Abdurahman Alamoudi

See also: Alleged Muslim Brotherhood influence operations, Ptech, 9/11

Testimony of J. Michael Waller

Summary of Muslim military chaplain founder Abdurahman Alamoudi's organizational affiliations (asterisk * indicates the organization was raided in federal counterterrorism probes)

• Executive Assistant to President of SAAR Foundation*
• Regional Representative for DC Chapter, Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)
• Acting President, Muslim Students Association, U.S. & Canada
• Founder, former executive director, American Muslim Council (AMC)
• President, American Muslim Foundation (AMF)
• Board Member, American Muslim Council (AMC)
• Founding Trustee, Fiqh Council of North America, Inc.*
• Board member, Mercy International*
• Secretary, Success Foundation*
• Founding Secretary, United Association for Studies and Research*
• Director, Taibah International Aid Association*
• Board Member, Somali Relief Fund (Prominent Al-Qaeda operative, Wadih El Hage, now serving life in son for masterminding 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, reportedly had Somali Relief Fund business card in his possession during a 1997 raid on his home by Kenyan officials.)
• First Endorsing Agent for Muslim Chaplains, US Military
• Board member, American Muslims for Jerusalem
• President, Muslims for a Better America
• Head, American Task Force for Bosnia (group founded by AMC and directed by Khaled Saffuri)
• Board member, Interfaith Impact for Justice and Peace
• Board member, the Council on National Interest Foundation (founded by Paul Findley www.cionline.org )

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.

1985-1990

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 financier 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.”

American Muslim Council

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." 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.

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.

2002 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."

2002: 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."

Military chaplains

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).

1993 December: 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."

1995: 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.

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."

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.

• 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."
• 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.
• AMAFAC operates under the umbrella of the American Muslim Foundation (AMF), led by Abdurahman Alamoudi.
• 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.

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).

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.

1993 WTC attack

1993 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. 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."

1996: 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.

Support for Hamas

1994: 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."

1996: 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."

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."

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:

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.

1997: Back to Hamas: "I think [Hamas is] a freedom fighting organization."

2002: 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."

Citizenship

1996: In 1996 [May 23], Alamoudi became a naturalized citizen of the United States. In so doing he swore to defend the Constitution against "all enemies, foreign and domestic."

Airline safety

1996: Alamoudi protested federal airline safety measures concerning terrorism.

Support for Hezbollah

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?"

2001: In January, Alamoudi attended a conference in Beirut with leaders of terrorist organizations, including al Qaeda. (This would be the First Conference on Jerusalem, held January 29.)

November 2001: After NBC and other channels broadcast a 2000 videotape of him proclaiming support for Hamas and Hezbollah, 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."

Propaganda

2000: 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."

Support for H. Rap Brown

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.

Operation Green Quest

2002 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. 2002 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."

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.

2003 Arrest

2003: 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.

State Department

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.

ISNA

The Islamic Society of North America is an influential front for the promotion of the Wahhabi political, ideological and theological infrastructure in the United States and Canada. Established by the Muslim Students Association, ISNA seeks to marginalize leaders of the Muslim faith who do not support its ideological goals. Through sponsorship of propaganda, doctrinal material and mosques, is pursuing a strategic objective of dominating Islam in North America.

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.

Politically, ISNA has promoted leaders of the American Muslim Council (AMC), the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC).

Prison Recruitment

Appendix 2: Key Organizations Involved in Muslim Prison Recruitment

National Islamic Prison Foundation (NIPF) - Contact: Mahdi Bray; 1212 New York Ave. NW, Suite 525, Washington, DC 20005. This is the same address as the American Muslim Council (AMC).

• "Specifically organized to convert American inmates to Wahhabism."

• NIPF "coordinates a coast-to-coast campaign to convert inmates to Islam. Foundation officials claim an average of 135,000 such conversions per year. More than 10 percent of the 2 million plus U.S. prison population is Muslim. When black American Muslims are released from prison with the customary $10, a suit of clothes and a one-way bus or train ticket, they know any mosque or masjid [Islamic center] will shelter and feed them and help them find a job."

Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)

• "The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) have been bringing prison chaplains and volunteers together since 1998 in their "Islam in American Prison" conferences. These delegates deliberate on various ways of serving inmates, such as the provision of free literature within prison, helping the families of those incarcerated, building halfway houses for those released, and similar other beneficial measures."

National Association of Muslim Chaplains - Contact: President, Imam Warithuddin Umar

• Founded by Warith Deen Umar, a radical prison convert, who offered his views of Isalm and the Sept. 11 attacks to the Wall Street Journal arguing that "The hijackers should be honored as martyrs, he said. The U.S. risks further terrorism attacks because it oppresses Muslims around the world." He was later fired from his job as a contractual consultant with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and barred from continuing his volunteer chaplaincy in New York State Prisons.
• "The Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences hosted the annual National Association of Muslim Chaplains conference in Leesburg, Virginia on May 31st through June 2nd, 2000. Seventy-five Muslim prison chaplains from New York, Maryland, North Carolina and other areas were present."

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)

• "CAIR has recently dedicated more resources to assisting Muslims in prison. 'We are meeting with the appropriate government agencies, researching case law and contacting more inmates to see how we can help Muslims practice Islam in prison with the limited rights they have,' says CAIR Civil Rights Coordinator Hassan Mirza."

Institute of Islamic Information & Education (III&E) - Contact: Managing Director, M. Amir Ali, Ph.D.; P.O. Box 410129, Chicago, IL 60641

• "There are indications that each piece of literature of the Institute sent to a prisoner is circulated and read by at least ten persons; based on this estimate the III&E is reaching out to more than 20,000 individuals a year in the prison system. The cost of correspondence is somewhere $25 to $40 per letter and enclosures, which includes management, rent, utilities, personnel, material and postage."
• "Helping Hand to Other Islamic Organizations: From the beginning the Institute has adopted the policy of cooperation with other sister Islamic organizations and da'wah workers. Time to time some Islamic organizations have asked for the help of the III&E in handling correspondence with the prisoners. World Assembly of Muslim Youth, WAMY, headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, receives many letters from the U.S. WAMY used to refer all their letters from prisons to the III&E which were responded. All letters received by the III&E from Africa, Asia, Europe and South America are sent to WAMY because she has the resources to handle such letters. The Institute has handled letters referred to her by Muslim Community Center, Chicago (MCC), American Islamic College, Chicago, Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) but these organizations no longer refer their letters to the Institute. For the last one year Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) began sending some of the letters she receives to the Institute for responding. The Institute response to all referred letters begins with an introductory sentence to let the inquirer know that it was the response to their letter sent to so and so organization."
• "Amir Ali, of the Institute of Islamic Information and Education, talked about the services his organization provides Muslim inmates, from prison visits to books to classes in Arabic and Islamic history. Groups also provide correspondence courses in other subjects, 24-hour toll free phones or collect-calling services for inmates to call family, mentorship programs for new converts and half-way houses to help re-integrate Muslim inmates into society after release. Amir Ali readily acknowledged the support of Saudi Arabia in providing these services."
• "The Institute does not send copies of the Qur'an to individuals because of the lack of resources and all such inquiries are referred to the Saudi Embassy."
• From an article appearing on III&E website: "the hearts of Americans and of similar nations will be filled with such an amount of dread of you (and you are more than one billion people) that will be many times the dread which is filling their hearts nowadays of Taliban regime (who are no more than a handful in a plain)."
• From the "Article Collection of III&E Managing Director Dr. Amir Ali, Ph.D.":
  • "I know that Osama bin Ladin is a true Muslim with in depth knowledge of the Qur'an and teachings of the Prophet. I would never suspect that he would do anything against the teachings of Islam and harm anyone who is a civilian and has not taken up arms against Islam or Muslims...."
  • "I would absolve the Taliban from any part of the air crashes at the WTC, the Pentagon and other place...."
  • "If [Hamas has] any justification for harming civilians, this would be limited to the Israelis living in Israel..."
  • "Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yasser Arafat and the Arab world are coming under pressure to cooperate in arresting and handing over Osama Binladin to the American government. It would be wrong to arrest a Muslim leader and hand him over to the enemies of Islam...."
  • "Phenomenal success was achieved for the Bush administration through success in the WTC terror."

Islamic Prison Services Foundation - Contact: Nasir Shahid; 1709 4th St. NW, Washington, DC 20001.

Islamic Prison Outreach - Contact: Imam Alauddin Shabazz; 10326 S. Hoyne, Chicago, IL 60643.

Islamic Correctional Reunion Association - Contact: Mohammad Firdause; 6336 S. 66th Ave, Tinley Park, IL 60477

Islamic Prison Service Dawah - Contact: Ali Jabbar Hakkim; 4715 Fable St., Capitol Heights, MD 20743.