3/28/02 Post Article Linked Moran's Defense of Jailed Libyan Bagman To Moran's Campaign Contributions From Now-Outlawed Saudi Trust

If you examine the information described in this posting then a clear and disturbing conclusion results. On January 4, 2001 James Moran spoke at the National Press Club and defended the currently-imprisoned Abdurahman Alamoudi, who Moran knew to be a supporter of the group Hezbollah which has killed hundreds of Americans.

Moran's defense of Alamoudi pleased Alamoudi, who gave Moran's campaign $1000. Moran's defense of Alamoudi also pleased officials of the now outlawed Saar Foundation, who gave Moran's campaign $1800 the next day.

From the 3/28/02 Washington Post:
"...M. Yaqub Mirza, president of the Saar Foundation and vice president of the Safa Trust; Taha J. Alalwani, a founder of the International Institute of Islamic Thought; Jamal M. Barzinji, a president of the trust and institute secretary; and Hisham Altalib, treasurer for the trust and institute vice president, gave a total of $1,800 to Moran on Jan. 5, 2001..."

The 3/28/02 Post continued:
"The money came to Moran one day after he defended Muslim activist Abdurahman Alamoudi. President Bush returned a donation by Alamoudi in 2000 after Alamoudi publicly supported Hamas and Hezbollah, groups fighting Israel that the State Department considers to be terrorist organizations..."

The fact that Moran's contributors were officials of the Saar Foundation or its offshoot is important. As a result of Alamoudi's arrest in October 2003, an affadavit by the Department of Homeland Security is now unsealed. The 11/17/03 Atlanta Journal-Constitution says that:

"David Kane, a federal investigator with the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia...refers to the more than 100 companies and nonprofits based in Herndon, Va., as the 'Safa Group.' He states in the affidavit that he has probable cause to suspect that money flowing to the Safa Group charities and companies ultimately ended up in the hands of the federally designated terrorist groups Palestinian Islamic Jihad-Shikaki Faction and Hamas..."

"At issue is a 132-page affidavit that Kane filed in federal court in Virginia in March 2002 to support search warrants for 29 businesses and homes that are targets of the probe...Most of Kane's affidavit was kept secret until a federal court judge in Virginia unsealed it last month..."

"'I suspect that monies ultimately are transferred directly to terrorist organizations from the Safa Group entities on the Isle of Man,' Kane wrote in his affidavit..."

Note that Kane stated that he had probable cause to believe that Barzinji and the Saar Foundation were funding terrorists. Thus the same Foundation whose officials funded Moran also funded radical and violent Islamicist organizations and possibly even Al Qaeda.

Can this district, should this district, continue to take a chance on James Moran's dangerous behavior? It was part of James Moran's job as congressman to vigorously investigate the threats posed to the 8th District by James Moran's campaign contributors. Instead, Moran ignored the threat posed to this district by Alamoudi and the Saar Foundation.

Do we have to wait until the terrorists crash another plane into this district before we say to James Moran that enough is enough?

Supporting Notes: [1] The 11/30/03 Washington Post article about former Moran campaign contributor Abdurahman Alamoudi states that "Today, Alamoudi sits in a green jumpsuit in the Alexandria jail, charged with accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from Libya, a U.S.-designated sponsor of terrorism. He has pleaded not guilty." But Alamoudi was no ordinary Moran contributor.

[2]As Washington Post reporters Hsu and Tom Jackman stated in a A 2/2/02 Post article, "the activist, Abdurahman Alamoudi, of Falls Church, was at the center of similar controversies in 2000 during the campaigns of Hillary Rodham Clinton and George W. Bush, both of whom returned Alamoudi's money after he was shown declaring his support for the anti-Israel groups Hamas and Hezbollah during a rally outside the White House...Hamas has been implicated in numerous suicide bombings in Israel, and Hezbollah bombed the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 1983, killing 243 Marines. President Bush denounced both groups as part of the "terrorist underworld" in his State of the Union message." Thus Hezbollah, which Moran knew that Alamoudi supported when Moran solicited money from Alamoudi, has killed hundreds of Americans.

[3]Alamoudi was a Moran campaign contributor. Hsu and Jackman note that: "A 2/2/02 Post article by reporters Hsu and Tom Jackman describes an additional 1/4/01 contribution from Abdurahman Alamoudi: "Moran also spoke to a forum of Muslim groups at the National Press Club on Jan. 4, 2001. The next day, according to federal election records, Alamoudi donated $1,000 to Moran's campaign. Alamoudi also donated $1,000 to Moran in May 1998." Moran had thus known for two months that Alamoudi was a Hezbollah supporter when Moran solicited the second donation from Alamoudi.

James Moran knew that Alamoudi held these views, but James Moran did not care, because James Moran wanted the $1000 and figured he would get away with it. Moran probably never expected Alamaoudi to get himeself arrested for wandering around Heathrow Airport with $340,000 in sequentially-numbered US currency.

[4] In his 3/28/02 Washington Post article reporter Spencer Hsu described the SAAR Foundation as follows: "Federal agents served warrants on March 20 and 21 at the Herndon-based Saar Foundation, Safa Trust and International Institute of Islamic Thought and 13 other locations. The groups are part of a complex Saudi-based financial empire that U.S. investigators say has handled $1.7 billion since the mid-1990s, sending some of it to groups that authorities have linked to terrorists."

[5] Hsu linked the two sets of donations to Moran, the January 4, 2001 donation from Alamoudi and the January 5, 2001 donations from SAAR officials, as follows: "The money came to Moran one day after he defended Muslim activist Abdurahman Alamoudi. President Bush returned a donation by Alamoudi in 2000 after Alamoudi publicly supported Hamas and Hezbollah, groups fighting Israel that the State Department considers to be terrorist organizations."

[6] Despite Moran's false and repeated claims that he gave back the Alamoudi contributions once Alamoudi said he supported Hezbollah and Hamas, that is yet another lie by James Moran to hide the truth. As The 12/03/03 Post reported

"CLARIFICATION

Wednesday, December 3, 2003; Page A02

A Dec. 1 article about jailed Muslim leader Abdurahman Alamoudi reported that elected officials, including Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), began returning financial contributions from Alamoudi soon after he expressed support for Hamas and Hezbollah in an October 2000 speech. Moran actually accepted an additional donation from Alamoudi in January 2001 but returned all the money in March 2002, according to campaign finance records."

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