I decided to add occasional articles about the "War on Terrorism". This article is scary.
vj
from
http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=275267277682917&view=1
The Islamist Fifth Column In America
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 9/21/2007
Homeland Security: We've warned for years that an Islamist underground exists in this country, secretly working to take over the U.S. Now the mainstream media is waking up to the threat.
Yes, theirs is an ambitious plan. But the enemy lurking within is assiduous, patient and well-organized. We are only now starting to see its tentacles, thanks to a landmark federal terror-financing case under way in Dallas.
News about the secret Islamist plot against the U.S. is starting to trickle out from the few media covering the trial against the Holy Land Foundation, the largest Muslim charity in America.
It hasn't made the politically correct evening news yet. But the Associated Press has dared to quote from the chilling courtroom exhibits, and now the Dallas Morning News has weighed in with a lengthy feature story.
"Amid the mountain of evidence released in the trial, the most provocative has turned out to be a handful of previously classified evidence detailing Islamist extremists' ambitious plans for a U.S. takeover," the newspaper said.
"Terrorism researchers say the memos and audiotapes are proof that extremists have long sought to replace the Constitution with Sharia, or Islamic law."
One secret document outlines an anti-American cabal by the major Muslim groups in America — all of which are considered "mainstream" and "moderate" by the media and many pols, but in fact are U.S. franchises of the Muslim Brotherhood, a worldwide jihadist movement that gave rise to Hamas and al-Qaida.
The 1991 strategy paper for the Brotherhood, often referred to as the Ikhwan in Arabic, found in the Virginia home of an unindicted co-conspirator in the case, describes the group's long-term goal of destroying the U.S. system "from within" by using its freedoms and political processes against it.
"The Ikhwan must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions," it states.
This process, it adds, requires a "mastery of the art of 'coalitions,' the art of 'absorption' and the principles of 'cooperation.' " In other words, deception.
Unindicted co-conspirators in the case include groups that make up the very core of the Muslim establishment in America, groups that have been invited into the halls of power in Washington.
The terror-supporting, anti-American Islamist network in the U.S. that conspires against its host still exists. With the possible exception of the Holy Land Foundation, it has not been dismantled.
Thhese previously classified documents produced in the case are smoking-gun proof that there are traitors in our midst.
We are at war with Islamic terrorists and extremists. Those who sympathize with them must be exposed just as we exposed those American agents who sympathized with the Nazis during WWII.
Other than the religious aspect, there is little difference now vs. then. The First Amendment may protect freedom of religion, but it does not protect sedition. The U.S. government must draw the line there in dealing with Islamism in America.
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Here is another article excerpt based upon a link on Michell Malkin's website. Go to the link for the full, and LONG article of details.
http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/09/homeland_security_implications_1.html
September 18, 2007
Homeland Security Implications of the Holy Land Foundation Trial
By Joseph Myers
The on-going Holy Land Foundation trial has established important facts about the resident domestic Islamic jihad threat inside the United States. Although evidence brought forward in documents and testimony has explosive implications for US Homeland Security, the intelligence community, and every American citizen, relatively little media attention has been paid to it.
This information also has serious implications for professionals, military and civilian, involved in homeland security, DoD plans and strategy as well as national agency intelligence analysts and local law enforcement. The raw documents outlining the strategic goals and activities of the Muslim Brotherhood in America, now exposed for public view, are substantiating the concerns and information long raised by various private sector counterterrorism think-tanks, organizations and blogs such as Stephen Emerson's Investigative Project and Robert Spencer's Jihad Watch among others.
From an intelligence perspective, the first thing in assessing and evaluating these raw, translated documents is that they all passed sufficient legal scrutiny to be entered into evidence in a federal trial. Secondly, since these are raw, primary sourced documents of the Muslim Brotherhood and not secondarily sourced, they are the equivalent in a tactical or operational sense of key leadership defector, or detainee debriefing statements, or the capturing of the enemy's strategic campaign plan. Indeed the title of one document is "An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America." Third, the defendants did not challenge in court the authenticity or veracity of the evidentiary documents. All of which immediately speaks to both the credibility and reliability of these reports for intelligence analysis and exploitation.
Civilization Jihad and the Settlement Strategy
The Brotherhood's strategy memo, while published in May 1991, was drafted earlier, upon a
"...general strategic goal of the Group in America which was approved by the Shura Council and the Organizational Conference for the year [I987]."
In other words this strategy has already been operative for at least 20 years in America. The strategic objective of the Brotherhood in America is clear:
"The Ikhwan [The Muslim Brotherhood's name for itself] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah's religion is made victorious over all other religions."
The primary strategic concept to accomplish the Brotherhood's objective is "civilizational jihad," the usurpation and replacement of American Judeo-Christian and Western liberal social, political and religious foundations by Islam. The campaign plan is one of colonization, described by the Ikhwan as a "settlement strategy." Explaining this concept they describe it as establishing Islam in America as "stable," "rooted" and "enabled on which the Islamic structure is built and with which the testimony of civilization is achieved." Recognizing this strategy cannot be carried forward alone by the Brotherhood they recognized the strategy requires that, "They are then to work to employ, direct and unify Muslims' efforts and powers for this process. In order to do that, we must possess a mastery of the art of "coalitions", the art of "absorption" and the principles of "cooperation."
This strategic concept serves to accomplish the clandestine, conspiratorial and ultimate ends and grand strategy of the Ikhwan movement globally and was described this way in a recently published unclassified Pentagon analysis:
"The strategic goal of the Muslim Brotherhood in North America is multifold: the destruction of Western civilization through a long-term civilization-killing Jihad from within ("by their [our] hands") and through sabotage ("the hands of the believers") and, secondly; to support the global Islamic movement to establish an Islamic super-state, the caliphate."
The Brotherhood document notes it is their
"...conviction that the success of the settlement of Islam and its Movement in this country [America] is a success to the global Islamic Movement and true support for the sought after state [caliphate] God willing."
The re-establishment of the Islamic caliphate is likewise the same objective as al- Qaida's, only pursued along different yet reinforcing paths.
Networks, NGOs and Front Organizations
Their strategic concept is oriented on an "organizational" approach, toward building and developing organizations and networks that implement "civilizational jihad" in a gradual and efficient fashion. This organizational and structural approach is what "constitutes the heart and the core" of their strategy. Following the steady organizational development of Mohamed, beginning with the first mosque, and developed in the modern context by Hassan al-Banna, who resurrected militant Islam by establishing organizations of all types:
"economic, social, media, scouting, professional and even the military ones. We must say that we are in a country which understands no language other than the language of the organizations, and one which does not respect or give weight to any group without effective, functional and strong organizations."
A companion memorandum from the same period provides a shorthand history of the Brotherhood in America beginning in 1962, when the Ikhwan established its first Muslim Student Union which developed through programs of conferences and "camps."
In 1969 the Ikhwan established their separate leadership organization while retaining control and influence over the student unions. By the 1970s they began to establish affiliated "vocational" and professional organizations, including Muslim Doctors, Social Workers, and Science and Engineers syndicates. In the mid-70s the Muslim American Youth Association was established under the direction of the Brotherhood, coordinating Muslim youth coming to America from around the world. The Muslim Student Union in the 1980s transformed into the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). In 1981 they founded the Islamic Association of Palestine. That Association's work is directly tied to the Palestinian Intifada and the establishment and support of the Hamas terror organization [the root basis of the current trial] according to this document.
In testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in 2003, Richard Clarke said
"...the issue of terrorist financing in the United States is a fundamental example of the shared infrastructure levered by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and al Qaeda, all of which enjoy a significant degree of cooperation and coordination within our borders. The common link here is the extremist Muslim Brotherhood - all these organizations are descendants of the membership and ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood."
A third important document is a transcription of a tape-recorded address by Zeid al-Noman in the early 1980s in which he discusses various 5-year phases of the history of Brotherhood activity in America. According to the Investigative Project,
"If there are any questions about what sort of American jihad is envisioned by the Brotherhood, Zeid al-Noman (aka Zaid Naman) lays it out for us. Al-Noman (listed in the personal phone books of both convicted PIJ leader Sami al-Arian and Hamas deputy political bureau chief Musa Abu Marzook), was introduced as Masul or "official" of the Executive Office of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood before a speech he gave in the early 1980s on the Brotherhood in America somewhere in Missouri -- likely in Kansas City. In this fascinating speech, al-Noman explained the history of the Movement, going into detail about its roots in the Muslim Students Association (MSA) and the establishment of other front-organizations."
Rod Dreher of the Dallas Morning News, who has been covering the Holy Land Foundation trial, cites Husain Haqqani, the head of Boston University's Center for International Relations (and himself a former Islamic radical) whose testimony corroborates that the Muslim Brotherhood "has run most significant Muslim organizations in the U.S. as part of the plan outlined in the strategy paper." Dreher notes that the Brotherhood
"operates as a self-conscious revolutionary vanguard in the United States. The court documents indicate that many leading Muslim-American organizations -- including the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Muslim American Society -- are an integral part of the Brotherhood's efforts to wage jihad against America by nonviolent means."
However, analysts should also focus on the Q&A where Noman discusses various activities of the group. Noman clarifies that the term "special work" refers to "military work" and training as opposed to "securing work", which deals with safeguarding the organization from penetration and monitoring by US security agencies or law enforcement -- in other words, their own counterintelligence activities.
In terms of military training, Noman highlights a distinct advantage in America because "there is weapons training in many of the Ikhwan's camps" whereas in other countries that training would have to be conducted secretly or at great risk. It is likely that the Ikhwan in America has been and is conducting military training for contingencies in America, and to support Brotherhood activities in jihad combat in foreign lands. It should be inferred there are latent military capabilities in US Ikhwan organizations.
Another important concept of the Civilizational-Jihad is
"[u]understanding the role and the nature of work of ‘The Islamic Center' in every city with [how it] achieves the goal of the process of settlement."
According to the Brotherhood's strategic concept, Islamic religious and educational centers are what,
"[constitute] the "axis" of our Movement, the "perimeter" of the circle of our work.. .the ‘base' for our rise ... to educate us, prepare us and supply our battalions in addition to being the "niche" of our prayers."
The Centers constitute the hub "for a small Islamic society" which is a reflection and a mirror to our central organizations."
The Islamic center would serve the interests of all aspects of the Muslim community, at both the individual and family levels, and be
"a place for study, family, battalion, course, seminar, visit, sport, school, social club, women gathering, kindergarten for male and female youngsters, the office of the domestic political resolution, and the center for distributing our newspapers, magazines, books and our audio and visual tapes."
In other words, the Islamic Center serves as a settlement enclave for raising battalions of Muslims and
"...as much as we [the Muslim Brotherhood] own and direct these centers at the continent level, we can say we are marching successfully towards the settlement of Dawa' in this country."
Key Judgments on the Ikhwan in America
* The Muslim Brotherhood in America is a latent insurgency.
According to the new US counterinsurgency manual, FM 3-24, an insurgency is defined
"as an organized movement aimed at the overthrow of a constituted government through the use of subversion and armed conflict (JP 1-02)."
What the Brotherhood in America has explained to us, in somewhat lofty but stark terms, is clear. They exist in America to overthrow our American civilization, our Constitutional order and replace it with an Islamic civilizational model. As an individual "citizen" that sort of activity constitutes sedition. As an organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, its adherents and its enablers, should be considered part of a latent insurgency, engaging in protracted mobilization with clear potential of military capabilities.
Again FM 3-24:
"Stated another way, an insurgency is an organized, protracted politico-military struggle designed to weaken the control and legitimacy of an established government, occupying power, or other political authority while increasing insurgent control."
Their campaign plan describes the structure and organizations of its network, its subversive intent and reflects its political and colonization activism to "increase insurgent control."
* The Muslim Brotherhood and affiliated and derivative organizations should be considered a single entity for purposes of analysis and law enforcement.
The Muslim Brotherhood ideology and human network is the thread binding their macro organization together in terms of leadership and direction, while the affiliated and spin-off organizations serve as nodes and perform functional and specialized roles in line with the general strategic concept of building enclave Islamic communities and performing jihad-oriented tasks. Consider the way law enforcement treats organized crime. Individuals and subordinate organizations of known mafias are not viewed and treated as separate and independent entities of the mafia organization. Why should the Brotherhood be treated any differently?
* The Muslim Brotherhood's strategic information warfare program seeks to, shape, influence, transform and ultimately destroy America's foundations, in order to leverage and Islamize American global influence for the establishment of a restored caliphate.
In this colonization approach the "Dawa" [the strategic communication messages] of the Brotherhood, serves to influence both national and local American culture, society, policies, and programs, while proselytizing and growing their jihad community in support of the grand strategic objective of a restored caliphate.
* The Muslim Brotherhood meets the foreign intelligence threshold requirements of DoD Directive 5240.1-R, the "procedures governing the activities of DoD intelligence components that affect United States persons"
This executive branch directive allows for the collection and retention by DoD of foreign intelligence information on US persons defined as US citizens, green card holders or legal aliens with legitimate visas.
Intelligence "may be collected by a DoD intelligence component only if it is necessary to the conduct of a function assigned the collecting component...." DoD can collect information freely given by consent, information publicly available and information deemed to be "foreign intelligence" if the US person meets any of these "foreign intelligence" criteria:
"a. individuals reasonably believed to be officers or employees, or otherwise acting for or on behalf, of a foreign power; b. an organization reasonably believed to be owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by a foreign power; c. persons or organizations reasonably believed to be engaged or about to engage, in international terrorist or international narcotics activities."
In its own documents, the Ikhwan in America has defined itself as a hostile threat to the American constitutional order. It has identified itself as a "foreign agent" of the greater global jihad, and exists as part of the transnational "Ikhwan Movement." The Holy Land Foundation trial has established evidence of material support to terrorism by Brotherhood entities and ties to international terrorism, namely Hamas and likely other jihad terrorist organizations in the Middle East. Therefore, the Muslim Brotherhood in America meets all three criteria of DoD Directive 5240.1-R.
* The Muslim Brotherhood in America crosses the Law Enforcement Agency "criminal predicate" threshold for the purpose of intelligence-led policing.
The Muslim Brotherhood by virtue of its activities constitutes a current and continuing "threat to public safety." Law enforcement intelligence is a distinct category from national security intelligence. Law enforcement intelligence requires a "criminal predicate" or expectation of a violation of domestic laws commensurate with the protection of civil liberties. The Muslim Brotherhood as a latent insurgency, as part of the global jihad espousing the ideology of jihadism to destroy American civilization, with objectives overlapping al-Qaida's and a history of material support to terrorism, should be presumed to be a current and continuing criminal racketeering activity. They should be targeted just like the mafia.
Go to the link above to see the entire, long article.
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Here is some older background on the case from www.adl.org :
The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development RULE
The trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), a charity long suspected of supporting terrorists by funneling money to Hamas, and seven of its officials, has opened at a federal court in Dallas, Texas. The 42-count indictment, submitted by the U.S. Justice Department in 2004, accuses HLF and its top leaders of a conspiracy to provide aid to a terrorist organization and the families of suicide terrorists. The indictment also charges that HLF provided more than $12.4 million to individuals and organizations linked to Hamas between 1995 and 2001. The group raised a total of $57 million since its incorporation in 1992 but only reported $36.2 million to the IRS, according to the indictment. Two of the defendants were not present at the opening of the trial and are considered fugitives.
Background on the seven defendants follows:
Shukri Abu Baker: co-founder, president and chief executive officer.
* "Numerous FBI sources have identified Baker as being a member of Hamas," according to a memo drafted by former FBI counterterrorism director Dale L. Watson. Baker was introduced as the "senior vice president in Hamas" ("second only to Mohammed El Mezain" [see below]) at a 1994 Islamic Association of Palestine conference in Culver City, California, according to an informant cited in the memo.
* Baker was one of three HLF leaders who attended an October 1993 meeting in Philadelphia with Hamas activists. Those present discussed supporting Hamas in the United States through fundraising and political activity, according to the FBI, with emphasis on raising funds for injured and imprisoned Hamas activists, and families of Hamas activists.
* At least eleven trips by Hamas leaders to the U.S. were charged to two American Express accounts bearing Baker's name along with HLF 's, according to the FBI. (One account used HLF’s original name, the Occupied Land Fund.)
Ghassan Elashi: co-founder, chairman and former executive director.
* Elashi was one of three HLF leaders attending the Philadelphia meeting with Hamas activists in October 1993.
* On October 12, 2006 Elashi was sentenced to more than six years in prison for a separate case involving terrorism related charges. Elashi committed the offences through a Richardson-based computer company, InfoCom, which he ran together with several of his brothers who were also convicted for similar charges. On April 13, 2005 Elashi was convicted of 21 counts, including conspiracy, money laundering and dealing in terrorist property, for handling and trying to conceal an investment by senior Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook in InfoCom. On July 7 of the previous year Elashi was found guilty of illegally exporting goods to Syria and of money laundering, which was also done through InfoCom.
* One of the founders of the Islamic Association for Palestine.
* A founding board member of the Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
* Related by marriage to Hamas leader Musa Abu Marzuq.
Mohammed El-Mezain: former chairman, head of operations in California and "Director of Endowments."
* At the 1994 Islamic Association for Palestine conference in Culver City, Mezain stated that funds raised by HLF "were strictly dollars for Hamas," according to an informant cited in the Dale Watson FBI memo.
* Mezain told the audience at a Los Angeles Islamic conference in late 1994-early 1995 that he had raised $1.8 million for Hamas inside the United States in 1994, according to the FBI memo. The keynote speaker at the conference was Sheikh Muhammed Siyam, introduced as head of Hamas's military wing. Siyam told the crowd: "Finish off the Israelis. Kill them all. Exterminate them. No peace ever."
* While the group's chairman, Mezain "undertook a three-week fund-raising trip to Brazil and followed up on HLF activities there," according to the December 1993 issue of HLF's newsletter. (The New Yorker recently reported (2003) that "Hamas's chief fund-raiser in the Triple Frontier [of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay] is Ayman Ghotme, who collected funds for the HLF.")
* Cousin of Hamas leader Musa Abu Marzuq.
Mufid Abdulqater: Top fundraiser.
* Abdulqater was a project manager with the Dallas Public Works and Transportation Department and oversaw the construction of a neighborhood development project in Oak Hills, Texas, in 2001.
* He is the half brother of Khalid Mishal, a Hamas leader.
Abdulrahman Odeh: Director of HLF East (New Jersey)
* Odeh operated a food bank out of the organization's Paterson, New Jersey, office from February 1999 through December 2001. Odeh and HLF East were registered with the Passaic County Emergency Food Coalition and were active in food bank activities in South Paterson, Clifton and Prospect Park, New Jersey. HLF East remained a member of the Passaic Food Coalition for most of its existence, although it was suspended briefly in 2000. At its peak HLF’s food pantry was providing food to about 100 families.
* Several media accounts mention that Odeh's office wall was decorated with grisly photos of victims from the 1994 Hebron massacre, in which a radical Jewish settler opened fire in a mosque, killing 29. Odeh was also quoted in a July 2000 interview in Salon.com as saying that "some of the orphans that we are supporting are the children of Hamas martyrs." Similarly, the Bergen County (N.J.) Record reported that Odeh's office included a poster that declared that the city of Jerusalem "is a Muslim land."
Haitham Maghawri: executive director and social services coordinator.
* Fled the U.S. before the government submitted the HLF indictments in July 2004.
* One of three HLF leaders to attend the Philadelphia meeting with Hamas activists in October 1993.
* Maghawri was sent by HLF to bring money to the nearly 400 Hamas activists Israel expelled to south Lebanon in 1992, according to Shukri Abu Baker.
* As part of a 1990 attempt to gain political asylum in the United States (he claimed he was being persecuted for his religion by Amal, a Shiite militia), Maghawri told the Immigration and Naturalization Service that he had been arrested several times in Lebanon, once for placing a car bomb. His asylum request was denied; he subsequently married a U.S. citizen and obtained permanent residency status.
Akram Mishal: Director of projects and grants
* Fled the U.S. before the government submitted the HLF indictments in July 2004.
* Cousin of Khalid Mishal, a Hamas leader.
Charges: Filed against all seven:
* One count of conspiracy to support a foreign terrorist organization (Hamas).
* Eleven counts of providing support to a foreign terrorist organization (Hamas).
* One count of conspiracy to deal in the property of a specially designated terrorist (Hamas).
* Twelve counts of dealing in the property of a specially designated terrorist (Hamas).
* One count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
* Twelve counts of money laundering.
Additional charges:
* One count of conspiracy to impede the Internal Revenue Service was filed against Shukri Abu Baker and Ghassan Elashi.
* One count of filing a false tax return for a nonprofit organization was filed against Shukri Abu Baker and two counts against Elashi.
Additional Background on the HLF:
On December 4, 2001, President Bush announced that the FBI and the Treasury Department had moved to seize the assets of The HLF for Relief and Development (HLF), beginning with their offices in Texas, California, New Jersey and Illinois. The action is a part of the administration's policy designed to choke off financial support in the war on global terrorism. Treasury Department Secretary Paul O'Neill named the HLF, as well as two Palestinian-based financial organizations, as "Hamas operated organizations." President Bush described Hamas as "one of the deadliest terrorist organizations in the world today," which seeks the total destruction of the State of Israel.
Various government bodies and agencies have been scrutinizing the HLF for several years. Efforts were actually stepped up just before September 11th terror attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. when the FBI raided InfoCom Corporation, an Internet service provider run by HLF's chairman, Ghassan Elashi, and owned by his brother Bayan Elashi, a founder and board member of the HLF. These efforts became part of the administration's war on terror following the September attack. The terror attacks on Israeli civilians, taken credit for by Hamas, prompted the administration to intensify its already serious approach to cracking down on the terrorists' financial infrastructure.
HLF operated as a non-profit 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity organization. HLF was founded in 1987 in Los Angeles, California as the Occupied Land Fund to raise funds for what it viewed as Muslim victims of the Palestinian uprising, by its President and CEO, Shukri A. Baker. In 1991, it changed its name to HLF, and it moved to Richardson, Texas in 1993. The HLF has been active in raising funds for Palestinian Muslims in Israel, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Authority. In the last several years before its assets were frozen it also diverted some of its attention to other parts of the world such as Chechnya, Kosovo and Turkey, sending missions and collecting donations. HLF called itself the nation's largest Islamic charity. In addition to its Texas headquarters, it operated several offices California, Illinois, and New Jersey.
Connections to Hamas
The HLF has been accused by Israel of funneling funds to Hamas. It has also been under investigation by several government agencies in the U.S. In 1997, Israel banned the Jerusalem-based HLF as a Hamas front-group. That year, Israel raided the group's headquarters and seized documents that allegedly linked the Jerusalem office with the HLF in the U.S. Israel security also arrested the Jerusalem HLF's director, Mohammed Othman (a.k.a. Rahman Anati), for purportedly distributing monthly stipends to families of Hamas suicide bombers. According to the Israeli authorities most of the money Othman dispensed was raised by the HLF operation in Texas. HLF representatives do not deny the fact that it gave money to the orphans and widows of Hamas activists but claim that the money was given on the basis of need and not the political affiliation of the deceased.
The allegation of supporting families of "martyrs" is substantiated by multiple HLF documents. An Occupied Land Fund 1988 fundraising letter stated, "Is it not out of honesty and sincerity that we all be brothers to the martyr's widow? Should we not stand by her and compensate her children for what they lost by their father's martyrdom?" A March 1993 HLF Ramadan appeal pledge card declared, "Yes. I can and want to help needy families of Palestinian martyrs, prisoners and deportees." A HLF brochure distributed at a Dayton, Ohio conference in December 1996 stated that at least 1000 families have benefited from a relief program "aiding distressed families of detainees, deportees, martyrs and other impoverished families to be uplifted to a more mainstream life."
There is further evidence of HLF connections to Hamas. According to IRS records, more than 10% of HLF funds in 1992 came from Musa Abu Marzuq, Hamas' political director. In a March 1991 fundraising letter, the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), a Dallas group that has distributed official Hamas literature, urged its members to send funds to HLF (then still called the Occupied Land Fund) to support efforts to liberate "Palestine" through the Intifada. According to the Dallas Morning News, "Public records, materials from the two groups (IAP and HLF)… show a pattern of personal, financial and philosophical ties between Hamas and the two nonprofit groups."
Ideological Affiliation with Hamas
There is considerable evidence demonstrating the ideological affiliation between the HLF and the IAP and Hamas movement.
In publications of IAP that were published since the start of the second Intifada on September 29, 2000, Hamas suicide bombers are called 'freedom fighters.' Al-Zaitunah, a now defunct Arabic paper that was published by IAP and considered by Israeli experts as a Hamas paper, has published anti-Semitic and pro-Hamas materials. The paper was also regularly delivered with Hamas communiqués enclosed. IAP also printed the Hamas charter with a local address of the organization. IAP claimed that Hamas statements "were published for information purposes only."
Gatherings sponsored by IAP and HLF witnessed some very extreme anti-Semitic and radical pro-Hamas rhetoric. In 1989 in an IAP and HLF sponsored event, a masked man took the stage to praise Hamas, describing the 'oceans of blood' it would bring on the Israelis. He also thanked the two organizations, singling them for being early allies of Hamas. Other speakers praised Hamas, and a Hamas banner draped the table from which they spoke. According to The Dallas Morning News, HLF's leaders claimed that sharing the stage with Hamas activists is not equal to supporting it.
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