Holy Land 5: "The Nelson Mandelas of the 21th century"!
Trage Sjaak - 26.01.2011 22:39
Het kan altijd nog slechter. In het Wilde Westen zijn medio 2009, 5 leden van de Holy Land Foundation (HLF) tot celstraffen van 15 tot 65 jaar veroordeeld. Waarom? Er zijn nl. hulpgoederen geleverd aan hulpinstanties in de Gaza-strook! Hulpinstanties waar nb. ook de VS zelf aan doneert. Doordat in de Gaza-strook ook (de geterroriseerde) HAMAS te vinden is, zijn de Holy Land 5 - na een tweede rechtzaak veroordeeld. Israël en de FBI volgen de HLF vanaf 1993 zonder resultaat....
Ghassan Elashi, and the HLF, hostages to Zionism in the USA
TUESDAY, 03 AUGUST 2010 14:31
Ghassan Elashi, a Palestinian-American and chairman of the Holy Land Foundation (HLF),
formerly the largest Muslim charity in the US, was sentenced to 65 years in prison in May 2009, following a mistrial from 2007.
Introduction
Ghassan Elashi, a Palestinian-American and chairman of the Holy Land Foundation (HLF),
formerly the largest Muslim charity in the US, was sentenced to 65 years in prison in May 2009, following a mistrial from 2007. In the trial, federal prosecutors used secret evidence and secret witnesses to establish a connection between HLF and Hamas. The Texas jury was convinced that the HLF materially supported Hamas by giving humanitarian aid to Palestinian charities, amongst which included charities that the United Nations and USAID sent money to. Elashi is currently housed in a Communications Management Unit (CMU) in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Background on Ghassan Elashi and HLF
Ghassan Elashi was born in Gaza City, Palestine in 1953. After living there till the age of 14, he and his family moved to Cairo, Egypt. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in accounting from Ain Shams University in Cairo in 1975. Elashi later moved to Saudi Arabia and London for several years before settling in the United States in 1978, living shortly in Ohio and then moving to Florida where, in 1981, he earned a Master’s degree in accounting from the University of Miami.
Elashi married in 1985 and moved to Culver City, California, near Los Angeles. They lived there approximately seven before moving, in 1992, to Richardson, Texas near Dallas, where he obtained his US citizenship. There, he was the vice-president of InfoCom Corporation, a company that hosted about 500 mostly Arab websites, including Al Jazeera. Elashi was also a member of the founding board of directors of the Texas branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Elashi was also a volunteer at and the chairman of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), in addition to being one of its founding members. Originally known as the Occupied Land Fund, HLF was founded as a tax-exempt charity in California in 1989 and, in 1992, it was moved to Richardson, Texas, which became its headquarters. HLF became the largest Muslim charity in the US and had an annual budget of around $14 million. It had offices in California, New Jersey, Illinois, the West Bank and Gaza and had representatives scattered throughout the US.
Timeline of events (from the HLF case campaign website, freedomtogive.com):
• January 1993: An Israeli interrogation of a Palestinian-American man sparks the American government’s witch hunt against the Holy Land Foundation (HLF.) The man, Muhammad Salah of Illinios, is arrested by the Israeli Defense Forces and transported to Shin Bet's Ramallah interrogation facility where he was tortured for the next 54 days. The Shin Bet forces Salah to sign false statements in Hebrew, a language he does not understand, and to write out false statements, which the Shin Bet used to advance their foreign policy interests and target desired organizations and individuals. The interrogation takes place four years after HLF’s establishment.
• October 1993: With the FBI’s intelligence investigation now underway, federal agents bug a hotel conference room in Philadelphia, where Arab-American intellectuals—including a couple HLF officials—are gathered. The agents claim the meeting attendees criticize the 1993 Oslo Accord and “praise Hamas.” It’s important to note that Hamas was not designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization until 1995.
• 1994 and Forward: The Dallas Morning News along with other local and national media outlets begin their long journey of defaming the HLF, citing Israeli intelligence (obtained by American agents) as their main sources. The American public listens to radio stations, watches news channels and reads articles and op-ed pieces—most of which share a parallel interest: to connect the HLF with Hamas. During this time, the FBI also continues to scrutinize HLF officials by bugging their offices and wiretapping conversations between them and their families.
• March 1996: The Israeli government shuts down the HLF office near Jerusalem. They claim the office is raising funds for Hamas. U.S. Representative Charles Shumer of New York launches a campaign encouraging the U.S. government to further investigate HLF’s ties with Hamas.
• May 2000: Jewish-American couple Stanley and Joyce Boim sue the HLF, connecting the charity to the 1996 death of their 17-year-old son in the West Bank. HLF officials, who were outraged at this allegation, said they never supported Hamas. The HLF said they did, however, provide shelter, food and medical supplies to the impoverished widows and orphans of Palestine.
• December 2001: President George Bush announces during a press conference in the Rose Garden that he’s decided to shut down the HLF office in Richardson, TX as well as it’s offices in California and New Jersey. He asserts that the HLF is a front for Hamas. (Note: Despite Bush’s bogus allegation announced to billions across the globe, the FBI never finds evidence connecting the HLF to Hamas. Instead, they later claim the HLF is helping charities that were somehow associated with Hamas.
• July 2004: Federal agents barge into the homes of five men and arrest them in front of their families, leaving permanent scars on their wives and their children. The five men—Ghassan Elashi (HLF chairman), Shukri Abu-Baker (HLF C.E.O.), Abdulrahman Odeh (New Jersey office director), Mohammad El-Mezain (California office director) and Mufid Abdulqader (HLF volunteer)—are named in a 42-count indictment charging the individuals with conspiring to support Hamas.
• November 2004: A federal jury awards the Boim family $52 million, and a U.S. magistrate judge triples the amount, setting the damages at $156 million. HLF attorneys appeal the case. The Treasury Department, which froze the HLF assets soon after the charity was shut down, is in possession of the money until today.
• July 2007: The Holy Land Foundation trial begins. Jury selection begins on July 16, and opening statements start on July 22.
• October 2007: Judge A. Joe Fish declares a mistrial in the Holy Land Foundation case. After a two month trial and 19 days of deliberations, the eight-man, four-woman jury deadlocks on most of the 197 counts against the five defendants, returning zero guilty verdicts.
• December 2007: A federal court of appeals reverses the ruling in the Boim case, finding no evidence linking the HLF to Hamas. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also says the Boims failed to link their son’s death to the HLF.
• Early September 2008: Prosecutors drop 29 charges each against defendants Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulrahaman Odeh, leaving 3 counts against each defendant. Mohammad El-Mezain will be tried on one count. That leaves 35 counts against Ghassan Elashi and 34 counts against Shukri Abu-Baker. To prosecutors, the dropped charges are an attempt to simplifying the case. To defendants and their supporters, all of the charges should be dropped since the political case is nothing more than blatant attempt to criminalize charity.
• September 15, 2008: The Holy Land Foundation Retrial begins.
• November 24, 2008: Twelve Texan jurors, who fall for the prosecution's fear tactics, return all guilty verdicts. The Holy Land Five are instantly added to America's shameful pile of political prisoners. U.S. Marshals arrest them and send them to the federal prison in Seagoville, TX. The Holy Land Five are currently awaiting their sentences behind bars, which will likely take place in spring or summer 2009. Meanwhile, the defense attorneys are working hard on the appeal.
• May 27, 2009: The Holy Land Five receive 15 to 65 year sentences.
The Trial
Ghassan Elashi was convicted of 10 counts of conspiracy to provide, and the provision of, material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization; 11 counts of conspiracy to provide, and the provision of, funds, goods and services to a Specially Designated Terrorist; 10 counts of conspiracy to commit, and the commission of, money laundering; one count of conspiracy to impede and impair the Internal Revenue Service (IRS); and two counts of filing a false tax return.
During both trials, federal prosecutors argued that HLF gave money to Palestinian zakat (charity) committees that they claimed were controlled by Hamas. To this, Mustafaa Carroll, Council on American-Islamic Relations, said: "The same charities that these guys gave to the American Red Cross is still giving to, the USAID [United States Agency for International Development] is still giving to". Not one of the zakat committees on the HLF indictment was included on any of the U.S. Treasury Department’s lists of designated terrorist organizations.
On this note, one of the jurors from the first trial, William Neal, said:
“They never proved — they kept trying to show us stuff around the case, not the case. They presented to the jury, you know these committees, these organizations controlled by or on the behalf of Hamas, but they kept showing us blown-up buses and they kept showing us little kids in bomb belts reenacting Hamas leaders," he said. "It had nothing to do with the actual charges. It had nothing to do with the defendants.”
Lydia Gonzalez, from the League of United Latin American Citizens, held that the defendants were not tried fairly, saying: "When you're supposed to be able to face your accusers fully and against secret evidence and secret witness, I think that leads to reasonable doubt."
During the trial, federal prosecutors also used guilt by association by connecting HLF members to Hamas using family ties. Mousa Abu Marzook, Hamas’ political chief, happens to be married to a cousin of Ghassan Elashi, and Hamas’ political chief, Khaled Meshaal, is the brother of one of the HLF defendents, Mufid Abdulqader.
On 15 June 2009, George Galloway commented on the HLF case, saying:
“As I stand here in Dallas, I have to say it's one of the most monstrous injustices in modern times in America.”
Treatment in prison and transfer to CMU
Elashi was first sent to Seagoville Detention Center, a federal prison near Dallas. On 6 September 2009, during the end of a family visitation, Correctional Officer T. Thomas instructed inmates to stand on one side of the room and their families to stand on the other. As the group divided, Mr. Elashi’s 9-year-old son Omar, who has Down Syndrome, ran to his father to give him one final hug. Officer Thomas at that point called out, “That goes for you too Elashi. What, you think you’re an exception?” This incident, on the basis that Elashi ‘doesn’t listen to instructions’, prompted Officer Thomas file a request to terminate Elashi’s family visitations for six months to a year, that he only be allowed two phone calls a month, and that he be placed in the SHU, or Special Housing Unit, for an unknown period. The SHU is a small, cold, and dark, cell in which inmates are held for 23 hours a day. Some observers familiar with prison regulations and conditions called this treatment ‘extremely unusual, harsh and inhumane’.
The morning of 22 April 2010 saw Elashi transferred to a CMU (Communications Management Unit) in Terre Haute, Indiana, were he is currently housed. CMUs were designed to restrict inmates contact and communication with their families and the outside world. CMUs have been condemned by human rights groups, like the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), on the basis of lack of due process within CMUs, overrepresentation of Muslim and political prisoners at CMUs, the destructive effect of CMUs on families, and the conditions at CMUs which are regarded as amounting to cruel and unusual punishment.
Sources:
 http://freedomtogive.com/
http://www.counterpunch.org/elashi03232010.html
http://www.alternet.org/rights/147130/my_father_cofounded_the_largest_muslim_charity_in_america_now_hes_been_branded_a_terrorist
http://www.elanthemag.com/index.php/site/featured_articles_detail/meet-nid272990270/
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2008/11/20081124212126642596.html
http://www.ccrjustice.org/cmu-comments
http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/new-bureau-prisons-rule-discloses-policies-and-conditions-experimental-segre
http://ccrjustice.org/files/CMU_SampleCommentLetter.doc
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5396739/Founders-of-US-Muslim-charity-jailed-for-65-years-for-funding-Hamas.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Land_Foundation_for_Relief_and_Development
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghassan_Elashi
http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/e/ghassan_elashi/index.html
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/101206dnmetelashi.2a805efb.html
http://www.jewishmediaresources.com/255/a-letter-to-mr-ghassan-elashi
http://www.justice.gov/usao/txn/PressRel06/elashi_bayan_ghassan_basman_infocom_sent_pr.html
http://97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=13221
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2260110/posts
http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=ghassan_elashi
http://www.globaljihad.net/view_page.asp?id=746
LAST UPDATED ( WEDNESDAY, 04 AUGUST 2010 13:02 )
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bron:
http://www.ihrc.org.uk/publications/briefings/9409-ghassan-elashi-and-the-hlf-hostages-to-zionism-in-the-usa
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zie ook:
Uri Rosenthal has threatened to punish the Dutch foundation ICCO
for its continued funding of The Electronic Intifada
http://indymedia.nl/nl/2011/01/73221.shtml
US activists face new repression as political prisoners fight for justice
N. Barrows-Friedman & M. Clare Murph
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11626.shtml
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In 2001 is de HLF opgeheven, 'guilty by association' met de terroristische organisatie HAMAS.
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Holy Land 5 case reveals double standard in enforcement of US law
Report, The Electronic Intifada, 20 July 2010
"I had no intention in my mind and my heart but to help the Palestinian indigenous people who are and have been facing unusual economic distress ... nothing in my life was as satisfactory and as self-fulfilling as knowing that I could sign a check. It is the only evidence you have against me, signing the check."
At a special session on Palestinian political prisoners at the US Social Forum in Detroit last month, Noor Elashi recited that statement given by her father, Ghassan, when he was sentenced by a federal court in May 2009. Ghassan Elashi is the co-founder of the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), which was the largest Muslim charity in the US before it was shut down by the Bush Administration in 2001.
Sending aid not just to Palestinians living under the thumb of Israel's military occupation, but to people in Bosnia, Albania, Chechnya and Turkey, the HLF was also involved in local and national humanitarian relief. The organization set up food banks on the East Coast, helped victims of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and provided assistance to people after floods and tornadoes devastated parts of Iowa and Texas in the 1990s.
Three months after the 11 September 2001 attacks, the US Treasury department froze the HLF's bank accounts as the Executive branch shut down the organization under the auspices of the PATRIOT Act. Using a new provision called the Material Support Law, the US State Department accused the five HLF founders -- now dubbed the Holy Land Five -- of providing "assistance" to designated "terrorist groups" (namely Hamas) in Palestine. The Bush Administration immediately closed the organization and launched aggressive charges against the charity workers. There was no hearing, and the prosecution was authorized to use secret evidence.
Several other American faith-based relief organizations were also caught in the post-11 September hysteria of charity closures under the same new laws and executive orders. The legislation has been challenged by civil rights groups in the US Supreme Court as unconstitutional, but was upheld and used to sentence Ghassan Elashi, a father of six who immigrated to the US in 1978, to 65 years in prison.
On 21 June 2010, the Supreme Court ruled to continue to authorize prosecutions of charities under the Material Support provision, disappointing families and supporters of the Holy Land Five and troubling US-based organizations that directly support grassroots humanitarian programs in the Middle East.
Noor Elashi, a 24-year-old master of fine arts candidate at the New School in New York City, told The Electronic Intifada that her father's legal team is in the middle of appealing the entire HLF case. "The attorneys are working with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights," she said. "The overall impression is that the upholding of the Material Support Law is not the best thing that could happen regarding this case. It's not the most positive step. But that said, there are so many other grounds for appeal, such as evidentiary issues and the prosecution's use of an anonymous witness."
Prosecutors working for the Bush Administration accused the HLF of supporting Hamas by trying to "win hearts and minds" of the Palestinian population through humanitarian assistance, and that the charities HLF worked with were "front groups" for the political party. But after several years of wiretapping phone lines, seizing documents and following money trails, the prosecution couldn't support its allegations of an HLF-Hamas connection. Elashi said they then resorted to calling on an anonymous Israeli intelligence officer, who called himself "Avi," as a key witness who told the jury he was an expert who could "smell Hamas."
"It was the only time in the history of the United States that a witness inside a courtroom was allowed to remain anonymous, so the defense couldn't cross-examine him," Elashi said. "That in and of itself is huge grounds for appeal."
In fact, Israeli intelligence officers, in an unprecendented move, were allowed to testify in secret using pseudonyms and disguises and without the defense being given a full opportunity to cross-examine them during the 2006 federal trial in Chicago of American citizen Muhammad Salah and stateless Palestinian Abdelhaleem Ashqar. Accused of "racketeering" charges related to fundraising for Hamas, both men were acquitted of all the terrorism-related charges, but each was found guilty on single counts of obstruction of justice; Salah for lying on a form in a civil case and Ashqar for refusing to testify before a grand jury.
Additionally, the US government infamously led a lengthy, repressive, and racist assault against the Palestinian-American professor and political activist Dr. Sami al-Arian. Al-Arian, who remains under house arrest following a six-year prison sentence -- which included spending 43 months locked in solitary confinement -- was also charged, as the HLF were, under the Material Support Law.
Elashi stressed that the HLF was never convicted of giving charity to designated "terrorist" groups, but in the end they were convicted of conspiring to give charity to zakat or charitable committees in Palestine.
"I feel like at this point, anybody is at risk," Elashi said. "This is the time to be worried. What essentially can happen is that any American can be prosecuted for giving any type of charity, or any type of aid. Even a former president is at risk of being prosecuted," she said, referring to how Jimmy Carter has helped train election workers in Lebanon.
"The problem with the law is that it's way too vague," Elashi added, "and because it's way too vague, it really singles out groups from the rest of the population, and typically singles out Muslim charities as well as Arab-American individuals. And it's all being done in the name of national security, but what it's really doing is shredding the constitution and causing an economic chokehold on occupied Palestine."
Elashi told The Electronic Intifada that despite the circumstances, her father is extremely hopeful about the appeals process. "Opening the charity was a form of optimism," she said. "He knew from the first day that when he started the charity it was going to be a challenge. Soon after, he got attacked from pro-Israeli politicians and lobbyists, who tried to link the charity to Hamas and acts of violence. He continued to do everything possible to make sure that the charity kept running, and did pretty much what every other American aid organization did -- USAID, the Red Cross, and the UN all gave money to the very same zakat committees that were listed in the HLF indictment."
The Elashi family has not been allowed to visit Ghassan in prison, Noor Elashi said, for quite some time. In the fall of 2009, after one of the visits, a prison guard told the inmates and the families to disperse. But Noor's younger brother Omar -- who lives with Down's Syndrome -- ran to hug his father, and at that point the prison guard yelled at Ghassan, saying that he disobeyed orders. The guard filed a complaint that led to an internal investigation, and the prison ruled that there would be a six-month to one-year visitation ban.
Even after Ghassan was moved to another prison, the visitation ban moved with him. "We get two phone calls from him every month, which is significantly less than we would get from any other prison," Elashi said. "We hope to finally see him in September or October." Ghassan is currently being held inside a Communications Management Unit (CMU) in Illinois, a block within some prisons that are nicknamed "little Guantanamos" due to the overwhelming population of Muslims and people of Arab and Middle Eastern descent.
Defense Attorney Nancy Hollander, on behalf of the Holy Land Five, told The Electronic Intifada that the legal team is optimistic about the appeal. "We are currently working on our brief to the Fifth Circuit," Hollander remarked. "The current deadline is 3 August, but that might get extended into September. All of our clients have been moved to other prisons. We are in contact with them regularly. We remain hopeful."
Meanwhile, private, US-based, pro-Israel groups are currently sending millions of dollars every year to support illegal settlement colonies and right-wing Zionist settlers in the occupied West Bank. The New York Times reported on 5 July that at least 40 US-based organizations are actively donating more than $200 million in tax-deductible "gifts" to build and sustain illegal settlements. According to the Times, some of the donations also pay for "legally questionable" items such as bulletproof vests, guard dogs, weapon accessories and armored security vehicles ("Tax-Exempt Funds Aid Settlements in West Bank").
Daniel C. Kurtzer, the former US ambassador to Israel, told the Times "a couple of hundred million dollars makes a huge difference" in terms of supporting the settlement industry, and if carefully focused, "helps to create a new reality on the ground."
As of now, there is no indication that any of these faith-based, pro-settlement groups will face the kind of treatment and lengthy, expensive trials under the guise of the Material Support Law like those the Holy Land Five have faced. Noor Elashi told The Electronic Intifada that there is an obvious double standard being applied and enforced against her father and his colleagues.
However, she said that her father "feels his ordeal like he feels a fly on his shoe ... He believes that it's going to pass, and he's still very proud of everything he's accomplished. His work has been the most rewarding part of his life. He's helped people rebuild homes and has given hungry people food. That's what nourishes him. So he's optimistic about the appeal."
At the US Social Forum in Detroit, Elashi read the last part of her father's statement upon his sentencing. "We helped Palestinian orphans and needy families, giving them hope and life," he stated. "We gave them hope and life ... And what was the occupation giving them? It was providing them with death and destruction. And then we are turned criminals. That is irony."
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11410.shtml
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Related Link
Holy Land Foundation Case
THE HOLY LAND FIVE: U.S. POLITICAL PRISONERS SINCE NOV. 24, 2008
"As I stand here in Dallas, I have to say it's one of the most monstrous injustices in modern times in America.” — George Galloway on HLF case (06/15/2009)
"....It’s remarkable. My client was convicted of providing charity. There was not, in ten years of wiretapping his home, his office, looking at his faxes, listening to everything he said, there was not one word out of his mouth about violence to anyone or about support for Hamas. He provided charity. That’s what he was convicted of. And to say that someone or these people who provide charity should get a sentence six, you know, four or five times longer than someone who professes to come to the United States with a purpose in mind that’s clearly violence shows essentially that these people were convicted because they were Palestinians...."
Nancy Hollander, attorney for the former Holy Land CEO, Shukri Abu Baker.
Source: Democracy Now!
http://www.freedomtogive.com/
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Eerdere berichten op een paar Indymedia-sites:
Holy Land Foundation Trial
http://www.ntimc.org/newswire.php?story_id=6038
Expanding the Frame: The Holy Land Foundation Case
www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/10/383766.html
US pulls the plug on Muslim websites September 10, 2001
www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/318535.html?c=on
Holy Land Hypocrisy
http://dc.indymedia.org/feature/display/131598/index.php
Holy Land Foundation: American Casualties of the “War of Terror”
http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/140187/index.php
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Op de site van DemocracyNow! zijn div. text- en geluidsfragmenten te horen (2004-2010):
4 Prisoners in Holy Land Case Moved to Secretive, Restrictive CMUs
April 30, 2010 | Headline
4 Prisoners in Holy Land Case Moved to Secretive, Restrictive CMUs
And four prisoners convicted in last year’s controversial Holy Land Foundation terror trial have been moved to secretive prison units known as Communication Management Units, or CMUs. The units are designed to severely restrict prisoner communication with family members, the media and the outside world. The four were convicted on charges of supporting the Palestinian group Hamas through the Holy Land Foundation, once the nation’s largest Muslim charity. They were never accused of supporting violence and were convicted for funding charities that aided needy Palestinians. The US State Department had also funded the same groups. The government’s case relied on Israeli intelligence as well as disputed documents and electronic surveillance gathered by the FBI over a span of fifteen years.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/30/headlines#10
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Despite No Links to Violence, Founders of Muslim Charity Sentenced to Lengthy Terms for Donations to Needy Palestinians in Occupied Territories
May 29, 2009 | Story
Five founders of the Holy Land Foundation, once the nation’s largest Muslim charity, have received prison terms of up to sixty-five years on charges of supporting the Palestinian group Hamas. The five were never accused of supporting violence and were convicted for funding charities that aided needy Palestinians. The government’s case relied on Israeli intelligence as well as disputed documents and electronic surveillance gathered by the FBI over a span of fifteen years. We speak to Noor Elashi, daughter of Ghassan Elashi, the chair of the Holy Land Foundation who was sentenced to sixty-five years; and Nancy Hollander, a defense attorney who represented former Holy Land CEO Shukri Abu Baker.
Guests:
Nancy Hollander, attorney for former Holy Land CEO Shukri Abu Baker.
Noor Elashi, daughter of Ghassan Elashi, Holy Land board chairman who was sentenced to sixty-five years in prison.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Five founders of a Muslim charity have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms in a controversial case that began nearly ten years ago. The Holy Land Foundation, based in a Dallas suburb, was the biggest Muslim charity in the United States before the Bush administration shut it down in 2001. Its five founders were convicted last November on charges of funneling money to the Palestinian group Hamas. The US government declared Hamas a terrorist organization in 1995.
It was the second trial against the Holy Land Foundation’s five leaders after the first ended in a mistrial. The government’s case relied on Israeli intelligence as well as disputed documents and electronic surveillance gathered by the FBI over a span of fifteen years.
AMY GOODMAN: Defendants Ghassan Elashi and Shukri Abu Baker each received sixty-five-year prison sentences. At his sentencing hearing, Elashi said, “Nothing was more rewarding than…turning the charitable contributions of American Muslims into life assistance for the Palestinians. We gave the essentials of life: oil, rice, flour. The occupation was providing them with death and destruction.” Another defendant, Mohammad El-Mezain, was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. He was found guilty of supporting Hamas but acquitted on thirty-one other charges. Volunteer fundraiser Mufid Abdulqader was sentenced to twenty years in prison. And the fifth defendant, Abdulrahman Odeh, was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. All five defendants plan to file appeals.
We go now to Dallas, where we’re joined by Noor Elashi. She’s the daughter of Ghassan Elashi, the chair of the Holy Land Foundation who was sentenced to sixty-five years.
And joining us from her home in Albuquerque via Democracy Now! video stream is Nancy Hollander, a defense attorney who represented former Holy Land CEO Shukri Abu Baker.
We invited Jim Jacks, the lead prosecutor in the case, on the show, but his office declined.
Noor, let’s begin with you. When the sentencing happened, your dad got sixty-five years in prison. Your response
NOOR ELASHI: Well, thank you, first of all, Amy, for having me on the show.
My response to that is basically, to me, on Wednesday, the Holy Land Five, my father and the Holy Land Five, became the Nelson Mandelas of the twenty-first century. They’re merely political prisoners caught in this disillusioned web, widely known by the Bush administration as the war on terror.
Sixty-five years seems like a big number, but it’s really nothing but a number to me. I do—I have faith that during the appeal process, under a less politicized Justice Department under the new administration, that truth will come out. And truth is a much stronger, way more powerful—truth is basically way more powerful than the prosecution’s ongoing tactic of fear. And truth will come out under this less politicized Justice Department.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Noor Elashi, tell us about your father. When did he come to the United States, and why did he decide to found the Holy Land Foundation?
NOOR ELASHI: My dad came to the US in the early ’80s. He got his master’s degree from the University of Miami and thus started a family. And, you know, in the late ’80s, during the Intifada, the uprising, he saw, like many Americans, images on television that just really went straight to his heart. And he, being Palestinian, originally Palestinian, took it to heart and felt like, you know, he had to do something. And that is, after seeing thousands of—the images of thousands of trees being uprooted, you know, many political prisoners in Palestine, many homes being demolished, he said there’s definitely a need there, a humanitarian need. There’s an economic crisis. And therefore, he and a few—a couple other people founded the Holy Land Foundation, which, like you mentioned earlier, became the largest Muslim charity in this country until the Bush administration shut it down.
AMY GOODMAN: Nancy Hollander, you’re the attorney for the former Holy Land CEO, Holy Land Foundation CEO Shukri Abu Baker. Just looking at the time line for the whole Holy Land case: you have January ’89, the organization that was renamed Holy Land Foundation is founded by Noor’s father, Ghassan Elashi, and others to assist Palestinians affected by the Intifada, ’89; 1992, Holy Land moves its headquarters to Richardson, Texas; ’95, the US government declares Hamas a terrorist organization; ’99, the government says it’s investigating alleged financial ties between Holy Land and Hamas dating back to 1996. Explain this and what evidence the government presented on the connection between Holy Land and Hamas.
NANCY HOLLANDER: Well, the government’s allegations—and this is extremely important, Amy—the government’s allegations all along and what the jury found was that Holy Land provided charity. Every dime went to charity. It went through sometimes directly to individuals and sometimes through charity committees, which are called Zakat committees. This is part of Islamic law that Muslims must tithe, and they often do it through these committees. These committees are throughout the Muslim world and in Palestine. And Holy Land gave money, large sums of money, to these Zakat committees in all these local communities, and then that was distributed to individuals, mostly orphans or families in need.
There was never any allegation that any money went any where other than to charity. The government’s position was that these particular charities were associated with or controlled by Hamas. And it’s important to understand that the United States government, through USAID, continued to give money to the same charities for years after Holy Land was closed. But that’s what the allegation was all the way along. Although the government spent a great deal of time in the trial talking about and showing the jury horrific pictures of violent acts that Hamas did, our clients were not accused of nor convicted of one single act of violence.
AMY GOODMAN: So, explain what they were convicted of.
NANCY HOLLANDER: They were convicted of providing material support to Hamas, which includes, under the US statutes, providing charity to associations and organizations that are associated with or controlled by Hamas. The issue of whether these particular charities were controlled by Hamas, we believe to this day that they were not. And the only evidence that they were came from a secret witness from Israel who claimed to be a lawyer with the Israeli Shin Bet, but we were never able to learn anything about him, because he was presented with a pseudonym, and we weren’t allowed to know anything about him.
AMY GOODMAN: The Shin Bet being the Israeli intelligence.
NANCY HOLLANDER: Yes, yes, correct. And that’s where they got the information.
The government also claimed that by providing charity, Holy Land was assisting Hamas in winning the hearts and minds of the people. There was no evidence of that, of course. And Holy Land was closed in 2001. And although the government tried to make the leap to Hamas winning a large number of seats in the election in 2006, that was five years later. And the government never had an answer, during trial or at sentencing when we brought this up, to explain that USAID gave money, for example, $47,000 to the Qalqilya Zakat Committee in December of 2004, and why that didn’t contribute to the hearts and minds theory, if in fact that theory makes any sense, which historically and politically it doesn’t.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Nancy Hollander, the first trial in 2007 ended in a mistrial, and there was the second one that ended in conviction. Any sense on your part what swayed the jury in the second trial? And also, were you surprised by the severity of the sentences?
NANCY HOLLANDER: Well, on your first question, the government always benefits when it gets a second chance. It has seen the defense. It had another year to gather more evidence, to look through the ten years of FISA wiretaps that our clients were never allowed to look at, by the way, even though they were their statements, to attempt to find more evidence. All they really found, because there was no evidence of anything other than charity, all they found was more violence, and they put on more violence.
In terms of the sentence, no, I wasn’t surprised at it, but I was horrified by it, to the thought that somebody gets sixty-five years for providing charity is really shameful, and I believe this case will go down in history, as have others, like Korematsu, for example, as a shameful day. We have all filed—all the defendants have filed their notices of appeal, and all will be appealed. And we believe we will be vindicated on appeal, because this was a grossly unfair trial.
AMY GOODMAN: Nancy Hollander, you used the argument—you compared—you looked at the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri to persuade the judge to go easy on your client, Shukri Abu Baker, saying that he pleaded guilty in April to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaeda. You said, “This is a man who admits he came to the US as a sleeper agent, and the government believes fifteen years is sufficient.” The judge retorted, “Raising millions of dollars to fund terrorism, that’s a different situation.” He said, “Al-Marri is an example of someone who wanted to commit an act of terrorism. As bad as that is, this is support over the years.” And he sentenced your client, Abu Baker, to sixty-five years. Your response?
NANCY HOLLANDER: It’s just beyond me. It’s remarkable. My client was convicted of providing charity. There was not, in ten years of wiretapping his home, his office, looking at his faxes, listening to everything he said, there was not one word out of his mouth about violence to anyone or about support for Hamas. He provided charity. That’s what he was convicted of. And to say that someone or these people who provide charity should get a sentence six, you know, four or five times longer than someone who professes to come to the United States with a purpose in mind that’s clearly violence shows essentially that these people were convicted because they were Palestinians.
JUAN GONZALEZ: I’d like to ask Noor Elashi—you, yourself, are a journalist. Could you comment about the media’s coverage, the mainstream media coverage, of this trial and how that affected the atmosphere around the trial?
NOOR ELASHI: Yeah. I’m actually highly disappointed, but I’m not surprised. From the very beginning of the case, the media coverage has been very biased, including many Israeli bloggers and people obviously anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian in the news articles. For example, on sentencing day, I went to the New York Times website, the LA Times, the Washington Post, saw nothing. I mean, the Associated Press was there. But overall, this definitely—this case, from the very beginning, the arrests, the first trial, the second trial, I think deserves a lot more attention.
And, Amy, you one time said in one of your—in your book tour, I believe, that Americans are sympathetic people. And I do honestly believe that. And I think that if this case were to be covered more widely and received better coverage, I feel like Americans will sympathize and there will be an outcry, not only from Americans, but just an international outcry.
AMY GOODMAN: Are you able to see your father in jail?
NOOR ELASHI: Yes, I am. We are able to visit him once a week. And actually, the way that’s set up, and this was also set up on purpose, the families are not allowed to see the defendants all at the same time. They’ve set it up in different times. So, when I go see my dad, I’m not really allowed to see anybody else, any of the other defendants or their families. They set it up in a way where we can only see our father that one time. But he’s a very strong person. As I sat there on Wednesday watching him—
AMY GOODMAN: We have five seconds.
NOOR ELASHI: OK, he’s a very strong person, and I just really admire him. And he’s my hero.
AMY GOODMAN: Noor Elashi, I want to thank you for being with us, daughter of Ghassan Elashi. She’s also a former reporter with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. And thanks to Nancy Hollander.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/29/holy_land
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Lengthy Sentences Handed Down in Holy Land Case
May 28, 2009 | Headline
Lengthy Sentences Handed Down in Holy Land Case
Five founders of a defunct Muslim charity have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms in a controversial case that critics have called a political witch-hunt. The Holy Land Foundation founders were convicted last year on charges of funneling money to the Palestinian group Hamas. Holy Land was the nation’s largest Muslim charity until the Bush administration shuttered it in 2001. The case relied on Israeli intelligence as well as disputed documents and electronic surveillance gathered by the FBI over a span of fifteen years. It was the second trial against the defendants after the first ended in a mistrial. Defendants Ghassan Elashi and Shukri Abu Baker were sentenced to sixty-five years apiece. At his sentencing hearing, Elashi said, "Nothing was more rewarding than...turning the charitable contributions of American Muslims into life assistance for the Palestinians. We gave the essentials of life: oil, rice, flour. The [Israeli] occupation was providing them with death and destruction." Another defendant, Mohammad El-Mezain, was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. He was found guilty of supporting Hamas but acquitted on thirty-one other charges. Volunteer fundraiser Mufid Abdulqader was sentenced to twenty years in prison. And the fifth defendant, Abdulrahman Odeh, was sentenced to fifteen years in prison.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/28/headlines#8
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Report from Gaza City: Palestinian Journalist Sameh Habeeb on Gaza Under Siege
January 05, 2009 | Story
Sameh Habeeb is a Palestinian journalist in Gaza City. He joins us on the phone. We also speak with Samer Badawi, the executive director of United Palestinian Appeal, a Washington-based charity established in 1978 to assist needy Palestinians.
Guests:
Sameh Habeeb, Palestinian journalist in Gaza City. He blogs at GazaToday.Blogspot.com
Samer Badawi, the Executive Director of United Palestinian Appeal, a Washington-based charity established in 1978 to assist needy Palestinians.
AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Gaza City to Sameh Habeeb, a Palestinian journalist there blogging at gazatoday.blogspot.com. Describe the situation right now, Sameh.
SAMEH HABEEB: Hello, Amy. In fact, I’m not from the Gaza Strip; I’m from the occupied Gaza Strip now. Well, the situation is very direful since the Israelis started their military ground operation. The situation has dramatically changed. We have like a kind of fear and panic across the residents of the Gaza Strip with the start of the military operation. The number of the victims dramatically rise, especially the civilians. Around yesterday—today’s statistic, around ninety people died and killed, mostly civilians, since the start of this military ground operation less than forty hours ago.
The Israelis maybe have information about the Israeli military operation and how it has started. It has started from key—four key points across the Gaza Strip, in the north and in east of Gaza and the south of Gaza. Now, Gaza yesterday was being cut into two pieces. The north of Gaza and Gaza City are being cut from the south and the middle areas of the Gaza Strip. No one is allowed to go out or in. And this is regarding the military steps of the Israelis.
In the area where I live, in the east of Gaza, the artillery shelling is still taking place. And a few minutes ago, around three shells landed in my area. And one guy was killed and two were injured in hitting two houses. And this was one family.
Now, we are speaking about the Israeli military operation and its escalation, which aimed at ending the firing the rockets and ending the Hamas regime here. But what we have on the ground, what we are touching here, is that like there is a random targeting for the civilians, and most of the victims who fall, who fell since the military operation has started, they are mostly civilians. And the militants that Israel is seeking, they are being hidden, not being appeared in the streets at all.
Today, in the early morning, there was a massacre in which around twenty to twenty-five people were killed from the same family in Al-Zeitoun area. Most of them were children. Israeli Army gathered around ten families in one of the houses for Al-Samouni family in Al-Zeitoun area south of Gaza City. They had gathered them in one house. And after a time, an artillery shell hit the house, and twenty to twenty-five were killed, and around more than sixty were injured, because the house was including around 100 individuals.
This is not the only massacre today. We have more people are being killed in the north, and more people are being killed in Gaza City itself. If you would like me to just state what we have today, I have a list of around thirty-two violations and ramifications of today’s actions. Israeli Air Force bombarded houses in Al-Shati refugee camp, and thirty-five people were wounded. And maybe more will be just dying, because the hospitals are not able to respond to the calamities we have, the catastrophes, because the Israeli siege, which was imposed around two years ago, completely paralyzed the ability of the clinics and hospitals to respond to any military operation or a war in such a scale like this.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re also joined in Washington, D.C. by Samer Badawi, the executive director of United Palestinian Appeal, a Washington-based charity established in 1978 to assist needy Palestinians. Samer Badawi, as you listen to this description, how are people here, Palestinians and non-Palestinians, responding to the crisis in Gaza?
SAMER BADAWI: Well, I think, as Phyllis said earlier, there’s been a tremendous groundswell of grassroots support for the people of Gaza over the last week. But more than that, I think as an organization that receives 99 percent of its donations from individuals across this country, we’ve seen a virtual cavalcade of support financially as well, because people understand that although goods and supplies are few and far between entering Gaza, there is a way to raise cash here in this country and provide it for organizations on the ground that are doing whatever they can, however they can, to provide relief.
AMY GOODMAN: And the effect in the United States of the shutting down of many Arab charities, has that affected you?
SAMER BADAWI: It’s very interesting, actually, Amy, because I think that more and more people in this country are viewing charity as a bit of an act of defiance in an atmosphere like the one that we’re viewing today. People across the country are wondering about how the context of all of this has been left out so egregiously in the media and in the statements of Israeli officials. And, as we have seen from the Holy Land Foundation case, there has not been a convincing argument made that by simply supporting the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people, we are somehow creating—or committing a crime here in this country. I think UPA supporters are committed to the idea that providing financial support to the Palestinian people is not a crime, that it’s something that must be done, as it is done for suffering people throughout the world, including in Darfur, as it was done in Bosnia, as it’s been done around the world.
AMY GOODMAN: Sameh Habeeb, we only have about fifteen seconds, but I wanted to ask about cell phone use in Gaza. Are you able to speak on cell phones? Sameh Habeeb, are you there?
Well, we will have to leave it there. I want to thank you all very much for being with us. Sameh Habeeb, speaking to us from Gaza City, Samer Badawi, executive director of the United Palestinian Appeal in Washington, D.C., as well as all of our guests today.
Related stories
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Gaza Doctor Izzeldin Abuelaish Two Years After Israeli Attack that Killed 3 Daughters & Niece: "As Long as I am Breathing, They are with Me. I Will Never Forget"
As Settlement Construction Begins Again in the West Bank, Israel Blocks Jewish Activists on Aid Boat Headed to Gaza
EXCLUSIVE: New Video Smuggled Out from Mavi Marmara of Israel’s Deadly Assault on Gaza Aid Flotilla
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http://www.democracynow.org/2009/1/5/report_from_gaza_city_palestinian_journalist
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Jury Convicts Holy Land Foundation in Muslim Charity Case
November 25, 2008 | Headline
A federal jury in Dallas, Texas has convicted the leaders of a Muslim charity on 108 criminal counts, including support of terrorism, money laundering and tax fraud. The five men all worked for the Holy Land Foundation, which was the largest Muslim charity in the United States until the Bush administration shut it down in 2001. The government accused the charity of funneling money to the Palestinian group Hamas. The defendants argued that the Holy Land Foundation was engaged in legitimate humanitarian aid for community welfare programs and Palestinian orphans. Holy Land’s former accountant Mohammad Wafa Yaish said, "It’s a sad day. It looks like helping the needy Palestinians is a crime these days."
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/25/headlines#5
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Former Muslim Charity in Terror Financing Retrial
September 25, 2008 | Headline
Meanwhile, in Texas, the retrial of a former Muslim charity accused of terrorism financing has begun. The now-defunct Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development is accused of being a front to raise funds for Hamas. A mistrial was declared last year after jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict. The Holy Land Foundation was once the largest Muslim charity in the United States. It collected donations for local committees providing humanitarian aid in the West Bank and Gaza. The case relied on Israeli intelligence and disputed documents and electronic surveillance gathered by the FBI over a span of fifteen years.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/25/headlines#16
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Bush Admin Prosecution of Largest Muslim Charity in U.S. Ends in Mistrial
October 24, 2007 | Story
The now-defunct Holy Land Foundation was once the largest Muslim charity in the United States. It collected donations for local committees providing humanitarian aid in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The government had accused it of providing "material support" to a foreign terrorist organization. But jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict and the US district judge declared a mistrial on most of the charges. We speak to David Cole, Professor of Law at Georgetown University and Khalil Meek, President of the Muslim Legal Fund of America.
A mistrial was declared Monday in the Bush administration’s largest terrorism financing case. The government had accused the now-defunct Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development of providing "material support" to a foreign terrorist organization. But jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict, and the US district judge declared a mistrial on most of the charges in the federal case against the Holy Land Foundation and five of its former leaders.
The Texas-based Holy Land Foundation was once the largest Muslim charity in the United States. It collected donations for local committees providing humanitarian aid in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. But the US government claimed the committees were controlled by Hamas, which has been designated as a terrorist organization since 1995. The case against Holy Land Foundation relied on Israeli intelligence and disputed documents and electronic surveillance gathered by the FBI over a span of 15 years. However, one juror told the Los Angeles Times that the government case had "so many gaps" the prosecution was "a waste of time."
This case is one of numerous material support prosecutions. Hina Shamsi, staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project said the material support statute "criminalizes guilt by association" and could be used to prosecute innocent donors.
David Cole. Professor of Law at Georgetown University. Co-Author of "Less Safe, Less Free: Why America is Losing the War on Terror." He’s also the lead lawyer for Maher Arar, Canadian citizen and victim of the US extraordinary rendition program.
Khalil Meek. President of the Muslim Legal Fund of America. He is the spokesperson for Hungry for Justice, an interfaith coalition of national and local civil rights organizations advocating for a fair trial for the Holy Land Foundation. He is also the President of the local chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, CAIR.
AMY GOODMAN: A mistrial was declared Monday in the Bush administration’s largest terrorism financing case. The government had accused the now-defunct Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development of providing "material support" to a terrorist organization. But jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict, and the US district judge declared a mistrial on most of the charges in the federal case against the Holy Land Foundation and five of its former leaders.
The Texas-based Holy Land Foundation was once the largest Muslim charity in the United States. It collected donations for local committees providing humanitarian aid in the West Bank and Gaza. But the US government claimed the committees were controlled by Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist organization since 1995.
The case against Holy Land Foundation relied on Israeli intelligence and disputed documents and electronic surveillance gathered by the FBI over a span of fifteen years. However, one juror told the Los Angeles Times the government case had "so many gaps" the prosecution was "a waste of time." This case is one of numerous material support prosecutions. Hina Shamsi, staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project, said the material support statute "criminalizes guilt by association" and can be used to prosecute innocent donors.
David Cole is a professor of law at Georgetown University, the co-author of Less Safe, Less Free: Why America is Losing the War on Terror. He joins us from Capitol Hill. Welcome to Democracy Now!, David.
DAVID COLE: Good morning, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: It’s good to have you with us. Explain exactly what happened in this case. Begin from the beginning. When was the Holy Land Foundation shut down?
DAVID COLE: Well, it was nearly six years ago, in December 2001. All their assets were frozen. All of their records were seized. The entity was shut down without a hearing, without a trial, without even a statement of reasons. And when the group sought to challenge that designation and that freezing in court, the court refused to allow the Holy Land Foundation to introduce evidence in its own defense and relied on secret evidence that the government presented to it behind closed doors, so that the foundation couldn’t respond, and rejected its arguments that this whole process violated due process by depriving it of its property without any meaningful opportunity to defend itself.
AMY GOODMAN: What exactly have you come to understand now at this point was the evidence, the secret evidence? Both US and Israeli?
DAVID COLE: Well, it was US and Israeli, and it was gathered, as you suggested, over a course of fifteen years. But what’s most remarkable is that even though they subjected this group to fifteen years of surveillance, they found not one piece of evidence that showed that this group was funding Hamas itself during the period since 1995, when Hamas—when it was illegal to fund Hamas. And instead, the argument that they made in court was that it’s not that you funded Hamas, but you funded these zakat committees; you should have known that these humanitarian aid local zakat committees in Ramallah, in Hebron, etc., were in fact fronts for or otherwise associated with Hamas.
But the government has the power to designate as terrorist any front or affiliate or associate of Hamas, and it hasn’t ever to this day designated any of these committees. So the government is basically saying, you should be put in jail, not for funding a group that we put on a blacklist—Hamas—but for funding groups that we chose not to put on a blacklist, but you should have known that they would have been on the blacklist anyway. It’s a real stretch, and I think that’s why the jury did not reach a single guilty conviction on 197 counts.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, it was against the Holy Land Foundation, but also individually its heads? Who are they?
DAVID COLE: That’s right. It’s five members of the board and employees of the foundation who did the work of the organization over the course of its existence. And one of the five was acquitted on all charges but one. Two others, the jury initially said that they were acquitted, as well, but when the judge polled the jury, two jurors said, "Well, that’s not my vote," and they went back in, and they came out, and, in fact, they couldn’t reach unanimity. So at the end of the day, no convictions.
For the government, I think, you know, the real lesson here is, six years ago we had a conviction in a totally one-sided proceeding, you know, where Holy Land didn’t have any opportunity to defend itself and the government didn’t have to put its evidence on the table; now, the government has to put its evidence on the table, Holy Land has the opportunity to defend itself, and a jury of American citizens refuses to find, you know, them guilty in any respect. I think that suggests that this initial process, by which the government can unilaterally shut down charities without any real process, real hearing, needs to be revised.
AMY GOODMAN: We are talking to David Cole. He is a professor of law at Georgetown University, speaking to us from the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C.
We are also joined on the telephone from Louisville, Texas by Khalil Meek. He’s the president of the Muslim Legal Fund of America, the spokesperson of Hungry for Justice, a national coalition of civil rights groups supporting a fair trial for the Holy Land Foundation.
Khalil Meek, thank you for joining us. Your reaction to the mistrial?
KHALIL MEEK: I’m sorry. I didn’t hear the question.
AMY GOODMAN: Your reaction to the mistrial?
KHALIL MEEK: Oh, a reaction to the mistrial? Well, we still, as a Muslim community, consider this a huge victory. I mean, we’re happy, relieved. We think the truth came out or is still coming out. But we think it was a win for the American people, the jury system, due process, because, like David said, what we had here was a case, you know, built on thirteen years of investigation and wiretapping, surveillance, the largest terrorism case in history, coordination with other security agencies, millions and, you know, millions and millions of dollars spent over three months in a courtroom, the largest deliberation in Texas history, almost 200 indictments, and the jury said not one guilty verdict, no conviction, and that there were more fear over facts or evidence in any of the counts.
AMY GOODMAN: Khalil Meek, how has the Holy Land Foundation case, the closing of it more than six years ago, the terrorism charges, affected the ability of Muslims in this country to give charity?
KHALIL MEEK: Well, I think it’s dramatically affected ability to give charity to Palestinians. I think this is a very specific political process that has really damaged the Palestinians. All the charities that were given to Palestine have either been shut down or under extreme scrutiny, and it is so difficult to provide aid in that area of the region that it’s affected it dramatically. I’m not sure that it’s affected all other areas of charity and all other charitable outlets, but it has had a dramatic effect in that area.
AMY GOODMAN: David Cole, can the government retry this case?
DAVID COLE: Well, they can, and they’ve said that they will. A mistrial is just that: a mistrial. You start over. But it’s not as if the government is going to have any better evidence the next time around. They had thirteen years to prepare the case. It’s not like the second time around they’re going to do a whole heck of a lot better. It’s extremely expensive, and I think there will be significant incentives for the government to try to reach some sort of settlement on some kind of safe face-saving minor guilty plea. But they may well try it again, and then we’ll see.
I mean, you know, I think what we ought to take away from this is that this is, number one, a very, very troubling statute. It is essentially a guilt by association statute. No matter what your intent, no matter what kind of aid you provide to a designated group, you are treated as a criminal terrorist under the statute. But this case shows that the government is not even satisfied with that guilt by association theory, and instead it wants to go further and hold people responsible for groups that have not been—for supporting groups that have not been designated. Again, the zakat committees have not been designated to this day, and yet the government wants to hold these people criminally liable, put them in jail for supporting a group that the government never said you couldn’t support. That’s truly a scary proposition and will have a tremendous chilling effect throughout the charitable communities.
AMY GOODMAN: David Cole, you wrote a piece in the Washington Post today, an op-ed piece called "Anti-Terrorism on Trial: Why the Government Loses Funding Cases." And you say this failure isn’t the government’s first. You talk about 2005, the Tampa jury acquitting Sami al-Arian, the University of South Florida professor, of the most serious counts against him, involving alleged fundraising for a Palestinian Islamic Jihad. You also talk about a Chicago case. Can you elaborate on these? Sami al-Arian remains in prison.
DAVID COLE: Sami al-Arian remains in prison, although through shenanigans of the government, not by virtue of that particular case, where again they had a multi-year investigation, thousands of hours of wiretaps, a six-month trial, they put on eighty witnesses. Professor al-Arian didn’t put on a single witness in his defense, because he felt that the case the government made was so weak, and the jury acquitted him on all the most serious charges and voted ten-to-two to acquit him on a handful of other charges. And he ultimately pled guilty to a minor charge and eventually will be allowed to leave the country.
Then, in Chicago, just this year, a jury acquitted two Palestinians of allegedly, again, supporting Hamas, again after a lengthy investigation. And again, the government sought to push the envelope. These people were alleged to have supported Hamas before it was illegal to support Hamas—that is, before 1995. But the government’s theory was, well, we’re going to treat Hamas as a RICO enterprise, as essentially like the Mob, and any support to it constitutes a RICO crime. The jury again acquitted.
And I think—and then, of course, you have the Saudi student in Idaho who was charged with providing material support to a terrorist organization by putting up links on a website to other websites that had jihadist content on them.
All of these, I think, show that the government is really pushing the envelope in the name of preventing terrorism and going after people where it doesn’t really have the goods, where it really doesn’t have evidence that they’ve committed crimes, and it’s trying instead to expand the definition of the crime to hold people responsible, not for what they have done, but for what we fear, based on speculation, they might do in the future. And I think the jury system has, fortunately, in these cases worked. The juries have been much more faithful to the First Amendment and to the principles that this country stands for at its best than has the Justice Department.
AMY GOODMAN: Khalil Meek, how much interest and attention is being paid by the Muslim community in this country to the Holy Land Foundation case?
KHALIL MEEK: Well, I think it was a very galvanizing case for the Muslim community. Almost every Muslim in America was affected by this case or could have been, because the government decided to make it really a dragnet for all the Muslim organizations. They listed over 300 individuals and organizations as unindicted co-conspirators in this case, so that if they got a guilty verdict, you would have our largest charity convicted of something with terrorism, and the largest advocacy groups, the largest educational groups, the largest holding companies. So everything in America was put on trial in the Holy Land Foundation case. And so, I think it galvanized the Muslim community. I think everybody had something at stake in this.
And we think that this is, you know, a process of—I don’t know, maybe like, to summarize what David said, it’s a fishing expedition. I mean, they’re not putting crimes on trial here. The Holy Land Foundation is not even accused of any violent act or destruction of property, harming anyone. They’re accused of feeding, clothing, sheltering, you know, educating, providing medical assistance to Palestinian women and children. And somehow that becomes criminal.
AMY GOODMAN: Khalil Meek, I want to thank you for being with us, president of the Muslim Legal Fund of America; also David Cole, our guest, professor of law at Georgetown University.
http://www.democracynow.org/2007/10/24/bush_admin_prosecution_of_largest_muslim
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Trial of Islamic Charity Ends In Mistrial
October 23, 2007 | Headline
The Bush administration suffered a major setback after a jury in Dallas failed to convict former officials from what was once the country’s largest Islamic charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. On Monday the jury revealed that it had failed to convict the five defendants of any of the 200 combined counts against them. U.S. District Judge Joe Fish declared a mistrial after three jurors said the verdict did not represent their views. In 2001 President Bush ordered the Holy Land Foundation closed and seized the charity’s assets claiming that the organization had ties to the Palestinian group Hamas. Georgetown law professor David Cole described the developments as a huge defeat for the government. Cole said: "They spent almost 15 years investigating this group, seized all their records and had extensive wiretapping and yet could not obtain a single conviction on charges of supporting a terrorist organization." The Bush administration said it plans to retry the case.
http://www.democracynow.org/2007/10/23/headlines#7
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Terror Trial Begins for Largest Muslim-U.S. Charity
July 27, 2007 | Headline
The disclosure comes as the Bush administration is facing criticism for prosecuting the largest Islamic charity in the U.S. In a trial that began this week, prosecutors accuse the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development of providing millions of dollars in funding to militant activities by Hamas. The charity says the money has gone to Palestinian victims of Israeli attacks and closures in the Occupied Territories. The case is the largest of its kind in U.S. history. Prosecutors have faced scrutiny for heavily relying on secret evidence supplied by the Israeli government. Khalil Meek of the Muslim Legal Fund of America said: "The Bush administration is arguing that providing medical and nutritional assistance to sick and starving Palestinian children amounts to supporting terrorism."
http://www.democracynow.org/2007/7/27/headlines#13
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Islamic Charity Accuses FBI of Fabricating Evidence
July 27, 2004 | Headline
A Muslim charity accused the FBI yesterday of fabricating evidence to prove that the group funds Palestinian suicide-bombers. The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development filed a complaint with the Justice Department calling for an investigation of and citing 67 discrepancies or errors in translation in a four-page Israeli intelligence document used in the case. The Holy Land group was the biggest Muslim charity in the United States before the Bush administration froze its assets after the September 11 attacks, accusing it of using charitable contributions to help finance Hamas.
http://www.democracynow.org/2007/7/27/headlines#13
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Senate Seeks Confidential IRS Records From Muslim Groups
January 14, 2004 | Headline
The Washington Post is reporting the Senate Finance Committee is asking the Internal Revenue Service to hand over confidential tax and financial records including donor lists on dozens of Muslim charities and foundations. The Committee is making the rare request allegedly as part of an investigation into whether any tax-exempt organizations in the United States have ties to designated terrorist groups. Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said of the Senate request for IRS records, Are they now going to start a witch hunt of all the donors of these now closed relief organizations, so that Muslims feel they’re going to be targeted once more based on their charitable giving?" Among the groups targeted are the SAAR Foundation, Global Relief, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, the Muslim World League, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth and the Islamic Society of North America.
http://www.democracynow.org/2004/1/14/headlines#3
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