Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Why Is Convicted Terrorist Sami Al-Arian Strutting Around Capitol Hill?
Why Is Convicted Terrorist Sami Al-Arian Strutting Around Capitol Hill?
December 23, 2013
By WILLIAM MAYER
December 23, 2013 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - On April 17, 2006 Sami Al-Arian, a former professor of computer science at the University of South Florida, pleaded guilty to count four of a federal indictment charging him with, "conspiring to provide services to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a specially designated terrorist organization, in violation of U.S. law..." [source, Sami Al-Arian Pleads Guilty, DOJ press release]
Al-Arian's plea contains damning admissions regarding the depth of his jihadist activity:
"In the plea agreement, Al-Arian admits that he was associated with several organizations, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in the late 1980s and early to mid-1990s. He also admits that co-defendants Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, Bashir Musa Mohammed Nafi and Mazen Al-Najjar were associated with PIJ . President Clinton issued an executive order in January 1995 which banned certain transactions with organizations and individuals who were "specially designated terrorists," including PIJ, Sheik Abd Al Aziz Awda and Fathi Shiqaqi and later, Ramadan Shallah.
Al-Arian admits that he performed services for the PIJ in 1995 and thereafter, when he was a professor at the University of South Florida and after he knew that the PIJ had been designated by President Clinton as a terrorist organization. Al-Arian also acknowledges in the plea agreement that he knew the PIJ used acts of violence as a means to achieve its objectives. Nevertheless, Al-Arian continued to assist the terrorist organization, for instance, by filing official paperwork to obtain immigration benefits for PIJ associate Bashir Nafi, and concealing the terrorist associations of various individuals associated with the PIJ. He further admits to assisting PIJ associate Mazen al-Najjar in a federal court proceeding, a proceeding in which al-Najjar and Nafi both falsely claimed under oath that they were not associated with the PIJ. Moreover, Al-Arian acknowledges that in late 1995, when Ramadan Shallah, co-conspirator and former director of Al-Arian's "think tank," the World and Islam Studies Enterprise (WISE) was named as the new Secretary General of the PIJ, Al-Arian falsely denied to the media that he knew of Shallah's association with PIJ..."
At his sentencing, Federal Judge Moody tore into Al-Arian's disingenuous guise of victimhood.
"'I find it interesting that you praise this country in public,' Judge Moody said, 'the one you called Great Satan.' He continued to upbraid Mr. al-Arian, who he called a 'master manipulator' for his connections to the Palestinian group, leading Mr. Al-Arian's wife to leave the courtroom in tears.
Describing horrific bombings in Israel, Judge Moody said: 'Anyone with even the slightest bit of human compassion would be sickened. Not you, you saw it as an opportunity to solicit more money to carry out more bombings...The only connection to widows and orphans is that you create them.'" [source, Jennifer Steinhauer, Palestinian to Be Imprisoned Before Deportation , New York Times]
Though technically still under some form of confinement [he was previously under house arrest, but that has apparently been modified into something less restrictive] Al-Arian appeared at a briefing - entitled "Restoring Democracy and Freedom in Egypt" - on Capitol Hill which was underwritten by a group calling itself the "Egypt Freedom Foundation."
The story was broken by Steven Emerson's Investigative Project on Terrorism:
"A new group advocating for the restoration of Muslim Brotherhood power in Egypt held a briefing on Capitol Hill Thursday. It is part of a series of events calling for "restoring democracy to Egypt."
But like similar efforts before it, the push by the newly-established Egypt Freedom Foundation involves people with ties to Muslim Brotherhood organizations in the United States. And, the Investigative Project on Terrorism has learned that the event also attracted Sami Al-Arian to the Cannon Office Building on Capitol Hill. Al-Arian is a convicted terrorist-supporting felon who is still under a separate indictment for criminal contempt. Both cases involve his work with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group for which Al-Arian served as a board member..." [source, IPT EXCLUSIVE: Al-Arian Resurfaces in New American Brotherhood Campaign , IPT News]
Not so long ago the idea of a convicted terrorist being welcomed into the halls of Congress would have been unthinkable, but given the level of support the Obama administration has given to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, it's back room negotiations with the Taliban and Iran's Ayatollocracy and its general lawlessness, it's become obvious that those days are gone, perhaps forever.
What will Congress do about this major breach of security?
We will have to get back to you on that; but given that this event took place two weeks ago absent any outcry, our expectations as to prompt Congressional action on the matter are very low.
But, in the mean time, as the U.S. Congress fiddles while the civilized world burns, let's explore the milieu in which this Muslim Brotherhood stealth jihad operation is being rolled out in the U.S.
Among the roster of notable speakers who have participated in the "Restoring Democracy in Egypt" project are:
1. Tariq Ramadan
2. Mohammed Elmasry
3. Dalia Mogahed
Tariq Ramadan was one of two presenters at a December 8 dog and pony show which was held at the "Mosque Foundation," in Bridgeview, IL. The event was promoted on Ramadan's website under the heading of, Egypt Freedom Foundation and MAS PACE-Chicago: "Restoring Democracy and Freedom in Egypt "
About Ramadan, Caroline Glick stated in a 2010 Jerusalem Post article, "...on Wednesday the State Department announced that the US has dropped its opposition to permitting Islamist leader Tariq Ramadan from entering the US. Ramadan - whose grandfather founded the Muslim Brotherhood which spawned the likes of al-Qaida and Hamas - is a hero of the far Left in the US and Europe. He was barred from entering the US since 2004 due in part to his personal contributions to Hamas..." [source, The Perils of Presidential Failure, Caroline Glick, cross-posted on the Center for Security Policy website]
The location at which Ramadan spoke in December is a fabled one, at least among those in the counter jihad movement. Previously the entity was commonly referred to as the Bridgeview Mosque.
In a 2002 piece published by World Net Daily, terror expert Steven Emerson recounted his first visit to Bridgeview:
"...Later, he took Khalid and me to the Bridgeview Mosque, where Jamal Said was the imam. I could tell immediately that we were deep in the heart of Hamas territory. The walls of the vestibule were covered with Hamas posters and recruiting literature showing masked gunmen brandishing automatic weapons. It was all in Arabic, but you could see daggers plunged into Jewish hearts wrapped up in American flags. They even had a library filled with militant terrorist videos and books. Khalid was there to translate for me. The Friday service was a rather strange experience. Out of 800 people, I was the only one wearing a red ski jacket. When the service was over I approached the imam and asked him if he had known Abdullah Azzam. He was very defensive. "I never met with him," he said quickly and then dismissed me. Earlier that year, two Hamas operatives, congregants of the mosque, were arrested in Israel for transferring money from the United States to terrorists on the West Bank. One of these men, Mohammad Jarad, told the Israelis that he was sent on his mission by Jamal Said..." [source, book review, Jihad in America, WND]
Also speaking at the December Bridgeview event was Mohamed Elmasry, who leads an Islamist organization called the Canadian Islamic Congress [CIC] which was created in 1994, the same year in which CAIR debuted.
The CIC denies that Hezbollah and Hamas are terrorist organizations and demanded that Canada not list them as so.
"The Canadian Islamic Congress is adding its voice to renewed calls for the federal government to review its 2002 decision to place Hezbollah and Hamas on its list of banned alleged terrorist organizations." [source, CIC website]
On December 6 Dalia Mogahed spoke in support of this same program at Chicago's Nova Center, along with Elmasry.
A 2010 piece appearing on the Investigative Project website reads in part, "...Mogahed has been a tenacious defender of groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), both of which are tied to the Muslim Brotherhood. During a September 2008 appearance at the Religion Newswriters Association Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., she was asked about links between the two organizations and Islamic radicals. Mogahed replied that it would be unfair to have those groups "disenfranchised" because of "misinformation." Without offering evidence, she claimed "there is a concerted effort to silence, you know, institution building among Muslims. And the way to do it is [to] malign these groups. And it's kind of a witch-hunt..." [source, Dalia Mogahed: A Muslim George Gallup or Muslim Ideologue?, IPT]
Both ISNA and CAIR were proven, during the landmark anti-terror prosecution U.S. vs. Holy Land Foundation, to be associated with the Palestinian terrorist group, Hamas.
As this author noted in a previous piece, "...Federal District Court Judge Jorge Solis in a 2009 post prosecution decision arising out of the Holy Land case, was very clear in associating CAIR with Hamas, "The government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA, NAIT, with NAIT, the Islamic Association for Palestine, and with Hamas," U.S. District Court Judge Jorge Solis said in the July 1, 2009, ruling.." [court filing source, The Investigative Project-Federal Dist. Court filing]. Hamas was created by the Muslim Brotherhood to destroy Israel through Islamic jihad." [source, CAIR Defeated - Kansas Enacts Historic American Laws For American Courts Legislation , PipeLineNews.org]
So it's disingenuous in the extreme when Mogahed can so casually label criticism of these two Muslim Brotherhood front groups as victims of an Islamophobic, witch hunting American mentality.
Lastly let's turn our attention to the organization which was created to push this latest iteration of Islamic jihad, the Egypt Freedom Foundation. According to the IPT [previously sourced], the group was "...incorporated in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 1, records show. The only listed officer, Ahmed Bedier, is a former Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) chapter director who still raises money for the group. CAIR was created in 1994 as part of a Muslim Brotherhood network of Hamas-support organizations, court records show. Hamas is a Palestinian offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood...."
Coming full circle then, we have three Islamists, Ramadan, Elmasry and Mogahed out on the hustings speaking in support of a program designed to garner support in the U.S. for Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood. Further darkening the picture, the parent organization pulling the strings for this exercise in takiyya is seemingly led by a former official [Ahmed Bedier] of the Florida chapter of CAIR.
Not a very pretty picture...
Again, we are not expecting much in the way of action being taken by the current House Leadership against what is most properly characterized as a radical Muslim invasion of Capitol Hill, however the dynamics of this shell game are easy to understand.
"Restoring Democracy..." is an Islamist tool, being pushed by Islamists and their various organizations in furtherance of the endless stealth jihad being waged against the West. Seen in this light, the presence of Al-Arian at the Congressional presentation should be treated simply as confirmatory evidence as to the danger this effort represents.
©2013 PipeLineNews.org LLC, William Mayer. All rights reserved.
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