An FBI chart has surfaced depicting connections between the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Obtained by the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the chart shows CAIR falling under the umbrella of the jihadi outfit.
This FBI chart details the Hamas-related groups, which included CAIR, that were created to ultimately support the Palestinian terrorist organization. It also established Nabil Sadoun’s (former CAIR national board of directors member and vice chairman) connections to Hamas.
The IPT also obtained groundbreaking new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) documents that trail CAIR back to its roots as a subversive Hamas-related group.
In 2007, CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) trial, a Hamas financing case that would result in the FBI ceasing its working relationship with CAIR. The HLF trial was the largest terror-financing case in American history. In 2008, during a retrial of the HLF case, an FBI Special Agent labeled CAIR as “a front group for Hamas” during her trial testimony. In 2010, a federal judge reiterated that his court had “ample evidence” that CAIR was involved in “a conspiracy to support Hamas.” CAIR, which relies upon millions of dollars in Saudi cash, was recently listed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a terrorist organization.
The group, which fashions itself as a civil rights voice for American Muslims, was founded by members of the Palestine Committee (PALCOM), an organization “established to support Hamas,” according to the chart. Nihad Awad, currently CAIR’s executive director, was previously an official at PALCOM.
The FBI declaration submitted in connection with removal proceedings for Nabil Sadoun (a former top CAIR official) said PALCOM members used coded language to discuss the “true nature” of their clandestine operations in support of Hamas. During a Philadelphia conference, which was being wiretapped by the FBI, they “referred to Hamas as ‘Samah’–Hamas spelled backwards–or simply as ‘the Movement,’” the FBI declaration said.
IPT FOIA
“It is clear that the true nature of the PALCOM meeting was to discuss the means to support Hamas’ goal to undermine the peace process (between Israel and the Palestinians) and to thwart law enforcement in the United States,” the FBI declaration read.
According to the FBI declaration, attendees of the Philly meeting “discussed how ‘Samah’ would one day be labeled as a terrorist organization by the US government,” the document said, adding they “discussed the need to create a new, uncompromised front group in the United States under the veil of some cover palatable to the American public.”
CAIR was “subsequently founded” after the Philly Conference, where attendees discussed the “need to create a new front organization” for Hamas, the FBI declaration said, with PALCOM tasking Omar Ahmad and Nihad Awad to chair the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). A third founder, Nabil Sadoun, would join shortly thereafter as Vice-Chairman of CAIR. According to the FBI, Sadoun was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and “was affiliated with Hamas.” Sadoun was also involved with other organizations that solicited funding for Hamas. At one point, he brought Hamas chairman Khaled Mashaal to keynote a conference in Oklahoma City, the FBI declaration reveals.
IPT FOIA
IPT FOIA
Before becoming CAIR’s Vice-Chair, Sadoun was motivated by violent jihad, IPT found. Asked about the Middle East conflict with “the Jews” (Israel) in a 1993 interview, Sadoun described the conflict as “the first priority for Muslim[s] until the Holy Land is liberated and the backbone of the Jews is broken.” He also discussed “raising the spirit of jihad and the struggle amidst the Palestinian people… to form a tight Islamic front to face the Zionist Existence and put an end to it.” Sadoun would later be deported from the country, ordered removed from the U.S. by an Immigration Court after authorities alleged he lied about his affiliation with organizations linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.
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