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 last week 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.
More article @
washingtontimes.com |
