Judge To Rule On CAIR’s Terror Links

[Soldier4Christ]

Judge To Rule On CAIR’s Terror Links

If you haven’t heard of the numerous links to terror that CAIR has then you have a lot of catching up to do. In the meantime, one judge is going to make a call to their challenge on a status as unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land terror support case.

    The Holy Land Foundation trial wrapped up months ahead of schedule but a federal judge has yet to rule on whether the Council on American-Islamic Relations will remain an unindicted co-conspirator in the terrorist-funding case.

    The group known as CAIR asked U.S. District Court Chief Judge A. Joe Fish in a “friend of the court” brief last month to remove it from the listing, saying it caused a decline in membership and fundraising.

    “The public naming of CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator has impeded its ability to collect donations as possible donors either do not want to give to them because they think they are a ‘terrorist’ organization or are too scared to give to them because of the possible legal ramifications of donating money to a ‘terrorist’ organization,” CAIR said in the brief filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

    The U.S. Attorney’s Office last week argued that the court should deny the request, stating its purpose is “not to assist the court as is required of a ‘friend of the court’ brief, but rather to promote its own interests and the interests of other non-parties.”

    CAIR filed the brief “in an effort to combat the negative press it allegedly incurred by being identified as a participant in a network of U.S.-based organizations affiliated with the designated foreign terrorist organization, Hamas.”

    “The court has entered into evidence a wide array of testimonial and documentary evidence expressly linking CAIR and its founders to the [Holy Land Foundation (HLF)] and its principals …,” the government stated.

    The prosecution presented its case over a six-week period and the defense rested its case Tuesday after one week. The trial was expected to last six months. Closing arguments are set for Monday and Judge Fish is expected to rule on the motion before the final jury verdict.

    The request filed by CAIR cites an article by The Washington Times as evidence of the group’s decline in membership numbers. The June 12 article, based on Internal Revenue Service documents and CAIR’s 2006 annual report, shows the group’s membership declined more than 90 percent from 2001 through 2006, from 29,000 to fewer than 1,700.

    That brief was probably a big tactical mistake on CAIR’s part, especially since they’ve now submitted a sworn affidavit that implied Hudson’s article was accurate and legitimated her criticisms against CAIR.
    If they deny her facts on this issue again, they would invite questions of whether the claims in the brief were perjured.

    It’s interesting to see CAIR claiming, on the one hand, that Audrey Hudson’s WaTimes report showing that their contributions have dried up is completely false. Yet, on the other hand, they use that same report in their motion asking the judge to remove them from the unindicted co-conspirator list.

It is also interesting that their whining about membership losses offers absoloutely zero evidence that they are not co-conspirators.

Personally I think that they should have been indicted in this case and few others added to it.

[Soldier4Christ]

HLF's Financial Support of CAIR Garners New Scrutiny

An old financial bond between the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) is generating new attention this week as jurors continue deliberating HLF's terror-support trial.

Five HLF officers are accused of illegally steering more than $12 million to Hamas-controlled charities in the West Bank and Gaza. CAIR is fighting its status as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case. Documents introduced into evidence indicate both HLF and CAIR were part of a Muslim Brotherhood committee in the U.S. created to help Hamas.

When it was formed, CAIR was helped out by $5,000 from HLF.

Author Doug Farah highlights the payment in a post about Holy Land trial exhibits that show the Muslim Brotherhood's secret activism in the U.S.

Matt Epstein, then the IPT's assistant director, cited the HLF donation to CAIR in Senate testimony delivered in 2003. Epstein cited CAIR's own IRS forms in backing up his claim. Awad denied this in written testimony given to the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security.

"This is an outright lie," Awad said. "Our organization did not receive any seed money from HLFRD. CAIR raises its own funds and we challenge Mr. Emerson to provide even a shred of evidence to support his ridiculous claim."

Emerson did better than that. Through Epstein, he provided the Senate committee with HLF's original seed money to CAIR, drawn on a Saudi Arabian bank account.

In addition to Farah's report, the Web site Anti-CAIR posted a copy of the check itself this week, lest there be any doubt.

Awad's testimony wasn't the first time CAIR denied the HLF support. Earlier in 2003, during a deposition for a civil case, CAIR co-founder and then-chairman Omar Ahmad was asked, "Did they [HLF] give you any money to help start CAIR?" He responded unequivocally, "No."

A week after the Senate hearing, Awad offered a supplement to his original testimony: "CAIR is a nonprofit, grassroots organization. Our only source of income is through donations and the amount in question was a donation like any other."

Awad then attempted to minimize the significance of the CAIR/HLF money trail: "HLF was not indicted for any criminal activity at the time of its donation in 1994 and its assets were frozen by the Justice Department seven years later in December 2001." He added that HLF's "relatively small donation" came "seven years before any wrongdoing was attributed to Holy Land Foundation."

Transcripts from government surveillance tapes make clear, however, that CAIR's founders were fully aware of the support HLF leaders voiced for Hamas well before accepting the money.

[Soldier4Christ]

CAIR seeks removal of label in terrorism case 
Congressman pressuring Justice Department to drop 'co-conspirator' status

The Council on American-Islamic Relations is seeking help from House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. to pressure the Justice Department to change the group's status as a co-conspirator in a terrorism case.

CAIR officials recently met with Mr. Conyers, Michigan Democrat, and then wrote a letter asking him to lobby the new attorney general on behalf of the group, and to hold hearings.

CAIR is among several hundred Muslim groups listed as unindicted co-conspirators in a recent federal terrorism trial in Dallas into activities by the Holy Land Foundation Inc., a group linked to funding the Palestinian Hamas terrorist group. The trial recently ended in a mistrial and prosecutors have said they plan to re-try the case.

Despite its uncertain outcome, the trial has produced a large amount of information and evidence identifying U.S. and foreign groups sympathetic to or direct supporters of international Islamist terrorists.

A 1991 internal memorandum from the radical Muslim Brotherhood identified 29 front groups, including the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), that are part of a covert program by the Brotherhood in the United States to subvert American society.

CAIR officials have requested that Mr. Conyers ask the Justice Department to explain why it publicly identified the 306 co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation trial.

"Those on the list suffer negatively as a result of the label 'unindicted co-conspirator' as it impresses upon the typical member of the American public that those listed are involved in criminal activity," the group said in a letter to Mr. Conyers. "In reality, those so named have neither been charged with a crime nor offered any recourse for challenging the allegation."

The group said the conspirator designation is being used by counterterrorism advocates to block government funds from being used to conduct outreach programs to Muslim groups. Pending fiscal 2008 legislation would block the Justice Department from using any funds for participation in conferences sponsored by a group or person identified by the government as a criminal unindicted co-conspirator.

Critics in Congress opposed the Justice Department's involvement in a conference sponsored by ISNA in September because the group was linked to the Holy Land Foundation case.

CAIR's letter to Mr. Conyers said that "you remember many of these abusive practices from the McCarthy era and the civil rights movement."

Melanie Roussell, a spokeswoman for the Judiciary Committee, had no comment.

CAIR recently petitioned U.S. District Court Chief Judge A. Joe Fish in a "friend of the court" motion to remove it from the listing, saying it caused a decline in membership and fundraising. After the mistrial, Judge Fish forwarded CAIR's request to U.S. Judge Jorge A. Solis, who has not yet issued a ruling.

The group stated in its appeal that linkage to the Holy Land Foundation has "impeded its ability to collect donations" because donors fear contributing to a terrorist group.

Steven Emerson, executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, said the secret collaboration between CAIR and Mr. Conyers raises concerns over the lawmaker's support for "a group unambiguously proven to be part of the Muslim Brotherhood-Hamas infrastructure."

"This combination demonstrates the degree to which radical Islamic groups have insinuated themselves into the highest reaches of the U.S. government by using deceit," he said.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment, citing a gag order issued in the case.