This poster features 18-year-old Abdel Mu'ti Muhammad Salih Shabanah. The FBI's translated the poster for the HLF jury: he is a "high school student who preferred the martyrdom certificate over the life's certificate."
The prosecution rested their case last Friday.
HLF archives at the Dallas Morning News
Most interesting:
After jurors filed out of the courtroom for lunch Monday, U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis called out to a woman sitting in the front row of the visitor's gallery. The courtroom froze.
He asked her to come closer to the bench and show him the documents in her hand, and she held up a magazine. On one side was a map of what appeared to be Israel and the Palestinian territories. On the other, in huge bold-face, was a headline "HATE SPEECH" atop an article.
"There," said the judge. "That's what I saw." Are you trying to influence the jury with that? he asked. The woman, standing in front of the judge's bench, mumbled something that sounded like no. He then told her that her conduct was improper, but told her she could still attend the trial.
...Court security officers are now cracking down on material being brought into the courtroom.
FBI linguist Atef Shafik testified at the Holy Land Foundation terror funding trial this week. He is the one who has translated hundreds of documents from Arabic to English for the trial. None of the documents have been disputed as translated wrong at this point in the trial.
Mohamed Elibiary, president of the Freedom and Justice Foundation, an interfaith organization in Plano, Texas and a supporter of the Holy Land Foundation, made an interesting comment, regarding the defendants may be worth noting:
"Mr. Elibiary said that Mr. Shafik’s analysis of Islamic thought is flawed. He said that the defendants are not jihadists, who seek to have Shariah law imposed on the non-Muslim societies through violence, but rather political Islamists.
“Islamists work through the system to advance their political viewpoints,” he said. “They’re for gradual change. Jihadists are anarchists. They want to blow up the global system and let God sort it out afterwards.”
So is he saying the defendants in the Holy Land Foundation Trial are Islamists - those who seek Islamic domination and global Islamic rule through political Islam? Just like the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood?
How interesting - since some of the documentation that will probably be introduced at this trial will show the Muslim Brotherhood organizations already in place in America.
the jury in the 2nd Holy Land Foundation terror funding trial were shown to the following video to help educate them about Hamas:
IPT has a thorough report on day two here.
click on image to enlarge it
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. Above is a screen shot of the links page for the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City. Let's review it, shall we?
"...What is the overall goal here? To establish a Caliphate? Laura asks. In the greater context yes, Omeish said..."
Every one of the organizations the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City selected to use are linked to the Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas infrastructure in America. These organizations are often given press by the MSM where they portray themselves as moderate Islamic groups since this is the image they want you to believe. There is abundant evidence to the contrary.
In addition ISGOC feature a link to the Islamic Book Store. Here there are numerous books about Jihad including Whabbi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad. Books by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, Yusef Qaradawi and Jamal Badawi and also available.
Any questions?
Below is a recent screen shot of Islamonline:
Seeking to concentrate on the more serious charges, federal prosecutors in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding retrial asked the judge on Wednesday to drop a number of lessor charges against two of the defendants.
Just a couple weeks ago, Akram Musa Abdallah, aka Abu Saiaf, 54, of Mesa, Ariz. was arrested by the FBI for making false statements related to fund-raising activities for the Holy Land Foundation.
"Federal prosecutors in the Holy Land Foundation case have asked a judge to drop the bulk of the charges against two of the defendants, who still face conspiracy charges alleging they lent support to the terrorist group Hamas.
The 29 counts each that prosecutors want to dismiss against Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulrahman Odeh are ones jurors largely acquitted both men on last year, following a two month-long trial and nearly a month of deliberations. Those acquittals were tossed after the judge declared a last-minute mistrial Oct. 22.
Both men still face three of the most serious charges against them, including conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization; conspiracy to provide funds, goods and services to a specially designated terrorist; and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
FYI
A federal judge has denied a request by defense attorneys in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case who asked that next month's retrial be delayed.
In an opinion issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis called their claim that they cannot be ready for trial because of delays in payments of their court-appointed attorneys' fees "hyperbolic and inaccurate."
Judge Solis chastised the court-appointed attorneys in the case for waiting until late March, about five months after the October mistrial, to file their budget for the retrial, which includes expenses for pretrial preparation such as pay for experts and air travel.
The judge said that after they submitted their budget to him in late March, twice he had to ask them for more detail and explanations of what he thought were "unreasonable" expenses before finally feeling comfortable enough to forward the budget to the circuit court for review in June.
Judge Solis said that the month it took the 5th Circuit to review and, on Aug. 1, approve the defense budget is not unreasonable, given the amount of taxpayer money they are asking the system to provide them.
"Their accusation that the courts are 'not acting' on their requests for funding is misleading at best," the judge wrote. "Defendants helped create the budget crunch they find themselves in by not submitting a complete budget proposal until June 13, 2008."
Attorneys appointed by the court in the upcoming retrial of a terror funding case are seeking a delay claiming they haven't been paid enough money to properly prepare to retry the case, the Dallas Morning News is reporting.
The trial is scheduled to begin September 8th.
“Counsel can no longer continue to work on this case, nor effectively prepare for trial, because funding has not been approved for experts, consultants and for the expenses associated with representation,” wrote attorney Theresa Duncan, one of two attorneys defending Shukri Abu Baker, former Holy Land CEO, in a motion filed earlier this month seeking to have the trial delayed.
...“It would appear that the defense is starting from scratch in preparing for this case, despite having had several years to prepare for the first trial,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Shapiro wrote last week in response to the defense motion. “By eliminating obviously wasteful expenditures, there is no reason why defense counsel cannot effectively represent their clients at the upcoming trial.”
...Lack of funds for airfare is a big obstacle, Ms. Duncan argued. Because some defense attorneys are in New Mexico and New York, they must travel to meet with their clients. Phone consultations are kept at a minimum because of fears that the FBI is still wire-tapping the defendants, the lawyers say.
The government countered by pointing out that two of the defendants chose to have out-of-state attorneys appointed to the case, rather than accept local appointments.
“Had the defendants been treated as every other indigent defendant, their counsel would have been locally appointed and would not have generated travel expenses,” Ms. Shapiro wrote.
Two Islamic organizations, the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) and the Islamic Society of North America, are fighting back against being named unindicted co-consipirators in the Holy Land Foundation Terror funding trial for their ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and other such groups. The executive director of NAIT, Mujeeb Cheema, lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is the incorporator of the Islamic Society of Tulsa.
Yetersday, the government filed papers rebuffing the argument:
In a filing yesterday in federal court in Dallas, prosecutors said the Islamic Society of North America and the North American Islamic Trust suffered no lasting harm by being included on the co-conspirator list prosecutors filed prior to the trial last year of the Holy Land Foundation and five of its officers because evidence supporting the claim became public just weeks later.
"During last year's trial, numerous exhibits were entered into evidence establishing both ISNA's and NAIT's intimate relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Palestine Committee, and the defendants in this case," the prosecutors wrote. "They were intimately connected with the HLF and its assigned task of providing financial support to HAMAS. ... That ISNA and NAIT appeared in these documents and share a common history with these defendants is a reflection of the evidence, not any attempt to 'disparage' or 'vilify.'"
The unrepentant tone of the government's filing was surprising in light of e-mails ISNA and NAIT filed with the court recently indicating that the lead prosecutor on the case, James Jacks, told lawyers for the groups last year that he was considering filing a pleading to clarify that the groups were identified solely because of evidentiary rules and were not being accused of having any criminal intent.
The first trial ended in a mistrial last October after 19 days of deliberations. It is an important case to be retried for our country as our government tries to stop funds that are allegedly sent to aid terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah through elaborate means of funneling.
The retrial of five former Richardson charity organizers accused of financing Palestinian terrorists has been set for Aug. 18.
U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis, the new judge in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism-financing case, set the retrial date this week, four months after the first trial ended in a hung jury.
The five men who stand accused of conspiring to send at least $12 million overseas to the Palestinian group Hamas are Ghassan Elashi, former Holy Land board chairman; Shukri Abu Baker, former Holy Land chief executive; Mohammad El-Mezain, the foundation's original chairman; Mufid Abdulqader, a top fundraiser; and Abdulrahman Odeh, Holy Land's former New Jersey representative.
Attorneys for the men have argued that they raised the money to benefit Palestinian families caught in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The jury in last summer's trial heard two months of testimony and deliberated for 19 days before U.S. District Judge A. Joe Fish declared the hung jury. Judge Fish has since retired.
From the Investigative Project, I found an astonishing account of jury intimidation that could have affected the outcome of the Holy Land Foundation Terror Trial:
"She felt the men were guilty and tried to explain why to the 11 other jurors. When she finished, one juror spoke up in an angry tone.
"If you're going by the evidence in this room," she recalls him snapping, "then you need to go home."
The terrorism-support trial of five Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) officials, which began July 24, already had been stressful for 49-year-old Kristina Williams. She had lost her job two weeks into it. Now during deliberations, she felt bullied and intimidated virtually every time she voiced an opinion.
"When I'd get off the jury I'd come home every night and basically cry because I felt like every time I spoke I would get knocked down, criticized, one way or the other for something pertaining to the way I voted," Williams said in an exclusive interview..."
Watch the video interview with this juror here and read the rest of this story.
Update 12.39 PM: The Holy Land Foundation trial was about funneling money to help support terrorism, specifically, the terrorist group Hamas. The trial ended in a stunning mistrial Monday after conflicting statements were made when jurors were polled after the verdict was read.
"When polled, some jurors told the judge that they did not agree with the verdicts on Mr. El-Mezain and Mr. Odeh.
“Your verdict must be unanimous and it’s apparent to me from the answers of three members of the jury in respect to my question that the verdicts that I read earlier do not represent the unanimous view of the jury,” Judge Fish said.
But after deliberating for another 45 minutes Monday morning, 11 of 12 jurors agreed that further deliberations would not change their decisions. It was then that the judge declared a mistrial."
Update: 12.21 PM: The Canadian Press reports the trial of five former Muslim charity leaders was thrown into turmoil Monday when jurors acquitted three of them of funding terrorism - but some members of the panel disputed the acquittal of two others. As a result, U.S. District Judge Joe Fish sent the panel back to resolve the differences, and because of the confusion, did not officially accept any of the jury's findings.
"The verdicts were announced after a two-month trial and 19 days of deliberation. When they were read in court, three jurors said they were incorrect. The jury forewoman said she was surprised by the three jurors' actions. "When we voted, there was no issue in the vote," she said. "No one spoke up any different. I really don't understand where it is coming from."
10 AM CT Holy Land Foundation Trial verdict is being read: The verdict is complicated reports the Dallas Morning News:
The jury in the terrorism-financing trial was unable to reach unanimous decisions on three of the six defendants, U.S. District Judge Joe Fish said Monday as he unsealed their verdicts.
The indictment alleges that the Holy Land foundation sponsored fundraising events in which speakers performed skits and songs that advocated the destruction of Israel and glorified the killing of Jewish people. According to prosecutors, it targeted families of “martyrs” for financial aid. The Holy Land Foundation had been the largest Muslim charity in the U.S. until it was shut down by President Bush. The case was the biggest terror finance trial in U.S. history.
Between 1992, the year Holy Land relocated from California to Richardson, and when Bush administration regulators shut it down in December 2001, Holy Land took in about $57 million.
After 19 long days of deliberations, the verdict is ready in this important trial about terrorist financing but it will remain sealed until Judge Joe Fish, returns to the bench on Monday.
..."The five Holy Land defendants, all but one a U.S. citizen, are accused of raising more than $12 million and wiring it to Palestinian charity committees, who prosecutors say were controlled by a terrorist group, Hamas which has sponsored hundreds of suicide bombings, often targeting Israeli civilians.
As the eight women and four men filed into the courtroom, some looked down and some stole glances out into the spectator section, while others looked at the defendants.
...With just 20 minutes' notice, court watchers, media and Holy Land supporters dropped everything to get to the courthouse for what they believed would be the reading of the verdict. Several who gathered in the overflow courtroom sighed and grumbled with frustration when they learned it would be Monday before the verdict is read.
This case is extremely important for the U.S. government to win. If the government were to lose this case, the worst case scenerio here would be, that some Islamic organizations could feel more confident to help fund terrorist organizations via their charities that help the widows of those that blow themselves up. Worst yet, these groups could move forward more easily with their plans to destroy our democracy by chipping away at our laws over time. We would be horribly naive to think otherwise.
Are there signs of jury trouble in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial?
"What do we do when a juror refuses to vote?" the handwritten note to U.S. District Judge A. Joe Fish stated.
Wednesday marked the ninth full day of deliberations after two months of complex testimony on hundreds of pieces of evidence. It was also the fifth day since the jurors had to restart deliberations after one of them was replaced with an alternate Sept. 26 for an unknown reason.
Just before 2 p.m. Wednesday, Judge Fish brought all 12 jurors into the courtroom and gave them a special jury instruction, known as an Allen charge, typically a last-ditch effort to spur long-deliberating panelists to reach a verdict.
The judge reminded the jurors that it is their sworn duty to stick to their positions on guilt or innocence, but they have to participate in the process."
"This is an important case," Judge Fish told them. "The trial has been expensive in time, effort and money to both the defense and the prosecution. If you should fail to agree on a verdict, the case is left open and must be tried again. Dallas Morning News.
While the national news media is covering, non-stop, the plight of a completely irrelevant and despicable person, O.J. Simpson, they are largely ignoring the trial against the Holy Land Foundation. The largest Islamic charity in the U.S. is accused of sending money to Hamas. The trial exposed a plan by the Muslim Brotherhood to destroy America from within. A national plan with numerous organization set up to help. Excuse me, has there ever been a plan to destroy our country uncovered before? I'm not aware of one. Then why is this being ignored by the media? This is a big deal. Evidence submitted also included conversations and video tapes showing approval for the killing of others. The verdict in this trial will either give the government more strength and power in its ability to stop radical Islamic views and actions from taking hold in America or it it will give the go-ahead to these people and groups going forward. This is major and everyone should be paying attention.
Defense attorney for the Holly Land Foundation said in closing arguments on Tuesday that the radical views caught on tape of the defendants is the right of "free speech".
..."Greg Westfall, attorney for defendant Abdulrahman Odeh, on Tuesday tried to explain a 1995 phone call his client made to co-defendant Mohammad El-Mezain to tell him "a beautiful operation just took place," when a Hamas suicide bomber killed 18 Israelis. "May it be good, God's willing," Mr. El-Mezain replied.
..."Earlier, Marlo Cadeddu, attorney for Mufid Abdulqader, a Holy Land fundraiser and member of a Palestinian folk band that played at foundation events, invoked the First Amendment in defense of her client, who was caught on videotape performing a skit in which he pretended to kill a man playing an Israeli at a Holy Land fundraiser.
"How am I going to explain those videotapes?" Ms. Cadeddu asked rhetorically. "I don't have to. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution means that you can talk, you can sing, you can perform a skit about anything you like." Dallas Morning News
From the freedomtogive, a pro-Islamic blog covering the trial, an excerpt from the prosecutor in his closing argument gave a quick overview of Hamas ..."Prosecutor Barry Jonas discussed the creation of Hamas by saying that it was a Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood founded in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. Hamas began after the first Intifada, or uprising, Jonas added. In 1988, Hamas published their charter, which condemned a two-state solution and called for the destruction of Israel through jihad."
If the government doesn't win this case, I think you can figure out the power it will give to those who wish to destroy Israel and possibly our government and way of life.
I'm republishing my 9/1/07 post again because I found more compelling information that's relevant to Oklahoma and to the rest of America, for that matter. I say this because, if it can happen in Oklahoma, it can happen and probably is happening all over.
Last week, federal prosecutors in Dallas rested their case against the Holy Land Foundation, America's largest Islamic charity, charged with sending millions of dollars to Hamas. There is a link to all the articles done during the trial done by the Dallas Morning News and a link to all the court documents for your reference under the "Changing America" section on my blog. There are several posts I did on the trial which can be found under the category section and clicking on Holy Land Foundation. An absolute must read is government exhibit 003-0085 (a U.S. gov link) which was submitted by federal prosecutors in this case. This document is a plan by the Muslim Brotherhood, which is one of, if not the biggest, Islamic movement in the world, with goals to establish an Islamic Caliphate (World Rule). This document outlines their plan to destroy American from "within it own miserable house" and replacing it with Islamic law, slowly but surely - a plan that would take years to complete. I think I'd be paying attention to this document, big time. The first 15 pages are in arabic then the English translation begins. Perhaps the defense will be able to destroy its credibility and its rejected by the jury. However, it should be noted that none of the national Islamic organizations identified as unindicted co-conspirators because of their association with the Muslim Brotherhood have denied this association. Ultimately, the jury will have to decide. Clearly, this is a major trial with major implications for America. If the defendants are found guilty they could spend life in prison. If this document is true and authentic, these plans in America could well be underway already. I think this trial has put the Muslim Brotherhood and it followers on notice that establishing Islam into the heart and soul of the United States may be more difficult than they anticipated. You must read it. More is written here.
A bit of troubling information - one HLF defendant has had connections to Oklahoma! One blog, freedomtogive, has been reporting on the trial. It's written from the perspective of a daughter whose father, Ghassan Elashi, is a defendant in this trial, Elashi had previously been convicted for doing business with a terrorist group and is in prison. Did I mention Elashi is related to Hama's leader, Mousa Abu Marzook?
Anyway, she put together biographies of all the defendants. One, in particular, caught my eye; Mufid Abdulqader. He went to college and worked in Oklahoma. Abdulqader left Oklahoma City for Texas sometime after the bombing in 1995.
Mufid Abdulqader by freedotogive blog
..."
Born in Slowed, Palestine in 1959, Mr. Abdulqader lived much of his young adult life in Kuwait. In 1980, he migrated to the United States to receive a college education and pursue his dreams. He lived in Irving, Texas for a few months before moving to Clare- more, Okla. then Stillwater, Okla. To fund his tuition at Oklahoma State University, Mr. Abdulqader briefly worked as a dishwasher at an Italian Restaurant and a cashier at Wendy's. He received his Bachelor’s of Science degree in Civil Engineering in 1984.
In 1985, he married Diane. He received his Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering from Oklahoma State University in 1994. The family lived in Oklahoma City for several years (he worked at the Oklahoma Department of Transportation) before finally moving to Richardson, Texas in 1996.
Continue reading "Holy Land Foundation Trial - One Defendant Went to Oklahoma State University!" »
Federal prosecutors are insisting that they properly labeled a prominent Muslim advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, as a participant in a criminal conspiracy to support Hamas. In a brief filed Tuesday night, prosecutors asked Judge A. Joe Fish in Dallas to reject an unusual motion from the council, also known as Cair, to strike its name and the names of all other groups and individuals from a list of unindicted co-conspirators filed in late May during the lead-up to the trial of five men on terrorism support charges. The men, all of whom were officials of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, went on trial before Judge Fish in July on terrorism-support and other charges.
Prosecutors said their decision to list Cair as part of the Hamas network was legitimate because evidence presented at the Holy Land trial has included a memorandum describing the group as part of the " U.S. Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee" and indicating that the purpose of the committee was to support Hamas. The prosecution also noted that an FBI agent testified that two founders of Cair, Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmad, attended a 1993 meeting in Philadelphia that prosecutors contend was a gathering of Hamas backers opposed to the Oslo accords reached earlier that year between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization. "Cair's participation as a joint-venturer and co-conspirator is a matter of public record in this case," a prosecutor, James Jacks, wrote...An attorney for Cair, William Moffitt, said the government's arguments were flimsy and amounted to guilt by association. "We've looked at the paper and we're almost laughing at it," he said. "You have a group with numerous people all doing different things. They take two people who did something together and all of a sudden it means they're all members of Hamas. Can you imagine where that would have taken us back in the era of the NAACP? On that theory because I have Mao's Little Red Book in my library that makes me a communist." The Sun
and the judge is a bigot," said Ghassan Elasi, a defendant in the Holy Land Trial on Monday reports his daughter on her blog, called freedomtogive. This outburst, for which he was giving a stern warning by the judge, was written about in an earlier post.
The issue of referring to Israel as an occupier of Palestinian land is basic to many Muslims. Is there just one Muslim who recognizes that Israel dates back before Palestine? I've been looking for a reliable source which provides me historical documentation that Palestine existed before Israel and so far I can't find anything! This is really bugging me. I also can't find any reference in the Quran about Palestine. Can someone please help me out here? Unless I can find reliable documentation I'm left to conclude that Palestine was created during an occupation of Israel which occurred during one of the times when Israel was ruled by a succession of major empires around 680 B.C. when their first temple was destroyed. The empires that ruled over Israel were Babylonian, Persian, Greek Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Empires, Islamic and Christian crusaders, Islamic Ottoman Empire, and the British Empire. To read more about Israeli history go here or here. Was the 2nd Jewish temple destroyed and a mosque built over it by an Islamic Caliph or not? If this isn't true, kindly provide me a source from which I can study this issue. Israel is talked about in the Bible, the oldest holy text known to man in in Genisis, the first book. Now a group of people called the Philistines were referenced in the Bible. Some say these people are believed to have come from Crete and the word means "sea people".
This is indeed troubling to me because a whole lot of people are living a lie, either it's the Jewish people or it's the Muslims. I just want to find the truth. How much longer can this continue? It's time to be accountable.
The cross examination of the FBI witness in the Holy Land Foundation Trial was covered by a family member of one of the defendants. She is a distant relative of Hamas's leader, Mousa Abu Marzook as his wife is a cousin to her father. Her father is Ghassan Elashi who has been convicted in another case for doing business with a terrorist and is in prison. He is also a defendant in this trial, as well. I thought you might like to read her perspective. You can read her commentary about her father here.
With her pink blouse, dark pin-stripped suit and crow-colored hair, FBI agent Laura Burns seemed hostile as she neared the end of her 11-day testimony on Tuesday, August 14, 2007. Mounted on a pole behind her was the American flag. The stars and stripes. The symbol of freedom and protection. Yet to many, the Dallas courtroom lacked these values. And many said Burns’ bias was evident. U.S. District Judge A. Joe Fish refused to admit into evidence several documents seized by the Israeli Defense Force. But the attentive jury watched and listened as the judge continued to sustain most of the prosecutors’ objections.
Josh Dratel, defendant Mohammad El-Mezain’s attorney, continued cross-examining Burns by discussing Hamas leader Musa Abu Marzook, who was a green card holder in the U.S. Dratel said Abu Marzook was detained in the U.S. from July 1995 to May 1997. He also made it clear that El-Mezain is a distant relative of Abu Marzook, but the two individuals were never close. Dratel also noted that Abu Marzook’s brother was a member of the Palestinian political party of Fatah. Dratel then discussed the 1992 mass deportation, where the Israeli government captured over 400 Palestinians and dropped them in the middle of a desert in southern Lebanon. He made clear that many of the individuals captured were scholars and imams, or Islamic leaders. Many were pediatricians and nearly 30 had PhDs. And all were eventually allowed to return, Dratel said.
Then it was time for Ghassan Elashi’s lawyer, John Cline, to cross-examine Burns. He started by saying it’s the U.S. Department of Treasury that names Specially Designated Terrorists. He said the designations — including that of Hamas founder Ahmad Yassin and Hamas leader Musa Abu Marzook — were available to the public. He also mentioned that even after groups or individuals are designated, people could deal with them financially if they obtain a license from the Treasury Department. He then listed out several organizations designated for dealing with Hamas, none of which included the Zakat Committees linked to the Holy Land Foundation. He then cleared up the nature of the transactions between the HLF and the Richardson-based computer company Infocom, which was run by defendant Elashi and his brothers. Through invoices, Cline showed that the HLF made the payments to obtain computer parts from Infocom.
Soon afterwards, Marlo Cadeddu, Mufid Abdulqader’s lawyer, began cross-examining Burns. Cadeddu said her client’s name was not in Musa Abu Marzook’s phone book that was seized by federal agents when they arrested him in 1995. He was not in a list showing the Muslim Brotherhood leadership. She added that he did not help create the HLF neither was he ever a member of the HLF board. She then said most of the videos that Abdulqader appeared in were made before Hamas was designated in 1995. Cadeddu made it clear that the videos depicting Hamas in the late 1980s and early 1990s were not linked to suicide bombings since the first successful Palestinian suicide bombing was in 1994. In addition, Cadeddu stated that Abdulqader was never an employee of the HLF. He was merely a volunteer with no office, no desk and no phone at the HLF. She concluded by briefly discussing Abdulqader’s biography.
Prosecutor Jim Jacks then began the re-direct examination of Burns. He started by mentioning the angry individual who wrote a letter to the HLF stating how he hopes his donations will be used for weapons to crush the enemy and attacking the West with nuclear weapons. Jacks asked Burns if the HLF accepted the donation. Yes and he was added to the donor’s list, Burns replied. He then read aloud a long press release by the Islamic Association for Palestine. The only way to liberate Palestine is through jihad and by detesting the occupation, Burns said, as she read the report. Jacks then played a tapped conversation between a Dallas Morning News reporter and defendant Shukri Abu-Baker. In the conversation, Abu-Baker said, We have never raised money for Hamas. The Intifada, or uprising, was a historical phenomenon, where Palestinians where the underdog who received the most casualties.
Abdulrahman Odeh’s lawyer, Greg Westfall, then briefly re-crossed Burns. He discussed a wiretapped phone conversation where defendant Odeh tells El-Mezain that HLF donations to Oklahoma City Bombing victims would be a good opportunity for the HLF to help Americans. Westfall made it clear that the conversation occurred a couple days after the bombing, a time where there was increased hostility towards Arabs and Muslims in America because many mistaking blamed them for the bombing.
Nancy Hollander, Abu-Baker’s attorney, and Josh Dratel, El-Mezain’s lawyer were the last lawyers up as defense attorneys neared the end of their re-cross examination of Burns. freedomtogive
From the Counterterrorism Blog:
Below is a video introduced by the federal government as evidence in the Holy Land Foundation Trial. This video was done right here in America. It's a video of a skit about Hamas which ends with the mock shooting of a Jew (you can hear what sounds like children laughing when this happens). Sick, sick sick. Throughout the video, Israel is referred to as being on Islamic land and as the cursed one, must leave.
This video is a recording of an Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) convention which was recovered by federal authorities at the former home of Fawaz Mushtaha, a former resident of Northern Virginia and an unindicted co-Conspirator in the case.
The current owner of the home, Marcial Peredo, took the witness stand and explained that he was leveling the yard at his new Falls Church home when he stumbled onto a stash of videotapes buried in the ground. Peredo testified that he also discovered burned videotape cases, cellular telephones, money, and maps in his backyard barbeque pit.
The video features one of the defendants in the trial, Mufid Abdulqader – an HLF fundraiser, a member of the musical troupe Al-Sakra, and half-brother to HAMAS Supreme Commander in Exile, Khalid Mishal. In the recording, Abdulqader acts as a HAMAS fighter singing “I am HAMAS” and “I protect my land Palestine.”
To read the transcript go here.
I've been educating myself for over a year and a half now about the religion of Islam and Islamism (those seeking Islamic rule) and what appears to be its full-court press to increase its presence in the West. It's amazing to me this issue is very much a partisan issue and it shouldn't be. How can the democrats not see what Islamists want to do in America? We should all be asking ourselves why this is happening. I'm certainly no expert - maybe a cut above limited knowledge and I can see clearly that Islamists are here in the U.S. An important bit of evidence - a memoradum of an Islamic plan to take over America was submitted as evidence in the on-going trial against a large Muslim charity in America, the Holy Land Foundation. This Islamic organization was shut down in December 2001 following the 9/11 atacks.
The Muslim Brotherhood in North America
"The strategy for Islamic growth in North America has entered into a new stage of Islamic activism in North America approved by the Shura Council," the document states. Scroll down past the Arabic to page 15 for the start of the English translation. Make no mistake about it, this plan makes it very clear that an Islamic global state is their ultimate goal (page 19). They referred to their work in America as a "kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house 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. Without this level of understanding, we are not up to this challenge and have not prepared ourself for jihad yet. It is a Muslim's destiny to perform jihad..."(page 21).
The Hamas Charter goal: "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."
Update 10/07: The Holy Land Foundation terror funding trial ended in a mistrial. A retrial has been scheduled fo September 08.
Update 9/12/2008: The retrial for the Holy Land Foundation terror funding trial will begin any day after prelimary issues are handled. Opening statements set for September 22, 2008
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Additional resources:
For a thorough analysis of some of the court exhibits go to the NEFA website.
For a brief history of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States read this HLF court exhibit. Here you can read the list of the MB organizations in the U.S.
Nefa Foundation: Muslim Brotherhood in the United States
Read about "Islam in Oklahoma" and review the history of Islamists activity in our state. Learn that nearly all the Islamic societies have aligned themselves with CAIR.
Read about CAIR and company - an organization linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.
The Council of American and Islamic Relations (CAIR) stated in an August 9th commentary that three major American Muslim organizations; the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the North American Islamic Trust and the themselves, represent the interests and viewpoints of the mainstream American Muslim community.
These American Islamic organizations all have been named unindicted co-conspirators in the current Holy Land Foundation Trial for their relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, a world-wide Islamic organization whose plans to infiltrate and destroy American from within was revealed in evidence submitted in the Holy Land Foundation trial by federal prosecutors.
In this commentary, CAIR is also claiming that the treatment these mainstream Muslim organizations is un-American. Is this their new tactic now? If you don't speak glowingly of Islam you are called un-American by CAIR. This should be interesting as the government circles the wagon on treasonist Islamic activities designed to destroy our government and way of life.
In their own words.
The Holy Land Foundation Trial is being tracked on a blog by, at least, one defendant's family. It's called freedomtogive - an interesting play on words since the trial is about HLF giving money to Hamas, get it? This blog maintains the trial is purely political and the result of post 9/11 hysteria. "This is an Israeli trial done on American soil," they claim. A quick review of their counterpoints to the case are claims it is all a consipiracy to defame Muslims. ...Nothing in the indictment charges the defendants of providing money to HAMAS, or providing money for arms, or engaging in violence. Note: on page 8 of the indictment, it clearly says that the HLF, originally called the Occupied Land Fund, was created to send money and material support to HAMAS. Are we reading the same document? And the link to this indictment is on their blog! I've got to be missing something here. Throughout the indicment you will see references to these money transfers.
The blog does, glaringly, fail to mention that four of the seven defendants are related to Hamas top leaders. Defendant, Mohammed El-Mezain, is cousin of Hamas Deputy Chief and Specially Designated Terrorist, Mousa Marzook. Defendant , Ghassan Elashia, is related to Marzook by marriage. Defendant Akram Mishal is cousin of Hama's political Chief and Specially Desgniated Global Terrorist, Kalid Mishal. Defendant Mufid Abdulqader is half brother to Hamas's political chief, Specially Designated Global Terrorist, Kalid Mishal. Two defendants are out of the country, Haitham Maghawri and Akram Mishal. In the indictment, it states in December 2001 the Holy Land Foundation was named a specially designated global terrorist group. I knew it had been shut down but, my goodness.
In testimony today at the Holy Land Trial, FBI Special Agent Laura Burns said Nihad Awad, Executive Director of CAIR, was the man who, until now, had been identified only as Nihad LNU (last name unknown) in FBI reports and analyses. He participated in a meeting in a Philadelphia hotel in 1993 with U.S. Hamas representatives. Remember, the FBI has been working on this case for many years.
"Transcripts and FBI analyses released since then show the meeting sought a strategy to kill the (Oslo) peace accord, which threatened to marginalize the Islamist movement. The group also discussed ways to improve HAMAS fund raising in America.
According to FBI reports, the men tried to hide their true agenda, agreeing not to even say the word “HAMAS” - but to call it “SAMAH” its reverse - even in their private conversations. Most of the participants were identified through surveillance and an examination of the hotel registry. But until Thursday, the identity of one person at the meeting – Nihad LNU - remained a mystery.
Awad was asked about the meeting during a 2003 deposition for a civil lawsuit. He initially said he didn't think he had attended the Philadelphia meeting. When pushed he replied, "I don't remember." Nor did he remember whether he was invited.
The idea for the meeting was discussed in a telephone call recorded by the FBI on Sept. 14, 1993. A day earlier, Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin shared an uneasy handshake on the White House lawn. That paved the way for the Palestinian Authority’s creation, and, it was hoped at the time, a path toward a more peaceful future.
On the telephone, three men discussed who should be invited to join them in a meeting to discuss what to do next. The call included Omar Ahmad (CAIR’s chairman emeritus), who at the time served at President of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP)(since shut down by the U.S. government), Shukri Abu Baker, President of the Holy Land Foundation and one of the defendants now on trial, and Abdelhaleem al-Ashqar, the Executive Director of a HAMAS-linked charity known as the Al Aqsa Educational Fund.
They discussed inviting people from the “Union,” a code reference to the IAP. They mentioned “Akram,” “Abdul Rahman” and “Nihad.” In 1993, Nihad Awad was the spokesman and public relations director for the IAP.
During that same telephone conversation, the men on the telephone call referred to Nihad's work in "media." Shukri Abu Bakr mentioned "a full article in Dallas Morning News...and every few lines: Mr. Nihad said this and that...." The Dallas Morning News did publish an article that day. It ran under the headline "Dallas' Mideast Observers Warn of Conflict Ahead." It extensively quoted "Nihad Awad, spokesman for the Dallas-based Islamic Association of Palestine." Counterterrorism Blog
Now, for another perspective, I turn to the Hoy Land Foundation Trial Blog whose two entries this week didn't mention one word about of the evidence presented in the trial such as the video shown on Monday of Hamas children being indoctrinated to hate Jews. Instead, the blogger ignores the trial and turns the issue around to make it all a Christian problem.
..."Anyone who believes that this (Christian domination) world-view is a fantasy has only to watch the advertising “trailer” for a movie called “Jesus Camp.” The children in this film (some as young as five years old) are being trained to do battle with Satan—a thin disguise for the Muslim world. Their teachers believe that they must be prepared to take Jerusalem by force in order to usher in the Reign of Jesus.
And why are people who have this world-view (some estimates say there are 80 million of them in the United States) not questioned, not investigated for their loyalty to this country, not wire-tapped and followed around for years to catch them in some kind of offense against our country? It might be because they have friends in high places."
This blogger's failure to report on the evidence presented this week is not only dishonest but it's also weird. In his profile he claims he is a Christian and a college professor. Ok.
Thanks to the quick work of Hotair I got wind of an attempt by the Council of American Islamic Relations to stop a speech. They want to stop a program at the Young American Foundation called "The Truth about the Council of American Islamic Relations" with featured speaker, Robert Spencer, whose Jihad Watch pretty much tells it like it is regarding conservative or formal or fundamental or traditional or literal or orthodox, or, in other words, the actual theological foundations of Islam.
"The texts of Islamic jurisprudence say it is incumbent upon the Islamic community to wage war against non-Muslims until they submit or convert," Spencer said during a lecture given to the Heritage Foundation last November. "This concept is shared by all the schools of Islamic j