According to the affidavit, al-Amoudi made at least 10 trips to Libya

WASHINGTON, September 30 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A prominent U.S. Muslim political activist has been arrested for making unauthorized trips to Libya and violating sanctions Washington had imposed on the Arab country, according to newly released court documents Monday, September 30.

Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi made a brief appearance at the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, one day after he was arrested at Dulles International Airport upon his return from an extended overseas trip.

"He received, transferred and otherwise dealt in, funds from the Libyan permanent mission at the United Nations, an instrumentality of the government of Libya," Brett Gentrup, a special agent of the U.S. immigration service, was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as summarizing the charges before the judge.

Al-Amoudi was specifically charged with violating the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, which prohibits U.S. citizens from visiting Libya without special approval. He was also charged with violating a portion of the act that forbids U.S. citizens from receiving money from Libya.

According to the affidavit, al-Amoudi made at least 10 trips to Libya using two American and one Yemeni passport.

“The stamps indicate al-Amoudi has been traveling to and from Libya regularly since May 2002 through July 2003 with the length of stay averaging approximately five days," said the affidavit.

It said British customs officials stopped al-Amoudi at Heathrow Airport last month when he was attempting to travel to Damascus, Syria. They found and seized about $340,000 and questioned him.

During the questioning, al-Amoudi explained to British investigators that he had received the money from a man "with a Libyan accent" and, in order to avoid U.S. Customs, was planning to deposit it in Saudi banks and then "feed it back" into the United States in smaller amounts.

“He also recalled a 1997 conversation with a Libyan ambassador to the United Nations, who (allegedly) expressed readiness to pay al-Amoudi a commission if he succeeded to win release of some of the Libyan funds frozen in the wake of the Lockerbie bombing.”

The affidavit claimed that al-Amoudi received funding from the Libyan mission at the United Nations, some of which was in connection with some of his trips to Libya.

It said that law enforcement officials raided al-Amoudi's house in Virginia in March as part of an investigation into financing of “terrorist groups”.

Al-Amoudi was a visible player on the Washington political scene, as he has been received at the White House more than once and lavishly contributed to various politicians during the 2000 election campaign.

U.S. citizens are banned from any financial dealings or travel to Libya under sanctions imposed by former President Ronald Reagan in 1986 in response to bombings in Rome and Vienna, in which the North African nation was accused of playing a role.

Earlier this month, the United Nations lifted sanctions slapped on Libya in the wake of a 1988 bombing of a Pan American airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland. But the administration of President George W. Bush has kept the U.S. penalties in place.

The probe has uncovered that in addition to his U.S. passport, al-Amoudi, a naturalized U.S. citizen since 1996, had a Yemeni travel document, which he used for flights to Tripoli.

Supporting Hamas

Remarkably, the affidavit gives an extensive overview of al-Amoudi's political philosophy, especially his public pronouncements in support of Hamas and Hezbollah, branded by Washington as “terrorist organizations”.

Many Muslims all over the world are furious over labeling the two groups as terrorist by Washington, since they are rather meant to end Israeli occupation of Arab Lands in Palestine and Lebanon.

However, al-Amoudi’s views created quite a stir in the United States during the 2000 election campaign when President Bush, Senators Hillary Clinton and a slew of other politicians were forced to return his donations to escape controversy.

Keeping his donation is said to have contributed to the political demise of Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney of Georgia, a prominent advocate of liberal causes who lost her 2002 re-election bid.

Chaplaincy Suspicions 

One of the founders of the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council, a group that helped create an Islamic chaplain program in the U.S. military, al-Amoudi’s detention came on suspicion of ties to a Muslim chaplain earlier arrested on suspicion of spying at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat quoted a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).

Al-Amoudi could face federal criminal charges for his collaboration with the suspected spy James Yee and presenting a forged certificate to allow the latter become an Imam in the U.S. military, claimed the spokesman. 

An energetic advocate of Islamic causes, al-Amoudi founded the American Muslim Council, the American Muslim Foundation.

The chaplain program has come under intense scrutiny since the September 10 arrest of the chaplain, as two senators called for a full investigation of “terrorists' attempts” to recruit members of the U.S. Armed Forces, raising concerns of Muslim-American groups that the investigation may become provoke ill-feeling among the Muslim community.

 ‘Political Detention’

Khaled Toorani of the American Islamic organization for Jerusalem had told IslamOnline.net shortly after the arrest that the move is “a general case of targeting Muslim activists in the united States using alleged secret evidence”.

Toorani warned that these arrests would draw the United States back to a stage of political detention it has never seen since some 50 years.

He ruled out the arrest of Amoudi was triggered by his scathing attacks on the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush.