When Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan returns from his African tour, he may find himself facing a U.S. Justice Department inquiry.
The results of Farrakhan’s meeting this week in Tripoli with Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi may violate the Foreign Agent Registration Act, which requires American citizens who work on behalf of a foreign government to register with the Justice Department.
“A letter is being drafted for him outlining his responsibility to register as a foreign agent if he engages in activities that are for propaganda purposes,” said John Russell, a Justice Department spokesman.
Gadhafi pledged $1 billion to the Nation of Islam to increase the influence of American minorities in U.S. elections.
The two men agreed to “mobilize the oppressed minorities” – particularly blacks, Arabs, Muslims and American Indians – “to play a significant role in American political life,” according to Libya’s state-run JANA news agency.
The Anti-Defamation League called the alliance between Farrakhan and Gadhafi a “cynical covenant between two haters.”
“Following the Million Man March last October, many believed that Minister Farrakhan was moving away from his extremism and his hatermongering,” Abraham Foxman, ADL’s national director, said in a statement.
“His embrace of an avowed enemy of America and our democratic values, and a sponsor of international terrorism, shoots a torpedo into the notion that Louis Farrakhan is pursuing a course of moderation.”
In a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno, Foxman urged the Justice Department to “proceed vigorously” with an investigation.
Farrakhan’s ties to Gadhafi go back at least as far as 1985, when the Libyan leader delivered a major address at the Nation of Islam’s Saviour’s Day meeting, telling black members of the U.S. armed forces to “destroy white America.”
He also expressed support for a separate black state within the United States.
In Tripoli, Farrakhan reportedly lavished praise on the Libyan leader, commending his work for the liberation of oppressed people, including African Americans in the United States.
He met with Gadhafi “for the sake of unifying Arabs, Muslims, blacks and oppressed communities in America to play a strong, significance role not only in the American elections, but in American foreign policy,” Farrakhan was quoted as saying.
Gadhafi appeared pleased by his meeting with Farrakhan, according to JANA.
“Our confrontation with America used to be like confronting a fortress from outside,” Gadhafi told JANA. “Today we have found a loophole to enter the fortress and to confront it from within.”
The donation to the Nation of Islam, Gadhafi reportedly said, will give blacks, Arabs, Muslims and American Indian political muscle, allowing them to “enter the election period as a card stronger than the Jewish card.”
Farrakhan also paid a visit to the bombed-out remains of Gadhafi’s house, which the U.S. targeted in a 1986 air raid in retaliation for Libya’s alleged involvement in a bombing of a night club in Germany frequented by U.S. Marines.
Gadhafi’s 1-year-old daughter was killed in the attack.
Signing the visitors book, Farrakhan wrote, “I implore God to punish our enemies hundreds of times, just as they did to us and against you,” JANA reported.
White House press secretary Mike McCurry said the meeting constituted yet another attempt by Gadhafi to “worm his way back into the good graces of the world,” despite harboring two suspects in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
“Gadhafi has tried various schemes to evade his responsibilities in the international community,” McCurry said, referring to the U.N. resolution demanding that the Libyan suspects be handed over. “He should quit trying to change the subject.”
State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said he was “surprised” that Farrakhan did not bring up the case of Pan Am 103, adding that any American citizen who travels to Libya has “an ethical obligation” to raise the issue.
“If Mr. Farrakhan believes it’s important to travel to Libya for his own purposes, it’s certainly important for him, as an American citizen, to represent the families, the American families and the other families of the people who died” on Pan Am 103, Burns said.
In another sign that Farrakhan is gaining prominence in the United States, Burns indicated that State Department officials may ask him for a debriefing when he returns.
“We’ll just have to see what he would like to do when he comes back,” he said.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
