Abramoff's influence-peddling operation out of the Greenberg & Traurig law firm are connected to multiple Washington scandals, the nexus of which is lobbying that either illegally benefited Republicans or which alledgedly cheated that law firm's clients.
What is less well understood is that Ambramoff also served as the registered Washington lobbyist for the Government of Pakistan and is a fixer for Saudi moneymen tied to al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
Shortly after 9/11, Abramoff registered as a lobbyist for the General Council of Islamic Banks. According to the National Journal (Aug 31, 2002), the consortium was funded to counter the Treaury Department and the FBI's efforts to put an unwanted public spotlight on global terrorist financing coming out of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries.
Abramoff's lobbyists spread the lie that Islamic banks had not sheltered money used for terrorist networks. Their primary client, chairman of the Council, Saleh Abdullah Kamel, estimated to be worth about $3 billion, soon after 9/11 became the focus of intense government scrutiny over alledged ties to terrorist activity.
Kamel is the chairman of Dallah al Baraka Group (DBG), which is accused of financing al Qaeda and other extremist groups, and he was also the co-founder and major shareholder of Al Shamal Bank in Sudan, an institution in which Osama bin Laden established a personal ownership interest.
Kamel was listed as being one of the seven "main individual sponsors of terrorism" in report by French counter-terrorism exert Jean-Charles Brisard submitted to the UN Security Council in December 2002. Recall that Omar al-Bayoumi, who provided money to two of the 9/11 hijackers, was once an assistant to the Director of Finance for Dallah Avco, a DBG company that works with the Saudi aviation authority. And the WSJ has reported that the United States believes the Dallah al-Baraka Bank, another DBG company, was also used by al-Qaeda.
Kamel's name also appeared in the "Golden Chain," a roster seized by Bosnian authorities in Sarajevo in March 2002 listing Saudi donors to bin Laden.
Abramoff and a partner, Kaled Saffuri, also set up a second lobbying operation while at Greenberg Traurig, Lexington Group LLC. This was reportedly not a commercial success, according to The National Journal (04/14/2005):
http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/041405/abramoffThree years ago, Abramoff and a prominent Islamic activist set up a lobbying firm, the Lexington Group LLC, with the goal of developing more lobbying business for Abramoff’s employer at the time, Greenberg Traurig.
BR>The firm existed for at least four months and boasted on its now-defunct website that it represented “major U.S. corporations before the U.S. Congress and the Executive Branch every day.” But it never reported any clients, nor did it direct business to Greenberg Traurig, according to public records and an interview with Abramoff’s associate in the venture, Khaled Saffuri, now a government affairs adviser with Collier Shannon Scott.
“I expected business to come, and it didn’t. It just folded,” said Saffuri, who said he was hired by Abramoff to be the Lexington Group’s president from May until August 2002, when it closed.Reportedly, Grover "Norquist and Khaled Saffuri founded the Islamic Institute, which was instrumental in the creation of the Al Qaeda financial network in Virginia. Saffuri was the Executive director of the American Task Force for Bosnia, which lobbied for US military intervention in Bosnia. Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization actively was recruiting and training Arab fighters to fight alongside the Bosnian Muslims. Bosnia had become the focus of the worldwide jihad after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989."
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_2004_March_1/ai_113363777/pg_2; http://www.libertyforum.org/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=news_news&Number=294051374&page=&view=&sb=&o=Norquist's ties to the Saudi-funded Islamicist movement in the US go back to 1998. Norquist - along with Abramoff -- became the principal Washington bridge for radical Islamists to the Republican Party. Frank J. Gaffney writes:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=11209The association between Grover Norquist and Islamists appears to have started about five years ago, in 1998, when he became the founding chairman of an organization called the Islamic Free Market Institute, better known as the Islamic Institute. The Institute’s stated purpose was to cultivate Muslim-Americans and Arab-Americans whose attachment to conservative family values and capitalism made them potential allies for the Republican Party in advance of the 2000 presidential election. . . .
Unfortunately, some associated with the Islamic Institute evidently had another agenda. Abdurahman Alamoudi, for one, a self-described “supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah,” the prime-mover behind the American Muslim Council (AMC) and a number of other U.S.-based Islamist-sympathizing/supporting organizations, saw in the Islamic Institute a golden opportunity to hedge his bets. Abramoff is also tied in with the collapse of Tyco, Int'l, a huge US-based multinational conglomerate that operates in many countries, including Saudi Arabia. Abramoff is accused of bilking that company for millions of dollars in bogus or illegal lobbying expenses while at Greenberg & Traurig:
Tyco General Counsel Timonthy Flanigan's testified in late July to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
From Flanigan's testimony:
Durbin: Has Tyco conducted an investigation of Abramoff's activities on behalf of Tyco? If so, what were the results of the investigation?
Flanigan: Tyco has not conducted such an investigation. Greenberg Traurig, however, has conducted its own internal investigation and has informed Tyco of its conclusion that payments made by Tyco to GrassRoots Interactive, LLC were diverted by Mr. Abramoff. Specifically, Greenberg Traurig advised Tyco that Mr. Abramoff caused Tyco's payments to GrassRoots Interactive, LLC to be forwarded to a Greenberg Traurig trust account and, from there, ultimately to entities controlled by Mr. Abramoff. Greenberg Traurig informed Tyco that the funds diverted to the entities controlled by Mr. Abramoff were not used in furtherance of lobbying efforts on behalf of Tyco. This diversion occurred without my knowledge and was in violation of Mr. Abramoff's ethical, fiduciary, and contractual obligations to Tyco.
Tyco and Greenberg Traurig have reached an agreement in principle to settle Tyco's claims stemming from the diversion of funds as described above. Pursuant to the settlement, Greenberg Traurig will compensate Tyco for the funds diverted by Mr. Abramoff.