Brigitte Gabriel

A former Arab news anchor–turned–national security advocate has created a petition demanding that the subjects of the new book "Muslim Mafia" be investigated.

"We call on the U.S. government to conduct an immediate and thorough investigation into the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the interest of national security," says the new petition by Brigitte Gabriel, who now runs the ACT! for America organization.

Gabriel covered news throughout Israel, Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, and her work brought her into contact with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, President George H.W. Bush and Israeli leaders Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Ariel Sharon.

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She moved to the United States in 1989 and founded a television production company as well as ACT! for America, which is dedicated to educating millions about the threat of radical Islam to world peace and national security.

Now her petition, which already has attracted thousands of signatures, demands:

• The U.S. Department of Justice share with each member of the U.S. Congress an executive summary of the findings that led them to name CAIR as a co-conspirator in a terrorism case.
  
  
• The House Sergeant at Arms work with all members of Congress and their top staff, particularly those members who sit on the House Judiciary, Homeland Security, and Intelligence Committees, to perform background checks on staff under their employ, considering evidence that CAIR has strategically worked to place staffers there.
  
  
• The U.S. Internal Revenue Service perform a full and thorough investigation into the business activities of CAIR, specifically their lobbying activities, to judge if they are in violation of their federal non-profit status as a 501(c)(3) organization.

Her points are similar to the demands of four members of Congress who were alarmed at the revelations in "Muslim Mafia," by Paul Sperry and David Gaubatz, which was based on an extended undercover operation at the organization that lobbies for Muslim interests but is considered by many in law enforcement to be a front group for terrorists.

Reps. Sue Myrick, R-N.C.; Trent Franks, R-Ariz.; John Shadegg, R-Ariz.; and Paul Broun, R-Ga., have called for an internal House investigation as well as for a review from the Department of Justice about CAIR's activities.

Gabriel is a member of the board of advisers of the Intelligence Summit, lectures on global terrorism and is author of New York Times best-sellers "Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America" and "They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It."

Her petition declares, "It's time for a federal investigation of CAIR."

Expressing concern for the ongoing activities of CAIR, the petition reminds elected officials "that CAIR has documented ties to the terrorist organization Hamas and that CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trail," which ended with guilty verdicts on 108 counts of funneling $12 million to Hamas.

"We remind our elected officials that CAIR has individuals either under its current or former employ, or as its affiliates, who have direct ties to terrorism both in the U.S. and abroad: such as Nihad Awad, CAIR's current national executive director, who participated in a meeting about how to disguise payments to Hamas terrorists as charity; Abdurahman Alamoudi, a CAIR director who is now serving 23 years in federal prison for plotting terrorism; and Omar M. Ahmad, CAIR's founder and former chairman, who was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land case, to name but a few examples," the petition states.

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"We are deeply concerned at recent reports that CAIR has worked to undermine U.S. law enforcement by tipping off suspected terrorists under investigation, and by directing Muslim-Americans to not cooperate with the FBI," it continued.

"We are dismayed that, despite these facts, CAIR continues to be the primary group consulted by both media and government agencies with regard to the Muslim-American community. In the name of true transparency, therefore, we request that Congress and the administration [investigate]," she wrote.

"Where there's smoke, there's fire," Gabriel wrote in an e-mail promotion for the petition. "For years there has been plenty of smoke around CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations. In the past twelve months that smoke has thickened.

"It's past time our government did its duty in protecting national security and launched appropriate investigations of CAIR," she said.

Omar Ahmad

CAIR, along with its founding chairman Omar M. Ahmad, were named by the U.S. Justice Department as unindicted co-conspirators in a criminal conspiracy led by the Holy Land Foundation charity to underwrite Palestinian terrorism.

"CAIR has been identified by the government at trial as a participant in an ongoing and ultimately unlawful conspiracy to support a designated terrorist organization – a conspiracy from which CAIR never withdrew," federal prosecutors wrote in September 2007, according to court documents.

Following the blacklisting, the FBI severed ties with CAIR, a move that sent shock waves throughout the American Muslim establishment.

"Until we can resolve whether there continues to be a connection between CAIR or its executives and Hamas," explained assistant FBI director Richard C. Powers, "the FBI does not view CAIR as an appropriate liaison partner."

The 15-year-old nonprofit organization's top executives for years had enjoyed virtually unfettered access to power in the capital, even meeting with presidents and rubbing elbows with congressional leaders.

Now Ahmad and CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad have come under active investigation for their roles in the criminal conspiracy to funnel millions of dollars to Hamas terrorists, according to "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America."

The book quotes Awad privately saying he thought the Holy Land defendants, who were found guilty on all 108 felony counts, should be "exonerated" and suggested "Jewish organizations" framed them.

Both Omar, aka Omar Yehia, and Awad, who uses the alias Nehad Hammad, are Palestinian refugees who together founded CAIR in 1994 after operating the Hamas front Islamic Association for Palestine.

The book alleges investigators are focusing on the CAIR co-founders' ties to Hamas' top leader in the U.S. – Shukri Abu Baker – who earlier this year was sentenced to what in effect will be a life term in prison for his role in the Holy Land conspiracy.

They say Abu Baker coordinated a secret meeting with Ahmad in a Philadelphia hotel, where Hamas leaders hatched a scheme to disguise payments to Palestinian suicide bombers and their families as charity. Investigators say the two arranged the meeting in a Dallas phone conversation.

The FBI wiretaps of the 1993 meeting also identify the presence of CAIR chief Awad, who gave a presentation regarding plans to conceal the true nature of the front groups involved in the plot through media propaganda efforts. Room invoices from the Courtyard by Marriott hotel meeting are presented in the book.

"Muslim Mafia" – based in part on some 12,000 pages of documents collected from inside CAIR's national headquarters during a private undercover operation – presents for the first time evidence that CAIR gave at least $40,000 to Baker's front group in Dallas. Just a few months later that group turned around and gave exactly $40,000 to Hamas suicide bombers in Gaza, documents show.

The FBI's Washington field office is working in coordination with the bureau's Dallas field office on the ongoing investigation. Dallas FBI Special Agent Lara Burns has testified, unequivocally, that CAIR is a front group for the Hamas terrorist group.

If you're a member of the media and would like to interview Paul Sperry, Dave Gaubatz or Chris Gaubatz, e-mail WND's marketing department or call Tim Bueler at (530) 401-3285.

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They Must Be Stopped (Book)

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