Grand Jury Seeks CAIR Records

Visit our News page

Grand Jury Seeks CAIR Records

More bad news for CAIR

Dear Elaine,

The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) reported earlier this week that CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) may now be the subject of a federal criminal investigation (see story below).

This past Monday we emailed you the report that the FBI had issued a warrant for the thousands of documents that had been obtained by David Gaubatz during the daring undercover operation at CAIR’s headquarters.

These unfolding revelations will strengthen our call for a congressional investigation of CAIR. Regardless of what the FBI or a grand jury ultimately does—or doesn’t do—with respect to CAIR, we need to do all we can to ensure that Congress takes action. After all, for years the FBI ignored growing evidence that CAIR had ties to terrorism!

We plan to submit our national petition in January, at which time we will unveil additional steps we will be taking to highlight the need for a government investigation of CAIR’s many misdeeds.

HAVE YOU SIGNED OUR PETITION YET? If yes, we thank you and the nearly 33,000 people who have joined you in signing it!

If not, please click here to do so today ! There are still thousands of ACT! for America members who have not yet added their names.

Please believe us when we tell you that CAIR doesn’t want you to sign this petition. CAIR is hoping you will think it won’t make any difference. Or even that you’ll be afraid to have your name and state of residence on the petition.
Why? Because concerns about CAIR are growing in Washington—and thus there has never been a better time to press our elected officials to investigate CAIR. That’s why CAIR is doing everything it can to sweep all of this under the rug.

So if you haven’t yet signed our petition, please don’t delay any longer. The more names we have, the stronger our other efforts will be.


------------------------

Grand Jury Seeks CAIR Records

IPT News
December 1, 2009


The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) appears to be the subject of a federal criminal investigation. Although no formal statement to that effect has been made by law enforcement, FBI agents reportedly issued a grand jury subpoena last week seeking internal CAIR documents that are the subject of an ongoing civil lawsuit.

CAIR sued P. David Gaubatz and his son Chris Gaubatz in federal court last month, claiming it was the victim of theft and trespassing. In the book, Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America,
http://www.amazon.com/Muslim-Mafia-Underwold-Conspiring-Islamize/dp/1935071106
the Gaubatzes acknowledge that Chris adopted a pseudonym and posed as a Muslim convert to secure an internship at CAIR in 2008.

He used his access to take thousands of pages of internal CAIR documents and to make surreptitious recordings of CAIR officials. Citing those records, the book claims that CAIR is part of a conspiracy among groups affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood "to support violent jihad and undermine law enforcement."

Among the book's specific allegations, CAIR officials grossly exaggerate their membership rolls and the depth of their domestic financial support. In addition, they actively thwart law enforcement counter-terror investigations. Following the release of the book, four congressional Republicans sought an investigation into the book's claims that CAIR seeks to place interns on committees dealing with the judiciary and homeland security.

Thus far, CAIR has minimized and ridiculed the book's findings, but has not alleged any of it is false.

CAIR won a temporary restraining order requiring that the Gaubatzes return 12,000 pages of documents. WorldNetDaily, publisher of Muslim Mafia, posted a story Nov. 24 claiming that FBI agents served a grand jury subpoena on the Gaubatzes' attorney. The move came as the attorneys were about to comply with the judge's order and give the documents back to CAIR. WND publisher Joseph Farah is quoted saying they weren't sure "Which takes precedence - a federal court order or an FBI warrant?"

Farah declined to comment Tuesday on what has happened since then. Josh Gerstein at Politico notes that the government filed a sealed motion in the case Friday.

*Updated December 2, 4:20 p.m.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has signed an order based on the government motion. Both the order and the motion remain under seal.

According to the docket in the Gaubatz/CAIR suit, Lynn Haaland, an attorney in the Department of Justice's National Security Division, is listed as an "interested party" in the lawsuit. It's possible the grand jury's target is more narrow – on a CAIR official or officials, but the presence of a national security prosecutor indicates the grand jury's interest is not on the Gaubatzes behavior.

Last year, the FBI cut off communication with CAIR on outreach and other general informational contacts. That move was based on evidence from the successful Hamas-support prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) linking the organization and its founders to Hamas. CAIR co-founders Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmad (a.k.a. Omar Yehya) were included in a telephone list of a U.S.-based Hamas-support network and the two participated in a secret 1993 gathering of Hamas-members and supporters aimed at undermining the U.S.-brokered Oslo Accords which created the secular Palestinian Authority.

Awad and Ahmad were then leaders of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), a Hamas-front that exhibits in the HLF case show was an original component in the Muslim Brotherhood's "Palestine Committee" which was created to support Hamas in the United States.

In that weekend-long gathering, FBI recordings show the group discussed creating a new Islamist lobbying arm. CAIR was created the following summer and immediately was added to the Palestine Committee's agenda.

In explaining why it cut off CAIR's access, an FBI official expressed in writing the bureau's concern "whether there continues to be a connection between CAIR or its executives and HAMAS."

The consequences of that question may have risen to a new level.


Read more at: http://www.investigativeproject.org/1546/grand-jury-seeks-cair-records


---------------------------------
ACT for America
www.actforamerica.org


ACT for America is an issues advocacy organization dedicated to effectively organizing and mobilizing the most powerful grassroots citizen action network in America, a grassroots network committed to informed and coordinated civic action that will lead to public policies that promote America’s national security and the defense of American democratic values against the assault of radical Islam. We are only as strong as our supporters, and your volunteer and financial support is essential to our success. Thank you for helping us make America safer and more secure.

The news items, blogs, educational materials and other information in our emails and on our website are only intended to provide information, news and commentary on events and issues related to the threat of radical Islam. Much of this information is based upon media sources, such as the AP wire services, newspapers, magazines, books, online news blog and news services, and radio and television, which we deem to be reliable. However, we have undertaken no independent investigation to verify the accuracy of the information reported by these media sources. We therefore disclaim all liability for false or inaccurate information from these media sources. We also disclaim all liability for the third-party information that may be accessed through the material referenced in our emails or posted on our website.