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The U.S. Terror Support Network Exposed
The Holy Land Foundation trial unveiled the extent of the financing of terrorism among leading American Islamic organizations.
The retrial of five officials of the Holy Land Foundation, the largest Islamic charity in the U.S. shut down by the government weeks after 9/11, concluded on November 24 with guilty verdicts on all 108 counts. Federal prosecutors had charged that Holy Land officials had conspired to provide material support to terrorists and served as the fundraising arm of Hamas in the U.S., which raised more than $12 million after Hamas had been designated a terrorist organization in 1995.
The implications of these guilty verdicts are staggering in their importance. The most immediate is that federal prosecutors have proved they can win these kinds of complicated terrorism financing cases. Monday’s guilty verdicts are in sharp contrast to the first trial in this case, which ended in October 2007 in a mistrial and victory celebrations by the defendants and their supporters. In response, prosecutors streamlined their case, dropped a number of lesser charges, and prepared new exhibits to help jurors understand the scope of the conspiracy.
This does not bode well for those subject to other ongoing terrorism support inquiries, most especially officials associated with the International Institute for Islamic Thought (IIIT). IIIT was included in the widespread Operation Green Quest raids in March 2002, and is the focus of an ongoing federal grand jury investigation. Convicted Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader and former University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian was indicted in June for refusing to provide testimony regarding the funding of his U.S.-based terrorist front operation by IIIT, the World and Islam Studies Enterprise (WISE). IIIT was the primary financial backer for WISE.
Officials for another closed Islamic terror charity, KindHearts, should also be concerned. The Toledo, Ohio-based KindHearts had its assets frozen by the Treasury Department in February 2006, specifically identifying the group’s support for terrorism. KindHearts was identified as the successor organization to the Holy Land Foundation and another closed terror charity, the al-Qaeda-affiliated Global Relief Foundation. No charges have been filed against KindHearts officials as of yet, but the success of the Holy Land Foundation prosecutions very well might change that.
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Patrick Poole is a regular contributor to Pajamas Media, and an anti-terrorism consultant to law enforcement and the military.
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17 Comments
1. marsouin:When are we going to witness the levee en masse of American Muslims denouncing these practices in their community against America in the name of their religion? Will there ever be a day when the racism and totalitarianism of the jihadist movement ever become a pariah among Western Muslims? Is it unfair to argue that the many long years of silence by Western Muslims provide tacit support to jihadists and their crimes?
Nov 29, 2008 - 3:00 am 2. Israpundit » Blog Archive » The U.S. Terror Support Network Exposed:[...] PYJAMAS MEDIA [...]
Nov 29, 2008 - 6:37 am 3. Don:#1, Marsouin: The answer to your question is that NEVER will so-called “moderate” or Western Muslims collectively denounce terrorism, or anything done by fellow Muslims. It is disallowed as an Islamic practice (denouncing fellow Muslims). This is why you do not, and never will, see Muslims raise up en mass against the acts of other Muslims. This is why you see riots and killings and death threats and massive protests in the Islamic world over cartoons or something the Pope says or some “blashemic” passages written by a Western author that offends them, but you’ll never see a collective response to acts carried out by fellow Muslims. That is forbidden Islamically.
Nov 29, 2008 - 6:47 am 4. Frank:I’m waiting for groups like CAIR and ISNA and prominent Muslim leaders to say this was all a set up, a kangaroo court, that the jury was full of Islamophobes, that the FBI is just persecuting innocent Muslims for being pious.
Nov 29, 2008 - 8:32 am 5. Putin Panderers [Dan Collins]:There will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth
[...] and not just tangentially, is this analysis of the indictments handed down to Muslim “charities” in the US. I’ve not paid [...]
Nov 29, 2008 - 9:05 am 6. » Stealth Jihad by Robert Spencer - Blogger News Network:[...] organisations like CAIR, of which one involved is a founder of the Texas chapter, were convicted on all counts of funneling money to Hamas.It is a serious setback to Stealth Jihad, but clearly not an end to [...]
Nov 29, 2008 - 9:46 am 7. iconoclast:#1
Stop whining with rhetorical questions, please! You know the answer, as do I.
The government has a list of 300 likely candidates for communities that encourage islamic terrorism on one way or another. A good first step would be to shut these mosques down, deport their religious leaders, put all of the community leaders within each mosque under close inspection, and do background checks on all members of the mosque. Then follow all leads arising from these actions–legally or extra-legally if needed.
When will this happen? After the next major attack on US soil. Whether a bombing, poisoning, or Mumbai-style attack the result will be a suspension of Habeas Corpus and a country-wide cleansing of these scumbags.
There is little need to attack Islam in general, just start with these radical mosques and fan out where the leads take you. Radical mosque=enemy when we get going. Without the ability to organize through their mosques, the individual radicals will be reduced to ineffective acts (think Beltway Sniper) that are extremely painful but not existentially threatening to our way of life.
Tough? yep. Effective? I certainly would hope so.
Nov 29, 2008 - 11:52 am 8. Don:Iconoclast, #7: Do you really believe this will happen under the next administartion? I hope you’re right, but I think the day that would happen is becoming very short.
Nov 29, 2008 - 2:32 pm 9. jerry:If Obama establishes institutional responsibility for the welfare of every inhabitant of America (a la Cloward-Pavin), Muslim Americans will wind up on the wrong side of the battle (when they feel compelled to support him) and lose any largess they may have garnered for themselves. Americans will find leaders who will take seriously the threats that we are facing. Political Correctness will grow thin as it is in some parts of Europe and there will come a moment when Muslims will have to choose Islam or America.
That is my prophecy based upon the best crystal ball I could afford under the current economic conditions.
Nov 29, 2008 - 4:25 pm 10. iconoclast:Don
No, I don’t think so. But I also think my thoughts are laughably simplistic when contrasted with the sophisticated thinking we have seen displayed by the likes of General Petraeus and others like him in our security organizations.
OTOH, if Obama appoints the likes of Gorelick to AG–she who more than anyone else is responsible for the lapses that allowed 9/11–our strategic level of thinking will be reduced to ineffectiveness.
But I do not believe that Obama will allow another 9/11 or Mumbai in the USA. He and other Democrats/Leftists know that blaming Bush for events after Bush has gone will not go over well with Americans. Thoughtful people in the administration will also know that there is a real possibility of mob revenge following another attack, particularly if it appears that the administration demonstrated weakness in the face of muslim terror.
And, of course, since Democrats have been nearly completely taken over by the Left we can rest assured that brutal suppression of civil liberties will not bother them in the least. Most of the left is extremely ignorant and subject to wild swings of uninformed opinion–making them remarkably malleable in the hands of their “annointed”. And having effectively a “state organ” from the MSM will provide cover for nearly any attack on our civil liberties as long as it is a Democrat (lefty, natch) is doing it.
Nov 29, 2008 - 6:42 pm 11. John B:I tend to agree with Don (above #2), Muslims will never collectively denounce another Muslim for any dastardly act committed against non-Muslims.
Islamic terror has been taking place for over 50 years, always targeted are westerners, Americans, and now Brits, and especially anyone Jewish. Other than an occasional, rather comical, announcement from some mouthpiece in the UN, there has never been a really strong condemnation from any of the Islamic clerics who matter. Instead, they continue to preach their hate from the mosque every week. These mosques need to be torn down and the hateful preachers need to be deported.
America needs to wake up to the needs of the day, we have the wherewithal to stop this if we want to, and to do it without violence. It’s called boycott. Let us find out what businesses in our respective communities are owned and operated by members of CAIR, IIIT, and other Muslim Brotherhood members, and simply stop doing business with them. Find another motel to stay in, find another place to buy your Hostess Ding Dong’s and don’t use a taxi driven by a Muslim. When the money dries up and they go out of business the funding to terror will no doubt stop. Would a reverse immigration flow really bother anyone if the trouble makers simply went home?
The solution is within our grasp.
Nov 30, 2008 - 4:07 am 12. Mary Madigan:I tend to agree with Don (above #2), Muslims will never collectively denounce another Muslim for any dastardly act committed against non-Muslims.
Although all of these terror charities are supported by the Wahhabi establishment of Saudi Arabia, the US government has never denounced or prosecuted Saudis for their involvement in the 9/11 attacks, their support of Hamas, al Qaeda in Iraq or most terrorist acts committed worldwide. If we can’t collectively denounce the hub of world terrorism, why should we expect others to do so?
After 9/11, CAIR lost 90% of its Muslim membership. If 90% of all Americans could manage to boycott Saudi Arabia as effectively as American Muslims boycotted CAIR, we could accomplish something.
Nov 30, 2008 - 11:12 am 13. Douglas Bogle:Never fear Obama is here.
How did Obama amass $1 billion dollars for his campaign. A huge amount legitimate the rest, well do the math.
The muslim world wanted Obama.
Never fear Obama is here.
Dec 2, 2008 - 12:51 pm 14. Pajamas Media » Pro-Hamas Prof Protests Suspension from Army War College:[...] co-conspirator in the recent Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance trial, which concluded with guilty verdicts on all 108 counts against the defendants, including CAIR-Texas founder and board member Ghassan [...]
Mar 9, 2009 - 7:06 am 15. Pajamas Media » A Close Look at Obama’s New Islamic Partners:[...] ISNA as an unindicted co-conspirator. They argued that documents entered into evidence during the Holy Land Foundation trial showed that ISNA and its affiliate, the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), had been directly [...]
Jun 30, 2009 - 12:23 am 16. A Close Look at Obama’s New Islamic Partners « Creeping Sharia:[...] as an unindicted co-conspirator. They argued that documents entered into evidence during the [7] Holy Land Foundation trial showed that ISNA and its affiliate, the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), had been [8] directly [...]
Jul 13, 2009 - 5:28 am 17. Pajamas Media » Health Care, Chicago-Style:[...] a suspected planner in 9/11, attended Bridgeview. The mosque’s foundation was linked to the Holy Land Foundation. Mohammed Saleh, another member, was the first American citizen to make the FBI terror list. The [...]
Nov 14, 2009 - 12:02 am