Asim Ghafoor
He has a long-standing relationship with GOP/ Bush operatve Grover Norquist, as he did with Norquist colleague Abdurahman Alamoudi, before Alamoudi began his 23 year prison term for terrrist funding.Long entrenched with Muslim advocacy groups , Ghafoor was political director of the Islamic Free Market Institute, co-founded by Norquist in 1998. The Institute got its start-up money from Alamoudi.
Ghafoor was also the spokesman for Alamodi’s American Muslim Council, represented by Norquist’s lobby firm, as well as lawyer for the Global Relief Foundation, and Al-Haramain Foundaion, both named Specially Designated Global Terrorist groups by the Treasury Department.
He was spokesman for Care International. Not the UN organization, but the one that was raided, and its two top officers convicted of terror funding. One of them, Muhamed Mubayyid, was
Ghafoor is also attorney for Al Haramain’s CEO Soliman al-Buthe, now a fugitive from charges he smuggled money out of the United State. In that case,, Ghafoor. learned that the National Security Agency had been eavesdropping on their client without a warrant. (Someone in the government “accidentally” sent them a log that detailed their phone calls with al-Buthe.) The lawyers are now suing, saying the federal government spied on them illegally and are seeking more than $1 million in damages.
Ghafoor now owns a political consulting firm with Faisal Gill, former government affairs director with Norquist’s Islamic Institute, and spokesman for convict Alamoudi’s AMC,
Gill, with Norquist’s assistance, was given a senior policy position in the Department of Homeland Security in 2004, though briefly suspended a year later for having omitted his work for terrorfunder Alamoudi in his resume. Though potentially a felony, Gill’s memory lapse suspension punishment totaled five days.
Ghafoor and Gill are partners in Sapentia, a D.C. consulting firm whose website boasts of their Homeland Security expertise. Sapentia’s focus, they say, is finding opportunities for government contractors, and “directing Federal resources to them through the appropriations process.”
Ghafoor cut his teeth in politics as an aide to both the Texas legislature and Congressman Ciro . Rodriguez (D-TX) in the 1990s, before starting AG Consulting Group in 1997.
Categories
Sources
- NSA Snooped on Lawyers Knowing Spying Was Illegal, Suit Charges, Wired, July 10, 2007: http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2007/07/haramain_appeal
- Homeland Security Inspector General Launches Faisal Gill Inquiry, Salon.com, June 24, 2004: http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2004/06/24/gill_review/index.html
- How Secure Is The Department of Homeland Security?, Salon.com, June 22, 2004: http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2004/06/22/gill/index.html
- Abdurahman Alamoudi Sentenced to Jail in Terrorism Financing Case, Department of Justice press release, October 15, 2004: http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2004/October/04_crm_698.htm
- Top Secret: We’re Wiretapping You, Wired, March 5, 2007: http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/03/72811?currentPage=all
- Lobbyists Showing Congress the World, USAToday, June 21, 2005: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-06-21-lobbyists-cover_x.htm