Whoopsie! Obama Accidentally Signs Ban On Ties between FBI And Islamist Groups

It went by mostly unnoticed, but President Obama recently signed a continuing resolution in order to avert a government shutdown. Since he was between golf games and vacays, focused onhis upcoming re-election and probably not paying attention,the bill he signed also had something interesting tucked inside it - a legal ban on ties and liaison between the FBI and terrorism-liked Muslim Brotherhood front groups like CAIR and ISNA:

Under Division B, Title II of the bill, under the Federal Bureau of Investigation-Salaries and Expenses section, is the following provision:

Liaison partnerships- The conferees support the FBI’s policy prohibiting any formal non-investigative cooperation with unindicted co-conspirators in terrorism cases. The conferees expect the FBI to insist on full compliance with this policy by FBI field offices and to report to the Committees on Appropriations regarding any violation of the policy.

The most obvious group that this will impact is the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which was named unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case — the largest terrorism-finance trial in American history.

During the trial, FBI Dallas Agent Lara Burns testified that CAIR was a front for the terrorist group Hamas.

Following the trial, which resulted in guilty verdicts on all counts and lengthy prison terms for all five Holy Land executives, the FBI was forced to cut ties with CAIR – a decision that CAIR claimed would hurt local communities and that prompted other Muslim groups, like the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), to threaten to stop cooperation with the FBI unless CAIR was reinstated.

In a February 2010 letter to members of Congress, Assistant Attorney General Robert Weich forwarded evidence submitted by federal prosecutors in the trial and court testimony concerning CAIR’s ties to the Hamas-controlled Palestine Committee and that committee’s role in supporting Hamas.

Stung by their loss of access to federal law enforcement agencies, some of the Islamic organizations named as unindicted co-conspirators in the case unsuccessfully sued to have their names removed from the list. In a 2009 unsealed decision by federal Judge Jorge Solis, the court found that the government should have submitted the unindicted co-conspirators list under seal, and ordered the list resealed (a hollow victory since the list is readily available), but declined to remove the groups and individuals named.

And it wasn't just CAIR. In his decision, Judge Solis also singled out the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), which owns the property to more than one-quarter of all mosques in North America. Solis wrote in his decisdion that the government had “produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA and NAIT with HLF, the Islamic Association for Palestine (‘IAP’), and with Hamas.” He also wrote: “The Muslim Brotherhood supervised the creation of the ‘Palestine Committee,’ which was put in charge of other organizations, such as HLF, IAP, UASR, and ISNA.” And also: “During the [1993 Philadelphia] conference, Palestine Committee members discussed using ISNA as official cover for their activities.”

A number of CAIR officials who were named as unindicted conspirators in the first HLF trial such as CAIR co-founder Omar Ahmad and current CAIR executive director Nihad Awad were scheduled to be indicted and tried in a second HLF trial in which conviction would have been a snap given Judge Solis' earlier decision. However, if you'll remember, on March 31of this year a "Declination of Prosecution of Omar Ahmad," was sent from Assistant Attorney General David Kris to Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler. The Obama Department of Justice subsequently filed declinations to prosecute on most of the rest of the individuals cited as unindicted co-conspirators and ended the case, essentially letting CAIR, ISNA, and NAIT off the hook, as well as the executives involved.

At the above link, you'll find a particularly juicy clip of Attorney General Eric Holder denying to House Judiciary committee member Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX)that the Obama Administration scuttled the investigation against these Muslim Brotherhood fronts for political considerations.Jim Jacks, who they mention in the exchange was the career federal attorney who successfully prosecuted the first round HLF trials and successfully defended the appeal by the unindicted co-conspirators in the 5th circuit. A report issued at the time quoted anonymous sources and described how Jacks and local FBI agents were outraged at the Obama Administration's decision not to go after Ahmad and to end its prosecution of the case against the Muslim Brotherhood fronts.



Treason? No,absent a declaration of war. But were these actions detrimental to US security? Definitely.

It will be interesting to see if the President singles out this provision with a signing statement next time it comes up.

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