ADC, CAIR Form Election Partnership

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ADC, CAIR Form Election Partnership

by IPT News  •  Aug 24, 2012 at 4:39 pm

A notorious Islamist group and a national Arab anti-discrimination organization have teamed up to spur Muslim and Arab American voter registration and turnout this fall in national swing states.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) will join the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) for registration, phone bank and other get-out-the-vote efforts in Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, the ADC announced.
CAIR and its founders were implicated as part of a Hamas-support network operating in the United States. Internal records admitted into evidence in the prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) and five former officials, showed CAIR was an official part of the "Palestine Committee," which existed to help Hamas politically and financially.
Last month, ADC decried the treatment given to two other members of that network after they were deported pursuant to court orders. The group's release failed to identify the men involved or mention their connection to the Hamas support operation.
And both groups stood by former White House reporter Helen Thomas after Thomas made anti-Semitic comments about Jews' connection to Israel and said Zionists run the media and American politics.

 http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/717.pdf#page=6

Exclusive: ADC's Misleading Sob Story on Elashi Brothers

IPT News
July 13, 2012

The news release from the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) depicts a family torn apart by a heartless bureaucracy. Two brothers, stateless Palestinians, were "taken by ICE and the U.S. Air Marshalls (sic) from their children in Texas and sent to Egypt," where they are not welcome.
The release conveyed the ADC's "extreme disappointment" over the move. "The actions of DHS and ICE are alarming, troubling, and intolerable. ADC has demanded, and will continue to demand, a clear explanation as to why these brothers were deported," said ADC Legal Director Abed Ayoub.
The brothers are never named. If they were, the explanation would be quite clear.
The Investigative Project on Terrorism has confirmed that the men deported last week are Bayan and Basman Elashi. Both are convicted felons tied to a terror-financing network based out of Dallas. And both had final orders of deportation issued against them in 2008 and 2009 that were never appealed, immigration records show.
Yet another brother, Ghassan Elashi, was a founder and chairman of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), an American fundraising arm for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. HLF was part of the "Palestine Committee," an umbrella organization created by the Muslim Brotherhood in America to help Hamas politically and financially. Basman Elashi, along with brothers Ghassan and Hazim, also appears on a telephone list of Palestine Committee members. Basman's entry is just above Nihad Awad, founder and executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
The Elashi brothers also worked for Infocom, a webhosting company in Richardson Tex. Prosecutors say the company received $250,000 from Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook, who was indicted in the case.
Bayan Elashi was Infocom's chief executive officer. Basman was its logistics and credit manager. In 2004, each was convicted of money laundering, export violations to Libya and Syria involving computer shipments and making false statements to federal officials. In a separate trial a year later, Bayan Elashi was convicted on 10 counts of dealing in the property of a Specially Designated Terrorist for transactions with Marzook, while Basman was convicted on one count.
Bayan Elashi was sentenced to 84 months in prison, while Bayan was sentenced to 80 months. Brother Hazim Elashi, Infocom's manager of personal computer systems, was sentenced to 66 months after being convicted in the case, and was deported from the United States in April 2008.
Ghassan Elashi is serving a 65-year sentence after being convicted in the HLF case.
The ADC did not find any of this information significant enough to mention. Rather, it claimed that the deportation was done clumsily, with the Elashis essentially dumped on a tarmac with no place to go.
"The brothers do not have permission to stay in Egypt. Further, due to the blockade of Gaza and Israeli polices they cannot enter Palestine. The brothers are currently detained at the airport in Cairo, and appear likely to be detained indefinitely."
Standard procedure in any deportation case is for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to work with the host country before the person is sent back. It isn't clear whether the claims about the Elashis being detained at the airport are true.
However, the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza is open five days each week, and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh expressed confidence Thursday that the new Muslim Brotherhood-led government in Egypt soon will open it permanently, allowing them to cross into Palestinian territory.
In addition, Ayoub decried "the deplorable living conditions in Gaza resulting from an illegal blockade," and questioned why the Elashis would be sent there. Israel's blockade of Gaza, stemming from Hamas's takeover of the territory and subsequent campaign of rocket fire at Israeli civilian communities, was declared legal by a United Nations review because "Israel faces a real threat to its security from militant groups in Gaza." In addition, while Gaza is economically in turmoil, the Red Cross has said there is no humanitarian crisis there. In fact, some aspects of life appear relatively comfortable.
The ADC is considered a respectable organization. President Obama took the time to deliver a recorded message for the group's recent convention.
In this case, however, it has issued an alert that seems deliberately misleading in order to take a shot at the Department of Homeland Security and cast the plight of the Elashis in a sympathetic tone that doesn't match their records.

HLF Founders Sentenced to Long Prison Terms

IPT News
May 27, 2009

DALLAS - A federal judge imposed what could amount to life sentences on three former leaders of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) on Wednesday for illegally routing more than $12 million to Hamas.
"The purpose of creating the Holy Land Foundation was as a fundraising arm for Hamas," said U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis.
He sentenced former HLF Chief Executive Officer Shukri Abu Baker and co-founder Ghassan Elashi to 65 years in prison. Longtime HLF chairman Mohamed El-Mezain, who was convicted only on one count of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, received the maximum 15-year sentence.
All three men are at least 50 years old. Another defendant, Mufid Abdelqader, 49, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. HLF's New Jersey Office Director, Abdelrahman Odeh, received a 15-year sentence.
While appeals are being prepared, the sentencing hearings end the largest terror financing case in the United States, one which closed the largest Muslim-American charity in 2001. Its significance, however, resonates far beyond the Dallas courtroom and the five men convicted by a jury last November.
The evidence showed that HLF was part of a broad Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy in the United States called the Palestine Committee, which was to serve Hamas with "media, money and men." Those exhibits show the depth of Muslim Brotherhood activity here, which at its height included a think tank in Virginia, a propaganda arm in Texas and Chicago, and a political operation that continues to exert influence today.
It also led to the discovery of a Brotherhood memorandum from 1991 that describes the group's goal in America. It called for a "civilization-jihadist process" and a "grand jihad" that aimed at "eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within … so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a Palestine Committee legacy. Last year, the FBI decided to cut off communication with CAIR due to concerns about the evidence showing the organization's Hamas roots.
"Nevertheless, until 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," wrote Richard C. Powers, an assistant director in the FBI's office of Congressional Affairs, last month.
The defendants, who have been in custody since last November's verdicts, wore orange jail jumpsuits. Neither they, nor their attorneys yielded any ground on the core issue in the case – that their efforts to raise and distribute money for Palestinian charities was done with the goal of helping Hamas politically and supporting the relatives of its fighters who were arrested or died in terrorist attacks.
"All he did was provide humanitarian relief," defense attorney Linda Moreno said of Elashi.
"I believe I am innocent and have not committed any crime," El-Mezain said during an emotional 23-minute statement. He called his prosecution "unjust, selective and political."
Solis rejected the defense claims. "The evidence supports the jury's verdict in this case that you did support Hamas in violation of the law," he said.
Intent on sentencing all five defendants in one day, Solis cut off Baker's statement after 20 minutes. Defense attorney Nancy Hollander objected, saying Baker "has a right to make his statement." Solis offered an additional five minutes, but said "I don't want to go all morning, counselor."
Baker did not finish his statement. Its focus was autobiographical, emphasizing the hardships he has endured caring for a chronically ill daughter. It was "a father's melting heart" that prompted him to devote his life to charity, Baker said.
The defendants offered the court a misleading account of their activities, prosecutors said, pointing to exhibits that showed rallies featuring songs and skits praising Hamas, that featured Hamas members and the role Baker and Elashi played in a 1993 meeting in Philadelphia aimed at trying to "derail" U.S.-led peace efforts.
In one portion of the conversation, Baker told the others that "war is deception," and at other times, the group discussed how to persuade Americans about their cause without revealing their support of a terrorist organization.
HLF "hoodwinked this country," federal prosecutor Barry Jonas told Solis. HLF sent its money to Palestinian charities, or zakat committees, which were controlled by Hamas, prosecutors said.
The judge agreed, rejecting most defense objections to the pre-sentence report and accepting enhancements to the sentencing guidelines because the crimes involved supporting terrorism. The defense arguments, that the group merely provided charity to those in desperate need, "don't tell the whole story," Solis said.
"A lot of people help people and don't get brought into court. You are here because you were supporting Hamas" and continued to do so after it became illegal.
HLF supporters do not accept the verdict, calling the defendants "our falsely convicted brothers" in an e-mail meant to drum up attendance at the hearing. Across the street from the courthouse, supporters held the same sign they displayed throughout the case: "Feeding children is not a crime."
In addition to the jury verdicts, two other men entered guilty pleas on related charges. Earlier this month, Arizona resident Akram Abdallah pled guilty to lying to FBI agents about his HLF fundraising. He is scheduled to be sentenced in August.
Mohamed Shorbagi, a Georgia imam, pled guilty to conspiring to provide material support to Hamas. As part of his plea, Shorbagi agreed to cooperate with the government and testified as a prosecution witness.
He told jurors that he knew money he raised for HLF would support Hamas.

Related Topics: Prosecutions, The Muslim Brotherhood

Read More: Prosecutions, The Muslim Brotherhood

Reader comments on this item

What about other transferts

Submitted by yunan godblessings, Jul 29, 2009 04:17

What about jews found transfert the zionist state ?

The American justice system at work

Jul 5, 2009 14:28

This is actually a triumph of our country. Our system is open, people may do what they please for the most part. These people wanted to exploit that openness. It worked for a little while, but when caught they were punished and our system still stands.
We don't need to change our system, it already works.

Clean your environment.

Submitted by Norma Fares, May 29, 2009 12:11

If saving the spirit of America --i.e. The land of [constructive and progressive] dreams-- require reforming Democracy --that is being widely and dangerously abused by new American-Hamas-Hezbollah-AlQaead-and-Co-citizens-- please go ahead. Please reinforce the values of Democracy at the American good people. Please kick out all those who have difficulties in to understanding those values. Get them back to where they truly belong i.e. to their native-hatred-nations i.e. Majority of Arab-hatred-countries.
I'm not an American citizen. Although what is bad for your nation i.e. keep or to preserve its spirit, is also bad for me i.e. a Middle easterner who is starving for Peace[of mind] living!

Prosecution of Hamas supporter

May 28, 2009 14:52

I commend Judge Solis for his sentencing of the people involved in HLF. What an outrage that these people come here and take millions from unsuspecting generous people and funnel it to an organization that is contrary to what America stands for!! Keep up the good work of prosecuting these terrorists and informing the general public!! God Bless you.
Sonja in Florida