Stephen Emerson describes M. Ali Khan as a member of presidential candidate John Edwards’s “inner sanctum” of campaign advisers and fundraisers. Khan is also the national director of the American Muslim Council (AMC), an organization with a history of defending Palestinian terrorists and whose founder is in prison after pleading guilty to violating anti-terror legislation.

The AMC website has defended people accused of supporting terrorism, for example, former Florida professor Sami Al-Arian. By the time the AMC spoke up for Al-Arian, he had been jailed for three years and was facing a retrial on charges he conspired to fund the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. “I’m Happy for Sami and his Family who has suffered tremendously over the years,” Khan wrote in an Internet post. “Sami was a personal jihad that we at AMC have been fighting for many years.”

But then Khan offered some insight into what his political action is all about: “My point is it is very important to develop and further relationships in our branch of Governments.”

Khan has also advanced the idea of the victimization of American Muslims after 9/11. For example, at a 2002 forum at Purdue University, Khan waved a speeding ticket claiming he had received it as a result of profiling. “I’m making an issue out of this. My sense of freedom has been lost since 9/11.” He did not specify, notes Emerson, how police radar was able to pick up on his religious affiliation.

The Edwards-Khan symbiosis underscores the need for greater scrutiny of presidential candidates’ inner circles.