World Tribune.com

Report: Saudis funded infiltration of U.S. military

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Friday, October 17, 2003

Saudi Arabia has funded the indoctrination of U.S. soldiers and inmates to an ideology adopted by Al Qaida.

Research conducted by the Washington-based Institute of World Politics has asserted that Saudi Arabia poured tens of millions of dollars into spreading Al Qaida-related ideology among American soldiers and inmates. The report said the Saudi aim was to form insurgency cells throughout the United States that support a Wahabi agenda.

"Islamists terrorists view conversions of non-Muslims to Islamism as vital to their effort," J. Michael Waller, a professor at the institute, said. "U.S. counterintelligence is vigilant against recruitment of American military personnel by foreign intelligence services, but has been blind toward the possible recruitment of American officers into Wahabi political extremism or Islamist terrorist networks."

The report said the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the U.S. military, Middle East Newsline reported. At least nine of the 14 chaplains in the U.S. military received their religious training from the Saudi-funded Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences in Leesburg, Va..

The report cited Bilal Philips, a former Jamaican Communist Party member who was recruited in the United States and studied in the Saudi Air Force.

Philips was said to have turned into a Saudi agent of influence who claimed to have converted thousands of American soldiers to Islam since the 1991 Gulf war.

"The strategic goal is twofold," Waller told the Senate subcommittee on terrorism, technology and homeland security on Tuesday, "to dominate the voice of Islam around the world; and to exert control over civil and political institutions around the world through a combination of infiltration, aggressive political warfare, and violence.

Another Saudi-financed group, the North American Islamic Trust controls most mosques in the United States, the report said. The group was said to have aided in the construction of between 50 and 79 percent of the mosques in North America.

Another group, the Islamic Society of North America was said to provide ideological material to about 1,100 of an estimated 1,500 to 2,500 mosques in North America. The group has vetted and certified Wahabi-trained imams and is the main official endorsing agent for Muslim chaplains in the U.S. military.

The study said Saudi-sponsored Wahabi organizations dominate Muslim prison recruitment in the United States and seek to create a "radicalized cadre of felons who will support their anti-American efforts."

The report said Muslims comprise up to 20 percent of the prison population and Muslim clerics linked to Saudi Arabia have excluded moderates.

"The Saudi government also pays for prison chaplains, along with many other American Muslims, to travel to Saudi Arabia for worship and study during the haj, the traditional winter pilgrimage to Mecca that all Muslims are supposed to make at least once in their lives," the report said. "The trips typically cost $3,000 a person and last several weeks."

Print this Article Print this Article Email this article Email this article Subscribe to this Feature Free Headline Alerts
Google
Search Worldwide Web Search WorldTribune.com Search WorldTrib Archives

See current edition of Geostrategy-Direct.com

Return to World Tribune.com Front Cover

Back to School Sweepstakes