In addition to Barack Obama comparing ISIS terrorists to righteous Crusaders at the National Prayer Breakfast, seated near him was Ali Ahmed Karti, the foreign minister of Sudan. Sudan is a country that has been listed as an official State Sponsor of Terrorism since 1993. One of the reasons for this is that five Sudanese nationals were found to have been involved in the first attack on the World Trade Center and in the subsequent plot to bomb New York City landmarks.

Sudan’s Foreign MInister Ali Ahmed Karti with Hillary Clinton in 2011.

It’s worth noting that in addition to Sudan being led by President Omar al-Bashir who is wanted for war crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC), that country has a connection to both World Trade Center attacks (1993 and 2001). Al-Bashir’s regime was in power during both and has been since 1989, when al-Bashir joined a jihadist named Hassan al-Turabi in a coup.

Now it’s learned that the foreign minister of Sudan was present at the National Prayer Breakfast, an event sponsored by the Fellowship Foundation, a Christian-based organization (not Muslim):

Activists also say the presence of the foreign minister, Ali Ahmed Karti, at the breakfast as well as reports of meetings with administration officials could signal that Washington is considering normalizing relations with Sudan. The International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan in 2009 for war crimes and genocide in the southern region of Darfur, where the United Nations says government forces have killed as many as 300,000 people in non-Arab rebel tribes.

The desire of the Obama administration to normalize relations with Sudan is not new. In fact, it’s something that each U.S. special envoy to that country has worked toward, beginning with Scott Gration in 2009. In testimony before Congress, Gration – an Obama appointee – said there was “no evidence” to justify keeping Sudan on the State Sponsor of Terrorism list, as Shoebat.com reported. Gration’s successor Princeton Lyman expressed similar sentiment, writing that the U.S. wants to normalize relations with Sudan.

Booth: Special envoy to Sudan and South Sudan.

As the Free Beacon points out, Lyman’s successor is on board with the same policy:

Despite the ongoing violence and investigation by the ICC, Donald Booth, the U.S. special envoy to Sudan, has expressed a willingness to restart talks with Bashir’s regime.

“We must together chart a course forward,” Booth said in October. “To this end, I reiterate my readiness, and that of my government, to engage the Sudanese in a more frank and frequent exchange, to visit Khartoum, and to discuss the full range of issues that frame our bilateral relationship.”

That each one of Obama’s special envoys to Sudan has expressed similar sentiment in this regard, it’s safe to say that Obama himself very much wants Sudan off the terrorism list. Perhaps the primary reason for this has to do with Obama’s brother Malik Obama, who in 2010, was in Khartoum at the 23rd Conference of the Islamic Da’wa Organization (IDO), which was presided over by President al-Bashir. It was Shoebat.com that revealed Malik’s role as Executive Secretary of the IDO.

Malik Obama and Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir: at same 2010 Islamic Da’wa Organization Conference in Khartoum, Sudan (split screen).

As Shoebat.com has pointed out, what this means is that the brother of the President of the United States works with and for the regime of a government with connections to both World Trade Center attacks. In fact, the IDO was reportedly founded by al-Turabi, who has a personal connection to the masterminds of each attack.

Blind Sheikh (L) and Bin Laden (R), masterminds of each WTC attack, respectively.

Though al-Turabi and al-Bashir have had a series of falling outs since they teamed up to take control of Sudan in 1989, those disagreements are not rooted in ideological differences; they are rooted in power and politics. To this day, al-Bashir has been winning those battles. Nonetheless, al-Turabi is connected to the masterminds of both WTC attacks – Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman (the “Blind Sheikh”) and Osama bin Laden. Here is what prosecutor Andrew McCarthy wrote about al-Turabi’s connection to the Blind Sheikh:

“At trial, we proved that Sheikh Abdel Rahman had close ties to Hassan al-Turabi, leader in the early 1990s of Sudan’s de facto government, the National Islamic Front; that under Turabi’s influence, Sudanese jihadists were permitted to emigrate to America…”

About al-Turabi’s relationship with bin Laden, McCarthy wrote:

“(Turabi) is a friend of radical Islam, of the Hamas and Hezbollah organizations — ever counseling his longtime associate Yasser Arafat towards greater intransigence in dealing with Israel. Turabi is also an intimate of bin Laden, whom Sudan officially took in when the Saudi ruling family expelled him in 1994.”

According to Al-Jazeera, al-Turabi didn’t leave al-Bashir’s ruling party until three years after bin Laden left Sudan for Afghanistan:

Turabi has been in and out of jail since he left President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s ruling party in 1999/2000.

These many years later, the same regime connected to both World Trade Center attacks is still in power. Its Muslim President is wanted for war crimes; and that President’s representative was in attendance at a National event sponsored by a Christian organization.

Hassan al-Turabi with Osama bin Laden.

As Shoebat.com has reported, the recent announcement that the Obama administration is normalizing relations with Cuba – one of the four states on the terrorism list – is to help make normalized relations with Sudan a bit less shocking. It’s how progressives work.

Screenshot of U.S. State Department’s list of State Sponsors of Terrorism.

There is another figure who was a senior member of the al-Bashir regime for nearly a decade – beginning prior to that country being put on the terrorism list and ending years later – who holds a position of prominence. His name is Abubaker Y. Ahmed Al Shingieti. In addition to sitting on the Board of Trustees of the Hartford Seminary, Shingieti is also the Vice President of the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy (ICRD).

Last year, the ICRD held an event to honor the notorious Ground Zero mosque Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. None other than then House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) Chairman, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) was scheduled to attend but backed out, presumably after word got out. Former Ronald Reagan National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane actually did attend the event, as Shoebat.com reported.

Shingieti (L) with Feisal Abdul Rauf (R) at CFR event in 2013.

As an aside, thanks to two articles, one by the Washington Post and the other by CNN, McFarlane came precariously close to paying a very steep price for dealing with Sudan, as Shoebat.com reported. It was discovered that in an apparent attempt to circumvent a law that prevented McFarlane from dealing with Sudan, he signed some deal with Qatar for $1.3 million. It is believed that the purpose of this deal had to do with the same reason Ali Ahmed Karti was at the National Prayer Breakfast – to lay the groundwork on multiple fronts to normalize relations with Sudan.

In 2013, McFarlane’s Watergate apartment was raided by the FBI and incriminating evidence – to include emails – was found, as Shoebat.com reported. There has been little reported on this case since.

All of this says nothing about the IRS angle in the Malik Obama case. That angle involves Lois Lerner granting Malik’s Barack H. Obama Foundation (BHOF) illegally backdated 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status on June 26, 2011 – A SUNDAY. By breaking the law in doing so, Lerner implicated herself in the commission of a much larger crime. That crime would be becoming an accessory to terror funding.

As Shoebat.com has reported, the details of the case have been made known by several individuals who could do something about it if they wanted to. One such individual is Rep. Mike Rogers (R-PA), who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, which is charged with investigating the IRS scandal. In 2013, while conducting a radio town hall in his district, Kelly twice said that the claims against President Obama’s brother are “spot on” but continues to ignore them, at least publicly.

If relations with Sudan are normalized, Kelly will be implicated by his silence: