Clinton Emissary Said to be Bin Laden Bag Man

NewsMax.com 10/01/03 Carl Limbacher

A man accused of funneling cash from Osama bin Laden to a radical Muslim cleric who helped plan the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center was on the payroll of the Clinton administration throughout the 1990s.

Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was arrested Sunday after being accused of trying to smuggle $340,000 in cash from Lybia to terrorist groups in Syria, worked at the Clinton State Department as a global emissary for religious tolerance.

When confronted with news of the curious arrangement just a week before Mrs. Clinton was elected to the Senate, a State Department spokesman told the New York Daily News that Alamoudi "has been traveling primarily to Muslim countries to address the topic of Islamic life in the U.S., including the rights of Muslims in America as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the status of the American Islamic community."

Today, however, the New York Post reports that the former Clinton diplomat "was suspected of funneling cash from Osama bin Laden to Blind Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman in the failed attempt to blow up New York City landmarks."

The Blind Sheik's speechwritier, who has turned government informant, told investigators that bin Laden "routinely funneled $5,000 payments to Rahman through Alamoudi and his organization, the American Muslim Council," the paper said.

The suspected bin Laden bag man was hired by the Clinton State Department a year after President Clinton turned down an offer from the government of Sudan for the al Qaeda chief's arrest and extradition to America.

Alamoudi remained on the State Department payroll right up through the 2000 election, a period during which President Clinton reportedly declined at least two additional offers to have bin Laden taken into custody. [To hear President Clinton and his wife explain why they declined the 1996 offer, Click Here.]

In May 2000, Alamoudi contributed $1,000 to Mrs. Clinton's Senate campaign. She also accepted $50,000 from a related group, the American Muslim Alliance, at a June 2000 fundraiser in Boston. The AMA has since merged with the AMC.

Mrs. Clinton apparently knew that Alamoudi's donation could be politically problematic - her staff reported the contribution on Federal Election Commission records as coming from "the American Museum Council." She later called the misleading entry a "typographical error."

Just days before the 2000 election, the accused bin Laden bag man spoke at a Muslim rights demonstration outside the White House, where he proclaimed, "We are all supporters of Hamas. I wish they added that I am also a supporter of Hezbollah. . . . Does anybody support Hezbollah here?"

Alamoudi also donated $1,000 to President Bush's campaign. Both Clinton and Bush immediately returned his donations.

Sen. Clinton, however, kept the $50,000 donation from the American Muslim Alliance until after her campaign was over, and instead had the Democratic National Committee issue a refund.

"It wasn't until Nov. 14, a week after the election, that the Democratic Party's soft-money committee was reimbursed for the refunds with cash from Clinton's campaign fund," the Daily News reported.

By funneling the refunds through a party committee, which was flush with cash, Clinton was technically able to make use of the Muslim group's donations as her own "hard money" through Election Day, the News explained.