By Tarek Hamdi, IOL Correspondent

WASHINGTON, May 7 (IslamOnline.net) - The North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) repudiated Wednesday, May 7, allegations propagated against it by an anonymous “investigator” hosted Sunday May, 4, in a CBS 60 Minutes segment titled “Terrorist Hunter”.

An Iraqi Jewess identified herself by the name Sarah claimed she had donned a Muslim garb, hid a tape recorder underneath and went mosques to record imams calling for jihad “against Jews, against the United States.”

She alleged that the “most radical mosques” were all owned by NAIT.

A NAIT spokesperson said in a statement released Wednesday that the story “was unconscionable, and libelous.

“Not only was it shoddy journalism in that it was completely one-sided, it was false and portrayed our entities in a false light. We will demand retraction from 60 Minutes and CBS.

“If a retraction is not forthcoming, we will have no recourse but to sue for retraction and damages.”

In a letter to Don Hewitt of CBS News, Nancy Lugue, NAIT lawyer, stressed “there was no attempt whatsoever to provide any balance to allegations” by the so-called Iraqi Jewess who only identified herself as Sarah, whose credentials are never described.

“For those reasons, and because it was unconscionable for your organization to have allowed such malicious slander, it must be retracted, and by you, immediately,” demanded the lawyer.

Sarah had also claimed that when she visited NAIT offices in 555 Grove Street, Herndon, Virginia, she removed some “documents” from the trash and thus “stumbled upon the heart of a terrorist-financing ring.”

She alleged finding “one important letter that actually gave me the lead to understand that the money comes from Saudi Arabia.”

Sarah claimed that al-Rajhis (a major name in Saudi Arabia's banking and business world) funded many of the organizations located in 555 Grove.

She alleged that chicken operations managed from 555 rove was “the best cover for money laundering.”

Sarah admitted, however, she was still trying to find out if the money went down the line to Hamas, Islamic Jihad or al-Qaeda.

She claims that with her help, U.S. officials had found out enough to get a Customs Department task force to raid 555 Grove and 28 other locations in March of 2002, carting away seven truckloads of evidence.

The NAIT lawyer charged that Sarah’s alleged story “leaps from one unfounded allegation to the next, connecting stories about organizations which have nothing to do with one another.”

She stressed that her client “are the only ones mentioned that have had no adverse action taken against them, other than a search warrant executed some fourteen months ago.”

Nancy asserted that CBS did not attempt to “give those falsely accused an opportunity to respond.”

“Producer Kathy Olean told me that the story was a.) not about [my] clients “they are mentioned simply because they were raided,” and b.) that I would have an opportunity to make a statement on their behalf-an offer later rescinded because, she claimed, “there was someone... there.... who made arguments on their behalf,” a claim that also was false. She told me she could not tell me what the story was about because it was “embargoed” and that the person pushing the story would not allow them to discuss it ahead of time. Journalistic ethics aside, how could any reporter make that kind of deal? I did not pursue it at the time because she insisted the story was not about my clients.”

In the docu-drama, the so-called Sarah claimed her father, a wealthy Jew, was among the 7 Iraqi Jews executed by the Iraqi government on charges of spying for the Israeli government.

This, she said, prompted her to this exercise of “hunting terrorists” and study how some U.S.-based charities fund Muslim “terrorist” groups.

Sarah alleged she helped shut down the Benevolence International Foundation - BIF and the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.

In the HFL case, she claimed that she posed as a Muslim and adopted a Palestinian orphan to obtain allegedly “inside” information on their activities.