The Council of American-Islamic Relations presents itself as a moderate civil rights group dedicated to ensuring Muslims get a fair shake in society. The truth is that CAIR is an Imperialist organization dedicated to subverting the ideal of a pluralistic Republic in which all religions are treated equally.

CAIR is a nest of vipers, a collection of criminal Islamists and foreign spies who use the group to funnel money to armed insurgencies and terrorist groups. Steve Emerson of The Investigative Project on Terrorism has a great article detailing the criminal nature of this Islamist fifth column.

Those convicted of direct criminal activity include Ghassan Elashi, a founding board member of CAIR-Texas; Randall (Ismail) Royer, once a communications specialist for the national group, and Bassam Khafagi, the organization’s one-time director of community relations.

In the more egregious cases, the organization has tried to distance itself from the individuals, contorting both logic and the English language. As the IPT’s series on CAIR’s history and activities continues, we look at the suspect nature of these examples and others close to the organization.

· Ghassan Elashi, who attended a 1993 Philadelphia meeting called by Hamas to discuss derailing U.S. peace initiatives, was convicted in 2004 on six criminal counts, including making false statements, conspiracy to violate the Export Administration Regulations and the Libyan Sanctions Regulations, and conspiracy to file false shipper’s export declaration forms. He was a defendant again in the 2007 Hamas-support trial of the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), where jurors were unable to reach unanimous verdicts on the charges against him.

Elashi served as HLF chairman and treasurer and vice president of Infocom, a computer export company. He was sentenced to 80 months in prison for making illegal computer shipments to Libya and Syria and conspiring to send money to Mousa Abu Marzook, an admitted Hamas leader.

Seeking to minimize Elashi’s ties to CAIR, Executive Director Nihad Awad assured U.S. senators in 2003 testimony, “Mr. Elashi was never an employee or officer of our corporation. The fact that he was once associated with one of our almost twenty regional chapters has no legal significance…”

· Randall Royer, the former CAIR communications specialist, has a more colorful criminal history. Police who stopped his car for a traffic violation in 2001 found an AK-47-style rifle and 219 rounds of ammunition inside. Then, in 2003, he was indicted on charges stemming from participation in the ongoing jihad in Kashmir — specifically, doing propaganda work for Lashkar-e Taiba, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group, and personally firing at Indian positions in Kashmir.

Pleading guilty to weapons and explosives charges in 2004, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. In later grand jury testimony, Royer admitted that the cell’s primary goal was to fight with the Taliban against United States forces in Afghanistan

[…]

Bassam Khafagi pleaded guilty to bank and visa fraud charges in September 2003, after his arrest and indictment earlier that year. “At the time of his arrest,” the Associated Press reported, “he was community affairs director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.”

Khafagi also served as a founding member and president of the Islamic Assembly of North America. That group was investigated on charges of money laundering and recruiting terrorists over the Internet and the FBI raided its offices in February 2003.

[…]

Among other CAIR officials:

· Nabil Sadoun, currently on CAIR’s board and chair of CAIR-Texas, helped found the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR). While there has been no criminal prosecution of the UASR, Sadoun founded it along with Hamas leader Marzook. Internal records show the UASR was a founding member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee in America. Federal prosecutors say that committee’s “designed purpose was to support Hamas.”

Sadoun also co-founded the Muslim American Youth Association. MAYA’s conferences, many of which it co-sponsored with IAP, have long supported Hamas.

· Mohammad El-Mezain, the former chairman and director of endowments for HLF, conducted fundraising at a 2004 CAIR-New York event, soliciting over $100,000 for CAIR. He was indicted soon afterward for providing material support to Hamas. Acquitted of most counts against him in the HLF trial, he faces retrial on a charge of conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist group.

· Rabih Haddad served as a fundraiser for CAIR’s Ann Arbor chapter. He co-founded the Global Relief Foundation (GRF), one of the largest Islamic charities in the United States — but one that the U.S. government has investigated of funding violent jihadism.

The rest of the piece can be read here and the report, which is the third installment in an ongoing series, is available in .pdf format. It is imperative that all Americans read this damning report.

When will America wake up to the danger that this group poses to our safety and security?