- The Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development
(HLF) was the largest American Muslim charity until the Bush administration
falsely declared it an enemy of the state and shut it down.
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- On December 4, 2001, the Treasury Department declared
HLF a terrorist group, froze its assets, and falsely claimed they were
being used to funnel millions of dollars to Hamas. HLF appealed at the
time but in court was denied.
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- On January 25, 1995, Bill Clinton issued Executive Order
12947 - Prohibiting Transactions With Terrorists Who Threaten To Disrupt
the Middle East Peace Process. The same year Hamas was declared a Foreign
Terrorist Organization (FTO). It's still one today, so any individual
or group charged with providing it material support (true or false) becomes
a convenient target for prosecution.
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- Post-9/11, many have been, and HLF is one. For the Department
of Justice (DOJ), a big one because of their prominent charitable activities.
Shut it down and chill out all others while at the same time providing
open-ended billions for Israeli state terrorism as a partner in its commission.
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- Background on HLF
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- Until shut down, it was the largest Muslim charity in
America, founded in 1989 in Culver City, CA and thereafter based in Richardson,
TX. Its work was to provide vital relief to Palestinian refugees in Occupied
Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan as well as aid for the needy in various
other countries, including Bosnia, Albania, Chechnya, Turkey and America.
With an annual budget of about $14 million, it "provided continuous
volunteering and services in the Dallas-Fort Worth area."
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- Its major activities included:
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- -- financial aid to needy and impoverished families;
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- -- a sponsorship program for orphaned children;
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- -- various social services;
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- -- educational services;
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- -- medical and other emergency work; and
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- -- community development, including help to rebuild Palestinian
homes on their own land in their own country that Israel destroyed in
violation of international law.
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- The Indictment
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- On July 27, 2004, a DOJ indictment came down and an accompanying
press release headlined: "HOLY LAND FOUNDATION, LEADERS, ACCUSED
OF PROVIDING MATERIAL SUPPORT TO HAMAS TERRORIST ORGANIZATION."
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- It alleged the HLF "was an organization created
by" defendants Shukri Abu-Baker (HLF president and CEO), Mohammad
el-Mezain (California office director), Ghassan Elashi (HLF chairman),
Haitham Maghawri, Akram Mishal, Mufid Abdulqader and Abrulraham Odeh
(New Jersey office director) "to provide financial and material support
to the HAMAS movement. It is also alledged that, since 1995, HLF and its
members have illegally sent $12.4 million to support HAMAS and its goal
of creating an Islamic Palestinian state by eliminating the State of Israel
through violent jihad."
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- The 42-count indictment also charged the defendants "with
engaging in prohibited financial transactions with a Specially Designated
Global Terrorist, money laundering, conspiracy, and filing false tax
returns."
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- It further stated that charges resulted from a three-year
investigation by "the Joint Terrorism Task Force, involving agents
from federal, state, and local agencies including: the FBI, IRS, BICE
(Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement), Department of State,
Secret Service, US Army CID (Criminal Investigation Command), the Texas
Department of Public Safety," and various Texas police departments,
including Dallas.
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- The DOJ got a Dallas grand jury to indict HLF, its directors
and fundraisers even though they have no more connection to terrorism
than do other innocent Muslims who've been targeted for their faith,
ethnicity, activism, and in HLF's case its notable charitable work.
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- Incredibly but not surprisingly in an age of over-hyped
terror threats, the indictment accused HLF of sponsoring orphans and needy
West Bank and Gaza families. It stated:
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- "While the program was mantled with a benevolent
appearance, HLF specifically sought orphans and families whose relatives
had died or were jailed as a result of furthering Hamas' violent campaign,
including suicide bombings. This type of support was critical to Hamas'
efforts to win the hearts and minds of the Palestinian people and to create
an infrastructure solidifying Hamas' presence."
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- It's enough to say that all the above charges are false,
misleading, and outrageous. For its part, HLF "den(ies) any ties
to Hamas and insist(s) that feeding Palestinian women and children is
not only legal, but a moral duty that no government has the right to
interfere with." It's the universal spirit of charity and the third
pillar of Islam, or zakat, to aid the poor with voluntary alms (a percentage
of income) or through a tithe on property.
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- Nonetheless, innocent, dedicated men now suffer grievously
for their "crime of compassion." HLF never funded, supported
or committed violence. It provided food, clothes, shelter, medical supplies
and education to desperately needy people in Occupied Palestine and elsewhere.
These are "crimes" for the Bush administration when it wants
"unworthy" recipients deprived of charitable aid.
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- HLF's Humanitarian Work
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- HLF's Freedom to Give (family members and friends of
the defendants) web site provides verifiable information about the organization
and its charitable work. With a picture of needy children on its home
page it asks: "Is it a crime to feed these children?" Indeed,
according to DOJ that wants it stopped and for so doing acts collaboratively
with Israel's multi-decades slow- motion genocide policy against the Palestinian
people.
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- For its part, HLF responds - "We gave:
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- -- books, not bombs;
- -- bread, not bullets;
- -- smiles, not scars;
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- -- toys, not tanks;
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- -- peace, not terror;
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- -- liberty, not poverty;
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- -- hope, not despair;
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- -- love, not hate; (and)
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- -- life, not death.
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- So we ask: If (over six decades of occupation) obviously
shatters lives, while charity builds them and charity feeds children,
while occupation kills them, why is a charity organization - not occupation
- paying the price?"
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- No matter, and on November 24, The New York Times (and
other media organizations) reported the disturbing news: "Five Convicted
in Terrorism Financing Trial."
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- After 15 years and two trials, "federal prosecutors
won sweeping convictions (today) against five leaders of a Muslim charity
in a retrial of the largest terrorism-financing case in the United States
since" 9/11.
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- The five defendants "were convicted on all 108 criminal
counts against them," and US Attorney Richard Roper was jubilant
in saying: "The jury's decision demonstrates that US citizens will
not tolerate those who provide financial support to terrorist organizations."
He neglected to explain how juries are pressured to convict innocent victims
by scaring them into doing it - a commonly used tactic against prominent
Muslims with many other innocent ones languishing unjustly in federal
prisons.
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- The jury reached its decision in less than nine days
(after seven weeks of testimony) unlike in the first trial last October
when federal judge A. Joe Fish declared a mistrial because jurors were
deadlocked on all 197 counts against four defendants after nearly two
months of testimony and 19 days of deliberation. The other defendant,
Mohammad El-Mezain, was acquitted on all but one charge.
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- At the time, Georgetown constitutional law professor
David Cole said the jury's verdict called into question the government's
tactics of freezing a charitable organization's assets, using secret
evidence unavailable to the defense, and when they "have to put (it)
on the table, they can't convict anyone of anything. It suggests the government
is really pushing beyond where the law justifies them going."
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- True enough then, but in the retrial, prosecutors again
pushed but changed their tactics enough to convict. The defendants can
be sentenced to 15 years for each count of supporting a terrorist organization
and 20 years for money laundering. They thus face a possible life sentence
- for doing noble work to help the needy and violating no laws doing it.
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- Nancy Hollander, representing Shukri Abu-Baker, said
the defendants will appeal based on a number of issues, including the
anonymous testimony of an expert, that she said was a first. "Our
clients were not even allowed to review their own statements because they
were classified - statements that they made over the course of many years
that the government (illegally) wiretapped. They were not allowed to go
back and review them. They were statements from alleged co-conspirators
that included handwritten notes. Nobody knew who wrote them; nobody knew
when they were written. There are a plethora of issues."
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- Ghassan Elashi's daughter, Noor, expressed shock at the
outcome and called it "a truly low point for the United States of
America." She added that family and friends won't rest until this
injustice is reversed.
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- The Hungry for Justice web site represents friends and
supporters of the accused, reported on both trials, and has extensive
information on the case. It and the Freedom to Give site together referred
to the November 24 verdict as follows:
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- "The lowest point on earth was not the shoreline
of the Dead Sea on Monday, November 24, 2008. Rather it was a federal
courthouse in Downtown Dallas. At around 3 p.m., the courtroom - where
the anticipated Holy Land Foundation retrial verdict was to take place
- filled up in fast forward. Family members, justice supporters and government
officials poured into the large room, sat on wooden benches and chatted
quietly with mixed emotions."
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- "Then silence" as the jury entered, handed
their verdict to Judge Jorge Solis, and he began reading...."Guilty.
Guilty. Guilty." Unfortunately, jurors were intimidated by "the
prosecution's fear- tactics and guilt-by-association," especially
against innocent Muslim victims of the "war on terrorism."
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- "The judge recessed briefly as the jury" decided
on whether the $12.4 million in charity to Palestinians should be "forfeited
to the government." After 30 minutes, they said "yes."
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- Federal prosecutors and FBI agents "smirked"
while most of the room was stunned and outraged at such a miscarriage
of justice. The defendants were then taken away and flashed peace signs
as they left, displaying their strength and pride for saving lives in
Occupied Palestine.
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- "Yet an aura of betrayal pervaded the room. Two
decades ago, they came to this country to escape such Israeli-influenced
persecutions, and now they" endured the same injustice in America.
They plan to appeal and believe "truth and justice will emerge triumphantly
from this gloomy low point in American history." It's a curse at
a bad time to be Muslim in America. When the noblest among them are victims
of injustice - prosecuted for their prominence, activism and charity.
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- On November 27, Thanksgiving day, one observer expressed
his feelings this way:
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- "Grateful to live in a country where bankers who
rape our entire economy receive 100s of billion of dollars in thanks while
humanitarians who feed starving children are sent to jail."
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- Timeline of the Case
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- In 1992, the government began tapping all HLF phones
and those of the defendants. It also bugged HLF offices and meeting rooms
with voice activated microphones. Thereafter, Muslim community members
throughout the country were interviewed, vast amounts of non- incriminating
information was obtained, and Washington shared it freely with Israel
and other foreign governments.
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- In January 1993, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) arrested
Muhammad Salah of Illinois. He was taken to (internal security) Shin Bet's
Ramallah facility where he was interrogated, tortured for 54 days, and
forced to sign false statements in Hebrew that he didn't understand.
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- In October 1993, the FBI bugged a Philadelphia conference
room where Arab-American intellectuals, including two HLF officials,
were gathered. Agents then claimed that attendees criticized the 1993
Oslo Accords and praised Hamas - two years before the government declared
it a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 1995.
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- Beginning in 1994, the Dallas Morning News and national
media began vilifying HLF and connecting it to terrorism, citing Israeli
intelligence as their source. In 1996, the Israeli government shut HLF's
office near Jerusalem, claiming it was used to fund Hamas.
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- In May 2000, Jewish-Americans Stanley and Joyce Boim
sued HLF, claiming a connection of its charitable work to their son's
death in the West Bank. In December 2001 in a Rose Garden press conference,
George Bush accused HLF of fronting for Hamas and announced he was shutting
its offices in Texas, California and New Jersey.
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- In July 2004, FBI agents arrested five HLF officials
at their homes, four of whom were subsequently convicted. In November
2004, a federal grand jury awarded the Boim family $52 million, and a
US magistrate ruled triple damages amounting to $156 million. HLF attorneys
appealed the verdict.
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- In July 2007, the first HLF trial began. In October,
a mistrial was declared as explained above. In December, the Seventh US
Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the Boim ruling for failing to link
HLF to their son's death. In early September 2008, prosecutors simplified
their case by dropping various charges. On September 15, the retrial began
and played out to conviction as one of many (post-9/11) politically motivated
witch-hunt prosecutions against innocent targeted Muslims.
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- This and the first trial had an unprecedented twist.
In spite of strong defense objections, an anonymous Israeli intelligence
agent (identified as "Avi") was allowed to testify as an expert
witness - with no knowledge of who he is, his credibility if any, no fact-
checking on his claims, his obvious bias, and no accountability if he
lied under oath. It remains for the appeals court to rule on whether to
reverse the verdicts because of this, the use of secret "evidence"
unavailable to the defense, and other gross prosecution discrepancies.
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- Background Information on the Defendants
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- HLF Chairman Ghassan Elashi
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- He was born in Gaza City in 1953, lived there until age
14, and then in Cairo, Egypt where he graduated from Ain Shams University
in 1975 with a degree in accounting. After also living in Saudi Arabia
and London, he came to the US in 1978 and got a master's degree in accounting
at the University of Miami.
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- In 1985, he and his wife moved to Culver City, CA, lived
there for seven years and then moved to Richardson, TX in 1992. He worked
at a family-owned computer business and served as HLF chairman.
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- HLF president and CEO Shukri Abu-Baker
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- He was born in Brazil in 1959 and is of Palestinian and
Brazilian heritage. At age six, he and his family moved to Silwad, Palestine,
then to Kuwait in 1967 for about 10 years. He came to the US in 1980,
graduated from Orlando College, Florida with a degree in business administration,
and helped launch the first mosque in central Florida.
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- In 1982, he worked as an office manager for the Muslim
Arab Youth Association in Indianapolis, IN. In 1990, he and his family
moved to Culver City, CA, helped open HLF, then to Richardson in 1992.
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- HLF volunteer Mufid Abdulqader
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- He was born in Silwad, Palestine in 1959, then lived
for most of his youth in Kuwait. In 1980, he came to the US, lived briefly
in Irving, TX, then Claremore, OK and Stillwater where he attended and
received a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Oklahoma State
University in 1984 and a master's in 1994.
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- He then lived in Oklahoma City before moving to Richardson
in 1996 where he worked for the city of Dallas as a senior project manager
in the public works and transportation departments and as a HLF volunteer.
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- HLF's New Jersey office director Abdulrahman Odeh
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- He was born in Silwad, Palestine in 1959, then lived
in Kuwait for about 20 years before coming to the US in 1982. He graduated
from Montclair State College, NJ in 1989 with a degree in computer science.
He worked as a limo driver for three years and for his own vending business
for 10 years before opening HLF's New Jersey office. Besides providing
aid to Palestinians and others abroad, he opened a food pantry in Patterson,
NJ that served over 200 needy families. He also represented HLF in many
UN events in Egypt and Jordan.
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- HLF's California office director Mohammad El-Mezain
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- He was born in the Khan Yunus, Gaza refugee camp in 1953
and lived there until age 19. He then moved to Egypt in 1973 and graduated
from Al-Azhar University, Cairo with a degree in business. Before coming
to the US in 1983, he also lived in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the United
Arab Emirates. In 1985, he received a master's degree in economics from
Colorado State University. He then lived in New Jersey before moving to
San Diego in 1999. Besides his HLF work, he served earlier as an Imam
in Colorado and New Jersey.
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- A Final Comment
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- Post-9/11, Muslims have been the administration's main
"war on terrorism" victims. Many thousands have been mercilessly
hounded and targeted through mass witch-hunt roundups, detentions, deportations
and prosecutions. Many now languish unjustly in federal prisons for the
crime of being Muslim at the wrong time in America. For their activism,
religion, ethnicity, prominence and in the case of HLF's officials their
charitable compassion for the desperately needy.
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- They now await sentencing and the results of their planned
appeal. The defendants and their attorneys are hopeful that the convictions
will be reversed - with good reason. These men aren't terrorists and
weren't accused of violence - only philanthropy to the wrong people, ones
America and Israel want oppressed, not helped.
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- Ghassan Elashi's daughter Noor speaks for many and asks
how can "the government....say that someone doing perfectly legal
humanitarian aid should be designated illegal for strictly political
reasons." It means anyone for any reason may be victimized the same
way at a time the "war on terrorism" trumps all legal protections
and isn't likely to change under a new administration not about to look
softer than the current one.
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- Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre
for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached
at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
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