Rita Katz

Rita Katz is Director SITE Institute, which she co-founded in 2002 with Josh Devon.

"Since well before September 11, she has personally briefed government officials, including former terrorism czar Richard Clarke and his staff in the White House, as well as investigators in the Department of Justice, Department of the Treasury, and the Department of Homeland Security on the financing and recruitment networks of the terrorist movement. Many of her leads have prompted the government to investigate and take legal action against individuals and organizations suspected of ties to terrorism," the SITE website states.

Prior, Katz "served as Research Director" of Steven Emerson's The Investigative Project on Terrorism in Washington, DC. "Born in Iraq and a graduate of the Middle Eastern Studies program at Tel Aviv University, Katz speaks both Arabic and Hebrew with native fluency."

Katz was identified as one of the attorneys, "counsel for the plaintiffs"&mdash;"Families of victims of September 11 terrorist attacks are suing, among others, various Saudi princes for $116 trillion of damages from the loss of life in September 11."&mdash;in an August 16, 2002, video clip shown on CNN's Crossfire with Robert Novak.

Katz is the author of Terrorist Hunter: The Extraordinary Story of a Woman who Went Undercover to Infiltrate the Radical Islamic Groups Operating in America published 2003 by HarperCollins (owned by Rupert Murdoch).

The trial of Al-Hussayen
Katz was called as a witness during the trial of Al-Hussayen, a doctoral student at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho, who was charged for supplying material support to a terrorist group because he volunteered to setup and maintain a website for the Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA), a group that has been investigated by the Federal Government, but never charged.

The government, however, didn't claim that she was a terrorism expert. During the trial it was discovered that Katz herself had worked in violation of her visa agreement when she first arrived in America in 1997. She also admitted to receiving more than $130,000 for her work as an FBI consultant on the case.

Interestingly, SITE has at least two news articles about Al-Hussayen, one a report on a Wall Street Journal article and the second one from the Ann Arbor News (no longer available on SITE's website), which described a second possible financial motive for Katz's testimony against the Muslim organisations other than the government's remuneration:


 * "Katz was hired to research terrorism by 911 Families United To Bankrupt Terrorism, a collection of about 1,000 relatives of those who lost their lives in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. That group filed a civil lawsuit in August 2002 against organizations they say finance terrorism."

FBI raids on Muslim organizations
"A series of raids in Northern Virginia in March 2002 of non-profit organizations and private homes terrorized a community and targeted some of the most prominent and well respected Muslim organizations and citizens of the United States. No money laundering or terrorism financing charges have been brought against these organizations or their officers in over three years. Some federal officials have characterized the investigation as an 'intelligence probe' designed to gather information rather than to enforce the law," Timothy H. Edgar, National Security Policy Counsel for the ACLU testified in April 2005, before the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security of the House Committee on the Judiciary.

"...federal agents seized confidential files, computer hard drives, books, and other materials from some of the most respected Islamic think tanks and organizations in the United States and raided the homes of many of the leaders involved in those organizations. The search warrants targeted two entities whose main purpose involves activities at the core of the First Amendment: the Graduate School of Islamic Thought and Social Sciences (GSITSS), an institute of higher education, and the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), an Islamic research institute and think tank, as well as the private homes of a number of their employees and scholars," Edgar said.

"The complaint in the civil rights action says the affidavit in support of the search warrants contained fabricated material facts regarding non-existent overseas transactions. The complaint also says the search warrant affidavit was drafted with the help of private author and self-styled 'terrorist hunter' Rita Katz, who was paid $272,000 for her advice by the federal government and has made much more in a book deal and as a consultant for news organizations. According to federal investigators, Katz 'lost the trust of some investigators from the FBI and Justice Department' as a result in part of the 'reckless conclusions' she drew in her book," Edgar said.

Articles by Rita Katz

 * Rita Katz and Josh Devon, "Getting at the Whole Network," National Review Online (SITE Institute), August 20, 2002.
 * Rita Katz and James Mitre, "Collaborating Financiers of Terror. Hamas and al Qaeda," National Review Online (SITE Institute), December 16, 2002.
 * Rita Katz and Josh Devon, "Terror Tools. Saudi-funded front in Michigan," National Review Online, March 11, 2003.
 * Rita Katz and Josh Devon, "Perilous Power Play. FBI vs. Homeland Security," National Review Online, May 27, 2003.
 * Rita Katz and Josh Devon, "WWW.J I H A D.COM. E-Groups abused by jihadists," National Review Online, July 13, 2003.
 * Rita Katz, Op-Ed: "The coming new wave of jihad," Boston Globe, March 13, 2006.
 * Rita Katz and Michael Kern, "Terrorist 007, Exposed," Washington Post, March 26, 2006.
 * Rita Katz and Josh Devon, "Osama's olive branch to Shi'ites," MuslimBrotherhood.co.uk, July 26, 2006.
 * Rita Katz and Josh Devon, "Web Of Terror. Al Qaeda and its allies are exploiting the Internet to recruit and plot havoc. Here's how we can stop them," Forbes, May 7, 2007.
 * Rita Katz and Josh Devon, Op-Ed: "Franchising Al Qaeda," Boston Globe, June 22, 2007.

2003

 * Yitzhak Ben Horin, "Rita Katz and Her War on Islamic Terror," Maariv (SITE Institute), June 1, 2003.
 * "MAS Freedom Supports Lawsuit Against CBS 60 Minutes’ 'Terrorist Hunter'," Muslim American Society, June 6, 2003.
 * Kathryn Jean Lopez, "The Terrorist Hunter Speaks. An amazing story of an Iraqi Jew at the heart of dismantling terrorism," National Review Online, June 26, 2003.
 * Aaran Leibel, "Author Infiltrates Islamic Terror Cells," Washington Jewish Week (JewishJournal.com), August 29, 2003.
 * 60 Minutes Libel Lawsuit Section Index: "Heritage Education Trust and Safa Trust (Plaintiffs) v. Rita Katz, a.k.a. "Anonymous," a.k.a. "Sarah" a.k.a. "Terrorist Hunter", Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE) Institute, CBS Broadcasting, Inc., CBS News Communications, Inc., and Bob Simon, c/o CBS Broadcasting, Inc. (Defendants), October 2003.
 * "Who is Rita Katz?" FreeAnwar.com, October 26, 2003.
 * "Islamist Networks in the United States". A Luncheon with Rita Katz, Director of the SITE Institute, The Nixon Center, November 19, 2003; Program Brief.

2004

 * Press Event: "Terrorist Hunter: An Undercover Look at Radical Islamic Groups Operating in America," Heritage Foundation, January 15, 2004.
 * John Sugg, "The FBI is on My Trail. They Want to Question Me About Lies Sami Al-Arian Allegedly Told, But What About the Lies Al-Arian's Enemies Fed the Government and the Tampa Tribune?" CounterPunch, March 11, 2004.

2005

 * "Katz ('Anonymous') - Terrorist Hunter," World Money Laundering Report Online, October 17, 2005.

2006

 * "NYT: SITE gives Dexy translations, he gives them play -- None dare call it reporting," The Common Ills Blogspot, March 25, 2006.
 * Benjamin Wallis-Wells, "Annals of Terrorism. Private Jihad. How Rita Katz got into the spying business," The New Yorker, May 29, 2006.

External resources

 * "Rita Katz and her War on Terrorism,' Jewish Federation (Greater Vancouver, Canada), undated.
 * Profile: Rita Katz, Cooperative Research.
 * Speaker: Rita Katz, Greater Talent Speakers Bureau.