Claims of 'massive criminal fraud' for U.S. Islamic group

 

An appeal has been filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington in a claim that the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, tricked hundreds of Muslims who came to the organization for legal help.

David Yerushalmi, senior legal counsel for the American Freedom Law Center, said CAIR “engaged in a massive criminal fraud in which literally hundreds of CAIR clients have been victimized.”

However, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman, who had been handling the case for five years, suddenly dismissed it.

“In his ruling, Judge Friedman inexplicably ignored material facts that establish CAIR national’s liability and then engaged in a transparently disingenuous ‘weighing’ of the factual evidence he did address – an action which is patently improper when evaluating cross-motions for summary judgment,” Yerushalmi asserted.

“In my 30 years of litigating cases before the federal courts, I have never read a decision so fraught with legal and analytical infirmities,” he said.

The complaint – two lawsuits consolidated by the court – alleged Morris Days, a “resident attorney” and “manager for civil rights” at the organization’s now-closed Maryland-Virginia chapter in Herndon, Virginia, was not a qualified attorney.

See the inside report on CAIR’s real reason for existence.

The case alleges Days failed to provide legal services for clients who came to CAIR for help.

CAIR knew of the fraud and strategized with Days to keep those who were awaiting help from finding out about the situation, the complaint charges.

CAIR, a purported Muslim civil rights group, has deep ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terror-financing case in U.S. history and has had more than a dozen leaders with known associations with violent jihad.

AFLC announced it has filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Yerushalmi said Friedman “sat on the parties’ motions for two years and then rendered a ruling that is so patently contrary to the facts and law that once we lay out our case to the appellate court, we fully expect an emphatic reversal.”

CAIR was named as a Muslim Brotherhood front group by the FBI and federal prosecutors in the Holy Land Foundation terror-financing case in Texas.

The FBI later ended its outreach activists with CAIR.

The consolidated cases follow an earlier lawsuit, AFLC said, that had also alleged CAIR’s “fraudulent conduct” amounted to racketeering.

“In that case, the court dismissed the RICO counts, concluding that CAIR’s conduct as alleged was fraudulent but not a technical violation of RICO,” the group reported.

The cases allege CAIR knew – or should have known – that Days wasn’t a lawyer. When the accusations arose, the group allegedly “conspired with its Virginia chapter to conceal and further the fraud.”

“While Judge Friedman agreed that Days and CAIR’s Virginia chapter were liable for fraud, he concluded, after improperly weighing the evidence, that CAIR national in D.C., the named defendant in the lawsuit, was not responsible for its chapter’s fraudulent conduct,” AFLC said.

“This ruling is yet another example of federal judges bending over backward to the point of ignoring facts and disregarding legal standards in order to defend CAIR. It is inexplicable,” said AFLC co-founder Robert Muise. “Apparently, these judges have bought into the false Islamic victimhood narrative peddled by CAIR. Here, we have CAIR victimizing numerous innocent people, and yet it gets a pass in a court of law. This is unacceptable. We expect more from our judges. It will now be up to the appellate court to remedy this injustice.”

WND reported as the case developed that AFLC claimed CAIR, in a court filing, had admitted there was wrongdoing.

“Days was wrong for what he did. But the outrage at his actions – which defendant shares – is not enough to establish defendant’s liability,” a team defending CAIR told the court, according to the AFLC filing.

As former FBI agent Mike Rolf acknowledges in the book, “Muslim Mafia,” CAIR “has had a number of people in positions of power within the organization that have been directly connected to terrorism and have either been prosecuted or thrown out of the country.”

According to another FBI veteran familiar with recent and ongoing cases involving CAIR officials, “Their offices have been a turnstile for terrorists and their supporters.”

A review of the public record, including federal criminal court documents, past IRS 990 tax records and Federal Election Commission records detailing donor occupations, reveals the following:

Ghassan Elashi: One of CAIR’s founding directors, he was convicted in 2004 of illegally shipping high-tech goods to terror state Syria and was given 80 months in prison. He was also convicted of providing material support to Hamas in the Holy Land Foundation terror-financing trial. He was chairman of the charity, which provided seed capital to CAIR. Elashi is related to Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook.

Muthanna al-Hanooti: The CAIR director’s home was raided in 2006 by FBI agents in connection with an active terrorism investigation. Agents also searched the offices of his advocacy group, Focus on Advocacy and Advancement of International Relations, which al-Hanooti operates out of Dearborn, Mich., and Washington, D.C. Al-Hanooti, who emigrated to the U.S. from Iraq, formerly helped run a suspected Hamas terror front called LIFE for Relief and Development. Its Michigan offices also were raided in September 2006. In 2004, LIFE’s Baghdad office was raided by U.S. troops, who seized files and computers. Al-Hanooti is related to Sheik Mohammed al-Hanooti, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

“Al-Hanooti collected over $6 million for support of Hamas,” according to a 2001 FBI report, and was present with CAIR and Holy Land officials at a secret Hamas fundraising summit held in 1993 at a Philadelphia hotel. Prosecutors added his name to the list of unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land case.

Although Al-Hanooti denies supporting Hamas, he has praised Palestinian suicide bombers as “martyrs” who are “alive in the eyes of Allah.”

Abdurahman Alamoudi: Another CAIR director, he was given 23 years in federal prison for plotting terrorism. Alamoudi, who was caught on tape complaining that bin Laden hadn’t killed enough Americans in the U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, was one of al-Qaida’s top fundraisers in America, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

Randall “Ismail” Royer: The former CAIR communications specialist and civil-rights coordinator was given 20 years in prison in connection with the Virginia Jihad Network, which he led while employed by CAIR at its Washington headquarters. The group trained to kill U.S. soldiers overseas, cased the FBI headquarters and cheered the space shuttle Columbia tragedy. Al-Qaida operative Ahmed Abu Ali, convicted of plotting to assassinate President George W. Bush, was among those who trained with Royer’s Northern Virginia cell.

Bassam Khafagi: Another CAIR official, Khafagi was arrested in 2003 while serving as CAIR’s director of community affairs. He pleaded guilty to charges of bank and visa fraud stemming from a federal counter-terror probe of his leadership role in the Islamic Assembly of North America, which has supported al-Qaida and advocated suicide attacks on America. He was sentenced to 10 months in prison and deported to his native Egypt.

Laura Jaghlit: A civil-rights coordinator for CAIR, her Washington-area home was raided by federal agents after 9/11 as part of an investigation into terrorist financing, money laundering and tax fraud. Her husband, Mohammed Jaghlit, a key leader in the Saudi-backed SAAR network, also was a target of the probe. Jaghlit sent two letters accompanying donations – one for $10,000, the other for $5,000 – from the SAAR Foundation to Sami al-Arian, now a convicted terrorist. In each letter, according to a federal affidavit, “Jaghlit instructed al-Arian not to disclose the contribution publicly or to the media.” Investigators suspect the funds were intended for Palestinian terrorists via a U.S. front called WISE, which at the time employed an official who personally delivered a satellite phone battery to Osama bin Laden. The same official also worked for Jaghlit’s group. In addition, Jaghlit donated a total of $37,200 to the Holy Land Foundation, which prosecutors say is a Hamas front. Jaghlit subsequently was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the case.

Nihad Awad: Wiretap evidence from the Holy Land case puts CAIR’s executive director at the Philadelphia meeting of Hamas leaders and activists in 1993 that was secretly recorded by the FBI. Participants hatched a plot to disguise payments to Hamas terrorists as charitable giving. During the meeting, according to FBI transcripts, Awad was recorded discussing the propaganda effort. He mentions Ghassan Dahduli, whom he worked with at the time at the Islamic Association for Palestine, another Hamas front. Both were IAP officers. Dahduli’s name also was listed in the address book of bin Laden’s personal secretary, Wadi al-Hage, who is serving a life sentence in prison for his role in the U.S. embassy bombings. Dahduli, an ethnic-Palestinian like Awad, was deported to Jordan after 9/11 for refusing to cooperate in the terror investigation. (An April 28, 2009, letter from FBI assistant director Richard C. Powers to Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. – which singles out CAIR chief Awad for suspicion – explains how the group’s many Hamas connections caused the FBI to sever ties with CAIR.) Awad’s and Dahduli’s phone numbers are listed in a Muslim Brotherhood document seized by federal investigators revealing “important phone numbers” for the “Palestine Section” of the Brotherhood in America. The court exhibit showed Hamas fugitive Mousa Abu Marzook listed on the same page with Awad.

Omar Ahmad: U.S. prosecutors also named CAIR’s founder and chairman emeritus as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land case. Ahmad, too, was placed at the Philadelphia meeting, FBI special agent Lara Burns testified at the trial. Prosecutors also designated him as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s “Palestine Committee” in America. Ahmad, like his CAIR partner Awad, is ethnic-Palestinian. (Though both Ahmad and Awad were senior leaders of IAP, the Hamas front, neither of their biographical sketches posted on CAIR’s website mentions their IAP past.)

Nabil Sadoun: A CAIR board member, Sadoun has served on the board of the United Association for Studies and Research, which investigators believe to be a key Hamas front in America. In fact, Sadoun co-founded UASR with Hamas leader Marzook. The Justice Department added UASR to the list of unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land case.

In 2010, Sadoun was ordered deported to his native Jordan. An immigration judge referenced Sadoun’s relationship with Hamas and the Holy Land Foundation during a deportation hearing.

Mohamed Nimer: CAIR’s research director also served as a board director for UASR, the strategic arm for Hamas in the U.S. CAIR neglects to mention Nimer’s and Sadoun’s roles in UASR in their bios.

Claims of 'massive criminal fraud' for U.S. Islamic group
Bob Unruh
Thu, 19 Feb 2015 03:00:08 GMT