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Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Council of American Islamic Relations Texas founder guilty of funding terrorism & ties to IAP - Hamas & Muslim Brotherhood

Council of American Islamic Relations Texas founder guilty of funding terrorism & ties to IAP - Hamas & Muslim Brotherhood

Another CAIR leader convicted :Ghassan ,Basman, and Bayan Elashi ' terrorist money men' convicted on 21 counts
May 4, 2005

MIM: For documentation see:www.4law.co.il/ infocom1.htm

MIM: The Council of American Islamic Relations ( a Saudi funded front group for Hamas), continues to live up to the appellation of the Council of Anti American Islamist Radicals. Ghassan Elayashi will join the list of CAIR employees who have been convicted on terrorism charges which includes CAIR communicatons director Ismail Randall Royer, and Bassam Khafagi . CAIR board member Siraj Wahhaj is an unindicted co conspirator in the 1993 WTC bombings . In 2003 CAIR directors Omar Ahmad and Nihad Awad were subpoened to testify in front of a 2003 Senate Commission led by Senator Kyl to testify regarding charges that CAIR has supported Hamas and had a 'soft spot for suicide bombings'.

In CAIR's Islamofacist weltaanshaaung there is no such thing as Islamist terrorism - since any terrorist actions Muslims take against the West are considered to be the expression of the Islamic imperative to dominate the world through Jihad .

"...On April 13, 2005, Ghassan Elashi, founder of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations - Texas (CAIR - Texas) chapter, long-time
associate of CAIR's top leadership, and beneficiary of CAIR fund-raising
support, was convicted on Islamic terrorism related charges in Dallas,
Texas..."

(http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2c2933%2c153402%2c00.html)
(http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/infocom/uselashi121702sind.pdf)

"...It's not the first conviction for Ghassan Elashi.

As chairman of the Holy Land Foundation charity in Dallas, Elashi was convicted last year of making illegal technology shipments to two countries on the U.S. list of terrorist-sponsoring states, Libya and Syria. Four brothers, including Bayan and Basman, also were convicted.

Other CAIR figures convicted since 9-11 are Randall Todd "Ismail" Royer, a former communications specialist and civil rights coordinator, and Bassem Khafagi, former director of community relations.

Royer was sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges he trained in Virginia for holy war against the United States and sent several members to Pakistan to join Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Kashmiri terrorist group with reported ties to al-Qaida.

In a plea bargain, Royer claimed he never intended to hurt anyone but admitted he organized the holy warriors after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S.

After his arrest, Royer sought legal counsel from Hamas lawyer Stanley Cohen, who said after 9-11 he would consider serving as a defense lawyer for Osama bin Laden if the al-Qaida leader were captured.

Khafagi, was arrested in January 2003 while serving with CAIR and convicted on fraud and terrorism charges.

Current CAIR leaders also have made statements in support of Hamas and the domination of the U.S. by Islam.

As WorldNetDaily reported, CAIR's chairman of the board, Omar Ahmad, was cited by a California newspaper in 1998 declaring the Quran should be America's highest authority.

He also was reported to have said Islam is not in America to be equal to any other religion but to be dominant. http://worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43805

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Founding board member of Texas CAIR funded Hamas

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43805

A founder of the Texas chapter of a highly influential U.S. Islamic lobby group was found guilty of supporting terrorism.

Ghassan Elashi, along with two brothers, was convicted in Dallas yesterday of channeling funds to a high-ranking official of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, Mousa Abu Marzook.

Elashi was a board member of the Texas chapter of the Washington, D.C.-based Council on American Islamic Relations -- the third CAIR figure to be convicted on federal terrorism charges since 9-11.

CAIR is a spin-off of the Richardson, Texas-based Islamic Association For Palestine, or IAP, which was founded by Marzook.

Former FBI counterterrorism chief Oliver Revell has called the IAF "a front organization for Hamas that engages in propaganda for Islamic militants."

Prosecutors said Ghassan Elashi, with brothers Bayan and Basman, tried to hide a $250,000 investment by Marzook in their Richardson, Texas, computer company, then funneled payments to Marzook in return.

Marzook, deputy chief of Hamas' political bureau in Syria, founded the IAP in 1991. At its conferences in the U.S., the IAP hosted leaders of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. Marzook was deported in 1997.

Ghassan Elashi, Bayan Elashi and their company were found guilty of all 21 federal counts: conspiracy, money laundering and dealing in property of a terrorist, the Associated Press reported.

The AP did not mention Ghassan Elashi's role with CAIR, however.

Each count carries a maximum 10 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled Aug. 1.

Facing the same 21 counts, Basman Elashi was convicted of three counts of conspiracy but acquitted of the other charges.

Ghassan Elashi did not comment on the conviction, but lawyer Tim Evans said, according to the AP, "It's hard times for people of Middle Eastern descent."

Michael P. Gibson, vowing an appeal, said, "There is no evidence that money ever funded any terrorism. This is not a terrorism case, it's a financial crimes case."

When the Elashis were indicted in 2002, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft called them "terrorist money men."

It's not the first conviction for Ghassan Elashi.

As chairman of the Holy Land Foundation charity in Dallas, Elashi was convicted last year of making illegal technology shipments to two countries on the U.S. list of terrorist-sponsoring states, Libya and Syria. Four brothers, including Bayan and Basman, also were convicted.

Other CAIR figures convicted since 9-11 are Randall Todd "Ismail" Royer, a former communications specialist and civil rights coordinator, and Bassem Khafagi, former director of community relations.

Royer was sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges he trained in Virginia for holy war against the United States and sent several members to Pakistan to join Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Kashmiri terrorist group with reported ties to al-Qaida.

In a plea bargain, Royer claimed he never intended to hurt anyone but admitted he organized the holy warriors after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S.

After his arrest, Royer sought legal counsel from Hamas lawyer Stanley Cohen, who said after 9-11 he would consider serving as a defense lawyer for Osama bin Laden if the al-Qaida leader were captured.

Khafagi, was arrested in January 2003 while serving with CAIR and convicted on fraud and terrorism charges.

Current CAIR leaders also have made statements in support of Hamas and the domination of the U.S. by Islam.

As WorldNetDaily reported, CAIR's chairman of the board, Omar Ahmad, was cited by a California newspaper in 1998 declaring the Quran should be America's highest authority.

He also was reported to have said Islam is not in America to be equal to any other religion but to be dominant.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,153402,00.html

Brothers Found Guilty of Funding Hamas

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

DALLAS — Three Dallas-area brothers were found guilty Wednesday of supporting terrorism by funneling money to a high-ranking official in the militant Palestinian group Hamas (search).

The case was one of the government's highest-profile terrorism prosecutions. The 2002 indictment was announced personally by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft (search), who called the defendants "terrorist money men" for Hamas.

Ghassan, Basman and Bayan Elashi (search) were tried on 21 counts of conspiracy, money laundering and dealing in property of a terrorist. Jurors had begun deliberating Wednesday morning after nearly two weeks of testimony.

Ghassan and Bayan Elashi and their company were found guilty on all 21 counts. Basman Elashi was found guilty on three counts.

Prosecutors said the men tried to hide a $250,000 investment by the Hamas official in their Richardson computer company by making it look as if it came from his wife. In court papers, prosecutors listed about $270,000 in payments from the company to Mousa Abu Marzook (search) and his wife.

Marzook lived in Louisiana and Virginia until 1995, when the federal government named him a terrorist, which made it illegal for anyone in the United States to have financial dealings with him. Marzook was deported and is believed to be living in Syria.

Prosecutors said the Elashis' computer company, InfoCom Corp., continued to make payments to Marzook's wife into 2001.

Prosecutors presented evidence from wiretapped conversations, financial documents and InfoCom employees that they said showed the Elashis were dealing with Marzook and not his wife.

In closing arguments Tuesday, attorneys for the Elashis said prosecutors had failed to prove that the men broke any laws.

Defense attorneys said Marzook's wife — Nadia Elashi, a cousin of the defendants — controlled the $250,000 invested in InfoCom. They said she used the payments she received in return to cover living expenses, not support terrorism.

The Elashis' lawyers also said government officials know about the arrangment between InfoCom and the Marzooks for several years but took no action to stop it.

Marzook and his wife were named in the same indictment as the Elashis but have not been captured.

The three Elashis plus two of their brothers were convicted last year on separate charges of making illegal technology shipments to Libya and Syria, countries that the U.S. government considered state sponsors of terrorism. All five are awaiting sentencing.

The Elashis were also active in Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a Muslim charity that was shut down in 2001 after the government accused it of funneling more than $12 million to Hamas.

Holy Land is expected to go on trial early next year.

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,153402,00.html

Men to Be Tried on Hamas Terror Charges

Sunday, June 06, 2004

DALLAS — Five brothers whose computer company did business in the Middle East are scheduled to go on trial this week on charges that they made illegal shipments of computer equipment to countries that support terrorism and tried to cover up the deals.

The trial in federal district court in Dallas, however, will not include the most explosive charges in the original indictment — that the men funneled money to the terrorist group Hamas (search).

The men, all Palestinian-born brothers, are expected to stand trial on the Hamas-related charges this fall.

The case drew enough attention in the aftermath of the September 2001 terror attacks that Attorney General John Ashcroft took the unusual step of personally announcing the indictments.

The men — Ghassan Elashi, Bayan Elashi, Basman Elashi, Hazim Elashi and Ihsan Elashyi — ran a company called InfoCom Corp (search)., which sold computer equipment and hosted Web sites for groups in the Middle East. The company is also a defendant.

Prospective jurors have been called to Judge Sam A. Lindsay's courtroom Monday morning to fill out questionnaires, then will face questioning by lawyers for both sides on Tuesday — a process more often seen in capital-murder cases.

Opening arguments are expected Wednesday, and the trial on up to 25 criminal counts is expected to last two to three weeks.

Through one of their attorneys, the Elashi brothers declined to comment but have maintained their innocence. They have said they were singled out because they helped run a Texas-based charity that gave money to Palestinians, including, authorities say, the wives and children of suicide bombers.

Ghassan Elashi was chairman of the self-described Muslim charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. The organization was closed and its assets seized in December 2001 after the Treasury Department accused it of being a Hamas front.

Authorities raided InfoCom on Sept. 5, 2001 and later charged that the Elashis used the Richardson company to make illegal shipments of computers and computer parts to Syria and Libya, which the government has designated state sponsors of terrorism, from 1997 to 2000.

InfoCom lacked licenses to ship technology to Libya or Syria, and a shipment to Libya was routed through Malta to hide its final destination, prosecutors charged.

Tim Evans, lawyer for Ghassan Elashi, objected to a criminal trial on charges of shipping and export violations. He suggested that large companies accused of such violations merely pay a fine instead of facing criminal prosecution.

"Unfortunately, many members of our government have chosen to twist, spin and exaggerate facts to claim victories in what they describe as the war on terrorism," Evans said in a statement. "Attorney General John Ashcroft, himself, conducted the press release on this indictment, need I say more?"

James T. Jacks, the lead prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Dallas, declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the Commerce Department said criminal charges were filed partly because of the Elashis' alleged ties to Hamas.

Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, said export violations are usually handled as a civil case and that the Justice Department filed criminal charges to ensure a conviction even if a jury acquitted the Elashis on the charge of funneling money to Hamas.

To win on the export-violation charges, the Elashis' lawyers may have to prove they were unfairly singled out for prosecution — a difficult task — Turley said.

"This is a signature prosecution for the Ashcroft Justice Department," Turley said. "The case seems to be a continuation of a no-holds-barred prosecution against the Holy Land Foundation and anyone connected to the foundation."

Holy Land Foundation was located across the street from InfoCom in a rundown business park in suburban Richardson. The group appealed the government seizure of its assets to the U.S. Supreme Court, which rejected the case.

The government also shut down two other U.S.-based Muslim groups that it accused of funneling money to terrorists.

The original indictment against the Elashi brothers charged that they funneled more than $100,000 to Mousa Abu Marzook (search), an admitted Hamas member. Marzook had invested $250,000 in InfoCom in the early 1990s in exchange for 40 percent of the company's profits and to hide his assets, authorities charged.

The U.S. government had designated Marzook a terrorist in 1995, making transactions with him illegal.

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,73339,00.html

Feds Indict Seven in Dallas-Area Terror Probe

Thursday, December 19, 2002

WASHINGTON — The government, stepping up efforts to choke the flow of money to suspected terrorist organizations, announced the indictments Wednesday of seven people in Texas and the arrests of seven others in Michigan. All are suspected of channeling funds to Arab countries that the U.S. government says are terrorist havens.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said federal officials are targeting those who finance terrorism as much as those who carry out attacks.

"Just as we will prosecute the terrorists who plant the bomb, we will prosecute the terrorist supporters who write the check," Ashcroft said at a news conference.

A 33-count indictment unsealed in Dallas charged four brothers with money laundering and selling computer equipment to Syria and Libya, two countries the United States says are state sponsors of terrorism. All four have been arrested.

The indictment also names a fifth brother, already in custody, as well as Mousa Abu Marzook, a leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, and his wife, Nadia Elashi, a cousin of the five brothers.

U.S. Customs Service agents, meanwhile. raided several businesses and homes in Dearborn, Mich., and arrested seven people. Officials said the people and businesses were involved in illegal money transfers that sent as much as $50 million a year to Yemen, a hotbed for al-Qaida and other Muslin extremists.

A day earlier, three men in Lackawanna, N.Y., were arrested and charged with sending more than $480,000 to Yemen without a license to operate a money-transferring business. The three — Mohamed Albanna, Ali Albanna, and Ali Elbaneh — were released on bail Wednesday. They are relatives of Jaber Elbaneh, accused of belonging to an al-Qaida terror cell in Lackawanna.

Justice Department officials said the arrests over the past two days were not connected, but were part of an effort by government law enforcement agencies to cut off terrorist financing.

"The war against terrorism is a war of accountants and auditors, as well as a war of weaponry and soldiers," Ashcroft said.

A Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, criticized the arrests.

"We consider this part of the ongoing war against Islam and the Islamic institutions across the world," the official said. "There are some elements in the American administration who are trying very hard to harm the image of Islam and to link it with so-called terror, which is not true, because Islam is a religion of tolerance."

The Texas case involved a company in a Dallas suburb, Infocom Corp., for which all five brothers work. The company accepted a $250,000 investment from Marzook, who was deported in 1995 after the federal government designated him a terrorist, and made payments to Marzook's wife, according to the indictment. Both are out of the country. Marzook is believed to be in Syria.

Those arrested were Bayan Elashi, Ghassan Elashi, Basman Elashi and Hazim Elashi. The fifth brother, Ihsan Elashyi, already is in custody on charges of illegally exporting computer goods to the Middle East. If convicted, they each face up to 45 years in prison and $7.2 million in fines.

Ghassan Elashi, the company's vice president for marketing, headed the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. The foundation's assets were frozen by the Treasury Department in December 2001 on the grounds that it allegedly funneled money to terrorists. FBI investigators concluded that Holy Land leaders were Hamas members and the charity was the primary U.S. fund-raising organ for the terrorist group.

Ashcroft said Infocom was in the same office park and shared some of the same employees as the Holy Land Foundation.

In Michigan, authorities arrested Mohammed Aidaros Abdulla, David Nasser Ali, Foiad H. Mohamad, Gamil Manea-Ahmed Al-Najar, Hussein A. Mohamed and Abdulla H. Mohamad. The seventh individual arrested is an unidentified Immigration and Naturalization Service employee who officials say had overstayed his visa.

Customs agents seized records and computers from some of the businesses, which included convenience stores, service stations and restaurants. In addition, seizure warrants have been issued for records from banks in the Detroit area and Toledo, Ohio.

The Michigan and Lonyo Service Center was one of the businesses raided. It's owned by Ali and Kalid Kaid, who said it's a common practice in the Yemeni community to send money to relatives in their native country.

He was skeptical of the government's claim. "We really question the amount of money that the government is talking about," Kaid said.

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http://www.siteinstitute.org/bin/articles.cgi?ID=news1902&Category=news&Subcategory=0

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Man in 'dirty bomb' case tied to Holy Land charity figure
Richardson group's lawyer warns against linking group, suspect

06/14/2002

Los Angeles Times

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Jose Padilla, the American accused of plotting with al-Qaeda to set off a radiation-dispersal bomb, attended a Florida mosque whose spiritual leader worked for a Richardson-based Islamic charity suspected of helping finance terrorism, Muslim leaders in Florida said Thursday.

During the 1990s, when he lived in Florida, Mr. Padilla attended Al-Iman Mosque in Fort Lauderdale while Raed M. Awad was the imam, members of the South Florida Islamic community said.

Mr. Awad, a 42-year-old Palestinian immigrant, was the chief fund-raiser in Florida for the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, whose premises were raided and assets frozen by the U.S. government in December.

The government charged, after a year-long investigation, that Holy Land gave money to Hamas, a group that has claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks in Israel.

The charity has denied any connection with terrorism and filed a federal lawsuit demanding that the millions of dollars in donations seized by government agents be released.

Mr. Padilla, 31, also took classes on the Quran and precepts of the Islamic faith at the Darul Uloom Institute, an Islamic studies center in Pembroke Pines, Fla.

The center's principal, Maulana Shafayat Mohamed, said the young convert might have been pushed toward a more intolerant strain of Islam through contacts with Arab Muslims.

Holy Land's view


Mr. Awad, who relatives said has left Florida, collected money for Holy Land from as far away as the Caribbean and Latin America. In a newspaper interview, he denied that the foundation's chief officers were ever involved with Hamas.

"The FBI has been investigating this organization since 1992, and every time, they've come up with nothing," Mr. Awad told the Orlando Sentinel in December.

John Boyd, a lawyer for Holy Land, cautioned against linking the charity and Mr. Padilla.

"I don't know anything about this other than what I've heard from the press, but I find it hard to believe that people would jump to this sort of conclusion based on these assertions," Mr. Boyd said Thursday.

Mr. Awad's relatives said that he led the prayers at Al-Iman for four or five years, then left about a year ago and no longer lives with the family in Fort Lauderdale. The current imam, Rafiq Mahdi, said he succeeded Mr. Awad in 2000.

Mr. Padilla, also known as Abdullah al-Muhajir, is under arrest in a U.S. Navy brig, accused of plotting to detonate a "dirty bomb" capable of spewing radiation across an American city.

For a few months between 1995 and 1997, Mr. Padilla attended Saturday religious classes at Darul Uloom, headed by Mr. Mohamed.

"The only unusual thing about him was the way he dressed, and he was very quiet," the principal said. He affected a red head scarf "like Yasser Arafat wears," Mr. Mohamed said.

"Nobody else wears this," added the clergyman. "Even Arabs who come here don't wear it."

No military tribunal


Mr. Padilla's legal status has been unclear, but the Justice Department told lawmakers Thursday that Mr. Padilla will not be brought before a military tribunal, according to congressional and Bush administration officials.

At a closed meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Justice Department officials said the United States can hold Mr. Padilla until President Bush decides the war against terrorism is over.

"They say it's not punitive, it's just purely prevention to stop him from attacking us," said one congressional official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "He's going to stay in the can until we're through with al-Qaeda."

Government officials told lawmakers that previous court cases, including a 1942 Supreme Court case, show that U.S. citizens can qualify as "enemy combatants" and be held without trial.

Meanwhile, Pakistan officials said Thursday that Mr. Padilla went to a Central Asian country in search of radioactive components before returning to the United States.

But a U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the United States has no information that Mr. Padilla traveled to another Central Asian country this year in search of the components.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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