What if the story surrounding Abdul El-Sayed didn’t begin with his political career?

What if it began decades earlier, with his mother?

Federal records, newly highlighted by Natalie Winters, reportedly place Fatten Elkomy, El-Sayed’s mother and a central influence during his upbringing, inside IARA-USA
beginning in 1999.

And this wasn’t just another international charity.

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Court records highlighted in recent reporting reportedly show Elkomy’s name connected to Iraq-related financial transactions, including a $24,607.34 transfer request to an “Iraq office.” Other records reportedly identify her in correspondence surrounding additional transfers between 1999 and 2002.

Years later, IARA-USA pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy involving the secret transfer of approximately $1.375 million into Saddam-era Iraq in violation of U.S. sanctions.

Then the story gets darker.

The international network associated with IARA, also known as ISRA, was designated by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2004 under terrorism-related authorities. The government alleged that elements of the network had supported Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda and described alleged connections involving Hamas and the Taliban.

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Now put those pieces together.

El-Sayed’s mother reportedly wasn’t merely someone who donated to the organization. Her name appears in reporting about the paperwork and correspondence surrounding actual Iraq-related transfers.

That raises an enormous unanswered question:

What did she know?

Was she simply an employee processing humanitarian transactions? Or did people involved in moving this money understand something about the larger network through which it was flowing?

And then there’s her son.

Abdul El-Sayed grew up to become a prominent Muslim political figure who has spoken publicly about the importance of Islam in his life. If his mother was one of his most important formative influences, then examining her worldview, associations and activities isn’t some irrelevant historical exercise.

What did she teach him about politics, America and the Middle East?

What did he know about her work with IARA?

Has he ever been told what those Iraq transfers were actually intended to accomplish?

Those questions become considerably more interesting when viewed alongside the government’s documented history with the organization.

And then comes perhaps the strangest coincidence of all.

The international network was known as ISRA.

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s daughter is named Isra Hirsi.

There is no documented basis to say Omar chose the name because of the organization, but in a story already involving American politics, Islam, Iraq and a network accused by the U.S. government of terrorist connections, the identical name is the kind of coincidence guaranteed to attract attention.

Sometimes conspiracy investigations begin with proof.

Other times they begin with a pattern; a collection of names, financial records and relationships that don’t seem particularly remarkable until somebody finally puts them on the same page.

That’s exactly what happened here.

This story and the documents behind it were exposed and discussed on Episode 225 of Secret America.

The federal records have been sitting there for years.

Now the question is whether they represent the end of the story, or the beginning of a much bigger one.

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