And remember: CAIR condemns “terrorism.” From Andrew Whitehead and Lee Kaplan in Frontpage:
The conviction of a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) state operative is but the latest apparent link between that Islamist organization and Islamist terrorism. On April 13, 2005, Ghassan Elashi, founder of the group’s Texas chapter (CAIR-Texas) – as well as longtime associate of CAIR’s top leadership and beneficiary of CAIR fundraising and support – was convicted of laundering money for Islamic terrorist organizations from November 1995 through April 2001.
Dating back to the early 1990s, Elashi had close ties to CAIR’s leaders Bassam Khafagi, Imam Siraj Wahaj, and Randall Todd “Ismail” Royer, former civil rights coordinator and communications specialist for the “Muslim civil rights group.”
Elashi founded CAIR’s Texas chapter sometime before October 2000. (CAIR-Texas first appeared as an affiliate on the CAIR national website at that time.) Therefore, it is evident Elashi was a high-ranking CAIR official at the time he committed the pro-terrorist crimes for which he was convicted.
Elashi’s conviction is bad news for CAIR. Its ties with Elashi are too deep and the evidence of CAIR’s complicity too obvious for CAIR to spin. For example, just after the Islamic terrorist attacks of 9/11, the CAIR website contained a section entitled, “What you can do for the victims of the WTC and Pentagon attacks,” which solicited contributions to the “NY/DC Emergency Relief Fund.” The only problem was, this so-called “Relief Fund” never existed. The link provided by CAIR led the would-be contributor directly to the Holy Land Foundation website. The Holy Land Foundation, a government-designated terrorist front group, was also shut down by the U.S. government for funding terrorism overseas. The trial of its leadership is scheduled to begin next year.
And just who was the head of the Holy Land Foundation? Elashi.
A coincidence? Not likely. However, that will not mean CAIR will immediately admit the connection
Consider CAIR’s reaction when a CAIR official was questioned about former CAIR Randall Royer on Fox’s “Hannity and Colmes” TV program:
HANNITY: Did you not have a spokesman for your group at one time, a guy by the name of Royer that was on your staff that was convicted?
BEDIER: I think several years ago we had that individual in our group. And if you’re inciting that somehow we’re responsible for the actions or behavior of the individuals after they left our organization, that would be similar to somebody that worked for FOX five years ago and then commits a crime and FOX would be responsible for it.
In fact, Royer was an active official in CAIR at the time he committed his crimes. This exchange is classic: When you can’t dispute the facts, fib and hope the person you’re talking to doesn’t catch you. In this case, Hannity didn’t pursue the matter, and Bedier got away with it…
Read it all.