Holy Land Foundation defendants guilty on all counts

[roo_ster]

Finally bagged some of the jihadi-financiers in Richardson.

They are just some of the jihadi-huggers that need to be nailed here'bouts, but it is a start.

Holy Land Foundation defendants guilty on all counts

06:55 AM CST on Tuesday, November 25, 2008

By JASON TRAHAN and TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News
jtrahan@dallasnews.com; teiserer@dallasnews.com

After more than 15 years of investigation and two trials, the Holy Land Foundation and five of its former organizers were found guilty of illegally funneling more than $12 million to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

The verdicts by a Dallas federal jury are a significant victory for the Justice Department, which streamlined its case after a mistrial last year and worked hard to carefully educate jurors on the complex evidence presented in the massive case.

Guilty verdicts were read on 108 separate charges.

The verdicts are a major triumph for the outgoing administration of President George W. Bush, whose efforts at fighting terrorism financing have been troubled. Two other similar high-profile prosecutions targeting supporters of Palestinian militants have ended in acquittals, deadlocked juries or convictions on lesser charges.

"Today's verdicts are important milestones in America's efforts against financiers of terrorism," Patrick Rowan, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a prepared statement.

"This prosecution demonstrates our resolve to ensure that humanitarian relief efforts are not used as a mechanism to disguise and enable support for terrorist groups."

Peter Margulies, a Roger Williams University law professor who studies terrorism financing cases, said, "The government showed in a streamlined case that where special assistance to the families of terrorists is concerned, cash is the moral equivalent of a car bomb."

The jury also said Holy Land should forfeit $12.4 million because of several money-laundering convictions in the case. Prosecutors said the government probably will end up with about $5 million in Holy Land money frozen by federal authorities in 2001.

Monday's verdicts capped the government's second attempt to convict the men and the now-defunct Richardson-based Holy Land Foundation itself. It took the jury eight days of deliberations to reach its decisions – less than half the time it took jurors to end up with an almost complete mistrial last year.
Also Online


"It's a sad day," said Mohammed Wafa Yaish, Holy Land's former accountant and a defense witness. "It looks like helping the needy Palestinians is a crime these days."

Defense attorneys declined to comment but are already discussing plans for appeals.

Prosecutor Jim Jacks called his nearly decade-long involvement in the case, gratifying.

"My kids were in junior high when we started this case. They're out of college now," he said. "We had a strong case last year. This year, we refined the case. ... We had the benefit of being able to talk to the jurors after that first trial."

Opening statements at the Earle Cabell Federal Building in downtown Dallas began Sept. 22. Prosecutors used more than 500 pieces of evidence to prove five former charity organizers used Holy Land, once the largest Muslim charity in the U.S., to funnel almost $60 million to the militant group.

Hamas was designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. in 1995, and the trial centered on the $12 million the government said Holy Land and supporters funneled to the group after that date. Prosecutors say Holy Land was formed about the same time as Hamas in the late 1980s and early on was designated as its chief financier in America.

The conspiracy, prosecutors alleged, was overseen by the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egypt-based Islamist group that authorities say is the parent organization of Hamas.

Douglas Farah, a former Washington Post foreign correspondent who is now an author and terrorism expert, said the "trial provides an invaluable forum for publicly showing the true agenda of the international Muslim Brotherhood and its organizations in the United States – the abolition of the United States government as we know it and support for a designated terrorist organization."

Defense attorneys argued that the foundation was a legitimate charity that helped distressed Palestinians under Israeli occupation. They accused the government of bending to Israeli pressure and of relying on evidence predating the 1995 designation.

"The community sentiment ... was that this was a political trial trying to achieve a government policy," said Mohamed Elibiary, president of the Freedom and Justice Foundation, a Muslim group based in Plano.

"Most sense that this isn't over," he said, adding that many in the Muslim community are still offended by the government's list of more than 300 unindicted co-conspirators, which includes Muslim leaders and groups in the U.S.

"That list implicates most of the Muslim community in a wider conspiracy," he said.

The FBI's investigation of Holy Land began in 1993 and the charity was shut down by the government in December 2001. The first trial ended in a hung jury in October 2007.

Terrorism experts say Monday's verdicts demonstrate that complicated terrorism financing cases can be successfully prosecuted in American criminal courts. The verdicts also lend credibility to the Treasury Department's oft-criticized program of designating terrorist entities and freezing assets.

The verdict "sends a crystal-clear message that the United States will neither allow itself to serve as a cash cow for terrorist groups nor allow the charitable sector to be abused by groups financing terrorism under the cover of charity," said Matt Levitt, a Hamas expert and former high-ranking government intelligence official who testified in both trials.

But critics of the government noted that it took untold millions of taxpayer dollars, 15 years of investigation and two long trials to get guilty verdicts.

"Retrials tend to favor the prosecution," said Tom Melsheimer, a former federal prosecutor in Dallas now in private practice. "The government can figure out what worked and what didn't and streamline their presentation of the evidence. The defense, on the other hand, has already shown their cards.

"To spend millions of dollars in time and expenses to prosecute people who were of no real threat to anyone, under the banner of a terrorism case, is a waste of precious federal resources," he said.

Mark Briskman, regional director of the North Texas office of the Anti-Defamation League in Dallas, said funding terrorism in any form is a big threat to national security.

"By funneling millions of dollars to Hamas, this organization and its leaders believed that it could help those who resort to violence to support their cause," he said. "All Americans should thank the Justice Department for their aggressive and tenacious pursuit of this group and its leaders."

[roo_ster]

Palestinian Terrorists Found Guilty in Dallas: Justice At Last.

Posted By Phyllis Chesler On November 24, 2008 @ 5:42 pm In Uncategorized | 29 Comments

On the very day, November 24, 2008, that the United Nations spent all day and countless sums of money “mourning” the alleged [1] Palestinian catastrophe, a federal jury in Dallas found all five former officials of the Holy Land Foundation, guilty of having illegally raised money in the United States to assist the Palestinian terrorist group, Hamas, in its hot war against Israel.

According to terrorism expert, [2] Steven Emerson, the defendants, “Shukri Abu-Baker, Ghassan Elashi, Mohamed El-Mezain, Mufid Abdulqader and Abdelrahman Odeh, could face up to 20 years in prison for their convictions on conspiracy counts, including conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. The verdicts, read Monday afternoon, ended a two-year saga in what is considered the largest terror financing case since the 9/11 attacks.”

All five defendants are “Palestinians” and/or American citizens as well. Elyashi was born in Gaza; Abu-Baker moved to the “Palestinian territories” as a child; both Abdhulqader and Odeh were born in the West Bank; El-Mezain was born in Gaza. One wonders why five Palestinians chose to set up shop in Dallas, Texas?

Has Holy Land Foundation monies been going to widows and orphans? Well, maybe–but I would suggest, mainly to those whose sons and daughters have blown Israelis (as well as themselves) up. Maybe The Holy Land Foundation paid for the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit who still remains in captivity or for the murder of countless Israel civilians; maybe their monies paid for the Qasam rockets that Hamas has rained down upon civilians in Sderot and Ashkelon. Maybe it paid for most of the weapons shipped to Hamas by boat and by underground tunnel.

But, many people say, the Palestinians are starving refugees and it’s all Israel’s fault. No, I beg to differ: Palestinian suffering is primarily the fault of their own corrupt, terrorist leaders who have refused to allow Arabs who once considered themselves Egyptians, Syrians, or Jordanians to become citizens of those countries and who keep back all the monies and resources sent to the Palestinian people from abroad, including from the Israeli government, in order to show the world how cruel Israel is, and in order to both “grow” homicide-suicide killers, as well as to fund their relentless, endless terrorist war against Israel.

Why are the Palestinians still refugees? Why don’t they have their own state? Why are the people poor?

The answer: The Palestinian and Arab leaders have adamantly and consistently refused their own state from 1947 on to this very day. Their object is to exterminate the Jewish state, not to build their own state and to welcome their refugees.

Approximately 800,000 Jews from Arab countries were exiled and were immediately granted statehood in Israel. The United Nations did not have to fund a swelling number of stateless Jews nor did it fight for the return of the considerable property and wealth which was confiscated from the Jews by Arab Muslim dictators.

Maybe the Holy Land monies funded propaganda. Remember the Palestinian boy, Mohammed al-Dura, who supposedly died in his father’s arms? We now know that the Palestinians staged it, just as we know that Palestinian fighters, dressed as civilians, literally launch rockets from hospitals and school houses hoping, praying, that Israel will respond in self-defense and in so doing, kill Palestinian children.

The United Nations, the world media, human rights and campus groups would condemn and demonize Israel in a flash. That is why twenty three young Israeli soldiers entered Jenin on foot–a Jenin that was booby-trapped and in which Palestinian sharpshooters, (perhaps with Holy Land guns and ammunition), picked them off, one by one. Israel could have fought the battle of Jenin safely, from the air, but world public opinion has not allowed Israel the right to defend itself without being demonized as a “Nazi” occupier and aggressor.

According to M. Zuhdi Jasser, founder of the [3] American Islamic Forum for Democracy, prosecutors triumphed because they were able to “connect the ideology of political Islam and the overriding mission of Islamist organizations like the Holy Land Foundation to their desire to contribute to the efforts of terror groups, like Hamas. When this connection is made we will see the return of a guilty verdict. In future [terrorism financing] cases DOJ will not only have to connect the financial dots but [will have] to demonstrate an overarching common Islamist mission.”

The conspiracy is grand, great, and deep and involves both the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. All called for a “jihad to destroy Western civilization from within.”

Andrew McCarthy, who prosecuted the blind cleric Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and others for conspiring to blow up a series of New York landmarks, including the World Trade Center, had this to say about the decision in Dallas:

“This is one of the most significant victories the Justice Department has won in the war on terror. Financing is the life-blood of jihadist organizations like Hamas. With the assistance of willing co-conspirators, they conceal their activities and use the Muslim obligation of charitable giving to mask support that is actually channeled to their murderous agenda. Today’s verdicts say, loudly and clearly, that Americans aren’t fooled and won’t tolerate it. As a former federal prosecutor, I am especially proud of the assistant U.S. attorneys who persevered through some real travails in securing justice for the American people.”

My congratulations to the hard-working prosecutors. This is a day of victory for the rule of law over and against the rule of terrorism.

[Nitrogen]

ROCK. ON.

[Standing Wolf]

That list implicates most of the Muslim community in a wider conspiracy...

[sincerity] How shocking! [/sincerity]

Islam has been on a global crusade since Jimmy Carter demonstrated American cowardice following the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran. Like a single show of moral weakness, a single show of moral strength can have prodigious consequences.

[Zardozimo Oprah Bannedalas]

Glad to hear it. I can't help but wonder how many of the folks donating to this 'charity' knew exactly where their money was going.

[gunsmith]

HLF gave seed money to CAIR, hail Obama

[freedom lover]

I vote we let the Mossad spend some quality time with them. 

They seriously need to get beat down and put in jail for a long time. The only other option is killing them, and I would be perfectly happy if they did.

[Waitone]

It ain't over until the appeals are over.

[Azrael256]

I used to work next door to one of this group's community affiliates.  It's about a mile from Infocom's office.

Let's be totally clear.  These folks, including a large portion of the attendees of their affiliate, do not dispute giving money to Hamas.  There  is no way for them to escape that charge.  All that they dispute, and believe me when I say loudly, is that Hamas is a terrorist organization.

[Nitrogen]

I used to work next door to one of this group's community affiliates.  It's about a mile from Infocom's office.

Let's be totally clear.  These folks, including a large portion of the attendees of their affiliate, do not dispute giving money to Hamas.  There  is no way for them to escape that charge.  All that they dispute, and believe me when I say loudly, is that Hamas is a terrorist organization.

Hamas is the elected government over there.  It's still a terrorist organization, too.

If Osama Bin Laden was "elected" a leader somewhere, he'd still be a terrorist.  This is not hard to understand.

[De Selby]

Hamas is the elected government over there.  It's still a terrorist organization, too.

If Osama Bin Laden was "elected" a leader somewhere, he'd still be a terrorist.  This is not hard to understand.

The tricky part, and what got these folks, is that giving medical and food assistance to a hospital that is run by Hamas is material support for terrorism under the law.

Folks don't want to accept that they can't give food and medical aid in accordance with their moral beliefs, just because the organizations that will administer it are also engaged in terrorism.

But that isn't the law, so if you contribute any kind of aid to these groups, you go to jail.

[Nitrogen]

What's to guarantee that your "hospital" money won't go to buy bombs and weapons and stuff?

It'd be a smart front operation; not to mention immoral and possibly illegal under international law.  Also great propaganda (THEY SHUT DOWN YOUR HOSPITALS BECAUSE THEY HATE ISLAM!) but groups hellbent on the destruction of their enemies usually won't mind bending a few rules I guess.

[De Selby]

What's to guarantee that your "hospital" money won't go to buy bombs and weapons and stuff?

It'd be a smart front operation; not to mention immoral and possibly illegal under international law.  Also great propaganda (THEY SHUT DOWN YOUR HOSPITALS BECAUSE THEY HATE ISLAM!) but groups hellbent on the destruction of their enemies usually won't mind bending a few rules I guess.

There are mechanisms to guarantee that the money doesn't go to the arms-Hizbullah does it that way, and that's why they can get donations in Europe and other places.  So does Hamas.  There was no allegation that the Holy Land Foundation actually sent funds that supplied weapons directly.

It is actually illegal to send money purely for charity purposes, and that's what the HLF was convicted of.  That's also why so many "unindicted coconspirators" were named: because of the extent of the Hamas network, you're in dangerous legal territory giving any aid at all, of any form, to the Palestinian people via any network. 

The law is premised on the fungibility of money-if you send food to someone in Gaza that goes through a Hamas affiliated charity, that's one less meal that Hamas itself has to buy, and consequently, it can buy another bomb with its own money.  In other words, if you don't help the starving people that go to these charities, Hamas will have to help them more out of its own accounts.

My own opinion is that this law is unfair, and I don't think religious groups (or Congressmen who thought they were helping America, for that matter) should be penalized for giving help to feed and provide medicine to the impoverished.   I also think this opinion is responsible for many of the high profile acquittals and hung juries-it's hard for the government to convince people that giving food and medicine to poor people is a crime, no matter what the law is.

However...this is clearly the law, and I'm certain that these folks knew it.  Just because you think it's blatantly unfair doesn't make it any less the law.  So, you do the crime, you do the time-and I'm sure it will be a substantial number of years in the can these folks end up receiving.

[Perd Hapley]

Well, somebody might as well start the ball rolling.

Blah, blah, blah,  Hamas apologist...
 
Blah, blah, blah, CAIR representative...

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

i remember jars of cash in bronx bars with signs  "arms for the ira"   funny that