The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has been connected to the terrorist organization Hamas, a
federal judge said in a July 2009 ruling
unsealed last week.
"The government has produced ample evidence to establish the
associations of CAIR, ISNA, NAIT, with NAIT, the Islamic Association for
Palestine, and with Hamas," U.S. District Court Judge Jorge Solis said
in the
July 1, 2009, ruling.
CAIR, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the North
American Islamic Trust (NAIT) had protested to Solis that they were
incorrectly named as unindicted co-conspirators in the 2008 trial of the
Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. Among the allegations,
HLF was accused of having provided more than $12 million to Hamas.
After a 2007 mistrial, five former HLF officials
convicted on 108 counts, ranging from money laundering to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.
Following the trial, CAIR, ISNA, and NAIT have argued that their
inclusion on the list injured their standing in the community, and their
image. They wanted their ties to Hamas removed from the trial records
and the list sealed.
Solis agreed the list should not have been made public, saying that
doing so violated the Fifth Amendment rights of the listed individuals
and organizations. Criticizing the decision to publish the list, the
judge explained that CAIR has been subjected to "annoyance, ridicule,
scorn, and a loss of reputation in the community." (see the IPTs earlier
coverage of the decision to publish the list
here).
However, Solis refused to remove references to CAIR and the other
groups from the trial record. That's because the government introduced
extensive evidence tying CAIR to Hamas. "The public," he wrote, "may
make its own judgment from evidence presented at trial."
Solis filed his July 2009 ruling under seal, and until recently, it
was unclear what information was actually contained in the order.
NAIT attempted to have Solis' ruling revised, asking the Fifth
Circuit Court of Appeals to unseal the order and strike any references
that tied the organization to Hamas. "The District Court's analysis,
NAIT argues, essentially tars it with the same brush of guilt by
association that the government used in its pre-trial brief," explained
the
appellate court. The
court agreed to unseal the lower court ruling, but refused to strike Judge Solis' explanation that the groups were tied to Hamas.
While Solis' ruling may provide new ammunition for the groups to
claim their rights were violated when they were publicly named as
unindicted co-conspirators, they also have to explain why a federal
judge determined the government had "ample evidence" tying the groups to
a designated terrorist organization.
"CAIR's status as a co-conspirator is a matter of public record,"
Solis explained. Examining the trial proceedings, he recounted the
numerous ties between ISNA, NAIT, and CAIR.
During the trial, the government introduced
documents detailing the Muslim Brotherhood's beginnings in the United States. Amongst those was the May 22, 1991, "
Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America,"
authored by Mohamed Akram. The memorandum includes a section titled
"Understanding the role of the Muslim Brother in North America" which
states that the work of the Ikhwan in the United States is a "kind of
grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from
within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands
of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made
victorious over all religions."
Also contained in the document was a list of the Muslim Brotherhood's
"organizations and the organizations of our friends," which includes
ISNA, NAIT, the Occupied Land Fund (HLFs former name, and others.
In another exhibit, titled "
Preliminary vision for preparing future leadership,"
dated Dec. 18, 1998, ISNA is listed as an "apparatus" of the
Brotherhood. When the Holy Land Foundation first began, it raised money
and supported Hamas through a bank account it held with ISNA and NAIT.
ISNA checks deposited into the account were often payable to "the
Palestinian Mujahiden."
The Investigative Project on Terrorism has long chronicled the financial ties between ISNA/NAIT and Hamas, including
coverage of the trial against HLF. Exhibits entered during the trial included an
expense voucher from NAIT, an
ISNA subsidiary, made out for $10,000 in the name of Musa Abu Marzook, as well as
a check drawn on a NAIT account in the same amount made out to Marzook. Another
check for $10,000 on the same account was made out to
Marzook's wife, Nadia Elashi.
Another check for $30,000
was made out to the Islamic University of Gaza (and has Shukri Abu
Baker/OLF written on the memo line), a school long known to be
controlled by HAMAS, and which counted such notables as former Hamas leader
Dr. Abdel Aziz Rantissi and current Hamas leader
Dr. Mahmoud Al-Zahar as professors, and the recently deposed Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh is a
former dean of the University.
In addition to the financial connections, the trial also revealed
cooperation between the organizations and their respective leadership.
During the trial, the government introduced documents relating to the
creation of the "
Palestine Committee," which was established to support Hamas. The
Committee was run by Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook, and included
representatives from the Islamic Association of Palestine, the Holy Land Foundation, and CAIR,
represented by founder Omar Ahmad.
Ahmad also attended the 1993 Philadelphia conference, where leaders
of the organizations under the Muslim Brotherhood umbrella met to
discuss the future of the Brotherhood in the United States. The
Philadelphia conference was attended by several members of the Palestine
Committee, which supported and collected money for Hamas.
At the conference, attendees discussed how to proceed in light of the
recently negotiated Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinians.
Hamas opposed the accords because it called for the recognition of the
state of Israel. The attendees discussed how they would have to be
careful in their
opposition to the Oslo Accords because
they did not want to be viewed as being against the peace process or as
aligned with terrorist groups. As Special Agent Lara Burns testified
during the trial, President HLF President Shukri Abu Baker explained
that the new entity should present a benign face compared to
existing Islamist groups:
"And let's not hoist a large Islamic flag, and let's not be
barbaric-talking. We will remain a front so that if the thing happens,
we will benefit from the new happenings instead of having all of our
organizations classified and exposed."
The following overview of Crowley’s life is from Hungry for
Heaven by Steve Turner:
