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Clinton Administration
CLINTON ADMINISTRATIONS LEGACY ON FIGHTING TERRORISM
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 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.
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