Posted on 07/31/2002 5:36:29 PM PDT by Stultis
Last modified: 03:26 AM CDT on Wednesday, July 31, 2002
FBI memo says local charity paid for his trips here, but U.S. did too
07/31/2002
WASHINGTON – Sheik Jamil Hamami figures prominently in the government's case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, the Dallas-area Muslim charity raided and shut down last year after being designated a financial front for the Hamas terrorist organization.
Holy Land paid for the sheik, a senior Hamas leader in the West Bank, to travel to the United States at least six times in 1990 and 1991 to headline fund-raising events, U.S. officials disclosed in a once-confidential FBI memo and in other documents linking the charity to Hamas.
Holy Land wasn't alone in bankrolling his travel.
The U.S. government treated Sheik Hamami to a three-week, all-expenses-paid tour of Washington, Los Angeles and other cities in 1999 – four years after the United States declared Hamas a terrorist organization.
'Beyond hypocritical'
Attorneys for Holy Land, which has gone to court in a bid to reclaim the $4 million to $5 million frozen by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control last year, contend that the government is on shaky ground using the Hamami connection to prove ties to Hamas. Representatives of Holy Land, which raised $13.3 million in 2000, deny any ties to Hamas.
"It seems beyond hypocritical that the United States government would accuse the Holy Land Foundation of consorting with terrorists when, in this case, it's someone who the U.S. government has invited over as its guest," John Boyd, one of the organization's lawyers, said Tuesday.
The Justice Department, which is representing the Treasury Department and other federal agencies in the Holy Land legal proceedings, declined to comment on the claim. "We will respond in court," said Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller.
Sheik Hamami, who has renounced the suicide bombings and other violent methods used by Hamas to achieve Palestinian statehood, was a guest of the U.S. Information Agency for a February 1999 international visitors program on religion.
Officials at the State Department, which absorbed the Information Agency later in 1999, declined to comment on the trip.
In letters to Sheik Hamami, Information Agency officials at the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem discussed his selection for a program on "Religion in America."
"This program is designed for mid-level professionals to meet their American counterparts and to exchange views on the latest developments in their fields," a Feb. 5, 1999, letter to Sheik Hamami explained. "Our office will provide the ticket for travel to the U.S. and per diem to cover hotel and meal costs."
Correspondence from the consulate described Sheik Hamami and other participants as "distinguished gentlemen."
Yet in recent legal filings opposing Holy Land's effort to recover its assets, Justice Department lawyers refer to Sheik Hamami as a "known Hamas principal."
School donations
In court this month, government attorneys said Holy Land contributed funds, even after Hamas was designated a terrorist organization, to a school run by Sheik Hamami "when they clearly know who Hamami is."
"Hamami was so well known as a Hamas leader that a textbook on Islamic fundamentalism and Hamas (written by a Palestinian professor from Bir Zeit University) described Hamami as a founder of the Hamas movement ... ," Justice lawyers wrote last month.
The government's decision to freeze Holy Land's funds rests on more than just the Hamami link.
Citing intelligence from electronic intercepts, the Israeli government and other sources, the Justice and Treasury departments contend that Holy Land was established as a funding mechanism for Hamas and took its directions from Hamas leadership.
Some of the charity's contributions were funneled to Hamas-linked organizations and the families of militants killed in violent attacks on Israel, Justice Department lawyer Elizabeth Shapiro said this month.
The Holy Land lawyers filed a motion Tuesday asking U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler to permit them to introduce information about the government-funded Hamami trip, which they said they had learned about only recently.
"Now it appears that one of the defendants' principal allegations – that Holy Land paid for Hamami's speaking tour to the United States and met and conversed with him – parallels what the United States itself did, even after it designated Hamas a terrorist organization," the charity's lawyers wrote.
"The government's use of the 'Hamami connection' to buttress its case, along with some of the other evidence that Holy Land has placed in the record, suggests once again that the defendants have concocted a false record against Holy Land."
The Justice Department is opposing Holy Land's effort to submit the Hamami information. Department lawyers argued this month that the court must examine the Treasury Department's decision to freeze Holy Land's funds solely on the basis of the evidence compiled by the government.
"The fact that the government is opposing the admission of this evidence into the record is another indication that the government's view continues to be that the truth doesn't matter," Mr. Boyd charged.
E-mail mmittelstadt@dallasnews.com
What the heck...??
They should treat him to three minutes of balls' squeezing... any door would do.
I can't wait to hear Clintin's response to this
Chelsea was studying the Koran.
Hillary the pom-pom girl for the Palestinian state was smooching Suha and taking donations from the American Museum Council (American Muslim Council, whatever). . . .
Traitor-rapist 42 was installing Barak via Carville to betray Israel to Arafat.
All the while the FBI was concealing Middle East terrorist links to the OKC Bomb and TWA Flight 800.
The Golden Age of the Pro-Jihad Fifth Column.
"This program is designed for mid-level professionals to meet their American counterparts and to exchange views on the latest developments in their fields," a Feb. 5, 1999, letter to Sheik Hamami explained. "Our office will provide the ticket for travel to the U.S. and per diem to cover hotel and meal costs."
Hmmm... we couldn't have 'God' in our pledge because of the so-called separation of church and state, and the libs resist school vouchers supposedly for the same reason, while the same people are compelled to fund with US tax dollars a bunch of silly religion seminars and teas. I'm beginning to see where all the missing funds from various federal departments have been siphoned off to...
What can these people be thinking??? Don't they remember Japan??
Not like Chinee! We no likee Nipponese, but Chinee peoper ruv honorawble Crington. You no warwy Chinee peoper! Chinee ruv exchange technorogy. (But we no signee nondiscrowsure ahgreement!)</PRC General Mode>
Uh, who? The Feds or the Arabs?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.