The HLF Defendants Who Got Away

Five former leaders and fundraisers for the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) received long prison sentences last month after being convicted of illegally routing money to the Hamas terrorist group. That prompted journalist Todd Bensman to wonder what happened to two other conspirators named in the indictment, but who fled the country just before it was issued in 2004.

Haithem Maghawri and Akram Mishal are believed to be living in the Middle East – Mishal in Syria and Maghawri in either Gaza or Lebanon – where they probably are out of reach from American law enforcement. Since they're accused of financing terror, and not plotting or carrying out attacks, hunting them down may not be considered a priority.

But there are international warrants out for their arrests.

"They'd be captured and extradited only if either man makes the mistake of trying to travel through the wrong friendly country and gets noticed," Bensman wrote.

But one FBI agent promised Bensman the two fugitives won't be forgotten, "at least not while some of us are still employed."

The Need to Confront Muslim Anti-Semitism at Home and Abroad

Last week's shooting attack at the Holocaust Museum by a white supremacist prompted an insightful column from Washington Post writer Richard Cohen Tuesday. Alleged shooter James W. von Brunn's racist and anti-Semitic views thankfully are considered the rantings of a crackpot to most Americans, Cohen writes.

But as President Obama seeks new dialogue with Muslims throughout the world, Cohen argues it's necessary to call out bigotry that runs rampant through the culture. He notes it is in textbooks and popular media outlets:

"There is, in fact, nothing that von Brunn professed that is not commonly heard or published in the Middle East. Do Jews control world finance, media, international organizations and the United States itself? Of course. Are they capable of the most foul deeds, including the infamous 'blood libel,' which means using the blood of non-Jewish children in the preparation of traditional foods? Again, of course."

Cohen focuses on messages in the Middle East, but such anti-Semitism also has been epoused by people with iconic images in the American Islamist community. Take Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which touts itself as America's premiere Muslim civil rights organization. During a speech before Georgetown University's Muslim Students Association in 1998, Awad said Jews controlled the Clinton Administration's foreign policy:

"Who is opposing the latest agreement with Iraq? Look at their names. Look at their ethnic, their ethnic or religious or racial background. You will see that these are the same groups that belong to the same interest groups in the Administration."

Two years later, Awad was quoted in the Al-Lewa'a newspaper saying that "The Jewsplan to distort Islam's image and have succeeded in their plans. This Jewish plan hadborne hostility towards Islam and deforming its image."

The current head of CAIR's Chicago office, Ahmed Rehab, wrote an essay while a DePaul University student in 1996, which minimized the Holocaust and claimed talk show host Charlie Rose's question "confirmed the Jewish control over the media."

Then there's the common invocation of a Quranic verse that says God turned Jews into monkey and pigs. At a 1997 conference at Brooklyn College organized by the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) and co-sponsored by CAIR, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), among others, cleric Wagdy Ghoneim led the audience in chanting:

"No to the Jews, Descendants of the Apes"

Similarly, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) operative Sami Al-Arian, who fired up a pro-PIJ rally in 1991 by saying God had turned Jews "into monkeys and pigs, had become discontent and angry with, had cursed in this world and in the hereafter, and had imposed a punishment on them in this World until Judgment Day."

In that same rally, Al-Arian friend Fawaz Damra invoked the same line.

Cohen's concern was that this hatred be confronted abroad, or Arab leaders "will find that the peace that most of them undoubtedly want will not be possible." The same can be said for Islamists here in America.

Disclosure Proves MAS Paid for Ellison's Hajj

The conflicting, changing stories about who paid for Congressman Keith Ellison's pilgrimage to Mecca for the Hajj last year seems to have been sorted out by the folks at Powerline.

Despite denials from the organization, Ellison's required travel disclosures show the Muslim American Society (MAS) financed the two-week trip last November/December. Federal prosecutors say MAS was created "as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America."

MAS had issued a firm denial that it, a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt charity, paid for a politician's global travel. As Fox News reported in January:

"Keith Ellison is a member of Congress who knows that congressmen don't take trips sponsored by nonprofits. That would be a breach of congressional ethics," said [Mahdi] Bray, executive director of the MAS Freedom Foundation.

But Ellison's office told FOXNews.com that MAS had indeed paid for the congressman's hajj.

"The trip, funded by the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, was fully reviewed and approved in advance by the House Ethics Committee," Ellison's office said in a statement to FOXNews.com.

House Ethics rules allow members to accept travel expenses "only if the trip is one that is sponsored by a private source that does retain a registered lobbyist or agent of a foreign principal."

Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, has spoken at MAS fundraisers and has appeared on Bray's radio talk show.

Wolf Takes to House Floor to Rebut CAIR

A war of words between U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) escalated Friday when Wolf took to the House floor and spent more than 40 minutes detailing CAIR's ties to terrorists and its habit of attacking critics as Islamophobes.

It started after Wolf wrote to the FBI Feb. 2 seeking more details about the Bureau's decision to cut off contact with CAIR based upon evidence brought forth in the terror-support trial against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. Wolf wanted confirmation that the policy was, in fact, in place, and whether it was subject to change. He also asked about the depth of financial support CAIR received from foreign sources.

After receiving a very general response, Wolf followed up with a second letter demanding more specifics. That prompted CAIR to issue a statement accusing the congressman of having "abused his power." Wolf's inquiries, CAIR claimed, were in retribution for the organization's opposition to Wolf's policies and statements.

Since then, the FBI has offered details, explaining that the HLF evidence left officials unsure whether CAIR "continues" to have a connection to the terrorist group Hamas. Until that is resolved, the Bureau "does not view CAIR as an appropriate liaison partner."

In his remarks Friday, Wolf said the FBI was right "and ought to, in fact, inform the actions of other public officials, policymakers, and the press, many of whom consistently, and I would argue mistakenly, look to CAIR to speak for mainstream Muslim Americans."

CAIR's aggressive response to his inquiry was part of "a larger pattern of intimidation undertaken by CAIR" to discredit critics as Islamophobes or otherwise flawed.

Meanwhile, Wolf raised questions about CAIR's foreign financing. He points to two State Department cables from 2006 which challenge the organization's claims that it does not receive foreign funding. The cables summarize fund raising trips to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The CAIR delegation briefs U.S. Embassy officials on millions of dollars they solicited, and in some cases in which they reported securing pledges, from government officials and private groups in those countries.

The text of Wolf's remarks can be seen here. Creeping Sharia has more on the speech here, and points us to a video of Wolf's floor statement here.

CAIR Losing Support From North to South

Separate events in Florida and Minnesota could indicate that more people are catching on to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and its duplicitous dealings.

In Tampa, Mayor Pam Iorio announced that she was breaking a pattern of designating "CAIR Day" in the city, as she had done since 2005. The decision followed protests from activist Joe Kaufman at Americans Against Hate, but Iorio insisted the decision resulted from her own research.

More significantly, dozens of people in Minneapolis protested outside a CAIR ice cream social for discouraging local Somalis from cooperating with the FBI. The protesters were friends and family of a local teenager believed to have been killed by terrorists in Somalia.

The CAIR-Minnesota chapter, like other CAIR chapters nationally, has been on a campaign against the FBI, accusing it of improper investigative behavior and advising people not to speak with agents without a lawyer present. FBI officials in Minneapolis have been investigating the disappearance of at least 20 Somalis from the Minneapolis area, including one who blew himself up in a terrorist attack last fall.

Then last week, Burhan Hassan reportedly was killed in a terrorist attack in Mogadishu. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune quoted the teen's uncle, Abdirizak Bihi, explaining the frustration with CAIR:

"We don't want anyone to come into our community and tell us to shut up," Bihi said. "Law enforcement will not be able to do anything without information from the community."

About 50 people attended the rally, waving signs and hollering, "CAIR out! Doublespeak out!"

This is significant because members of the local Muslim community are taking on CAIR. It robs the organization of its standard response, which is to blame the messenger. In Tampa, CAIR's representative lamented that the mayor agreed with Kaufman, who was attacked as "an anti-Muslim extremist."

Iorio, however, told a reporter she was ignorant about Kaufman and his organization:

"We issued the proclamations in the past based on best available information. And now we're not going to issue proclamations based on best available information," Iorio said.

As we've reported, the FBI already severed its communications with CAIR based on evidence brought forth in the terror-support trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development which places CAIR and its founders in a secret Hamas-support network.

"[U]ntil we can resolve whether there continues to be a connection between CAIR or its executives and HAMAS, the FBI does not view CAIR as an appropriate liaison partner," an FBI assistant director wrote in April, explaining the FBI's decision.

Now the city of Tampa has agreed. And Minneapolis' Somali Muslim community is experiencing first-hand why. As the Star-Tribune story concluded:

"Osman Ahmed, another relative of Hassan, said some in the family believe CAIR has aligned itself too closely with mosques where some believe the missing boys may have been influenced to leave.

'They are supporting the groups we suspect of recruiting our kids,' Ahmed said. 'We refuse to be silent.'"

Homegrown Terrorist Convicted In Atlanta Trial

U.S. District Judge William Duffey this morning convicted Syed Haris Ahmed of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorist organizations. Evidence introduced at Ahmed's trial last week showed he went to Canada to meet with members of the "Toronto 18," an accused Canadian terror cell, in 2005. They discussed possible targets for a terrorist attack on the United States.

Ahmed and an alleged co-conspirator, Ehsan Islam Sadequee, went to Washington in 2005 and shot crude surveillance video of targets including the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol. His attorney, Jack Martin, tried to dismiss his Ahmed's actions as "childish" and unlikely to cause any genuine harm. But the government countered by pointing to Ahmed's detailed confession, in which he proposed attacking military bases, oil storage facilities and refineries.

"I wanted to attack these places because oil is being stolen from Muslims," Ahmed told investigators. "We discussed using either lasers or jammers to disrupt the GPS," Ahmed said. "This attack would cause confusion for everyone, including the military."

Prosecutors pointed out that Ahmed did not need to carry out an attack to create harm. Ahmed's communication with other plotters advanced their cause. "The fuse that leads to an explosion of violence may be long, but once it is lit – once individuals unlawfully agree to support terrorist acts at home or abroad – we will prosecute them to snuff that fuse out," U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias said in a statement. "This investigation is connected to arrests and convictions of multiple terrorist supporters in Atlanta and around the world – all before any innocent people were killed."

Ahmed faces up to 15 years in prison when he is sentenced. Sentencing has been deferred until the conclusion of Sadequee's trial which is scheduled to begin August 3. Judge Duffey has scheduled a court hearing for tomorrow on the verdict.

Read more about the case here, here and here.

Omeish Campaign Crashes in VA Primary

Esam Omeish's bid to become the first Muslim elected to Virginia's House of Delegates fell far short Tuesday. Omeish placed a distant third in the four-candidate field to primary winner Mark Keam, a former chief counsel for Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and attorney John Carroll.

Keam won with 55 percent of the vote and faces Republican attorney Jim Hyland in the general election to represent Northern Virginia's District 35. Omeish won 16 percent while Carroll won 18 percent.

Omeish kept quiet during the campaign about his past leadership of the Muslim American Society (MAS), a group founded by Muslim Brotherhood members in America. He has a history of making radical statements, praising Palestinians who learned "the jihad way is the way to liberate your land," during a rally in 2000 He added, "We are telling them that we are with you and we are supporting you and we will do everything that we can, Insh'Allah, to help your cause."

Renewed attention on that speech prompted Omeish to resign from a state immigration panel after being appointed by Gov. Tim Kaine in 2007.

The Investigative Project on Terrorism documented other radical statements by Omeish, including his call earlier this year for "an American Islamic movement that transforms our status, that impacts our society, and that brings forth the change that we want to see."

Omeish, a surgeon, fueled his campaign with a $45,000 loan and a $7,000 donation, campaign finance reports show. In addition, he received at least $10,000 from a series of Muslim organizations housed in one Herndon office building. Those offices were raided by federal agents in 2002 as part of a terror financing investigation. The International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), which is believed to be the focus of that investigation, gave Omeish $3,500 in April.

That investment yielded 1,039 votes out of 6,623 votes cast in the primary.

After Election Defeat, Hizballah Refuses to Disarm

Despite polls predicting a Hizballah victory, Lebanese voters rejected the Shi'ite radical group and its political allies at the ballot box Sunday. In the new Lebanese Parliament, the moderate March 14 movement, which governs Lebanon today, will likely have 71 seats compared to 57 for the Hizballah-led March 8 organization. This is nearly identical to the breakdown in the current Parliament, where the March 14 bloc headed by Sunni Muslim businessman Sa'ad Hariri holds 70 seats.

The biggest loser in the election was former Gen. Michel Aoun, whose Free Democratic Party is Hizballah's Christian junior partner in the March 8 group. Aoun, who was driven into exile in 1990 after leading a failed rebellion against Syria, returned to Lebanon in 2005 and became a political ally of Syria and Hizballah.

With Druze and Sunni Muslims breaking decisively for the March 14 movement, and Shi'ite voters supporting candidates from Hizballah and the pro-Syrian Amal movement, both sides courted Christian voters. Many of these Christians proved reluctant to vote for candidates aligned with Hizballah, who they blame for dragging them into war with Israel.

Similarly, many of these Christian voters were bothered by Hizballah's violent reaction in May 2008 to Lebanese Cabinet decisions outlawing its military communications network and removing a Hizballah ally serving as Beirut Airport's security chief. Hizballah forces blockaded parliament, and 11 Lebanese died in close to a week of factional fighting in Beirut. The Lebanese government capitulated to Hizballah and rescinded the decisions.

On Monday, one day after his electoral defeat, Hizballah boss Hassan Nasrallah declared that the group would not disarm. He suggested that critics were using "fears, threats and lies" in criticizing Hizballah and stated:

"The people who voted for us have shown that supporting the Resistance is a popular choice, especially in the regions that are under constant threat. The arms of the people are not up for discussion. They are present because of the people's will."

Hizballah's defiance creates a huge problem for Hariri, who will likely become Lebanon's next prime minister in the coming months. He has two choices: 1) risk a political crisis by defying his supporters who consider Hizballah a threat and want it disarmed; 2) risk armed conflict with Hizballah by pressing for disarmament.

Read more about Hizballah and the Lebanese elections here and here.

Obama's Zakat Vow Raises Troubling Questions

Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy raises some important questions about a part of President Obama's speech in Cairo last week that has drawn little attention.

Obama claimed rules on charitable giving were making it difficult for American Muslims to satisfy the religious obligation of charity known as zakat and he promised to work "with American Muslims to ensure that they can." This simply isn't true.

American law, enacted in 1995 by an executive order by President Clinton and further entrenched by Congress a year later, makes it illegal to provide support to any entity designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. government. The laws do nothing to restrict donations to relief agencies that haven't been so designated.

To be convicted of a criminal violation, McCarthy notes, prosecutors must prove that the defendant knew the money would go to the terrorist organization's benefit. That's what happened in the case of five former officials at the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). A week before the Obama speech, a federal judge in Dallas sentenced two former directors 65-year prison terms for routing $12 million to Hamas through a series of charities controlled by the terrorist group.

HLF had been considered the nation's largest Muslim charity before being shut down in 2001 for its Hamas support. It is one of the examples some Muslim activists cite of the government interfering with zakat.

But those laws, McCarthy says, merely stop American dollars from flowing to those who work against American interests and restrict no donations to groups which do not support terrorists:

"Do we really have 'rules on charitable giving' that, as the president claims, make it especially difficult for Muslims — as opposed to others — to give? No. What we have are federal laws against material support for terrorism. These were enacted by Congress in 1996. They have been the bedrock of the DOJ's anti-terrorism enforcement ever since.

The purpose of these laws is obvious, as has been the stepped-up effort to use them since 9/11. If we are going to prevent terrorist strikes from happening, rather than content ourselves with prosecuting any surviving terrorists after our fellow citizens have been murdered and maimed, we have to identify cells and choke off their resources before attacks can be planned and executed. Thus, a donor who gives to an organization, including an ostensible charity, that he knows to have been formally designated as a terrorist entity under U.S. law, or that he knows facilitates terrorist activity, is liable."

Those laws were enacted for a reason. Terrorist groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad engaged in vicious bombing campaigns to thwart American-led peace efforts. Clinton's order called it "an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States."

As this administration starts a new push to settle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, anything that facilitates sending money to charities tied to terrorists would be beyond counter productive. It would be inviting the next wave of terror.

HLF Case In Their Own Words

Dallas Morning News reporter Jason Trahan takes readers into the courtroom for part of last month's sentencing of five Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development defendants convicted of funneling $12 million to Hamas.

Founders Shukri Abu Baker and Ghassan Elashi each received 65-year prison terms from U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis. Defendants Abdelrahman Odeh and Mohamed El-Mezain were sentence to 15 years, while Mufid Abdulqader will serve 20 years.

None of the defendants admitted any wrongdoing and Trahan published Elashi's remarks to the court, and those gathered in the courtroom, in their entirety. Then he shows what acting U.S. Attorney Jim Jacks said in response. A key passage:

"I would submit that these individuals were not just Palestinian Americans who want to help people in Palestine and 'We just got our wires crossed and gave money to organizations that someone else said was part of Hamas.' That's not he case. From its inception, this group was set up to raise money for Hamas. It could not collect taxes. This was their life blood."

Judge Solis agreed, repeating that HLF's founding purpose was to support Hamas. The defendants all have filed notices of their intent to appeal their convictions.

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