The Holy Land Foundation trial, one of the most important anti-Islamist cases in American jurisprudence is finally approaching endgame:
A founding member of what was once the nation's largest Muslim charity was sentenced to 65 years in prison Wednesday for funneling millions of dollars to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Shukri Abu Baker, 50, of Garland, Texas, was the first of five members of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development to be sentenced. Mohammad El-Mezain, 55, was later sentenced to 180 months for one count of conspiracy to support a terrorist organization.
After a jury failed to reach a verdict in 2007, the men were convicted in a second trial last November on 108 charges stemming from allegations the charity sent more than $12 million to Hamas. It's illegal to give support to Hamas, which has been listed by the U.S. as a terror group since 1995 and is blamed for hundreds of suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians.
The charity leaders were convicted on charges ranging from supporting a terrorist organization to money laundering and tax fraud. The three men still to be sentenced —Ghassan Elashi, Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulrahman Odeh — were convicted of conspiracy
These criminal scum gave the usual defense - that they were just supporting 'social welfare programs'. not violence. It's absolute nonsense considering that there was no accounting or verification of where the funds actually went, and the money went to support a group that preaches genocide against Jews not only in Israel but worldwide...a little fact the squishy AP story linked to above leaves out.
As I've written before, I'm sorry these men are going to prison. These jihadis were involved in an organization trying to subvert our country's government and cheerfully raised money to murder women and kids.
It isn't going to happen but it would be far better to hang them as conspirators to murder and treason, followed by a pigskin burial as an example to those of like mind who might be tempted to emulate them.
i've got sort of a mixed-up feeling about this holy land foundation stuff. in some ways it sort or reminds me of the iran/contra affair.
ReplyDeletei mean on the one hand you've got guys who have given money and weapons to hamass.
no, i wasn't talking about the ra....., ra....., people that ff was speaking. i was talking about bush & hussein. both of them have given aid and comfort to hamass. now if they can do it, why can't these ra......, ra......., people do the same? and both administrations are supporting something of a coup, because i thought abbass couldn't be president after some day in january, and the paly people elected hamass as their gov't. but bush and hussein openly support/recognize abbass as the leader of the paly people.
i just sort of feel mixed-up about this holy land stuff.
Hey Louie,
ReplyDeleteHow are you?
First two wrongs don't make a right. And some jihadi creeps masquerading as a 'charity' do not have the legitimacy or oversight of our government.
Second, you're totally correct when you say that Bush and Obama are giving aid not only to Hamas but to Hezbollah...Obama much more so than Bush, to be fair.
And yes, Bush definitely tried to pull off a coup against Hamas, and I said so here a long time ago.
Essentially, he bought Abbas' BS that with enough arms and support,(and pressure on Israel) he could defeat Hamas and become the pro-US Palestinian strongman.
Condi Rice in particular bought this nonsense in a big way. Like a significant percentage of university educated blacks steeped in the 'third world, people of color' miasma, she's probably not exactly a friend of Jews in general.
It would have been far more sensible for us to simply allow Israel to destroy Hamas, and Bush went in that direction with Cast Lead, but too late in the game..and plus, Olmert was still running things.
So it was a proxy war, with us backing Abbas and Iran backing Hamas, and Hamas is totally correct to point out the hypocrisy of our preaching Arab democracy on one hand and trying to subvert it on the other.
The problem is, if we acknowledge that, we have to stop funding the Palestinians because it would then be contrary to US law..and that would never do.Abbas is just a front man in this scam. he skims off most of the aid and gives enough to Hamas to keep them mollified.
You can definitely expect Obama to come up with a mechanism to bypass Fatah and give money directly and openly to Hamas in the near future.
Abbas' term officially ran out in January of this year and he has little support from th ePalestinians in either Fatah or Hamas aside from the fact that he's a famiiar face for the West to give money to.
If the IDF pulled out of Judea and Samaria totally and left the 'Palestinian Authority' on its own, Hamas would take over in a matter of weeks.
As it is, Hezbollah is going to take over Lebanon de facto after the June 7th elections.
Regards,
Rob