury Department
counterterrorism task force, seized two dozen computers, along with hundreds of
bank statements and other documents.
Records in
the case have been sealed and no arrests have been announced, although the probe
is continuing.
The Loftus suit, filed March 20
under the Florida Consumer Protection Act, accuses the Saudi government in a
massive scheme involving charities in Virginia and Florida that routed cash to
terrorists.
The suit's main target is Sami
Al-Arian, a former University of South Florida professor who created or was
associated with several Florida charities or think tanks, including the
International Committee for Palestine, Islamic Concern Project and the
now-defunct World and Islam Studies
Enterprise.
Warrants served by agents in the
Virginia raids last week targeted, among others, the International Institute of
Islamic Thought in Herndon, a major source of funding for Mr. Al-Arian's World
and Islam Studies Institute.
The warrants
sought information on Islamic Jihad, Hamas, the Islamic Concern Project, the
World and Islam Studies Enterprise, and Mr. Al-Arian. They also sought
information on the SAAR Foundation, an educational and health charity founded by
the Al-Rajihi family of Saudi Arabia.
The
Islamic Concern Project and the World and Islam Studies Enterprise have been
named by the State Department as front organizations that raised funds for
militant Islamic-Palestinian groups such as Islamic Jihad and Hamas. They have
been tied to the diversion of millions of dollars to terrorists for weapons,
safe haven, training and equipment.
Nail
Al-Jubeir, spokesman for the Saudi information office in Washington, called the
accusations "simply nonsense," adding that Saudi Arabia has cracked down on
terrorists and those who fund them.
"There is
not one iota of evidence to support these accusations," Mr. Al-Jubeir said. "It
is nothing more than an effort to smear our name. If there is any proof, I would
suggest it be taken directly to the U.S.
government."
Mr. Al-Arian and Mazen Al-Najjar,
director of the Islamic Concern Project, have been the focus of federal
investigations since the mid-1990s. No criminal charges have been filed against
the two, although the government shut down the World and Islam Studies
Enterprise.
Mr. Al-Najjar, who is Mr.
Al-Arian's brother-in-law, was detained and ordered deported by the INS on visa
violations after the September 11 attacks on America. He is being held at a
federal detention center in Florida pending
appeal.
In the aborted 1995 investigation, the
FBI said in a sealed affidavit that the Islamic Concern Project and World and
Islam Studies Enterprise � working with charities in Virginia � committed fraud
and "served as a vehicle by which [Islamic Jihad] raised funds to support
terrorist activities in the occupied
territories."
In that probe, investigators
found that checks drawn on a bank account of the International Committee for
Palestine had been cashed by people in the Middle East. They said the checks had
been signed by Mr. Al-Arian.
Mr. Loftus is
seeking an injunction blocking Florida charities, including those headed by Mr.
Al-Arian, from transferring "money, weapons, equipment or communications gear"
to terrorists.
Mr. Al-Arian has vigorously
denied any wrongdoing, calling the Loftus lawsuit a "publicity stunt." His
attorney, Robert McKee, did not return calls to his office for
comment.
Julie Payne, spokeswoman for former
President Bill Clinton, did not repond to inquiries about State Department
policy in 1995 during his
administration.
Accusations that the Saudi
government used charities as front organizations to fund international terrorism
are long-standing, first surfacing 20 years ago when U.S. intelligence officials
warned Congress that the Saudis had taken over the direct funding of terrorist
groups such as Islamic Jihad and Hamas.
One
former and three current federal law enforcement officials said the new probe
began after U.S. officials learned that intelligence agents in India had
wiretapped the telephone of a Pakistani charity funded by the Saudi government
and discovered the transfer of $100,000 to Mohamed Atta, one of the 19 al Qaeda
hijackers in the September 11 attacks.
That
information helped U.S. officials identify the 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were
from Saudi Arabia, the officials said.
After
the suicide strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the officials
said Treasury's interagency task force was created to investigate ties between
charitable organizations in this country and international terrorist
groups.
That ongoing probe, according to the
officials, has focused on accusations that several tax-exempt and nonprofit
charities operating from Virginia to Florida have contributed millions of
dollars to international groups that support terrorism, including Islamic Jihad
and Hamas.
Copyright � 2002 News
World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
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