Evidence submitted in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas terror-funding case sufficiently linked CAIR, Islamic Society of North America and the North American Islamic Trust to it At the time they were named unindicted co-conspirators in the largest terror-funding case in U.S. history in 2007, I recall reading that making a list like this public was unusual but if the government felt there was compelling reasons for the public to know, it was justified.
CAIR filed an Amicus brief arguing against being named an unindicted co-conspirator and the government countered in their brief that evidence inthe HLF trial showed CAIR's involvement.
The North American Islamic Trust, in conjunction with the Islamic Society of North America, appealed being named an unindicted co-conspirator whereupon Dallas U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis issued a joint ruling last year but sealed it. NAIT then appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit which ordered Judge Solis' 2009 ruling be unsealed: "...For the foregoing reasons, we REVERSE the district court's order only insofar as it requires that the opinion and order be sealed. All other requests for relief are DENIED. The case is REMANDED to the district court to unseal its order in accordance with this opinion..."
NAIT had asked the court to have Judge Solis' ruling overturned and their names removed from the unindicted co-conspirator list. NAIT was included under the heading “The following are individuals/entities who are and/or were members of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood.” The pre-trial brief described the Muslim Brotherhood as “an international Islamic fundamentalist movement” and stated that “Hamas' founding charter makes clear that Hamas is, in fact, the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.” (from the 5th Circuit ruling).
Solis ruled the government errored in making the list public but detailed how CAIR, the Islamic Society of North America and the North American Islamic Trust were sufficiently linked to HLF case and that being named an unindicted co-conspirator was appropriate:
"...the Court declines to strike CAIR, ISNA and NAIT’s names from those documents. The evidence is nonetheless sufficient to show the association of these entities with HLF, IAP, and Thus, maintaining the names of the entities on the List is appropriate in light of the evidence proffered by the Government.
Government Exhibit 3-85 is titled “An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America,” authored by Mohamed Akram of the Shura Council of the Muslim Brotherhood and dated May 22, 1991. (Gov’t Ex. 3-85 (Elbarasse 3) at 21.) The “Explanatory 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 hse by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” (Id.) Also contained in that document is a list of the Muslim Brotherhood’s “organizations and the organizations of our friends,” which includes ISNA, NAIT,the Occupied Land Fund (“OLF”) (HLF’s former name), and the United Association for Studies and search (“UASR”)...
Government Exhibit 3-64, titled “Preliminary vision for preparing future leadership” and dated December 18, 1988, further ties ISNA to the Muslim Brotherhood by listing it as an “apparatus” of the Brotherhood. (Gov’t Ex. 3-64 (Elbarasse 4) at 5.)
In HLF early years it operated as the Occupied Land Fund. Both ISNA and NAIT shared banks accounts with OLF and it was housed with ISNA. Checks deposted in this account were often made payable to Palestinian Mujahideen.
From the NAIT/ ISNA/OLF account thousands of dollars were sent Hamas leader Mousa Marzook.
Nearly all the evidence presented in the HLF Hamas terror-funding case that linked these groups to it is readily available online 24/7 "The list" itself is really irrelevant, at this point, isn't it?
CAIR issued a press release on Nov. 17th, which reads in part:
"The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today welcomed a recent ruling by a federal appeals court that federal prosecutors violated the rights of major American Muslim organizations by including them on a list of "unindicted co-conspirators" in a terror-related case.
...CAIR said in a statement responding to the court's ruling: "Since 2007, when the government violated its own rules in publishing the list, our nation's growing ranks of professional Islamophobes have exploited its public release in an attempt to damage the reputations of mainstream American Muslim organizations such as CAIR. This welcome ruling by the appeals court now denies anti-Muslim bigots one of their favorite, yet phony, talking points."
I'm not readint where the judge did not rule the court errored in including them on the unindicted co-conspirator list but in making the list public. As I said before, the evidence of their involvement in the HLF Hamas terror funding case is readily available online.
A top official at the North American Islamic Trust, Mujeeb Cheema, lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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