All Roads Lead to Ground Zero Mosque – Part 2

After 9/11, Rauf co-founded the Cordoba Initiative with former Aspen, Colo., Mayor John S. Bennett, which explains why Cordoba’s tax filings list an Aspen address.

During his four terms as mayor, Bennett was introduced to Alwaleed bin Talal (see Part 1) and other Saudi royals, who own chalets and other properties in Aspen (Bennett’s own home is valued at more than $2 million). Bin Talal met his second wife in Aspen.

Is that consecutive wife or concurrent?

Before taking over Cordoba as executive director, Bennett (above) headed the Aspen Institute, which included among its board members former Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan, as well as former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Rice has appeared with Rauf at events in Washington and overseas.

Aspen Institute recently launched the Middle East Leadership Initiative with “generous support” from Saudi Arabia. Abu Sulayman, bin Talal’s aide, is an Aspen Institute Middle East fellow.

Cordoba’s tax filings show that Julia A. Jitkoff of Kingsville, Texas, was a director before resigning in 2007. Sources say the Texas socialite was sponsored by “longtime friend” Jim Baker, who sits on the board of her family’s King Ranch holding company.

FEC records show Jitkoff and her family gave over $30,000 to the Bush-Cheney campaigns. Cordoba’s 2008 IRS statement shows its books are kept by Kay Zimm of Kingsville.

According to bin Talal’s biography, he and Baker met regularly in Houston to discuss business in the 1990s, when bin Talal was a Carlyle Group client of Baker. Joining them for business lunches at the Bayou Club was former President George H.W. Bush, a senior Carlyle adviser at the time.

Baker’s Houston law firm, Baker & Botts, which defended Saudi officials against the 9/11 lawsuit, is one of the top international firms specializing in Shariah-compliant finance – another hobbyhorse of bin Talal.

Bin Talal in 2007 donated $250,000 to the James Baker III Institute at Rice University.

Bennett is also close to the Bush family. He graduated from both Yale University and Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. In 2002, bin Talal donated $500,000 to help fund the George Herbert Walker Bush Scholarship at Phillips Academy.

The Cordoba Initiative is promoting the Ground Zero mosque. According to its tax filing, its mission statement, among other things, is to “address the root causes of international terrorism.”

Cordoba was the center of the Islamic caliphate in Spain, and the Cordoba mosque was built over the cathedral there.

Rauf has also worked on a documentary film – “Out of Cordoba” – by New York director Jacob Bender, a peace activist and Islamic apologist. The 2008 film, for which Rauf is listed as an adviser, purports to document how Islam led Europe out of the Dark Ages.

“Cordoba was the most advanced city on the European continent,” Bender says.

He also claims it was the most tolerant, allowing Christianity and Judaism to “coexist” with Islam….

He may claim it, but Andrew Bostom debunks it – here.

Listed first among “major funders” backing the film: Alwaleed bin Talal Foundation.

Another backer is the Islamic Society of North America, which bin Talal also finances. The uncle of Rauf’s wife, Daisy Khan, serves on ISNA’s board. The U.S. government recently named ISNA an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terror-finance case in U.S. history…

It’s a small umma.