CAIR: Youngest Member of Hamas Family Tree

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CAIR: Youngest Member of Hamas Family Tree
By The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT)

As the trial for the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) continues, the mountain of evidence presented by prosecutors demonstrates, in detail, the existence of a grand Muslim Brotherhood network in the United States dating back to the 1960s. A segment of this network, the self-designated “Palestine Committee,” sought to financially, politically, and morally support the efforts of HAMAS to destroy the “Zionist enemy.”

One exhibit – the Palestine Committee’s 1991 bylaws - reveals a web of key organizations tied to the Committee that were tasked with promoting HAMAS’ agenda, each in a particular field. Six groups were listed, the most prominent being HLF, the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), and the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR).

What has so far gone unnoticed, though, is one last organization on this list that the Committee hoped to establish in the future. As stated in the bylaws, this organization would handle “issues relating to political work and foreign relations”:

    It is a committee which operates through the Association [IAP] for now. It is hoped that it will become an official organization for political work and its headquarters will be in Washington, God’s willing. It represents the political aspect to support the cause politically on the American front.

An organization headquartered in Washington, DC, tasked with political activism, born out of the IAP? Maybe a vague reference at first glance, but growing evidence points to the identity of the mystery organization listed in the bylaws as the youngest in the family of HAMAS front groups founded on American soil.

Fast forward to July 30, 1994, just weeks after the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) was founded. A Palestine Committee meeting agenda lists several issues to be discussed, including a review of the reports of the “working organizations.” Listed among these organizations right beside HLF, IAP, and UASR – all members of the Palestine Committee as listed in the bylaws – is the word “CAIR."

The same CAIR that is headquartered in Washington, and whose co-founders - executive director Nihad Awad and chairman emeritus Omar Ahmad - served as president and public relations director, respectively, of the IAP.

Add to that recently-released evidence that both Ahmad and Awad were present at a 1993 meeting in Philadelphia attended by two-dozen HAMAS members and supporters. According to an FBI analysis and transcripts of wiretapped conversations, they spent three days discussing the most effective approach to derail the Oslo Accords, a peace deal with the potential to end the decades-old conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

This latest document tying CAIR to HAMAS is just one more piece of the puzzle, and it raises serious questions about the organization’s political agenda in the United States. Should an organization listed on Muslim Brotherhood documents, with leaders directly tied to the movement, really escape scrutiny and be accepted as the “mainstream” voice of an entire community? Or should the American public and political establishment take another look?

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Muslim charity, officers on trial

Federal prosecutors and FBI agents are building a case against a Muslim charity on trial in Dallas on charges of providing financial aid to the terrorist organization Hamas and of raising illicit cash for other extremist groups.

Five officers of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development — once considered the largest Muslim charity in the nation, but which U.S. intelligence officials have called the North American fundraiser for the Islamist terrorist group Hamas — are on trial in Dallas, charged with aiding terrorism, conspiracy and money laundering.

The prosecution has spent the two weeks of the trial so far laying out the connections between U.S. Muslim groups and Middle East terrorists.

FBI agent Lara Burns testified that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was listed as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee, along with the Holy Land Foundation, the Islamic Association for Palestine and the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR).

Miss Burns said CAIR received money from the foundation — an accusation that Nihad Awad, executive director and co-founder of CAIR, denied during congressional testimony in September 2003. She also said Mr. Awad was listed as a member of the Brotherhood's Palestine Committee in America.

CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator. It has denied any involvement in support for Hamas or any other labeled terrorist group.

Seven of the Foundation's top officers were named in a 42-count indictment in 2004. They were accused of raising $36 million from 1995 through 2001 for people and organizations linked to Hamas, including $12.4 million after President Clinton designated Hamas as a terrorist organization in 1995. The foundation was accused in the indictment of conspiracy, providing support to terrorists, money-laundering and income-tax evasion.

At the time, Attorney General John Ashcroft said the indictment culminated a multiagency, 30-month investigation of an organization created to provide financial and material support to Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist group that has called for the killing of all Jews.

The original indictment said the Holy Land Foundation and its top officers provided financial support to the families of Hamas suicide bombers, detainees and activists to support its terrorist infrastructure. It also said the organization financially supported families of well-known Hamas terrorists killed or jailed by Israelis.

Those charged were Shukri Abu Baker, the foundation's former chief executive; Holy Land Chairman Ghassan Elashi; and five directors and fundraisers, Mohammad El-Mezain, Haitham Maghawri, Akram Mishal, Mufid Abdul Qader and Abdul Raham Odeh. Maghawri and Mishal are fugitives.

The Holy Land Foundation was shut down in December 2001 and its assets seized by the federal government after the Treasury Department ruled it a terrorist group, seizing more than $4 million in assets.

Law-enforcement authorities said the Holy Land foundation is part of a nationwide conspiracy by Islamist extremists to divert cash to international terrorists through "front companies" and "phantom organizations" — many located in Northern Virginia.