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TechnoratiIslamic Charity Leaders Get 65-Year Jail Terms
HOUSTON - A U.S. judge on Wednesday handed down 65-year prison sentences to two founders of a U.S. Islamic charity convicted of illegally funneling $12.4 million to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
![[FBI agents guarding the entrance to the Holy Land Foundation in Richardson, Texas in 2001. Prosecutors said the Holy Land Foundation funneled money to Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 and is pushing for an independent Palestinian state. The group said it focused on legitimate disaster relief and aid to Palestinian refugees. (AFP/Getty Images/File/Ronald Mart]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/holylandfoundation.jpg "holylandfoundation.jpg")
The sentences came some six months after a grand jury convicted the Holy Land Foundation and five of its leaders for conspiracy to support a foreign terrorist organization, money laundering, tax fraud and other charges.
The foundation, based in a Dallas suburb, was one of the biggest Islamic charities in the United States before the government shut it down in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
The group said it focused on legitimate disaster relief and aid to Palestinian refugees.
"I did it because I cared, not at the behest of Hamas," Shukri Abu Baker, 50, told a federal court in Dallas as U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis sentenced him and Ghassan Elashi, 55, to 65 years in prison, the Dallas Morning News reported.
Three other defendants were sentenced to lesser terms ranging from 15 to 20 years.
"You didn't tell the whole story. Palestinians were in a desperate situation, but that doesn't justify supporting Hamas," the judge said, according to the newspaper.
The sentencing, which followed a 2007 mistrial and a retrial that ended last year, is seen by some as a milestone in the U.S. government's crackdown on financing of overseas terror groups.
"These sentences should serve as a strong warning to anyone who knowingly provides financial support to terrorists under the guise of humanitarian relief," David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, said in a statement.
Prosecutors said the Holy Land Foundation funneled money to Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 and is pushing for an independent Palestinian state. The U.S. government declared Hamas a terrorist organization in 1995.
The Islamic community has said the case highlights what it sees as the unfair scrutiny that U.S. Muslims have been subjected to since the 2001 attacks and that it criminalizes legitimate charitable activities central to Islam.
(Editing by Paul Simao)
23 Comments so far
Show AllFear not! Seeing the horrific nature of this miscarriage of justice, Obama will commute their sentences at the same time he commutes the sentences of the Cuban Five!
George Galloway, former member of British Parliament, delivered a humanitarian shipment (food, medicine, clothing) to Gaza as part of a group called Viva Palestina. When they finally got through the gates between Egypt and Gaza, he handed the shipment to a government rep. Since Hamas was the elected party in Gaza, the representative was from Hamas.
Galloway was able to speak in New Jersey, where he collected money for humanitarian aid and I gave. But he was blocked from entering Canada. Reason: working with a terrorist group.
Anyone who gives money, food or other assistance to the sieged population of Gaza can be subject to arrest or sanctions. I will not be stopped and give money with a check with my name and address. F__k them.
It is important to appeal this stupid, ignorant and mean conviction.
Joe
i am just flat out speechless. all i can do is splutter incoherent rage. monstrous, only a lot worse.
I see that America and Zion has triumphed again.
No humanitarian aid, or food, or clean water for Occupied Palestine. Do we all wave flags now?
"An infant has become the most recent casualty of the nearly two-year-old Israeli policy of collective punishment and its blockade of the Gaza Strip.
On Monday, the 12-month-old infant, named Muhammad Rami Ibrahim Nofal, died as doctors awaited an Israeli permit to take him outside the territory for treatment, the Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported.
The child, who died in a hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis, had been diagnosed with severe cardiac deficiency.
As Gaza depends upon external healthcare systems for the provision of a broad range of medical treatments, the Israeli imposed military blockade forces chronically ill and terminal patients to desperately seek passage out of the coastal strip."
The mortality brings to 337 the number of deaths resulting from exit denials to the Gazan sick.
"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.”"
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/28/headlines#8
Thanks for the quote, fakedemocracy. It's good to inject a little background reality to counter the lies. Let us not forget that Hamas and Hezbollah were not even considered "terrorist" organizations by the U.S.--since they are in fact legitimate representatives of a struggling people--before 9/11 and the bogus "war on terror."
"over a span of fifteen years"
And take note that over those years, Hamas, the Government of Palestine, had not yet been classified as a "terrorist" group by Bush. So, what you have here is another case of "ex post facto" law.
Making the giving of charity, that occured before a law against giving charity was passed, a crime after the fact, used to be unconstitutional in the US. Although it now fits in nicely with torture, preventive detention and massive warrantless wiretapping.
well said!
and if you're an AIPAC spy caught in an act of espionage against the federal government of the US, your case will be dismissed.
Arrest warrants were issued today for all Americans charging them with funneling money to terrorist organizations operating abroad. Principle areas of operations cited as Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The warrants allege the victims, primarily Arab, to number in the millions.
Roundups have begun in all 50 states.
good one azjoe. thanks
I'm more glad all the time that I do not live in Dallas Texas any more. I knew some of the people sentenced to life in prison, and cannot see justice in this. I hope they can appeal. And what is so terrible to help a people who are under the heel of a well-armed occupier who can't allow their "enemy" to have a single weapon? Sound like whining cowards to me. And we fund them.
fascism is alive and well in the united states
the us, itself the biggest terrorist nation in the entire fucking history of the world
along with its pygmy mini-me israel the second largest terorist group in the world
oh the fucking hypocracy
obama - nwo shill - liar, scum and soon to be terrorist in chief after his much sought after war with pakistan
something about this story burns my ass
i think its the hypocracy
At last the judges are cracking down on those who give bread to starving children and thereby support terrorism.
I will bet those leaders at Fort Benning in Georgia are quaking in their boots knowing now they will face long jail terms for their years of supporting the terrorist training camp in the School of Americas.
And that CIA stooge who blew up a Cuban airliner who is currently living the life of luxury in Miami will now be shopping for the latest in prison garb.
Yes, this judge has restored my confidence that justice will prevail (NOT).
District Judge Jorge Solis, eh? Oh, goody! A Latino on the Federal bench. Obviously, he had his intructions.
The American people send their money to the world's greatest terrorist organization every April 15th, at gun point as necessary. Clearly, both the Democratic and Republican Parties and AIPAC are truly 'terrorist' organizations.
What a load of hypocrites especially when the link between US Aid and the rise in political assassinations ,repressive governments with major links to state terrorism has been well documented for years.We can fund terrorism and that's okay but don't get any funny ideas about doing the same, that is assuming they did indeed fund anything other than humanitarian relief as they have continuously maintained.Land of the brave and free and I mean that in the most insulting way.
"Prosecutors said the Holy Land Foundation funneled money to Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007."
No. The real history is this:
An armed Fatah coup was staged, with help from the US and Isreal, against the popularly-elected Hamas government. In Gaza, Hamas fighters were able to foil the coup and stay in power. Unfortunately, the coup was not foiled in Ramallah, leading to Fatah and the virtual Isreali-puppet Abbas taking over the token-territories of the West Bank.
In other words, the official history through repeated tellings, is exactly the opposite of what really happened. War is peace, slavery is freedom.
apologies double post
This is justice.
Muslims sent to jail. Israel agents including false flag ones get a free pass.
Hamas is the legally-elected government of Gaza. We send $15 million dollars a day to Israel, and a huge amount to Israel's sidekick Egypt, who continue the illegal siege of the Gaza Ghetto, part of Israel's ongoing slow-motion holocaust against the Palestinian people.
We learn today that the photos of abuse of Iranian women and children by U.S. troops include scenes of rape and sodomy.
So the U.S. sends the founders of a charity that is helping the starving children of Gaza to prison for the rest of their lives? Who is the terrorist organization here, Hamas or the U.S.?
God bless America? I really don't think so. Our depravity has no limits.
I think you meant Iraqi, not Iranian. Iraqis and Iranians are two totally different people.
By the definition of terrorism being a political act of violence against civilians, the United States government is the larges terrorist organization in the world. The Israeli government runs us a close second.
Call me anti-Semite ... but just remember, the Palestinians are Semite, and the Euro-Jews who have immigrated mostly _aren't_.