Guilty on all Counts -The Holy Land Foundation Retrial

DALLAS (AP) — A Muslim charity and five of its former leaders were convicted Monday of funneling millions of dollars to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, finally handing the government a signature victory in its fight against terrorism funding.

U.S. District Judge Jorge A. Solis announced the guilty verdicts on all 108 counts on the eighth day of deliberations in the retrial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, once the nation's largest Muslim charity. It was the biggest terrorism financing case since the attacks of Sept. 11.

• The convictions follow the collapse of Holy Land's first trial last year and defeats in other cases the government tried to build.
• President George W. Bush had personally announced the freezing of Holy Land's assets in 2001, calling the action "another step in the war on terrorism."
• After Monday's verdict, family members showed little visible reaction until the jury left. Several women sobbed loudly.

"My dad's not a criminal!" one nearly inconsolable woman said loudly. Court personnel told the family to calm her down, and as family members rushed her out of the courtroom, she said, "They treated him like an animal."

Ghassan Elashi, Holy Land's former chairman, and Shukri Abu-Baker, the chief executive, were convicted of a combined 69 counts, including supporting a specially designated terrorist, money laundering and tax fraud.

Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulrahman Odeh were convicted of three counts of conspiracy, and Mohammed El-Mezain was convicted of one count of conspiracy to support a terrorist organization. Holy Land itself was convicted of all 32 counts.
A sentencing date hasn't been scheduled.

• Holy Land was accused of giving more than $12 million to support Hamas. The seven-week retrial ran about as long as the original, which ended in October 2007 when a judge declared a mistrial on most charges.
  
• Holy Land wasn't accused of violence. Rather, the government said the Richardson, Texas-based charity financed schools, hospitals and social welfare programs controlled by Hamas in areas ravaged by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
• The U.S. designated Hamas a terrorist organization in 1995 and again in 1997, making contributions to the group illegal. Government officials raided Holy Land's headquarters in December 2001 and shut it down.
  
• Prosecutors labeled Holy Land's benefactors — called zakat committees — as terrorist recruiting pools. The charities, the government argued, spread Hamas' violent ideology and generated loyalty and support among Palestinians.

It was a "womb to the tomb" cycle, prosecutor Barry Jonas told jurors during closing arguments last week.

Holy Land supporters told a different story.

• They accused the government of politicizing the case as part of its war on terrorism, while attorneys for the foundation said Holy Land's mission was philanthropy and providing much-needed aid to the Middle East.
• They reminded jurors that none of the zakat committees are designated by the U.S. as terrorist fronts, and that Holy Land also donated to causes elsewhere, including helping victims of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.

"No one here is engaging in acts of terrorism," Theresa Duncan, attorney for former Holy Land chief executive Shukri Abu Baker, said during closing arguments.

A chaotic courtroom scene ended last year's original trial, which lasted nearly two months and kept jurors deliberating for 19 days. But they deadlocked on many counts, and when a judge polled the panel about other verdicts, some disavowed their vote.

The confusing finish led U.S. District Judge A. Joe Fish to declare a mistrial, and leaders of the defunct charity rushed outside to celebrate.

• Observers last year panned the government for presenting a bloated case too complicated for jurors to follow.
• Prosecutors responded this year by dropping nearly 60 charges in the trial and tightening their narrative to jurors, even offering a kind of road map to help the panel follow the money.
• But nearly 15 boxes of evidence wheeled into court on a flatbed still impressed the size of the case, as did the more than one hour that Solis needed to read aloud the indictment.

Full Article from the AP

Dallas Trial revleals Secretive Security Measures Taken By Holy Land Foundation

DALLAS - The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development's (HLF) close ties to a Dallas area computer business were discussed extensively in the foundation's terror support trial Tuesday.

Infocom was run by HLF director Ghassan Elashi and his brothers.

• On December 17, 2002 Infocom and the Elashis were indicted for financial transactions with Libya, Syria and Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook.
• Infocom received at least $250,000 from Marzook. Infocom was found guilty on all 10 counts and Elashi and his brothers were found guilty on additional charges related to Marzook as well as computer equipment charges.
• Ghassan Elashi, who is on trial now for being part of an alleged conspiracy to rout millions of dollars to Hamas, is serving an 80-month prison sentence for his Infocom conviction.

Defense attorneys objected to the use of evidence collected from Infocom, alleging that it amounted to double jeopardy, the principle that a defendant cannot be tried twice for the same crime using the same evidence. But evidence seized during FBI searches at Infocom was admitted despite those objections.

• Some of the evidence related to the procedures of Holy Land Foundation.
• FBI Agent Robert Miranda testified that there was "a lot of foot traffic between Infocom and the Holy Land Foundation." Since Infocom's office was right across the street from HLF, this interaction was made convenient to the point that the FBI was aware that HLF had internet service across the street.

Inside the Infocom office, FBI agents found a document describing security procedures to be used by HLF employees. Among the subjects outlined in the document were:

• Safety of personal residences, work apartments, cars and possessions
• Hotel safety
• Document Safety
• Communication Safety
• Telephone Communications
• Communication via fax
• Communication via live (human) points
• Travel and Transportation safety

Federal prosecutor, James Jacks, had Miranda read out each header contained in the document to emphasize the level of security that HLF felt that it needed to implement to avoid detection.

Further information addressed in the courtroom was under the header Communication via live (human points) which stated "Coordinating with the Maintenance Committee in putting in place a covert monitoring system."

Basic security also included "not exposing parts of the work's administrative skeleton." Jacks argued that this information was deemed necessary by HLF in order to prevent anyone from discovering their relations with specially designated terrorists.

Earlier, Miranda discussed people from overseas utilized by HLF. Board meeting minutes from 1999 discussed telephone fundraising, Miranda said.

At these meetings, HLF officials analyzed the difficulties they were having with a shortage of speakers. The shortage prevented the group from holding fundraising events in some major cities.

Investigators were able to connect many of the speakers who were used in the HLF fundraising calls to Hamas, however, by searching in the personal phone book of Hamas leader Marzook.

• Marzook was arrested by federal officials in 1995 and his belonging were seized. The phone book contained the names of other Hamas officials, Miranda said.
• Not only did the FBI have toll records that show the numbers called, but during the FBI's raid of the HLF offices in 2001, they found phone bills.
• Those bills showed calls that were made to a representative of Hamas based in Iran.
• Miranda also discussed the family connections between some of the defendants and Hamas officials. Marzook's wife, for example, is Elashi's cousin.
• Defendant Mohamed El-Mezain is a cousin of Marzook's.
• Defendant Mufid Abdelqader is the half-brother of Hamas leader Khaled Mishaal.
• Former HLF Executive Director Shukri Abu Baker's brother was a Hamas leader in Sudan.

Miranda's testimony is expected to continue when court resumes Wednesday morning.

The Rest @ The Investigative Project on Terrorism