WASHINGTON (WND) – A federal judge has determined that the Justice Department provided “ample evidence” to designate the most prominent Muslim group in America as an unindicted terrorist co-conspirator.

According to a federal court ruling unsealed Friday, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations has been involved in “a conspiracy to support Hamas,” a federally designated terrorist group that has murdered at least 17 Americans and injured more than 100 U.S. citizens.
The 20-page order, signed by U.S. District Judge Jorge A. Solis, cites “ample evidence” that CAIR participated in a “criminal conspiracy” led by the Holy Land Foundation, Hamas’s main fundraising arm in the U.S. As a result, the judge refused CAIR’s request to strike its name from documents listing it as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case.

“The four pieces of evidence the government relies on do create at least a prima facie case as to CAIR’s involvement in a conspiracy to support Hamas,” Solis wrote in his July 2009 ruling.
The evidence includes documents introduced by the government showing CAIR and its founding chairman Omar Ahmad have operated as key members of Hamas’ U.S. wing, known as the “Palestine Committee.” In addition, FBI wiretaps and agent testimony have placed both Ahmad and CAIR’s acting executive director – Nihad Awad – at a secret meeting last decade with Hamas leaders in Philadelphia. Meeting in a hotel room, participants hatched a scheme to disguise payments to Hamas suicide bombers and their families as charity.

“The attendees agreed not to mention the word Hamas but to refer to Hamas as ‘Samah,’ which is Hamas spelled backwards,” Solis said. “The Philadelphia conference essentially laid out the path that the Palestine Committee would take to accomplish its goal of supporting Hamas in the future.”

During the meeting – which was organized and led by CAIR founder Ahmad – the Hamas operatives agreed to form CAIR as an outwardly benign front group skilled in media manipulation. “They did not want to be viewed as being aligned with terrorist groups,” he said.
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