The FBI’s Muslim Outreach Follies

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PJMedia:

When FBI Director Robert Mueller testifies today for a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, undoubtedly he will be questioned about the FBI’s ongoing “Islamophobia” purge.

Specifically, members of Congress are concerned about the FBI’s continued secrecy regarding the identity of the three outside subject matter experts (SME) the bureau brought in to help with the purge (two other SMEs from inside the FBI assisted). One reason for congressional skepticism about the FBI’s use of these outside SMEs is that the bureau has an extensive history of failure when vetting Muslim outreach partners.

In June 2002, Director Mueller took fire for a speech to the American Muslim Council (AMC), which his spokesman described as “the most mainstream Muslim group in the United States.” During his speech Mueller asked the group for their help in fighting terrorism. But the head of AMC at the time was Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was videotaped in October 2000 delivering a speech just yards away from the White House, proclaiming: “I have been labeled by the media in New York as being a supporter of Hamas. We are all supporters of Hamas. I wish they added that I am also a supporter of Hezbollah.”

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That same year, AMC board advisor and former acting President Jamil Al-Amin was arrested for murdering a Georgia police officer. Alamoudi was arrested in 2003 in a Libyan assassination plot targeting the Saudi crown prince, and was later identified by the U.S. Treasury as one of al-Qaeda’s top fundraisers in the United States.

At the time of Mueller’s speech in 2002, Alamoudi had been under investigation by the FBI for almost a decade for funneling money between Osama bin Laden and “Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel Rahman. During the AMC conference at which Mueller spoke, Alamoudi approached Jewish Forward D.C. bureau chief Eli Kintisch are warned him that it might not be “good for your health” to remain at the event (ironically, during a panel discussion on “American Muslims and the Media”), prompting the reporter to leave.

In October 2003, just days before a ceremony honoring Detroit Muslim leader Imad Hamad and bestowing on him the Director’s Award for exceptional public service, the FBI contacted Hamad to tell him he wasn’t receiving the award. The FBI initially claimed they had decided to give the award to a victim of the 9/11 terror attacks, but later an FBI spokesman revealed that unflattering information about Hamad had been made public during the deportation proceedings for one of his close associates.

In fact, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) fought for two decades to deport Hamad for his suspected support for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated terrorist organization. That information had come to light not due to any checking or vetting by the FBI, but thanks to an article published by the New York Post days before Hamad was stripped of the award. In recent days, Hamad has been quoted encouraging the FBI’s ongoing “Islamophobia” purge.