DeLay Ties to Islamist Radio Surprise Some of His Pro-Israel Supporters

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

WASHINGTON – The embattled former House Majority Leader, Tom DeLay, has a reputation for being one of Congress’s most ardent supporters of Israel and one of the most committed hawks in America’s war against terrorism. So it came as a surprise to some of Mr. DeLay’s supporters to learn that the congressman took money from a small radio station broadcasting fundamentalist Islamic programs that were sponsored by a Saudi-backed charity.


According to records on file with the House of Representatives, Mr. De-Lay’s legal defense fund, established in June 2000, received between July 1 and September 30, 2001, a $5,000 donation from WWTL 700 AM radio – a small, low-power, local signal in Washington, D.C.


The station’s contribution is listed in the fund records under “donor corporations,” and $5,000 is the maximum contribution allowed by a donor to a legal defense fund in any calendar year under rules of the House Ethics Committee. According to the trustee of the Tom DeLay Legal Expense Trust, Brent Perry, the check from WWTL was received August 10, 2001.


In 2001, Washingtonians tuning in to WWTL 700 AM on their radio dials would have heard broadcasts from several Muslim organizations, including programming considered incendiary and extremist by some listeners, according to accounts published in December 2001 in the Washington Post. According to the Post, WWTL guests said owners of media outlets “answer to the Zionist regime,” and the station broadcast Koran readings stating: “As for those who disbelieve, theirs will be a boiling drink and a painful death.”


One Washington-area resident, Peter Hebert, told The New York Sun that he was so upset by the WWTL programming that he filed complaints with the owner of the station, Sima Birach; the Federal Communications Commission, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, citing “group slander” and “inciting violence.”


Mr. Hebert said that meetings with the FBI and his repeated efforts to have the FCC take action proved fruitless, and that Mr. Birach was unresponsive and “defensive.” Mr. Birach, however, said the situation “was resolved,” adding: “I took care of it right away. … I take offense that he thinks I was unresponsive.”


Mr. Birach also told the Sun that when he was presented with a tape of the offending comments, he found that, “unfortunately, it was a literal translation of the Koran.” Mr. Birach said that while he “wasn’t a fan of their programming,” he is “a fan of the First Amendment” and of the groups’ right to broadcast contentious material.


One of the organizations broadcasting over the airwaves of WWTL, Mr. Birach said, was the Islamic Foundation of America. The foundation is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt charity based in Virginia, claiming as its purpose educational and cultural activities. According to accounts in the Washington Post, the organization is “Wahabbi-oriented” and funded, in part, by the religious affairs ministry of the government of Saudi Arabia.


Mr. Birach said he ended the IFA’s relationship with WWTL in 2002, after the foundation failed to pay for its airtime.


Several attempts by the Sun to reach the foundation last week were unsuccessful. Calls placed to the number listed on the IFA’s IRS 990 form from 2002 first yielded an answering service, at which a message was left that went unreturned. Subsequent calls, to the only number publicly listed for the organization, resulted in a message saying the number had been disconnected.


Attempts to reach the three top officers listed by the group on its most recent publicly available 990 form, from 2003, also proved unsuccessful. No numbers were listed for the IFA’s two directors, Hamad Al-Sabhan and Ibrahim Al-Kulaib.


According to press accounts, Mr. Al-Kulaib was one of several Saudi citizens who, in early 2004, had their diplomatic visas revoked by the State Department during a joint crackdown by Saudi and American law enforcement.


Of the phone numbers listed for the IFA’s secretary, Hussein Omara, one was disconnected and the other was answered by a representative of the Virginia-based Luxury Autobody, who said the company had used that phone number for eight years and that no one by the name of Hussein Omara had ever been employed there.


A host of one of the radio programs sponsored by the IFA, Imam Mahdi Bray, however, denied allegations that the programming on WWTL was radical or anti-Semitic. The talk-show host also disputed Mr. Birach’s claim that the IFA’s relationship with WWTL ended over nonpayment.


The convoluted circumstances connecting Mr. DeLay to the Islamic Foundation of America came as a surprise both to representatives of Mr. DeLay and some of the congressman’s supporters.


The president of the Zionist Organization of America, Morton Klein, said of the donation: “This makes no sense.”


Mr. DeLay, he added, “was the singular best” member of Congress in terms of standing up for the Jewish state, adding that the former House Majority Leader was “unique in always understanding the importance of fighting against the Arab war against Israel.”


“I can’t explain it,” Mr. Klein said of the ties to the radio station.


Mr. Perry, too, appeared puzzled when asked about the connection. “It seems odd,” he said.


Mr. Perry said that donations to the legal defense fund are screened to make sure they conform to the House Ethics Committee’s regulations. “I don’t know who Sima Birach is, and I don’t know anything about the radio station,” said Mr. Perry, who also said he did not recall any instances where donors to the fund had been rejected. Mr. DeLay’s congressional office referred requests for comment about matters related to the legal defense fund to Mr. Perry.


Mr. Birach and his father, Sima Birach Sr., are frequent donors to the campaigns of both Republican and Democratic political figures, having made individual contributions totaling more than $63,000, according to the Federal Election Commission. According to FEC rules, campaigns may not accept corporate contributions, but legal defense funds may.


Mr. Birach told the Sun that WWTL donated to Mr. DeLay’s fund because “I’ve just always liked what he stood for and how he behaved.” Mr. Birach said his opinion of the congressman remained unchanged in light of Mr. DeLay’s recent indictment.


WWTL, however, has not remained unchanged, Mr. Birach said. No longer broadcasting Islamic programming, 700 AM changed after 2001 to a conservative-talk station bearing the call letters WGOP, and is now WDMV, carrying business-related talk shows.


The New York Sun

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