 Omar Ahmad |
The government-watchdog Judicial Watch is suing the Department of Justice for failing to respond to the group’s request for public records related to the DOJ’s decision not to prosecute the Council on American Islamic Relations and co-founder Omar Ahmad.
Judicial Watch notes Ahmad has been linked by federal investigators to the terrorist group Hamas. Both CAIR and Ahmad individually were named by the DOJ as unindicted co-conspirators in the department’s prosecution of the Texas–based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which was convicted of funneling some $12 million to Hamas.
The decision not to prosecute Ahmad reportedly was made over the objections of special agents of the FBI and prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Dallas.
Judicial Watch says it sent a Freedom of Information Act request to the DOJ’s Office of Information Policy seeking access to communications and contacts related to the Washington, D.C.-based CAIR and Ahmad.
The watchdog specified it wants to see a March 31, 2010, memorandum entitled “Declination of Prosecution of Omar Ahmad from Attorney General David Kris to Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler.”
Judicial Watch filed a similar request May 8 with the DOJ’s National Security Division seeking access to contacts and correspondence between the NSD and CAIR, Congress and the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of Texas regarding the decision not to prosecute.
Both DOJ divisions have acknowledged receipt of Judicial Watch’s request by did not respond by the respective June 14 and June 13 deadlines.
As WND has reported, CAIR is suing a father and son who documented the group’s links to worldwide jihad through a six-month undercover operation. CAIR alleges it suffered damage when former federal agent P. David Gaubatz and his son, Chris Gaubatz, who served as a CAIR intern, obtained access to some 12,000 pages of CAIR internal documents under false pretenses and made recordings of officials and employees without consent.
Many of the documents were cited in a WND Books expose David Gaubatz co-authored with Paul Sperry, “Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That’s Conspiring to Islamize America.” The book presents evidence for the Islamic group’s link to radical jihad, recounting its origin as a front group for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, the worldwide movement that has stated its intent to transform the U.S. into a Saudi-style Islamic state.
Meanwhile, in the wake of the IRS’ recent removal of CAIR’s tax exempt status, a congressman has asked the IRS to investigate whether the D.C.-based Muslim lobby group has “illegally received or solicited funds from foreign governments or agents.”
Ways to support Hamas
Ahmad served as senior executive on the Palestine Committee, an umbrella organization of U.S.-based Hamas support groups.
According to sworn testimony by an FBI agent during the prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation, Ahmad moderated a conference in Philadelphia in October 1993 in which participants discussed ways to support Hamas.
Wiretaps from the Philadelphia conference reflect that Ahmad participated in a number of meetings related to the goals, strategies and American perception of the Muslim Brotherhood.
A federal judge has declined an attempt by CAIR to remove the organization’s designation as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation lawsuit, ruling that the government “has produced ample evidence to establish the associations” of CAIR with Hamas.
“The American people have a right to know why the Obama Justice Department decided against prosecuting a terrorist-connected Muslim extremist over the objections of federal investigators,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
Fitton said the case against Ahmad and CAIR is “substantial.”
“And given the politicization of the Justice Department under Eric Holder, it certainly appears that Justice officials dropped this case in order to appease radical Islamic groups,” he said.
Fitton charged that the pattern of the Obama Justice Department is “to stonewall even the most basic requests for information under the law.”
“The cover-up and secrecy is, frankly, like nothing we’ve ever seen,” he said.
While Ahmad has claimed to be a moderate and patriotic American, he reportedly told a group of Muslims in Northern California in 1998 that they are in America not to assimilate, but to help assert Islam’s rule over the country.
“Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant,” a local reporter paraphrased him as saying. “The Quran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.”
Ahmad insists he was misquoted. However, an FBI wiretap transcript quotes Ahmad agreeing with terrorist suspects gathered at the secret Philadelphia meeting to “camouflage” their true intentions.
He compared it to the head fake in basketball.
“This is like one who plays basketball: He makes a player believe that he is doing this, while he does something else,” Ahmad said. “I agree with you. Like they say, politics is a completion of war.”
IMPORTANT NOTE: The CAIR legal attack on WND’s author is far from over. WND needs your help in supporting the defense of “Muslim Mafia” co-author P. David Gaubatz, as well as his investigator son Chris, against CAIR’s lawsuit. The book’s revelations have led to formal congressional demands for three different federal investigations of CAIR. In the meantime, however, someone has to defend these two courageous investigators who have, at great personal risk, revealed so much about this dangerous group. Although WND has procured the best First Amendment attorneys in the country for their defense, we can’t do it without your help. Please donate to WND’s Legal Defense Fund now.
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