Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Law affirms FBI cutting ties to unindicted co-conspirator organizations


PJM Exclusive: New Law Cuts Ties Between FBI

and Terror-Tied Groups
Obama signs bill codifying and expanding existing, but frequently ignored,

ban on engaging groups and individuals named unindicted co-conspirators
in terror trials.

by Patrick Poole

When Barack Obama signed the continuing resolution this past weekend

averting another potential government shutdown, it’s doubtful that he was
aware that tucked into the bill, which funds several federal agencies through
the fiscal year and extends the continuing resolution for the rest of the
government until December 16, is a provision that may dramatically impact
what Islamic groups and leaders the FBI and other law enforcement agencies
can continue to work with.

Under Division B, Title II of the bill, under the Federal Bureau of Investigation

-Salaries and Expenses section, is the following provision:


Liaison partnerships- The conferees support the FBI’s policy
prohibiting any formal non-investigative cooperation with
unindicted co-conspirators in terrorism cases. The conferees
expect the FBI to insist on full compliance with this policy by
FBI field offices and to report to the Committees on 
Appropriations regarding any violation of the policy.

The most obvious group that this will impact is the Council on American-Islamic

Relations (CAIR), which was named unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land
Foundation case — the largest terrorism-finance trial in American history.
During the trial, FBI Dallas Agent Lara Burns testified that CAIR was a front for
the terrorist group Hamas.

Following the trial, which resulted in guilty verdicts on all counts and lengthy

prison terms for all five Holy Land executives, the FBI was forced to
cut ties with CAIR – a decision that CAIR claimed would hurt local communities
and that prompted other Muslim groups, like the Muslim Public Affairs Council
(MPAC), to threaten to stop cooperation with the FBI unless CAIR was
reinstated. In a February 2010 letter to members of Congress, Assistant
Attorney General Robert Weich forwarded evidence submitted by federal
prosecutors in the trial and court testimony concerning CAIR’s ties to the
Hamas-controlled Palestine Committee and that committee’s role in supporting
Hamas.

Stung by their loss of access to federal law enforcement agencies, some of the

Islamic organizations named as unindicted co-conspirators in the case
unsuccessfully sued to have their names removed from the list. In a 2009
unsealed decision by federal Judge Jorge Solis, the court found that the
government should have submitted the unindicted co-conspirators list under
seal, and ordered the list resealed (a hollow victory since the list is
readily available), but declined to remove the groups and individuals named.

In fact, in his decision Judge Solis recounted the evidence submitted by the

government that justified CAIR’s being named unindicted co-conspirator in
the case:

The Government identifies four portions of the record from the first trail

that purportedly established that CAIR was a “joint venturer and
co-conspirator”: (1) a Government exhibit showing the objective of the
Palestine Committee is to support Hamas; (2) a Government exhibit showing
CAIR founder Omar Ahmad is part of the Palestine Committee and Mousa
Abu Marzook is its head; (3) a Government exhibit listing CAIR as part of the
Palestine Committee; and (4) the testimony of Special Agent Lara Burns and
accompanying exhibits placing the CAIR founder at the 1993 Philadelphia
conference and describing the CAIR founder’s mediation of a dispute between
HLF and Ashqar over Hamas fundraising . (Resp. at 12-13.) The Government
does not mention any occasion where it used the 801(d)(2)(E) hearsay exception
to introduce a statement of CAIR. The four pieces of evidence the
government relies on, as discussed below, do create at least a prima
facie case as to CAIR’s involvement in a conspiracy to support
Hamas. (p. 6-7) (emphasis added)

But it wasn’t just CAIR among the unindicted co-conspirators that Solis focused

on, but also the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which bills itself as the
largest Muslim umbrella group in the country, and the North American Islamic
Trust (NAIT), which owns the property to more than one-quarter of all mosques
in North America. Solis wrote that the government had “produced ample evidence
to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA and NAIT with HLF, the Islamic
Association for Palestine (‘IAP’), and with Hamas.” He also wrote: “The Muslim
Brotherhood supervised the creation of the ‘Palestine Committee,’ which was put
in charge of other organizations, such as HLF, IAP, UASR, and ISNA.” And also:
“During the [1993 Philadelphia] conference, Palestine Committee members
discussed using ISNA as official cover for their activities.”

What impact this new legislation will have remains to be seen, but it is clearly

intended to roll back the Obama administration’s penchant for relying on groups
identified by government prosecutors as fronts for designated terrorist
organizations as partners for “outreach.”
(CONTINUE READING FULL ARTICLE HERE)

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