“The fact that a chaplain who was detained for supposedly stealing classified documents was trained by a group under investigation for terrorism should set off alarms at the highest levels, Schumer continued. “You have to scratch your head in wonderment as to why nothing is being done on this, especially after the Department’s internal watchdog was warned about potential problems six months ago and acknowledged that those warnings merited a review.” ~ Democrat, Charles Schumer, 2003
What has changed in the six years since Charles Schumer scratched his head in wonderment regarding the potential problems in the U.S. military’s Muslim chaplain program? Most notably, the founder of the Islamist group responsible for placing chaplains in the U.S. military and prisons is in jail, convicted of terror-related charges. Other than that, nothing has changed.
The information below provides insight into the failure of the U.S. government to realistically address the subversive organizations that have significant access and influence on American civilian and military security and policy. More:
The Defense Department allows only the Graduate School for Islamic Social Sciences (GSISS) and the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council (AMAFVAC), a subgroup of the American Muslim Foundation (AMF), to provide Muslim clerics with that ecclesiastical endorsement. The US Bureau of Prisons, the other federal entity that hires religious ministers, also relies on the GSISS as well as the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) to hire Muslim clerics for the federal prison system.
These groups, however, appear to have a number of disturbing connections to terrorism. The GSISS and the AMF are both under investigation as part of US Customs’ Operation Green Quest for their alleged role in helping to funnel $20 million to terrorists through offshore financial institutions. In addition, a number of ISNA board members appear to have checkered pasts. One member, Siraj Wahhaj, was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the WTC ‘93 bombings. Another board member, Bassam Osman, was previously the director of the Quranic Literary Institute, an Oak Lawn, IL organization that had $1.4 million in assets seized by the Justice Department in June 1998 on the grounds that it was used to support Hamas terrorist activities.
In June 2003, the websites for the Navy and the Air Force chaplains were found to have links to Islamworld.net, a website that espouses Wahhabism, and contains links to lectures by fundamentalist clerics, some of whom advocate jihad against the United States and denigrate Christianity and Judaism as “forms of disbelief.” The websites described Islamworld.net as “rich in information about the Islamic faith,” including “an introduction for non-Muslims” and “basics for new Muslims.” After news reports publicized the extremist connection, the Air Force removed the link and the Navy issued a disclaimer saying it has no control over material published on independent Web sites.
These revelations sparked Democrat Charles Schumer to request an investigation and state:
“It is disturbing that organizations with possible terrorist connections and religious teachings contrary to American pluralistic values hold the sole responsibility for Islamic instruction in our armed forces. It is certainly disappointing given that there are numerous American Muslim organizations with pristine reputations who are able to perform such activities,” Schumer continued.
It’s unclear which Muslim organizations Schumer was referring to. Coincidentally, or not, WND reported that the Ft. Hood jihadist, Malik Hasan, was interested in being the interim Muslim chaplain at Ft. Hood:
Not long after Hasan transferred to the base earlier this year, he sat down with Muslim chaplain Maj. Khalid Shabazz to discuss carrying out Shabazz’s “vision” at the Fort Hood chapel when Shabazz was away. Shabazz helped lead Islamic services at the base’s Ironhorse Chapel, which serves 48 Muslim soldiers.
A Senate committee hearing in 2003 provides a litany of information on the problem of Muslim chaplains in the U.S.
“TERRORIST RECRUITMENT AND INFILTRATION IN THE UNITED STATES: PRISONS AND MILITARY AS AN OPERATIONAL BASE. “
Senate Committee on the Judiciary
14 October 2003
Part 1: Chaplains, the Wahhabi Lobby, and the Muslim Brotherhood
The process for becoming a Muslim chaplain for any branch of the U.S. military, currently involves two separate phases. First, individuals must complete religious education and secondly, they must receive an ecclesiastical endorsement from an approved body. As several recent media reports have noted, federal investigators long have suspected key groups in the chaplain program – the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences (GSISS) the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council (AMAFVAC), and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) – of links to terrorist organizations.
• The Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences (GSISS) trains Muslim chaplains.
o Operation Green Quest investigators raided GSISS offices in March 2002, along with 23 other organizations. According to search warrants, federal agents suspected GSISS and the others of “potential money laundering and tax evasion activities and their ties to terrorists groups such as al Qaeda as well as individual terrorists . . . [including] Osama bin Laden.”
o Agents also raided the homes of GSISS Dean of Students Iqbal Unus, and GSISS President Taha Al-Alwani. Press reports identify Al-Awani as Unindicted Co-Conspirator Number 5 in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad case of Sami Al-Arian in Florida.
• The American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council (AMAFVAC) accredits or endorses chaplains already trained under GSISS or other places, like schools in Syria.
o AMAFAC operates under the umbrella of the American Muslim Foundation (AMF), led by Abdurahman Alamoudi.
o According to Senator Schumer’s office, AMAFAC and AMF share the same tax identification number, making them the same legal organization.
• The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) endorses trained chaplains for the military.
Religious education and ecclesiastical endorsement
As of 8 June 2002, nine of the fourteen chaplains in the U.S. military received their religious training from the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences (GSISS) in Leesburg, Virginia.
Following training at GSISS or another religious school, the majority of Muslim chaplains receive their endorsement from the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council (AVAFVAC).
ISNA provides ideological material to about 1,100 of an estimated 1,500 to 2,500 mosques in North America. It vets and certifies Wahhabi-trained imams and is the main official endorsing agent for Muslim chaplains in the U.S. military.
An organ of ISNA, the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) has physical control of most mosques in the United States. NAIT finances, owns, and otherwise subsidizes the construction of mosques and is reported to own between 50 and 79 percent of the mosques on the North American continent.
Origin of military chaplain problem: Muslim Brotherhood penetration
One can trace part of the military chaplain problem directly to its origin: A penetration of American political and military institutions by a member of the Muslim Brotherhood who is a key figure in Wahhabi political warfare operations against the United States.
The Muslim Brotherhood is an international movement founded in 1928 that seeks the destruction of all state and geographic divisions, rejects the idea of the nation-state and all forms of secularization, and works toward creating a world pan-Islamic state with a government based on Muslim sharia law. Initially it was uncompromising in its rejection of secular society, but in recent years changed its strategy to renounce violence (“ostensibly,” in the word of the Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram), and to take over or dominate political parties, unions, and professional syndicates. It is technically banned in its home country of Egypt, but operates through cutouts. Al Ahram calls the Muslim Brotherhood a “political movement” because of its political goals.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s slogan is “God is our purpose, the Prophet our leader, the Qur’an our constitution. Jihad our way and dying for God’s cause our supreme objective.”
Following the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, the Muslim Brotherhood became part of the international Wahhabi infrastructure, with the Saudis providing sanctuary and support. Its functional leader, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, is widely believed to al Qaeda’s second-in-command after Osama bin Laden. Al-Zawahiri is currently on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Alamoudi: The operations chief in the U.S.
In 1990 Abdurahman Alamoudi, an émigré from Eritrea of Yemeni descent and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, set up a political action organization in Washington called the American Muslim Council (AMC). This subcommittee heard testimony almost six years ago that the AMC, based at 1212 New York Avenue NW, was inter alia, the “de facto lobbying arm of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
- Alamoudi with familiar friends
Earlier this month, AMC advisory board member Soliman Biheiri, whom federal prosecutors say was “the financial toehold of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States,” was convicted of violating U.S. immigration law.
Alamoudi is presently in jail on federal terrorism-related charges. He was arrested in late September 2003 at Dulles International Airport after British law-enforcement authorities stopped him with $340,000 in cash that he was trying to take to Syria. U.S. officials allege that the money may have been destined for Syrian-based terrorist groups to attack Americans in Iraq. Charges include illegally receiving money from the Libyan government, passport and immigration fraud, and other allegations of supporting terrorists abroad and here in the United States.
Since Alamoudi has not had his trial, it may be inappropriate in this Judiciary subcommittee setting to discuss the case further, other than to say that one of his attorneys, Kamal Nawash of Northern Virginia, spoke to the suspect after his arrest and called the case politically motivated. Nawash told reporters less than two weeks ago that Alamoudi “has no links whatsoever to violence or terrorism. On the contrary, he supported the U.S. war on terrorism.”
Alamoudi has a long public record that indicates why his instrumentality in founding and shepherding the U.S. Muslim military chaplain program unfortunately calls into question the integrity of the entire Muslim chaplaincy, and requires thorough investigation.
Alamoudi successfully burrowed into the American political mainstream until some of his extremist statements made him a public liability. My testimony will not discuss the details of his political activity other than to say that it included both main political parties and two administrations.
Alamoudi timeline
A timeline of events and statements shows that the Pentagon’s Muslim chaplain program was compromised at the start due to the fact that Alamoudi founded it and guided it, and nominated the first chaplains.
During the time he and his organizations were involved in the chaplain program, Alamoudi was a senior figure in Northern Virginia-based entities that were raided or shut down for alleged terrorist financing; he openly spoke out in support of Hamas and Hezbollah, he campaigned for the release of a Hamas leader, and he attempted to secure the release of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad leader convicted for his role in plotting to bring down civilian airliners and bomb bridges, tunnels, and skyscrapers in New York City.
1979: Abdurahman Alamoudi emigrated to the United States.
1985-1990: Alamoudi was executive assistant to the president of the SAAR Foundation in Northern Virginia. Federal authorities suspect the Saudi-funded SAAR Foundation, now defunct, of financing international terrorism. SAAR is the acronym for Sulaiman Abdul Aziz al-Rajhi, a wealthy Saudi figure and reputed financer of terrorism. Victims of the 11 September 2001 attacks allege in court that “The SAAR Foundation and Network is a sophisticated arrangement of non-profit and for-profit organizations that serve as front-groups for fundamentalist Islamic terrorist organizations.”
1990: Alamoudi founded the American Muslim Council (AMC) as a tax-exempt 501(c)(4) organization, based at 1212 New York Avenue NW in Washington. The AMC has been described as a de facto front of the Muslim Brotherhood. The AMC’s affiliate, the American Muslim Foundation (AMF), is a 501(c)(3) group to which contributions are tax-deductible. SAAR family assets financed the building at 1212 New York Avenue NW.
1991: Alamoudi created the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council (AMAFVAC). Its purpose: to “certify Muslim chaplains hired by the military.” Qaseem Uqdah, a former AMC official and ex-Marine gunnery sergeant, headed AMAFVAC.
1993: The Department of Defense certified AMAFVAC as one of two organizations to vet and endorse Muslim chaplains. The other was the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences (GSISS).
• March: Alamoudi assailed the federal government’s case against Mohammed Salameh who was arrested ten days after the first World Trade Center bombings in February: “All their [law enforcement] facts are – they are flimsy. We don’t think that any of those facts that they have against him, or the fact that they searched his home and they found a few wires here or there – are not enough.” Salameh was convicted in the bombing plot and is currently serving a life sentence in prison.
• In December 1993, Alamoudi attended the swearing-in ceremony of Army Capt. Abdul Rasheed Muhammad (formerly Myron Maxwell), the first Muslim chaplain in the U.S. military, and pinned the crescent moon badge on the captain’s uniform. “The American Muslim Council chose and endorsed Muhammad.”
From about 1993 to 1998, the Pentagon retained Alamoudi on an unpaid basis to nominate and to vet Muslim chaplain candidates for the U.S. military.
1994: Alamoudi complained that the judge picked on the 1993 World Trade Center bombers because of their religion: “I believe that the judge went out of his way to punish the defendants harshly and with vengeance, and to a large extent, because they were Muslim.”
• He began a public defense of Hamas: “Hamas is not a terrorist group … I have followed the good work of Hamas…they have a wing that is a violent wing. They had to resort to some kind of violence.”
1995: Alamoudi continued his Hamas defense, arguing that “Hamas is not a terrorist organization. The issue for us (the American Muslim Council) is to be conscious of where to give our money, but not to be dictated to where we send our money.”
• Alamoudi accompanies AMAFVAC chief Qaseem Uqdah on a tour of naval installations in Florida to assess the needs of Muslims in the U.S. Navy.
1996: In 1996, Alamoudi became a naturalized citizen of the United States. In so doing he swore to defend the Constitution against “all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
• Alamoudi spoke out in response to the arrest at New York’s JFK Airport of his admitted friend, Hamas political bureau leader Mousa Abu Marzook. Months after the arrest, Alamoudi blamed the February 25th Hamas suicide bombings of Israeli citizens on Marzook’s detention: “If he was there things would not have gone in this bad way. He is known to be a moderate and there is no doubt these events would not have happened if he was still in the picture.”
• He continued to defend Marzook: “Yes, I am honored to be a member of the committee that is defending Musa Abu Marzook in America. This is a mark of distinction on my chest … I have known Musa Abu Marzook before and I really consider him to be from among the best people in the Islamic movement, Hamas – in the Palestinian movement in general – and I work together with him.”
• May 23: Alamoudi became a United States citizen.
• As one point during the year, Alamoudi spoke at the annual convention of the Islamic Association of Palestine in Illinois, stating in Muslim Brotherhood terms:
o “It depends on me and you, either we do it now or we do it after a hundred years, but this country will become a Muslim country. And I [think] 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.”
o Alamoudi called on the president to “free Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman,” the Egyptian Islamic Jihad leader serving a life sentence for his role in the early 1990s of bombings and attempted bombings in New York, and for plotting to destroy civilian airliners.
• And again: “I know the man [Marzook], he is a moderate man on many issues. If you see him, he is like a child. He is the most gracious person, soft-spoken. He is for dialogue… [His arrest] is a hard insult to the Muslim community.”
• August 1996: Alamoudi was there when the U.S. Armed Forces commissioned its second Muslim chaplain, Lieutenant JG Monje Malak Abd al-Muta Ali Noel, Jr. “We have taken a long and patient process to bring this through,” Alamoudi said. He spoke of cultivating others to take posts in the political system and law enforcement: “We have a few city council members. We are grooming our young people to be politicians. We also want them to be policemen and FBI agents.”
• Alamoudi protested federal airline safety measures concerning terrorism.
1997: Back to Hamas: “I think [Hamas is] a freedom fighting organization.”
2000: Alamoudi publicly embraced not only Hamas but Hezbollah. At a videotaped protest in front of the White House on 28 October, Alamoudi shouted, “Anybody who is a supporter of Hamas here? Hear that, Bill Clinton. We are all supporters of Hamas. I wish they added that I am also a supporter of Hezbollah. Anybody who supports Hezbollah here?”
• Alamoudi described a two-track political approach, advocating prayer for the destruction of the United States, but counseled that while working within the U.S., his allies should try to change policy: “I think 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.”
2001: In January, Alamoudi attended a conference in Beirut with leaders of terrorist organizations, including al Qaeda.
• November 2001: After NBC and other channels broadcast a 2000 videotape of him proclaiming support for Hamas and Hezboollah, Alamoudi told reporters, “I should have qualified what I have said. I should have said that we should support Hamas and Hezbollah in the effort for self-determination.”
2002: Alamoudi protested the arrest Imam Jamal Abdullah Al-Amin (formerly known as H. Rap Brown): “I think there is a witch hunt against Muslims.” Al-Amin, who held a former AMC post, was later convicted of murdering a Georgia law-enforcement officer.
• March: Federal agents raided Alamoudi’s American Muslim Foundation during Operation Green Quest, as well as several other organizations which Alamoudi had led, staffed, or otherwise been affiliated.
• April: Alamoudi reacted to the Department of Justice’s ordering of names of known or suspected terrorists to be added to federal, state and local police nationwide: “I really don’t understand a government that acts on suspicion instead of facts. America is no longer the land of the free.”
• Alamoudi modified his tone on Hamas: In an op-ed for the Orlando Sentinel on April 30, 2002, Alamoudi explained, “Hamas may be on the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations, and may deserve that designation for some of its actions – such as unconscionable bombings of civilians – but this is not the ‘Hamas’ I support. What I support is the legal military defense of Palestine, and the political and humanitarian work of Hamas to provide representation to the occupied territories as well as medical, educational and other desperately needed social services to the Palestinian people.”
• June: AMC Executive Director Eric Vickers was asked on Fox News and MSNBC to denounce Hamas, Hezbollah, the Islamic Jihad and al Qaeda by name. Vickers would not In one instance, he stated that al Qaeda was “involved in a resistance movement.”
• The FBI announced that Director Robert Mueller would address the AMC’s second annual national lobbying conference. The FBI called the AMC “the most mainstream Muslim group in the United States.”
2003: In September, Army Capt. James “Yousuf” Yee, a Muslim chaplain who ministered to the 660 terrorist detainees at the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo, Cuba, was arrested and identified as having been “sponsored” by the AMAFVAC.
• Alamoudi was arrested by federal agents as he returned from a trip to Libya, Syria, other Arab countries, and the United Kingdom.
• At his bond hearing, attorneys May Shallal Kheder and Maher Hanania of the law firm Hanania, Kheder & Nawash represented him. The third partner of the firm, Kamal Nawash, spoke to him in jail and identified himself on October 1 as an Alamoudi lawyer.
Somehow despite all the above public events, the Pentagon found fit for Alamoudi to start and effectively run the Muslim military chaplains program. Somehow the State Department saw Alamoudi as an appealing representative of the United States in its public diplomacy activities, making him a “goodwill ambassador” to Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and elsewhere, as part of the USINFO program. [break]
That testimony continues, read it all here. And more updates on the front man, if not mastermind, of the Muslim chaplain program, Alamoudi, in the U.S. military and prison system, from Daniel Pipes:
…the one-time high-flyer last week signed a plea agreement with the American government admitting his multiple crimes in return for a reduced sentence. His confession makes for startling reading.
Of particular note are admissions by Alamoudi that he:
- Was summoned by Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi to two meetings and as a result of these Alamoudi helped organize the assassination of Saudi crown prince Abdullah. (The plot was foiled.)
- Transported money from Libya to Saudi Arabia to the United States, where he deposited it in the American Muslim Foundation, one of his non-profits.
- Omitted on his American citizenship application his connections to many radical organizations: the United Association for Studies and Research, Marzook Legal Fund, Mercy International, American Task Force for Bosnia, Fiqh Council of North America, Muslims for a Better America, Eritrean Liberation Front/People’s Liberation Force, and Council for the National Interest Foundation.
Then there is the fact that Alamoudi’s Palm Pilot, seized at the time of his arrest, contained contact information for seven men designated as global terrorists by U.S. authorities. Also, law enforcement found an unsigned Arabic-language document in Alamoudi’s office with ideas for Hamas to undertake “operations against the Israelis to delay the peace process.” And Alamoudi has at least indirect links to Osama bin Laden through the Taibah International Aid Association, an American non-profit where he served along with Abdullah A. bin Laden, Osama’s nephew.
Oct. 15, 2004 update: Alamoudi was sentenced to the maximum 23 years in prison. He will be serving it at U.S. Penitentiary McCreary in McCreary, Kentucky. [CNN removed the story but the archive is available here]
One of his former AMC employees, Faisal Gill, serves as policy director at the Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence division.
As Michelle Malkin questioned about Faisal Gill in 2004:
How does a guy with no intelligence background get appointed director of intelligence policy at DHS–and how does he keep that job and his security clearance after committing two possible felonies by failing to list his two foreign-funded employers on sworn government forms?!?!?!?!
Republicans need to get over their fears of Norquist, put the nation’s interests first, and raise holy hell about this. If they don’t, Democrats will. And they should.
In 2008, Republican Sue Myrick again called for an investigation into U.S. military and prison chaplains approved by Abdurahman Alamoudi.
Legislative Action Items Proposal As Launched in 2008
1. Will call for a government investigation of all US military chaplains who were approved by Abdurahman Alamoudi.
Allegedly, the US Government allowed Abdurahman Alamoudi, then head of the American Muslim Council, to approve Muslim chaplains to serve in the United States military. In fact, Alamoudi, a leader in the radical Muslim Brotherhood, set up the Pentagon’s Muslim chaplain’s corps beginning in the early 1990s. In 2004, Alamoudi was sentenced to 23 years in jail on terrorism charges. The chaplains that were approved by Alamoudi have not been re-vetted since his sentencing. While there may be nothing wrong with the Muslims chaplains that he approved, it seems logical that our Government would re-check the chaplains who were approved by a convicted terrorist.
The investigation should also cover US military chaplains who received training at Islamic schools and think tanks connected with the radical Muslim Brotherhood.
2. Will call for a government investigation of all US prison chaplains who were approved by Abdurahman Alamoudi.
As you can see, none of this information is new. Yet nothing has changed. In 2009, Muslim chaplains in the U.S. military and prison system are still being trained and approved by a known, terrorist-linked and founded conglomeration of Islamist entities. They are fully embedded in the U.S. military, prison system, Department of Homeland Security, and much more.
Our elected officials are not only failing us, they are aiding and abetting the deaths of American citizens and the destruction of the United States.
