This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3847

FBI Rejects CAIR- Will No Longer Meet With Hamas Mouthpiece

January 31, 2009

FBI Rejects CAIR - Will No Longer Meet With Hamas Mouthpiece

February 1, 2009 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - According to sources familiar with the matter, the Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR] has been dealt what could prove to be a mortal blow by the FBI [see, Mary Jacoby, "FBI Cuts Off CAIR Over Hamas Question," the Investigative Project, http://www.investigativeproject.org/article/985] forced it seems in the wake of the successful prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation [HLF], to re-evaluate its relationship with the terror friendly Hamas mouthpiece.

Last autumn, FBI field offices began notifying state CAIR chapters that bureau officials could no longer meet with them until CAIR's national leadership in Washington had addressed issues raised by the HLF trial, according to people with knowledge of the notifications.

Among the key elements in this decision were apparently the naming of CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator in the HLF case and CAIR's prominence in organizing demonstrations in support of Hamas during the recent Israeli actions against the terrorist group in Gaza. During these demonstrations, anti-Semitism was a prominent fixture.

Critics of the FBI's long and controversial relationship with CAIR have been pointing out for years, the incongruence of the nation's top law enforcement organization having any dealings with a group whose sole reason for existence was to serve as a public relations arm for Hamas.

CAIR's ties with HLF were intimate, to the extent that it was HLF funding - in the form of a $5,000 wire transfer - that was used to underwrite the group's Washington DC office [see, "The Muslim Response To The Holy Land Foundation Guilty Verdict," http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=hlfid=11.28.08%2Ehtm]. Of particular note, the group's founders had key roles in Hamas terrorist Mousa Marzook's Palestinian Committee.

"A North American branch of the Brotherhood supervised HLF, CAIR and other organizations to build political, financial and public relations support for Hamas, evidence at the HLF trial showed. The U.S.-based Brotherhood formed a Palestine Committee, headed by Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzook, in 1988 during the first intifada uprising in Palestinian territories against Israel. Hamas's stated policy is for the destruction of Israel. CAIR co-founders Ahmad and Awad were early active members of the Palestine Committee, evidence showed. Wiretaps recorded the two CAIR leaders participating in strategy meetings of the committee in the 1990s, and both were also on a phone list of its members, the evidence showed." [source, ibid]

While we commend the FBI on this welcome but belated move to sever its relationship with CAIR, there are questions which still need to be answered, among them why this decision took so long.

It was the FBI after all, which wire tapped the above referenced 1994 "Philadelphia meeting," a Hamas strategy session for all intents and purposes, and as a result had full knowledge of the degree to which CAIR and the Palestinian terrorist organization were linked and yet entered into these touchy-feely relationships with the group notwithstanding that in-depth understanding.

In the ensuing period of time, acting in full accord with the plan of internal subversion laid out by the Muslim Brotherhood [see, On the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America] to be used against the West, CAIR was allowed to use it relationship with the FBI as a means of establishing faux credibility and legitimacy which allowed it to work its way into other groups, buoyed by DOJ's imprimatur.

We believe that the FBI's [mirrored by other law enforcement organizations] poor judgment in the past regarding this matter has materially and negatively affected national security, as has its apparent current policy of backing out of these relationships with the terror friendly CAIR in secret and completely without fanfare.

From a certain perspective this is understandable; it certainly is embarrassing to have the nation' s top cops breaking bread with the enemy for so long, however it's another thing entirely to now attempt to paper over that mistake and not in a very public way explain why CAIR is a tainted organization and therefore not deserving of official recognition at any level.

Until that happens, this sad saga is a long way from over.

http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=cairid=2.1.09%2Ehtm

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IPT Exclusive: FBI Cuts Off CAIR Over Hamas Questions

By The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has cut off contacts with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) amid mounting concern about the Muslim advocacy group's roots in a Hamas-support network, the Investigative Project on Terrorism has learned.

The decision to end contacts with CAIR was made quietly last summer as federal prosecutors prepared for a second trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), an Islamic charity accused of providing money and political support to the terrorist group Hamas, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

CAIR and its chairman emeritus, Omar Ahmad, were named un-indicted co-conspirators in the HLF case. Both Ahmad and CAIR's current national executive director, Nihad Awad, were revealed on government wiretaps as having been active participants in early Hamas-related organizational meetings in the United States. During testimony, FBI agent Lara Burns described CAIR as a front organization.

Hamas is a US-designated foreign terrorist organization, and it's been illegal since 1995 to provide support to it within the United States.

The decision to end contacts with CAIR is a significant policy change for the FBI. For years, the FBI worked with the national organization and its state chapters to address Muslim community concerns about the potential for hate crimes and other civil liberty violations in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

But critics said the FBI improperly conferred legitimacy on CAIR by meeting with its officials, even as its own investigative files contained evidence of CAIR leaders' ties to Hamas.

Last autumn, FBI field offices began notifying state CAIR chapters that bureau officials could no longer meet with them until CAIR's national leadership in Washington had addressed issues raised by the HLF trial, according to people with knowledge of the notifications.

CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper declined to comment Wednesday when the IPT called for comment. Before hanging up, Hooper said "We're more than happy to cooperate with legitimate media. But we don't cooperate with those who promote anti-Muslim bigotry."

In one letter obtained by IPT News, James E. Finch, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Oklahoma City field office, canceled a meeting of the local Muslim Community Outreach Program, a state-federal program designed to enlist Muslims in terrorism prevention and investigate reports of civil liberties violations.

"Regrettably, due to circumstances beyond my control, the meeting will be postponed until further notice as a result of the planned participation by the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations," Finch's Oct. 8, 2008 letter to Muslim groups in the Oklahoma outreach program said.

To read the rest of this report, click here.

http://counterterrorismblog.org/2009/01/ipt_exclusive_fbi_cuts_off_cai.php

This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3847