Muslim Mafia (8 page)

“Washington must attempt to understand Islamic movements in the area, and start supporting Islamic groups including Mr. Bin Laden and his associates.”

—Draft of 2004 talking points memo found in CAIR’s executive files
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I
T COMES AS LITTLE SURPRISE
that a Palestinian terrorist front run by Palestinian refugees and created from a Palestinian terrorist group would support Palestinian terrorists. But CAIR also supports al-Qaida and Taliban terrorists, as well as homegrown terrorists who kill cops. It’s a full-service terror support group.

Consider the following clients:

IMAM JAMIL AL-AMIN

The black convert to Islam was a founding member of the Islamic Shura Council of North America and a darling of the Muslim Brotherhood. Then he shot two sheriff’s deputies and, instead of being shunned, became a martyr celebrated by CAIR and the rest of the Muslim mafia.

The Atlanta deputies were shot while trying to arrest al-Amin for failing to appear before a judge to answer auto theft charges. The Muslim preacher pulled out two guns and shot one deputy in both legs, the left arm, and the chest. He pumped another six bullets into the other deputy, killing him, before fleeing the scene. He was captured after a multistate manhunt.

The surviving officer identified al-Amin from mugshots. Formerly known as H. Rap Brown, al-Amin had done time in New York for robbery. Bullets removed from the officers and recovered from the scene of the shooting, which took place outside al-Amin’s Atlanta home, matched al-Amin’s weapons.

In 2002, a jury convicted al-Amin and sentenced him to life in prison without parole for the murder of Fulton County Deputy Ricky Kinchen. The Georgia Supreme Court upheld the verdict two years later.
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Despite overwhelming evidence of his guilt, CAIR has practically canonized this vicious cop killer. The group participated in a news conference in Atlanta decrying his guilty verdict, and CAIR’s executive director even visited al-Amin in jail.

Worse, recent internal correspondence reveals that CAIR has been bankrolling the murderer’s legal defense fund.

“We extend appreciation to you and CAIR for the additional contribution of $9,000 to be used for legal expenses relative to Imam Jamil al-Amin’s case,” attorney Karima al-Amin wrote CAIR director Awad in a 2007 letter. “The contribution particularly was needed to defray the cost of the recent habeas hearing held in Reidsville, Georgia.”

“As always,” al-Amin closed, “Imam Jamil sends his greetings and appreciation for the assistance.”
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In other words, CAIR has been conspiring behind the scenes to release a cop killer from a maximum-security prison and put him back on the street.

AMERICAN TALIBAN

First CAIR defended John Walker Lindh, who’s serving a twenty-year sentence for fighting alongside the Taliban against U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Then it tried to defend a second American Taliban before thinking better of it.

After the 2006 arrest of Kobie Williams, aka Abdul Kabeer, CAIR’s legal department considered rallying to his defense until the Houston college student pleaded guilty to charges he conspired to aid the Taliban. Even his lawyer admitted he made a “grave mistake,” creating a political dilemma for CAIR.

“It is a difficult case,” concluded then-CAIR national legal director Arasalan Iftikhar in an email to Awad and Hooper. “We need to stay away from this case
publicly
, in my opinion” (emphasis added).
⁴

CAIR ultimately decided to back off the case because of the PR problem it would generate. However, later that month CAIR sent a representative from Houston to support another homegrown terrorist who happened to be a confederate of Williams in the so-called Houston Taliban group. Unlike Williams, Shira Syed Qazi did not admit guilt. So CAIR’s Houston chapter vice president showed up in court to cheer him on. A judge nonetheless found Qazi guilty.
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AHMED OMAR ABU ALI

CAIR’s leaders have received in their executive suites the lawyers and relatives of not only convicts Randall “Ismail” Royer and Lindh, but also those of the al-Qaida operative convicted of plotting to assassinate President Bush.

On April 22, 2004, just before noon, Abu Ali’s father left his office at the Saudi Embassy in Washington and met with CAIR director Awad, CAIR’s visitor register for that year shows.
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Then a few weeks later, Awad traveled to Saudi Arabia with the attorney for the Ali family. On May 14, Awad personally met with the U.S. consul in Saudi Arabia to challenge Abu Ali’s ongoing detention in a prison there and to lobby for his release.
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Awad and Abu Ali’s lawyer Ashraf Nubani met several times to coordinate efforts to free the al-Qaida-trained terrorist, even after he made a detailed confession.
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After a federal jury convicted Abu Ali on all counts of aiding al-Qaida and plotting terrorist attacks, CAIR continued to support and defend him. The young terrorist, who was recently linked to the al-Qaida ringleader of the London suicide bombings, is serving a life sentence in a supermax facility.

Entries in CAIR’s visitor register reveal its headquarters has an open door policy for such terrorists. CAIR is the only place in America (outside of criminal defense law firms) where terrorists are valued clients.

Curiously, there are no clients or visitors listed in CAIR’s national register during the month of September 2001. By comparison, numerous visitors made entries during the months of August 2001 and October 2001.

SAMI AL-ARIAN

CAIR has long championed the case of this convicted Palestinian terrorist, including co-sponsoring the premiere of a documentary film lionizing him. CAIR in 2007 hosted the screening of
USA vs. Al-Arian
at a Washington theater just a year after al-Arian was sentenced to fifty-seven months in prison followed by deportation.
⁹

In a plea deal, he copped to a reduced charge of “conspiracy to make or receive contributions of funds, goods, or services to, or for the benefit of, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad,” a federally designated terror group.

After the former Florida professor was released from prison last year, CAIR issued a congratulatory statement. “We welcome Dr. al-Arian’s release and hope that it is an indication that justice may ultimately be served in this disturbing case,” said CAIR chief Awad.
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However, al-Arian remains under house arrest in northern Virginia on a federal contempt citation after refusing to testify in front of a Virginia grand jury investigating a network of Muslim Brotherhood fronts known as the Safa group, despite being granted immunity from prosecution. Al-Arian, a senior Muslim Brotherhood member, received funds from leaders of the Safa group.

TAHA AL-AWANI

Federal prosecutors listed al-Alwani as an unindicted co-conspirator in the al-Arian terror case. His International Institute of Islamic Thought, or IIIT, was the single biggest donor for al-Arian’s Tampa-based terror front group.
¹¹

The Virginia think tank IIIT (pronounced “triple I-T”) is at the center of a long-running terror financing probe vehemently protested by CAIR.

After federal agents raided IIIT and the other Brotherhood fronts in the Safa group network after 9/11, CAIR rushed to their defense, even lobbying members of Congress to pressure the Treasury Department and FBI to back off their investigations, internal CAIR documents detail.
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In one of its internal phone directories, CAIR lists another IIIT honcho among its “Recommended Community Leaders.” Jamal Barzinji, a senior Muslim Brotherhood leader, remains the subject of a federal terror financing investigation. “Barzinji is not only closely associated with PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad], but also with Hamas,” said senior federal agent David Kane in a sworn court affdavit.
¹³

CAIR has a lot at stake in the Safa investigation. The ties between it and the Saudi-backed group are incestuous. For starters, CAIR contracts with Barzinji’s brother’s printing company to publish the books and other propaganda materials it distributes. Amana Limited’s offices were among those searched after 9/11.

Also, CAIR opened its Maryland/Virginia chapter right across the street from IIIT in Herndon, Virginia in an office owned by another Safa entity, Sterling Management Group.
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CAIR’s landlord, Sterling CEO Yaqub Mirza, a Safa ringleader also under terror suspicion, attended its ribbon-cutting ceremony in 2004.
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Of all the office space available in Fairfax County, CAIR chose to set up shop not just in Herndon, but on Grove Street, where many of the companies raided by federal agents are located. It was a natural fit, of course. CAIR intern Chris Gaubatz says he often walked across the street with CAIR employees—including his boss, Khalid Iqbal—to pray at the notorious IIIT, which has contributed thousands of dollars to CAIR’s operations, internal donor records kept by CAIR show.

Lucky for CAIR it did not operate an office in Herndon back in 2002 when agents conducted their raids on IIIT and the other Grove Street fronts. If it had, investigators say CAIR more than likely would have been included in the search warrant.

ZAID SHAKIR

CAIR keeps inviting this radical Muslim cleric back to speak at its events even though the FBI questioned him about a copy of one of his incendiary pamphlets found in the apartment of a suspect in the first World Trade Center bombing. The pro-jihad pamphlet lauded the “armed struggle” that brought about the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

In his lectures, Shakir preaches treachery against the United States. He once told a Muslim audience that hijacking U.S. military aircraft is fair game in jihad, as a forthcoming chapter will detail.

Shakir, who recently confided to the
New York Times
that he “would like to see America become a Muslim country” ruled by Islamic law,
¹⁶
is a regular speaker at CAIR and ISNA events. Recently, he helped host workshops or delivered the keynote speech at banquets held at CAIR chapters in Chicago, Orlando, and San Diego, among others.

“Imam Zaid’s speeches are very practical and bring the best out of his listeners,” claims former CAIR official Ibrahim Moiz, a close personal friend who invited Shakir to speak to Muslims in Maryland.
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Perhaps the cleric has tempered his jihadist views? Not a chance: “I don’t regret anything I’ve done or said,” Shakir says.
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JAMES “YOUSEF” YEE

CAIR has also championed the cause of this former Army Muslim chaplain charged with espionage while serving at the U.S. military detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Yee was caught returning to the U.S. with maps of Gitmo prison facilities and lists of U.S. interrogators and Taliban and al-Qaida detainees among other classified materials, and was arrested at a U.S. airport.

He was charged with espionage, mishandling classified documents, and lying to investigators; he served hard time in a South Carolina stockade. Two of his Muslim cronies at Gitmo, both Arabic interpreters, were convicted of stealing or mishandling classified documents.

Far from being exonerated, as he and CAIR contend, the military only dropped charges against him to protect national security. Guantanamo commander Major General Geoffrey Miller, who originally accused Yee of spying, explained that there were “national security concerns that would arise from the release of the evidence” if the case moved to trial.

There’s no question that Yee, a captain who converted to Islam, was at the very least sympathetic to al-Qaida and Taliban captives at Gitmo.

Yet CAIR took up his case without reservation, calling his prosecution an “injustice” and his treatment “inhumane.” During the 2006 congressional campaign, for instance, Awad flew to Minneapolis to appear alongside him as a featured guest at a Democratic fundraiser for U.S. Representative Keith Ellison. CAIR that same year hosted a “Shutting Gitmo Panel” featuring Yee at the U.S. Capitol building.
¹⁹

And CAIR published a sympathetic portrait of the defrocked Gitmo chaplain—complete with a touching photo of him and his family—in the media guide it recently distributed to national journalists. Yee is featured as an example of the ideal Muslim, one who dutifully “counseled” fellow Muslims at Gitmo, as the photo caption reads.
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In fact, Yee acted more like a defense attorney for the hardened killers there, complaining that guards subjected them to cruel “abuse” and “psychological torture.”

Waterboarding? Electric shock? No, they committed the sadistic act of mishandling copies of the Quran that Yee had made sure each inmate received. He also saw to it that each copy of the Quran came with a surgical mask to cradle the Muslim holy book above ground to keep it safe and clean.

In addition, Yee convinced his superiors to provide the Muslim terrorists with prayer beads, prayer oils, prayer caps, and up to half a dozen books on Islam from the library, which he stocked with some $26,000 worth of Arabic and English titles.

Thanks to him, the terrorists have been able to brush up on their jihad as they await repatriation to Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Pakistan. No doubt some of the more than seventy-five former Gitmo detainees who have returned to the anti-American jihad were among those the former chaplain “counseled.”