New CAIR Generation

[Shammu]

"I'm not gonna put my wife in a hijab. And I'm not gonna put my daughter in a burqa. And I'm not getting' on my all-fours and braying to Mecca. And you could drop dead if you don't like it. You can shove it up your pipe. I don't wanna hear any more about Islam. I don't wanna hear one more word about Islam. Take your religion and shove it up your behind. I'm sick of you."

Ditto

I'll pray for the people, but not the islamic religion.

[Soldier4Christ]

Author doubtful about 'media guide' put out by Islamic group

Author and former Defense Department official Jed Babbin says he's very skeptical about a so-called "media guide" that has been put together by a Muslim group with suspected ties to terrorism.

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) -- a Washington, DC-based Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization -- has announced it has published a media guide that purportedly corrects "common misperceptions" about Islam and instructs reporters and authors how they should write about Islam.

According to the CAIR website, the guide -- titled "American Muslims: A Journalist's Guide to Understanding Islam and Muslims" -- offers journalists tools for writing "accurate and balanced" stories about Muslims, as well as "background information on issues related to Islam and Muslims, best practices for reporting on the American Muslim community, and definitions of terminology often used in news stories or editorials." CAIR is offering free copies of the guide to media professionals.

Jed Babbin, editor of Human Events, says he has requested a copy of the guide, but as yet has received no response to his request. He believes CAIR does not want anyone to see the document who might take the time to thoroughly examine its contents. The former deputy undersecretary of defense in President George H.W. Bush's administration also suspects it is not so much a guide as a set of rules against "harmful journalism."

"You know what's going to happen," says Babbin. "This is not a media guide. We're going to see people condemned for Islamophobia, for racism, [for] Lord only knows what else if you break their rules.

"Now the interesting thing about that was I asked for a copy of that," the journalist continues. "I sent CAIR an e-mail asking for a copy of it, and they haven't even answered my e-mail. I don't think they want anybody to see it who might actually scrutinize it."

Babbin contends Islamic groups are doing through intimidation what they cannot do through the ballot box or through court cases to silence critics of their religion.

[Soldier4Christ]

CAIR Linked to Site Posting 'Beheading' Poem...

Two Canadian Jewish groups are inviting a Muslim counterpart to stand with them against a shocking poem featured on the website IslamOnline.

The poem is called: “How to Behead.”

Graphically describing how to decapitate a captive, the verse is the work of Samina Malik, 23, the self-styled “lyrical terrorist” who two months ago became the first Muslim woman in Britain convicted on terrorism charges.

Her poems include “How to Behead” and “Beheading – How it Feels” – writings that helped draw her a nine-month suspended jail sentence.

“Obscene,” Canadian Jewish Congress leader Bernie Farber called the posting yesterday.

“This goes beyond what even (deported Toronto hate-monger Ernst) Zundel could have come up with,” said Jewish Defence League national director Meir Weinstein.

Both are calling on the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations, based in Ottawa, to cease its connection to the site and join them in denouncing the posting.

CAIR board member Jamal Badawi, a professor emeritus at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, contributes regularly to Qatar-based IslamOnline.net.

“Anybody who puts his name to a website that can be seen to be supporting this kind of writing should be ashamed of themselves,” Farber said in a telephone interview.

[Soldier4Christ]

CAIR backs off support for terror suspects 
Originally charged 'racial profiling' in case of 2 students arrested in S.C.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has backed off on its defense of two Muslim college students caught driving near a sensitive U.S. Navy base with explosives and a how-to video on bomb making.

Last August, when police in South Carolina arrested University of South Florida students Ahmed Mohamed and Youssef Megahed for possession of four pipe bombs and a homemade video on how to make detonators for improvised explosive devices, CAIR sprang to the students' defense.

Now, the Washington, D.C.-based Muslim civil rights group is not so sure the boys are innocent.

Ahmed Bedier, executive director of CAIR's Tampa, Fla., office, told WND it's possible the two Egyptian engineering students were up to no good and they possibly were not just carrying fireworks to the beach, as they claimed.

"I've never said that these people were innocent, or that we were providing any kind of support for them," Bedier told WND. "If they did anything wrong they should be punished."

But when FBI agents searched Megahed's home in August, Bedier claimed the case was nothing more than an example of racial profiling.

"Definitely, this is not related to terrorism," Bedier told the Associated Press. "Had these been two good ol' boys from South Carolina driving through and speeding – and even if they did have some fireworks – nobody would have been arrested."

On Aug. 4, two Berkeley County, South Carolina, sheriff's deputies stopped the two men for speeding. Mohamed, a 26-year-old graduate student, was driving a Toyota Camry owned by Megahed's brother and allegedly going 60 mph in a 45 mph zone. The deputies stopped the Camry near the town of Goose Creek, just a few miles from the Charleston Naval Weapons Station.

During the traffic stop, the students aroused the deputies' suspicions by making inconsistent statements about where they were going and what they were doing. After obtaining consent, the deputies searched the car. Inside the trunk they found four pieces of PVC pipe packed with what appeared to be explosives. They also found 20 feet of safety fuse, a nearly full five-gallon can of gasoline, a drill and a box of .22-caliber bullets.

Mohamed and Megahed said they were looking for cheap gas while on their way to a beach just across the state line in North Carolina. They claimed the PVC pipes were fireworks of a type they called "sugar rockets."

The deputies placed the two men under arrest.

Inside the passenger compartment of the Toyota was a laptop computer with a file on its hard drive called "Bomb Shock." The file contained information about homemade explosives. Recent Internet searches on the computer had included the words "martyrdom," "Hamas," and "Qassam rockets."

But in addition, authorities found a 12-minute video on the computer that featured Mohamed. (Although his face could not be seen, Mohamed later admitted it was him.) In the video, he explains and demonstrates how to use components taken from a remote-controlled toy car to make a detonator for improvised explosive devices.

During the demonstration, Mohamed specifically mentions that the same components can also be found in a remote-controlled toy boat.

On the video, Mohamed says in Arabic, "Instead of the brethren going to carry out martyrdom operations ... he can use the explosion tools from distance and preserve his life, God willing, ... for the real battles."

Mohamed later admitted to the FBI that he made the video at his Tampa residence and intended it for Muslims overseas who are defending their lands against infidel invaders, a description, he said, that included U.S. troops.

Two days after Mohamed and Megahed's arrests, FBI agents searched Megahed's home in Tampa. Inside the home they found a remote-controlled toy boat still in its box and a partially dismantled digital watch. According to an FBI affidavit, "Digital watches have often been used in the past as timing devices for homemade bombs."

An FBI test of the material found inside the PVC pipe revealed it was an explosive mixture of potassium nitrate, cat litter and corn syrup.

A federal grand jury handed down a two-count indictment Aug. 31 that charged both men with illegally transporting explosives across state lines. The grand jury also hit Mohamed with the terrorism-related charge of distributing information about building and using an explosive device.

Megahed, a 21-year-old undergraduate, faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, while Mohamed, because of the additional terrorism charge, faces a possible 30-year sentence. Both are being held without bond.

Megahed has since repeatedly tried to get his case separated from Mohamed's.

The case received scant media coverage, but interest in it was temporarily revived in early October when Megahed's brother, Yahia Megahed, was caught on a jailhouse surveillance camera surreptitiously making strange faces and using what appeared to be sign language to try to communicate with Megahed. When the news was made public, several media outlets lambasted the government for trying to assert that the attempted communication was part of a conspiracy.

What most of the media reports failed to mention was that the car – the 2000 Toyota Camry in which the explosives and terrorist training video were found – was registered to Yahia Megahed.

Later, the case made the news again when a tape recording made by a dashboard-mounted camera inside the arresting deputies' patrol car revealed what some said were racist comments by one of the deputies.

On the tape, Deputy Lamar Blakely can be heard telling his partner that Mohamed and Megahed were members of the "Taliban" and "graduates of suicide bomber school."

Critics pounced on the news.

"Clearly this is a racial or ethnic profiling case," Andy Savage, a South Carolina attorney who initially represented Megahed, told the St. Petersburg Times. "If this had been my son, if it was an Irish-American kid who had been stopped in Berkeley County going 60 mph, he might have been ticketed. More likely they would say, 'Slow down son. Keep on going.' But they would never have had their car torn apart. They would never have been viewed as suspicious individuals."

CAIR's Bedier was also quick to assert that it was the Berkeley County sheriff's deputies who were the guilty party.

"Law enforcement should follow the rules," Bedier told the St. Petersburg paper. "When they don't do their job the right way, they jeopardize their own investigation. Somebody screwed up here, and it may be costly. It will raise doubt about how this investigation was triggered."

The federal public defender in Tampa, who now represents Megahed, filed papers with the court last month in which he asserted the South Carolina deputies had been on a "fishing expedition" when they searched Megahed's brother's car. The defender contended the investigation was based on a "hunch" fueled by "inappropriate stereotypes."

In the case of Mohamed, who was in the U.S. on a student visa, the Egyptian government provided $750,000 for his legal defense.

"We are responsible for the sons of Egypt abroad with no exception," Ahmed el-Qawassni, a spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, told the AP.

In another twist in the case, earlier this month Mohamed demanded that the court allow him to fire his attorney, veteran Tampa litigator John Fitzgibbons, to whom the Egyptian government has already paid a $500,000 non-refundable retainer.

Mohamed accused Fitzgibbons of shoddy representation and expressed an interest in hiring attorney Linda Moreno to represent him. Moreno was the attorney for convicted Tampa-area terror supporter Sami Al-Arian.

In a courtroom tirade Monday, Mohamed also accused an Egyptian embassy official of stealing $250,000 from his defense fund.

At the end of Monday's hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Pizzo excused an exuberant Fitzgibbons from the case. Fitzgibbons told the judge that Mohamed was the most difficult client he has represented in 20 years as a lawyer. Fitzgibbons said he visited Mohamed in jail at least 20 times in the three months since he was hired as his attorney, and each time Mohamed refused to cooperate with him. All Mohamed did during the visits, Fitzgibbons said, was lay his head on a table and mutter prayers in Arabic.

After announcing his decision, Judge Pizzo issued a warning to Mohamed.

"You had excellent counsel who was representing you," the judge said. "You chose not to get along with him. The consequences are yours."

Outside the courthouse, following the judge's ruling, Fitzgibbons told reporters: "It's going from the weird to the bizarre. Now, he's accusing Egyptian government officials of stealing money. You can see what I've been dealing with."

Tuesday, the judge appointed another attorney to represent Mohamed, whose trial is scheduled for March.

[Soldier4Christ]

Christians launch crusade against new U.S. mosque
Officials deny they voted down plan because of Baptist opposition

A Baptist church in Ohio is being accused of religious intolerance for allegedly thwarting a plan to build a mosque on nearby property.

The board of zoning appeals in Sugarcreek Township, Ohio, insists its 5-0 vote against a variance request that would have permitted the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton to build the mosque was not influenced by the local First Baptist Church. The rejection, officials say, was based only on the expected sewage and traffic impact, the Dayton Daily News reported.

But the senior pastor of the 1,900-member church, Barry Jude, has made his opposition to the mosque clear.

"We just feel that Christianity is right and that Islam is wrong," Jude told the Daily News. "Therefore, we take a stand to see (a mosque) not in our community. The wonderful thing about our American culture is that you have the right to speak out against something you don't support."

The paper says the issue "has touched on larger questions: Does the presence of a mosque locally evoke feelings of fear or even hatred? Are church officials saying out loud what a lot of people are thinking privately?"

The Islamic Society of Greater Dayton says it will consider its options now, including a legal appeal. The plan is to build a mosque for up to 975 people and a family center for up to 400 on 15 acres it owns.

The society, on its website, notes its association with the Islamic Society of North America and the North American Islamic Trust, which both were named last summer as "unindicted co-conspirators" in a plot to fund the terrorist group Hamas.

Federal prosecutors also named the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, as a participant in a plot with five officials of the defunct Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.

The Dayton paper quoted a CAIR spokeswoman, Karen Dabdoud, who said she was surprised by the zoning board's rejection. At a public hearing in October, she said, township officials "told us this was a pretty simple and straightforward application and they didn't see any problems with it."

"This kind of thing is unfortunately very common across the country," Dabdoud told the Daily News. "It's usually framed in terms of traffic and property values, but underneath it is a situation of religious tension."

CAIR is a spinoff of the defunct Islamic Association for Palestine, launched by Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook and former university professor Sami al-Arian, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide services to Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Several CAIR staffers have been convicted on terrorism-related charges, and CAIR founder Omar Ahmad allegedly told a group of Muslims they are in America not to assimilate but to help assert Islam's rule over the country.

As WND reported, a Christian minister suing to halt the planned construction of a huge Florida mosque says he hopes to gain access to previously undisclosed financial information of CAIR.

'Power of the sword'

The Dayton paper reported that several days before the zoning board meeting, a local Methodist pastor and his wife, also a pastor, received a phone call from a woman urging local residents to attend the meeting in opposition to the mosque.

The caller said the mosque should be blocked "because of what it says in the Quran, and these are bad people," said Brooks Heck, pastor of South Park United Methodist Church in Dayton. His wife, Terry, is pastor of Bellbrook United Methodist Church.

However, Sugarcreek Township Administrator Barry Tiffany insisted, "I can tell you that religion was never brought into it by the board at any time."

Jude said he was unaware of any calling campaign prior to the board meeting. But he affirmed there had been announcements at his church urging local residents to oppose the zoning.

The pastor said he has told his congregation "to hate the sin but love the sinner" when it comes to Islam. "We're here to promote Christ and his kingdom ... and we want to lovingly do that," he told the Dayton paper. "Obviously, there are wonderful people who are Islamic."

The Daily News reported Sunday its discovery of a CD recording offered by the church that features a talk by a former Muslim, Shahram Parvani, who declared, "Islam is not a religion of peace."

Parvani, speaking to an audience of about 500 at the church Oct. 28, also stated Muslims "want to control, they want to dominate" and spread their religion "by the power of the sword."

He said that less Christians stop Muslims from buying land and setting up their own facilities in the U.S., what "happened in Europe is going to happen to us."

"The Islamic Council of the United Kingdom is buying up every single church that closes and they pay cash for it. As soon as the (old) sign comes down, the Islamic sign goes up."

The Islamic Society of Greater Dayton says on its website that it purchased a church building in 1985 and remodeled it for its headquarters.

Its homepage bears a hadith – a saying from the life of Muhammad – that declares: "Who ever builds a Masjid (mosque) for Allah, Allah will Build for him a similar House in Paradise."

[Soldier4Christ]

FL Attorney General Genuflects to CAIR, MPAC...

In what has become a war of the spinners, Florida Attorney General McCollum, the Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR] and the Muslim Public Affairs Council [MPAC] are all trying to cast a meeting held on February 12, between the AG and the two groups in the best light.

That meeting took place as a result of McCollum having organized a screening of the film “Obsession" which is viewed by CAIR, MPAC and other Islamist organizations as being defamatory because it tells the truth about radical Islam, including its ties to fascism.

For its part, CAIR, the recently named unindicted co-conspirator in the U.S. government’s largest anti-terror prosecution, characterized the meeting in part as:

    “McCollum also agreed to offer educational programs on Islam and Muslims to his staff and to help build better relations between the Muslim community and law enforcement agencies

However in a letter to America Congress for Truth’s Jerry Gordon a spokesman for Mr. McCollum seemed to be saying that there would be no “educational programs on Islam" being forced on employees of the AG’s office:

    “The meeting earlier this week with MPAC and CAIR was a good dialogue and we believe it was productive, but as multiple media outlets have reported, the Attorney General will not be “dissociating" himself from this movie and still believes it has educational value. I’ve not seen any particular statement from MPAC on the meeting aside from what has been reported in the media, but the one statement they’ve made in the press which is not accurate relates to the opportunity to educate our staff. This will not be possible due to First Amendment issues," [source, http://blog.americancongressfortruth.com:80/2008/02/14/florida-ag-mccollum-calls-mpaccair-statements-about-meeting-inaccurate]

When contacted by PipeLineNews.org on February 15 though, the same Ms. Copes who authored the above response to Mr. Gordon, took a different tack, making it clear that there was indeed a new “Muslim Advisory Council for the Florida Attorney General’s Office," though its scope of authority and operating charter have not yet been specified.

    “The meeting between the Attorney General and the members of CAIR and MPAC was productive. We did agree to create a Muslim Advisory Council for the Florida Attorney General's Office, although no additional decisions about composition, etc. have been made at this time. We have also agreed to include appropriate material in the hate crimes training our office offers to law enforcement and members of Florida communities through the Anti-Defamation League."

What is one to make of all of this scurrying around?

It seems clear that the Florida Attorney General’s office is operating from a position of supplication, acting as if Mr. McCollum needs to take ameliorative action as a result of having screened the movie “Obsession." Just why telling the truth about certain practitioners of Islam should demand such action, is hard to fathom.

As a result, his office will now officially be working with - in apparent atonement - two Islamist groups, one of which is intimately involved in a major terror prosecution, who forced this murkily defined advisory council on the AG’s office.

It must be assumed that this advisory group will have some role in censorship regarding items which it might deem “insulting" to the Muslim religion. As such Mr. McCollum’s actions can only be seen as examples of dhimmitude, and certainly not in keeping with his oath of office.

[Soldier4Christ]

Hosting Unindicted Co-Conspirators at Fort Lauderdale


On Saturday, March 1st, the city of Fort Lauderdale will be playing host to two U.S. government named “Unindicted Co-Conspirators,” the Islamic advocacy group CAIR and Brooklyn imam Siraj Wahhaj. The event will be taking place with the full knowledge of the city, while the citizens of Fort Lauderdale will be left in the dark, unaware of what their elected officials are allowing to operate in and fundraise in their town.

CAIR or the Council on American-Islamic Relations was created in June of 1994 as a part of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee, a quad of groups looking for ways to finance Hamas from the United States. The committee was headed by Mousa Abu Marzook, then the Political Bureau Chief of Hamas. Today, CAIR has over 30 offices based throughout the U.S. and Canada, one of them being CAIR-Florida.

CAIR-Florda, like its parent and “Brother” organizations, holds annual events highlighting speakers well known to the radical Muslim community. The venue for this year’s affair, its 2008 South Florida Annual Fundraising Banquet, will be the Broward County Convention Center. The theme of the gathering is ‘Let the Conversation Begin.’ However, the real conversation should start with how and why an organization connected to Hamas would be given the go ahead to utilize a government owned facility for its event, especially when that group is using it to collect money.

In June of 2007, 13 years after its founding, CAIR, along with other terror-related entities, was named as an “unindicted co-conspirator” for a Dallas trial that dealt with the financing of millions of dollars to Hamas. CAIR being implicated in the funding of terrorism abroad is a concern, as the group will be using the Broward government center to raise money. Question: Where will that money wind up?

Also of concern are the speakers. Featured at this year’s event, as has been the case in past events, is Siraj Wahhaj, the imam of Masjid Al-Taqwa in Brooklyn, New York. Wahhaj is also the Amir or President of the Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), an umbrella group for African-American mosques and Islamic centers.

In February of 1995, Wahhaj was named by U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White to a list of “unindicted persons who may be alleged as co-conspirators” for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Also found on the list are Osama bin Laden, bin Laden mentor Abdullah Azzam, and Fawaz Damra, who was deported from the United States, in January of 2007, for his involvement with Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

With regard to the ’93 bombing, Wahhaj has been linked to the spiritual leader of the operation, the “Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel Rahman, and bomb-maker Clement Rodney Hampton-El. The attack, which was part of a much larger conspiracy to destroy major landmarks throughout New York City, took the lives of six people.

Also featured at this year’s CAIR event are Juan Cole, an anti-Israel blogger and conspiracy theorist, and Maz Jobrani, an Iranian comedian who has built his career on anti-Bush statements veiled as jokes.

This is not the first time Broward County has opened its doors to CAIR. In March of 2003, a “diversity awareness” video featuring CAIR-Florida Executive Director Altaf Ali was shown in every public school in Broward and viewed by the youngest of Broward’s students. The video was produced by the Broward County School Board.

In August of 2005, Broward County allowed CAIR to use its Main Library in Fort Lauderdale to hold a series of six lectures, as part of CAIR’s ‘Explore Islamic Culture & Civilization’ project. The project began in September of 2002, for the purpose of distributing sets of Islamic-oriented books to thousands of public libraries across America. The texts included: a version of the Quran that was banned by the Los Angeles school system, a book justifying the beating of women by their husbands, and a book defending convicted terrorist Abdurahman Alamoudi. The Broward County Library Magazine publicized the event using the Broward County government logo.

And last year, in March of 2007, just as it is doing this year, Broward County allowed CAIR to use its convention center. And Wahhaj spoke at that event, as well.

When is Broward going to figure out that it is wrong to allow groups and individuals with ties to terrorism to use its facilities, especially when it comes to those groups using the facilities to raise money? Do Broward’s government officials worry about where that money is going, what it’s going for, or who it’s going to? Do they truly care about the safety and security of their citizens?

The CAIR/Wahhaj event is only weeks away. That is enough time for Broward to change its disastrous course, show that radical Islamists are unwelcome, and shut the fundraiser down.

[Soldier4Christ]

CAIR:  Ahmed Bedier, Pass the Bread, Reject the Bible

     In a February article in Tampa Bay Online, Karen Dunham is lauded as providing much needed resources to Palestinian refugees in camps in the Middle East.  Dunham, of the Living Bread International Church, enjoys the cooperation of the Israeli armed forces and has her headquarters mission in Jerusalem, with mission outposts in Bethlehem, Jericho, and another planned for Hebron.

     Dunham’s group passes out food, clothing, and Bibles to those who seek her group’s assistance.

     Ahmed Bedier, director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Tampa, Florida, chapter, apparently has a problem with Dunham witnessing to those she is helping with her outreach.  Specifically, Bedier is troubled by Dunham’s Christian evangelizing.

     According to Bedier,

"These are starving people who are not thinking rationally…
they'll do what you say to get the food to keep them alive.
They'll pray with and say they're converted. And likely,
they'll be back at the mosque on Friday."

     Is the Muslim faith of Middle Eastern Muslims so weak that they would deny it on one day, embrace it the next?

    Is this an opinion Bedier has shared with Middle Eastern Muslims?

     Bedier met with one of Dunham’s American volunteers before her third trip to the Middle East. Among the things Bedier gave her are a copy of the Koran and a list of “do’s and don’ts” regarding the Muslim culture.

     Ahmed Bedier, the representative of a self-described “Muslim civil rights group” presumes to tell a Christian to ignore her faith when ministering to Muslims ... yet expects that same Christian to observe a list of “do’s and don’ts” when interacting with Muslims?

     Rank hypocrisy?

     Bedier wants Dunham’s group to keep their Bibles to themselves, but sees no problem with giving a Christian volunteer a copy of the Koran.  Did not Bedier think this was Islamic proselytizing?  What other possible reason can there be for his giving her a copy of the Koran?

     Bedier further illustrates his Christophobia:
 
“You have to question the motives of people who go
into hostile environments to push their religion,
when there's so much that needs to be done
in this country."

     (Keep in mind that Dunham’s car has been bombed and her home blown up three times)
 
     Bedier enjoys a very comfortable life in the United States. He represents CAIR, a group with proven ties to Islamic terrorism and Islamic terrorists; a group founded by Islamic terrorists, an organization that actively supports Islamic terrorists and Islamic terrorist groups; an association supported by Islamic terrorists and Islamic terrorist groups, an organization that is actively working to subvert the government of the United States with the ultimate goal of converting our country into an Islamic theocracy.

     Has Bedier ever set foot in the Middle East with a bag of food, clothes, and religious material to pass out to the Palestinian people in the refugee camps?

     Dunham has.

     Would Bedier ever give up his very comfortable life in the U.S. to live a life of danger in the Middle East in response to a higher calling?

     Dunham has.

     What appears to have Bedier so outraged is that it took a Christian to show CAIR how real outreach works and that the works of God are definitely not the province of radical Muslims.

     Dunham’s Living Bread International Church is everything CAIR is not.

     No wonder Bedier is upset ...

[Soldier4Christ]

CAIR seeks dismissal of Savage lawsuit
Judge to issue ruling soon in case linking organization to terror

A judge in California has taken under advisement a request by the Council on Islamic-American Relations to dismiss a lawsuit filed by radio talk show host Michael Savage.

The San Francisco-based talker originally accused the organization of copyright violations, but later amended the action to include allegations the group "has consistently sought to silence opponents of violent terror through economic blackmail, frivolous but costly lawsuits, threats of lawsuits and abuses of the legal system."

The action in U.S. District Court in Northern California also charges CAIR with using extortion, threats, abuse of the court system, and obtaining money via interstate commerce under false and fraudulent circumstances – calling it a "political vehicle of international terrorism" and even linking the group with support of al-Qaida.

The federal government, in fact, recently named CAIR, based in Washington, D.C., as an unindicted co-conspirator in an alleged scheme to funnel $12 million to the terrorist group Hamas.

The lawsuit was the subject of court hearing today, and according to a report from the Associated Press, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said she was "leaning toward tossing out" the action.

She did say she likely would allow Savage's lawyer to submit a revised complaint to keep the case alive, the report said.

Savage's attorney Daniel Horowitz said the copyright claim was valid because CAIR used Savage's material "for purely commercial purposes," but the judge said she found free speech arguments persuasive.

As WND has reported, CAIR has been associated with a disturbing number of convicted terrorists or felons in terrorism probes, as well as suspected terrorists and active targets of terrorism investigations.

"Groups like CAIR have a proven record of senior officials being indicted and either imprisoned or deported from the United States," said U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., co-founder of the House Anti-Terrorism/Jihad Caucus.

Savage and Horowitz, a celebrity civil rights attorney, are trying to use the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act to make the case that "CAIR and its co-conspirators have aided, abetted and materially sponsored al-Qaida and international terrorism."

CAIR launched a campaign against "The Savage Nation," as the program is called, using extended audio clips of the show to make the case that advertisers who supported the talker were actually endorsing "hate speech" against Muslims.

Savage turned the tables on the activist group by initially suing for copyright violation of the show's material, then expanding the case.

Among the charges is that CAIR is "part of a deliberately complex and deliberately confusing array of related organizations" and that its "organizational structure is part of a scheme to hide the illegal activities of the group, funding, the transfer of funds and to complicate investigation of the group."

Other highlights of the suit:

 

    * "CAIR is not a civil rights organization and it never has been. - CAIR was and is a political organization that advocates a specific political agenda on behalf of foreign interests."

    * "The copyright infringement was done to raise funds for CAIR so that it could perpetuate and continue to perform its role in the RICO conspiracy set forth in Count Two and to disseminate propaganda on behalf of foreign interests that are opposed to the continued existence of the United States of America as a free nation."

    * "CAIR would have to register as a foreign agent if their activities were not hidden under the false claim that they are a civil rights organization that enjoys tax-exempt status."

    * "CAIR was tied to terror from the day it was formed. The group was incorporated on or about 1994 by Omar Ahmad and Nihad Awad. Both men were officers of a terror organization known as the 'Islamic Association of Palestine.'"

    * "CAIR's parent group, IAP, was founded in or about 1982 by Musa Abu Marzook. Marzook was IAP's ideological leader and controlling director from the date of its founding until shortly after his deportation from the United States in 1997. At all time relevant, Marzook was an operative of, and/or affiliated with, the 'Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah,' or 'Hamas.' Hamas is an international terrorist organization."

    * In 1998, "CAIR demanded the removal of a Los Angeles billboard describing Osama bin Laden as 'the sworn enemy,' asserting that this depiction [was] 'offensive to Muslims.'"

    * In 1998, "CAIR denied bin Laden's responsibility for the two al-Qaida bombings of American embassies in Africa. CAIR's leader Ibrahim Hooper claimed the bombings resulted from 'misunderstandings on both sides.'"

    * "On October 5, 2001, just weeks after 9/11, CAIR's New York office sent a letter to The New York Times arguing that the paper had misidentified three of the hijackers and suggesting that the attacks may have been committed by people who were impersonating Arab Muslims."

    * "CAIR further exploited 9/11 as it put on its website a picture of the World Trade Center in flames and below it a call for donations that was linked to the Holy Land Foundation website." The Holy Land Foundation, the suit charges, is "a terror organization."

    * "CAIR receives significant international funding. For example, in 1999 the Islamic Development Bank gave a $250,000 grant to CAIR to purchase land for a national headquarters. In 2002, the World Association for Muslim Youth, a Saudi government-funded organization, financed distributing books on Islam free of charge and an advertising campaign in American publications. This included a quarter page in USA Today each Friday, for a year, estimated to cost $1.04 million. In 2003, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal donated $500,000 to distribute the Koran and other books about Islam in the United States. In 2005, CAIR's Washington branch received a donation of $1,366,466 from a Saudi Arabian named gotcha98 Bogary. In 2006, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, deputy ruler of Dubai and UAE minister of finance and industry, financed the building of a property in the U.S. to serve as an endowment for the organization. This gift is thought to generate income of approximately $3 million a year."

    * "The role of CAIR and CAIR-Canada is to wage PSYOPS (psychological warfare) and disinformation activities on behalf of Wahabbi-based Islamic terrorists throughout North America. They are the intellectual 'shock troops' of Islamic terrorism."

    * "The Council on American-Islamic Relations is a Muslim Brotherhood front organization. It works in the United States as a lobby against radio, television and print media journalists who dare to produce anything about Islam that is at variance with their fundamental agenda."

    * "CAIR has links to both Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. Terrorism expert Steven Emerson has stated before Congress that CAIR is a front for Hamas."

cont'd

[Soldier4Christ]

Savage's case also cites another suit against CAIR filed by the estate of John P. O'Neill, the former head of security for the World Trade Center. It alleged a RICO conspiracy involving CAIR led to the 9/11 attack.

"Throughout this period," the Savage suit alleges, "CAIR conspired to support terrorism and to obfuscate the roles of the various participants and conspirators in Radical Muslim Terrorism, and/or al-Qaida and/or the International Islamic Front for the Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, which conspiracy culminated in the 9/11 attack."

It continues: "The pattern of racketeering activity conducted by CAIR is separate from the existence of Radical Muslim Terrorism, and/or the al-Qaida, and/or the International Islamic Front for the Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, but was a necessary component of the 9/11 attack. The RICO enterprise conducts terrorism all over the world; the racketeering activity conducted by CAIR funds that activity, which activity culminated in the 9/11 attack."

CAIR has claimed a host of companies have stopped advertising on Savage's show as a result of its boycott campaign.

However, an investigation by WND shows some of those boycott victories are questionable. In one announcement claiming Universal Orlando Resorts "drops 'Savage Nation' ads," CAIR stated: "Advertisers that have already stopped airing, or refuse to air commercials on 'Savage Nation' include AutoZone, Citrix, TrustedID, JCPenney, OfficeMax, Wal-Mart and AT&T."

But AutoZone told WND the CAIR campaign had nothing to do with its advertising decision, and it had chosen not to advertise on any radio talk shows – of all parts of the spectrum – years before the CAIR effort.

CAIR officials declined to respond to WND queries about why it is listing companies as part of its boycott campaign that say they have not participated in the boycott.

Officials of Talk Radio Network, Savage's syndicator, confirmed to WND that companies including AutoZone and JCPenney never advertise on such programs.

"We do not sponsor syndicated radio talk shows," AutoZone spokesman Ray Pohlman told WND. "We have customers of all shapes and sizes and political persuasions. For us to sponsor [any radio talk shows] wouldn't make any sense."

But that policy is years old, and wasn't changed at all by CAIR's effort, he said.

"What I will tell you is the CAIR organization did, in fact, contact the marketing department [of AutoZone.] We responded with our full advertising policy which clearly states that we do not advertise on radio talk shows," he told WND.

The clip used by CAIR from Savage's material included: "I'm not gonna put my wife in a hijab. And I'm not gonna put my daughter in a burqa. And I'm not getting' on my all-fours and braying to Mecca. And you could drop dead if you don't like it. You can shove it up your pipe. I don't wanna hear any more about Islam. I don't wanna hear one more word about Islam. Take your religion and shove it up your behind. I'm sick of you."

The Savage suit says comments like that are taken out of context.

The suit seeks damages equal to the ongoing donations from CAIR supporters "who expect CAIR to act in this manner in exchange for continuing financial support" as well as "actual damages according to proof."

[Soldier4Christ]

Judge sides with CAIR against Michael Savage
Sends message using radio talker's work all right

A Clinton-appointed judge in California has dismissed a lawsuit by radio talk show host Michael Savage against the Council on Islamic-American Relations.

The decision came in a terse one-page document in which Judge Susan Illston said she was granting the defendant's motion for judgment on the pleadings with leave to amend. Although it was released only today, it was dated Friday, apparently finalized shortly after she held a hearing on the issues at hand. It was posted on Michael Savage's website, under the headline "Clinton judge (Illston) sides with CAIR against Savage."

"I don't care if it costs me $2 million. I'm going to appeal," Savage promised immediately.

The San Francisco-based talker originally accused the organization of copyright violations, but later amended the action to include allegations the group "has consistently sought to silence opponents of violent terror through economic blackmail, frivolous but costly lawsuits, threats of lawsuits and abuses of the legal system."

The action in U.S. District Court in Northern California also accused CAIR of using extortion, threats, abuse of the court system, and obtaining money via interstate commerce under false and fraudulent circumstances – calling it a "political vehicle of international terrorism" and even linking the group with support of al-Qaida.

The federal government, in fact, recently named CAIR, based in Washington, D.C., as an unindicted co-conspirator in an alleged scheme to funnel $12 million to the terrorist group Hamas.

The lawsuit was the subject of court hearing on Friday, and according to a report from the Associated Press, Illston said she was "leaning toward tossing out" the action.

She did say she was considering allowing Savage's lawyer to submit a revised complaint to keep the case alive, the report said.

Savage's attorney Daniel Horowitz said the copyright claim was valid because CAIR used Savage's material "for purely commercial purposes," but the judge said she found free speech arguments persuasive.

As WND has reported, CAIR has been associated with a disturbing number of convicted terrorists or felons in terrorism probes, as well as suspected terrorists and active targets of terrorism investigations.

"Groups like CAIR have a proven record of senior officials being indicted and either imprisoned or deported from the United States," said U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., co-founder of the House Anti-Terrorism/Jihad Caucus.

Savage and Horowitz, a celebrity civil rights attorney, are trying to use the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act to make the case that "CAIR and its co-conspirators have aided, abetted and materially sponsored al-Qaida and international terrorism."

CAIR launched a campaign against "The Savage Nation," as the program is called, using extended audio clips of the show to make the case that advertisers who supported the talker were actually endorsing "hate speech" against Muslims.

Savage turned the tables on the activist group by initially suing for copyright violation of the show's material, then expanding the case.

Among the charges is that CAIR is "part of a deliberately complex and deliberately confusing array of related organizations" and that its "organizational structure is part of a scheme to hide the illegal activities of the group, funding, the transfer of funds and to complicate investigation of the group."

Other highlights of the suit:

    * "CAIR is not a civil rights organization and it never has been. - CAIR was and is a political organization that advocates a specific political agenda on behalf of foreign interests."

    * "The copyright infringement was done to raise funds for CAIR so that it could perpetuate and continue to perform its role in the RICO conspiracy set forth in Count Two and to disseminate propaganda on behalf of foreign interests that are opposed to the continued existence of the United States of America as a free nation."

    * "CAIR would have to register as a foreign agent if their activities were not hidden under the false claim that they are a civil rights organization that enjoys tax-exempt status."

    * "CAIR was tied to terror from the day it was formed. The group was incorporated on or about 1994 by Omar Ahmad and Nihad Awad. Both men were officers of a terror organization known as the 'Islamic Association of Palestine.'"

    * "CAIR's parent group, IAP, was founded in or about 1982 by Musa Abu Marzook. Marzook was IAP's ideological leader and controlling director from the date of its founding until shortly after his deportation from the United States in 1997. At all time relevant, Marzook was an operative of, and/or affiliated with, the 'Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah,' or 'Hamas.' Hamas is an international terrorist organization."

    * In 1998, "CAIR demanded the removal of a Los Angeles billboard describing Osama bin Laden as 'the sworn enemy,' asserting that this depiction [was] 'offensive to Muslims.'"

    * In 1998, "CAIR denied bin Laden's responsibility for the two al-Qaida bombings of American embassies in Africa. CAIR's leader Ibrahim Hooper claimed the bombings resulted from 'misunderstandings on both sides.'"

    * "On October 5, 2001, just weeks after 9/11, CAIR's New York office sent a letter to The New York Times arguing that the paper had misidentified three of the hijackers and suggesting that the attacks may have been committed by people who were impersonating Arab Muslims."

    * "CAIR further exploited 9/11 as it put on its website a picture of the World Trade Center in flames and below it a call for donations that was linked to the Holy Land Foundation website." The Holy Land Foundation, the suit charges, is "a terror organization."

cont'd

[Soldier4Christ]

    * "CAIR receives significant international funding. For example, in 1999 the Islamic Development Bank gave a $250,000 grant to CAIR to purchase land for a national headquarters. In 2002, the World Association for Muslim Youth, a Saudi government-funded organization, financed distributing books on Islam free of charge and an advertising campaign in American publications. This included a quarter page in USA Today each Friday, for a year, estimated to cost $1.04 million. In 2003, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal donated $500,000 to distribute the Koran and other books about Islam in the United States. In 2005, CAIR's Washington branch received a donation of $1,366,466 from a Saudi Arabian named gotcha98 Bogary. In 2006, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, deputy ruler of Dubai and UAE minister of finance and industry, financed the building of a property in the U.S. to serve as an endowment for the organization. This gift is thought to generate income of approximately $3 million a year."

    * "The role of CAIR and CAIR-Canada is to wage PSYOPS (psychological warfare) and disinformation activities on behalf of Wahabbi-based Islamic terrorists throughout North America. They are the intellectual 'shock troops' of Islamic terrorism."

    * "The Council on American-Islamic Relations is a Muslim Brotherhood front organization. It works in the United States as a lobby against radio, television and print media journalists who dare to produce anything about Islam that is at variance with their fundamental agenda."

    * "CAIR has links to both Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. Terrorism expert Steven Emerson has stated before Congress that CAIR is a front for Hamas."

Savage's case also cites another suit against CAIR filed by the estate of John P. O'Neill, the former head of security for the World Trade Center. It alleged a RICO conspiracy involving CAIR led to the 9/11 attack.

"Throughout this period," the Savage suit alleges, "CAIR conspired to support terrorism and to obfuscate the roles of the various participants and conspirators in Radical Muslim Terrorism, and/or al-Qaida and/or the International Islamic Front for the Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, which conspiracy culminated in the 9/11 attack."

It continues: "The pattern of racketeering activity conducted by CAIR is separate from the existence of Radical Muslim Terrorism, and/or the al-Qaida, and/or the International Islamic Front for the Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, but was a necessary component of the 9/11 attack. The RICO enterprise conducts terrorism all over the world; the racketeering activity conducted by CAIR funds that activity, which activity culminated in the 9/11 attack."

CAIR has claimed a host of companies have stopped advertising on Savage's show as a result of its boycott campaign.

However, an investigation by WND shows some of those boycott victories are questionable. In one announcement claiming Universal Orlando Resorts "drops 'Savage Nation' ads," CAIR stated: "Advertisers that have already stopped airing, or refuse to air commercials on 'Savage Nation' include AutoZone, Citrix, TrustedID, JCPenney, OfficeMax, Wal-Mart and AT&T."

But AutoZone told WND the CAIR campaign had nothing to do with its advertising decision, and it had chosen not to advertise on any radio talk shows – of all parts of the spectrum – years before the CAIR effort.

CAIR officials declined to respond to WND queries about why it is listing companies as part of its boycott campaign that say they have not participated in the boycott.

Officials of Talk Radio Network, Savage's syndicator, confirmed to WND that companies including AutoZone and JCPenney never advertise on such programs.

"We do not sponsor syndicated radio talk shows," AutoZone spokesman Ray Pohlman told WND. "We have customers of all shapes and sizes and political persuasions. For us to sponsor [any radio talk shows] wouldn't make any sense."

But that policy is years old, and wasn't changed at all by CAIR's effort, he said.

"What I will tell you is the CAIR organization did, in fact, contact the marketing department [of AutoZone.] We responded with our full advertising policy which clearly states that we do not advertise on radio talk shows," he told WND.

The clip used by CAIR from Savage's material included: "I'm not gonna put my wife in a hijab. And I'm not gonna put my daughter in a burqa. And I'm not getting' on my all-fours and braying to Mecca. And you could drop dead if you don't like it. You can shove it up your pipe. I don't wanna hear any more about Islam. I don't wanna hear one more word about Islam. Take your religion and shove it up your behind. I'm sick of you."

The Savage suit says comments like that are taken out of context.

The suit seeks damages equal to the ongoing donations from CAIR supporters "who expect CAIR to act in this manner in exchange for continuing financial support" as well as "actual damages according to proof."

[Soldier4Christ]

CAIR Comes Clean on Hamas



Since the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was founded in June of 1994, the group has worked hard to conceal its true feelings about Hamas. That is, until now. Video footage taken at a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, rally against CAIR reveals its unabashed support for Hamas. If people had questions about CAIR's sympathies before, this should end all debate on the matter.

In March of 1994, the future co-founder and Executive Director of CAIR, Nihad Awad, revealed himself as a supporter of Hamas. “After I researched the situation inside and outside Palestine, I am in support of the Hamas movement more than the PLO," he said. "I know that this movement as an Islamic movement has not been objectively reported in the United States...”

When the declaration was made, Awad was the spokesman for the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), the American propaganda wing of Hamas. However, since CAIR was established just a few months later, the organization has been extremely hesitant about making any such pronouncements about Hamas. Except for a statement at a November 2001 interfaith gathering by ex-CAIR-New York President Al-Haaj Ghazi Khankan, which he now says was a misquote, CAIR has been virtually silent.

But as of March 1, 2008, 14 years following Awad’s infamous statement, CAIR’s wall of silence about Hamas has come crashing down, as CAIR-Florida representative Jawhar “Joe” Badran spoke out at a public forum -- except, unlike Awad and Khankan, this time it was caught on video.

Jawhar Sadallah Badran, a Palestinian resident of Deerfield Beach, Florida, has made outrageous statements before. In July of 2006, he told the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, “Hamas and Hezbollah are committing acts of defense against the acts of the Israelis. The only weapons that we have are to strap bombs on our bodies and do whatever damage and destruction we can.”

At the time, although he had told the paper that he was not speaking on behalf of any group, Badran was representing the South Florida chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC-South Florida) as its Vice President. [CAIR co-founder and ex-IAP President Rafiq Jaber was also a leader of the ADC.]

Nevertheless, at a March 1, 2008 rally against CAIR’s usage of a government-owned facility in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, there was no ambiguity, as Badran made his support for Hamas known. Speaking into a microphone bearing CAIR’s name and logo and standing beside a smiling Altaf Ali, the executive director of CAIR-Florida, he clearly and emphatically stated on video: “Hamas is not a terrorist organization.”

Additionally, when asked if Hamas was a terror group, one of the girls running video for CAIR said “No,” and a number of witnesses claim that Ali did the same.

Badran made other pro-Hamas statements at the rally. For instance, he said, “Hamas is a defender of the Palestinian people. That’s what Hamas is.” In a similar vein, he declared that “Hamas is better than Fatah, because there’s no corruption. Hamas takes care of the people.” And when asked if he believed a suicide bombing was a terrorist act, he balked on the question and said, “I’m saying that the state of Israel has committed a terrorist act.”

Given his associations with extremist groups and given his overtly pro-Hamas stance, it is curious that Badran, too, sits on the diversity committee of the Broward County School Board. On the other hand, given the way that Broward has coddled CAIR over the years, it may very well make sense.

In March of 2003, the School Board produced a video starring CAIR’s Altaf Ali, which was shown in all of Broward’s public schools. In August of 2005, the Broward Commission handed over the Fort Lauderdale Main Library to CAIR for a six-part series on Islam. And last year, just as this year, the local government approved CAIR’s usage of the Broward County Convention Center to hold its annual banquet, which featured the same speaker, Siraj Wahhaj, an “unindicted co-conspirator” of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

It was because of Broward County’s embrace of CAIR that my group, Americans Against Hate, called for a rally outside of CAIR’s event. We wanted to speak out about CAIR’s ties to terrorism and to denounce local officials for not taking a strong stand against the organization. While CAIR was recently named by the U.S. government an (unindicted) co-conspirator for a trial that dealt with the financing of millions of dollars to Hamas, and while the FBI stated, during the trial, that CAIR was founded as a part of the American Palestine Committee, a group led by then-head of Hamas Mousa Abu Marzook, the organization continues to be embraced by local governments across our nation.

With this new revelation of CAIR’s explicit public support for Hamas, it may be hoped that those in power will understand the true nature of this group. Perhaps now, government officials from Broward County and other areas will not be so quick to grant CAIR access to its cities and will, instead, work to shut the group down. No longer do they have the excuse of ignorance.

[Soldier4Christ]

Islamist Group - MPAC - Directs Stealth Jihad Against CA Senator Barbara Boxer

As we noted in a March 18 piece Why Is Senator Barbara Boxer's Staff Meeting With CAIR? California's junior Senator is once again unapologetically meeting with the Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR], a group she had harshly rejected only a little over a year ago, and other Islamist organizations including MPAC, the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

Queried about why Boxer has apparently changed her "no-meet" directive against the Saudi funded Hamas friendly group, the Senator's staff has, of this writing, still not provided any explanation, let alone a plausible one.

In an "after-action" move, MPAC today is conducting a disingenuous call-in telephone campaign directed at Boxer's DC office.

PipeLineNews came into possession of an email being circulated by MPAC detailing the group's strategy which includes callers representing themselves as "Christians" apparently in order to cast the effort in the most public relations friendly manner.

The electronically communicated talking points ask MPAC members to urge the Senator to pressure Israel to cease its military resistance against the Hamas uprising in Gaza, thus placing the Muslim Public Affairs Council alongside its ideological brothers in CAIR in apparent support of a hands-off policy against Islamic terror.

Senator Boxer had best re-consider her ill-advised "rapproachmont" with these stealth jihadist groups, and realize that her original decision, not to meet with CAIR et al, was correct and should be reinstated.

[Soldier4Christ]

Ex-CAIR chief indicted
for 'Baghdad Jim' junket
Charged with arranging Saddam-financed trip
in which Dems on enemy soil called Bush liar

 The former head of the Council on Islamic-American Relations' Michigan branch was indicted yesterday for allegedly arranging a visit to Baghdad by three U.S. congressmen financed by Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency in the run-up to the war, according to federal prosecutors.

Muthanna Al-Hanooti, an Iraqi-American, was rewarded with 2 million barrels of oil by Iraqi intelligence officials when he set up the controversial excursion by Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California.

The congressman made news in October 2002 with their harsh criticism of President Bush in live television interviews from Baghdad, including McDermott's charge that the president would lie to the American people to justify a war with Saddam.

The lawmakers urged a diplomatic solution as the Bush administration sought authorization from Congress for military action in response to Saddam's refusal to abide by U.N. resolutions.

Al-Hanooti joins a list of leaders of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, who have been indicted on terrorism-related charges.

(Story continues below)

CAIR is a spinoff of the defunct Islamic Association for Palestine, launched by Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook and former university professor Sami al-Arian, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide services to Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Among the convicted CAIR staffers are former communications specialist Randall Todd "Ismail" Royer, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges he trained in Virginia for holy war against the U.S. and sent several members to Pakistan to join a Kashmiri terrorist group with reported ties to al-Qaida. Bassem Khafagi was arrested in January 2003 while serving as CAIR's director of community relations and convicted on fraud and terrorism charges in connection with a probe of the Islamic Assembly of North America, an organization suspected of aiding Saudi sheiks tied to Osama bin Laden. In October 2006, Ghassan Elashi, a member of the founding board of directors of the Texas branch of CAIR, was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison for financial ties to a high-ranking terrorist.

Al-Hanooti was identified in a June 2000 press release as executive director of CAIR's new regional office in Michigan, according to Steve Emerson's Investigative Project on Terrorism. It isn't clear when he left the organization, Emerson said.

The congressmen were not named in the indictment, and Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said investigators "have no information whatsoever" any of them knew the trip was underwritten by Saddam, the Associated Press reported.

"Obviously, we didn't know it at the time," McDermott spokesman Michael DeCesare told the AP. "The trip was to see the plight of the Iraqi children. That's the only reason we went."

Al-Hanooti pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges of conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, illegally purchasing Iraqi oil and lying to authorities and was held on $10,000 bail.

Al-Hanooti worked from 1999 to 2006 for the Southfield, Mich., charity Life for Relief and Development, which financed the trip to Iraq. Thompson and McDermott, who officially disclosed the cost of the trip as $5,510, understood the charity financed the junket.

Federal prosecutors said Al-Hanooti, assigned to monitoring Congress for the Iraqi Intelligence Service, provided Saddam's government with a list of U.S. lawmakers believed to favor lifting economic sanctions against Iraq, the AP said.

The Detroit Free Press said that in addition to Al-Hanooti's role as head of CAIR Michigan, he was president of a group called Focus on American and Arab Interests and Relations.

Saddam's 'commercial time'

McDermott – dubbed "Baghdad Jim" by some of his angered constituents – and Bonior stirred controversy in their October 2002 live interview from Baghdad with ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," suggesting on Iraqi soil Saddam could be trusted more than President Bush, the media watch blog Newsbusters.org recalled today.

After McDermott asserted the Bush administration sometimes gives out "misinformation," Stephanopoulos asked the congressman, "But do you have any evidence the president has lied?"

McDermott replied: "I think the president would mislead the American people."

Sen. Don Nickles, who was in ABC's studio, charged the congressmen with aiding the enemy inside its own territory.

"I'm really troubled by what I just heard," said Nickles. "Congressman McDermott said, well I think the president would mislead the American people, and basically he's taking Saddam Hussein's lines, they both sound somewhat like spokespersons for the Iraqi government."

In a roundtable segment later, columnist George Will reacted with outrage.

"Let's note, that in what I consider the most disgraceful performance abroad by an American official in my lifetime – something not exampled since Jane Fonda sat on the anti-aircraft gun in Hanoi to be photographed – Mr. McDermott said in effect, not in effect, he said it, we should take Saddam Hussein at his word and not take the president at his word.

"He said the United States is simply trying to provoke," Will continued. "I mean, why Saddam Hussein doesn't pay commercial time for that advertisement for his policy, I do not know."