Oboy oboy oboy . . .

Ralph Reed in the soup? What a lovely way to begin . . .

The Abramoff thing has centripital force; with luck it'll soon suck in Grover Norquist, too! And there's even a link back to our girl Judy Miller . . .

Back on July 7, 2005, Josh Marshall wrote this in Talking Points Memo:

A little more than a year ago, I reported on TPM how Fitzgerald had quite aggressively investigated another Bush White House leak in late 2001 and early 2002. Fitzgerald had been investigating three Islamic charities accused of supporting terrorism -- the Holy Land Foundation, the Global Relief Foundation, and the Benevolence International Foundation. But just before his investigators could swoop in with warrants, two of the charities in question got wind of what was coming and, apparently, were able to destroy a good deal of evidence.

What tipped them off were calls from two reporters at the New York Times who'd been leaked information about the investigation by folks at the White House.

One of those two reporters was Judy Miller.

But how does Norquist fit in, you ask? Well, not least because I want him to go down with the rest, of course — remember, he and Ralph Reed and Abramoff are all old buddies from College Republican days. And because I got to wondering: Could he have been the leaker?

Now I might be getting pretty far out there, but everyone should have at least one go at a conspiracy theory. So check out these very interesting articles:

By Franklin Foer, writing for The New Republic:

Norquist is best known for his tireless crusades against big government. But one of Norquist's lesser-known projects over the last few years has been bringing American Muslims into the Republican Party. And, as he usually does, Norquist has succeeded. According to several sources, Norquist helped orchestrate various post-September 11 events that brought together Muslim leaders and administration officials.

Even though it follows an introduction by David Horowitz, whom I usually take with a very large helping of salt, "A Troubling Influence," by Frank Gaffney, has apparently got a some legs of its own. Here's one:

The 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.

And here's another:

Norquist's relationship with Muslim groups that support terrorism became public after Norquist launched an unexpected and inexplicably vitriolic attack against Frank Gaffney, the President of the Center for Security Policy.
. . .

According to news reports, while Norquist served as founding Chairman of the Islamic Institute the group received seed money from Abdurahman Alamoudi, then a member of the left-wing American Muslim Council.
. . .

Key members of the Islamic Institute have come from Alamoudi's organization. One has acknowledged making contributions to the Holy Land Foundation even after it's U.S. offices were shut down by the U.S. government for funding terrorists.

And Gaffney heard from again:

* The Islamic Institute, which Norquist co-founded and houses in his Americans for Tax Reform office, received seed money from an avowed supporter of Hezbollah, the terrorist group that killed 241 US Marines in a 1983 suicide bomb attack.
* The Islamic Institute reportedly is 'predominantly funded by foreign governments, shady Saudi sources, and US-based groups raided by the Treasury Department-led Operation Green Quest Task Force for allegedly funding suicide bombers, al Qaeda and other terrorists' activities.' [That would be the above-referenced Fitzgerald operation, it seems.]

And finally there's this by the SITE Institute (I learned about SITE — the Search for International Terrorist Entities — from reading the Katz biography referred to below). Here's an excerpt:

As documented in her autobiography, Terrorist Hunter, Rita Katz, the Director of the SITE Institute, while working undercover, taped Alamoudi voicing his open support for the terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah in Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House, on October 28, 2000. Alamoudi stated before an excited, cheering crowd and exclaimed:

“I have been labeled by the media in New York to be a supporter of Hamas...Anybody support Hamas here? Hear that, Bill Clinton? We are all supporters of Hamas. I wish they added that I am also a supporter of Hezballah...Does anybody support Hezballah here? I want you to send a message. It's an occupation, stupid...Hamas is fighting an occupation. It's a legal fight.”

As a result of Alamoudi’s open support for designated terrorist groups, then candidates George W. Bush and Hilary Clinton returned donations given to them by Alamoudi and the American Muslim Council.

In January 2001, Alamoudi attended and was photographed in Beirut at a terrorist summit attended by representatives of the terrorist groups Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezballah, and al-Qaeda.