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FAISAL GILL (2004-2005)

Former Alamoudi aide Faisal Gill appointed policy director for Homeland

Security Intelligence Division, fails to disclose previous employment

on background investigation questionnaire

The appointment of lobbyist Faisal Gill,  a  former  aide  to  Al-Qaeda  fundraiser Abdurahman Alamoudi and protégé of GOP strategist Grover Norquist, to the position  of  Department  of  Homeland  Security  special assistant for Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection directorate drew considerable criticism. Prior to his appointment, Gill had no intelligence background. It increased all the more when it was revealed that Gill had omitted his previous employment as director of government relations for Alamoudi’s American Muslim Council on the Standard Form 86 required for Gill’s security clearance. Gill had been at the forefront of AMC’s political efforts to end the use of secret evidence in terrorism deportation proceedings. In his position in the Homeland Security Intelligence division, he had access to a wide range of top-secret information, including vulnerabilities of national critical infrastructure.

After this revelation, Homeland Security issued a statement saying that Gill had “exceeded all requirements” for the policy director position, but an investigation was launched by the department’s inspector general. Media reports also revealed that Gill had been temporarily removed from his position in March 2004, but quickly reinstated, following inquiries by the FBI about how he had obtained his security clearance.

Gill was cleared by the department and kept in his position. That prompted Senators Charles Grassley and John Kyl to send a letter to the Homeland Security inspector general asking for clarification about the department’s policies about omitting information from the security clearance background questionnaire and what qualifications were considered in hiring  Gill.  He resigned his position in January 2005, however, and the inspector general considered the matter closed.

Gill later made an unsuccessful run as a Republican candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates in 2007 and began a lobbying firm, Sapentia. His lobbying partner, Asim Ghafoor,  former political director  for the Islamic Free Market Institute, previously served as the spokesman for the Global Relief Foundation, which was closed by the U.S. government in December 2001 and was listed as a specially designated global terrorist organization for funding Al-Qaeda. Ghafoor was also spokesman for the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), founded by Osama bin Laden’s nephew, Abdullah bin Laden, when it was raided by authorities in June 2004. In 2006, Ghafoor sued the U.S. government for wiretapping his conversations with his fugitive legal client, Soliman al-Buthi, after he had been designated a global terrorist by the Treasury Department in February 2004.

SOURCES

Mary Jacoby, “How secure is the Department of Homeland Security?” Salon, June 22, 2004

Mary Jacoby, “Homeland Security inspector general launches Faisal Gill inquiry,” Salon, June 24, 2004

Frank Gaffney, “The Faisal Gill affair,” FrontPage Magazine, July 19, 2004

Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, “Homeland Security Appointee under Investigation,” Fox News, July 25, 2004

Kelly Beaucar Vlahos, “Senators inquire on Homeland appointee,” Fox News, August 13, 2004