The Government Gets It Right This Time: Holy Land Foundation Defendants Guilty On All Counts (Updated)

No mistrial this time:

A jury on Monday determined that the Holy Land Foundation and five men who worked with the Muslim charity were guilty of three dozen counts related to the illegal funneling of at least $12 million to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

..Over the past two months, prosecutors attempted to prove that five former charity organizers used Holy Land, once the largest Muslim charity in the U.S., to funnel an estimated $60 million to the militant group – most of it before 1995.

Hamas was designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. in 1995, and the trial centered on the $12 million the government said Holy Land and supporters funneled to the group after that date.

The key to the Government's success this time around as opposed to last time was the streamlining of the charges brought and the effort taken to educate the jury on the issues involved. One of the criticisms of the case last time was how complicated it was.

According to The Investigative Project on Terrorism, the jury decided the defendants will forfeit $12.4 million in assets to the government due to the money laundering charges.

Phyllis Chesler writes that

According to M. Zuhdi Jasser, founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, prosecutors triumphed because they were able to “connect the ideology of political Islam and the overriding mission of Islamist organizations like the Holy Land Foundation to their desire to contribute to the efforts of terror groups, like Hamas. When this connection is made we will see the return of a guilty verdict. In future [terrorism financing] cases DOJ will not only have to connect the financial dots but [will have] to demonstrate an overarching common Islamist mission.”

The question is whether the Department of Justice is both prepared and willing to put in the kind of work necessary for further successful prosecutions. According to Douglas Farah, an author and terrorism consultant, this will require a change in attitude. Granted that one result of the trial was to publicly show the terrorist agenda of the international Muslim Brotherhood, yet:

Given this complete victory for the government … it is now incumbent on U.S. government agencies to stop dealing with them as if they were engaging in benign efforts to push an agenda of tolerance and civil rights.

The question now is where do we go from here--particularly under the upcoming Obama Administration. It has become apparent that Obama is not going to enact left wing agenda he talked about during the campaign--which makes it just that much more unclear what he will do about the Islamist threat here at home.

UPDATE: David Hazony notes that those who honestly wanted to contribute to real Muslim charities were not without options:

Perhaps many donors to such organizations really are looking to help the Palestinians address their difficult humanitarian position. But as anyone involved in the non-profit sector will tell you, philanthropists are not powerless to influence the work of the organizations they give to. If building Palestinian schools were so important to them, how hard would it be to make sure the money stayed out of the terrorists’ hands? If the answer is “very difficult,” then there are plenty of needy Muslims elsewhere in the world who could use their money instead. And if they insist on giving to Hamas anyway, they should not be surprised to face jail time for supporting terror.

Technorati Tag: Holy Land Foundation.