HAMAS ON TRIAL; CAIR IS UNINDICTED CO-CONSPIRATOR (UPDATED). Based on the article in the New York Sun, this is a major case:

The federal government's largest and most aggressive effort to prosecute alleged Hamas financiers in America is to be put to the test beginning today in a Dallas courtroom.

Five officials of what was once one of America's leading Islamic charities, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, face trial on charges they operated the organization as a fund-raising arm of Hamas, a Palestinian Arab terrorist group responsible for hundreds of killings in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank.

"This is Hamas on trial," a longtime researcher into the American links of Middle Eastern terrorist groups, Steven Emerson, said yesterday. "I don't think you can get a more significant material support case."

CAIR's connection to the case is that the chairman of the board of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development is the founder of the Texas chapter of CAIR--and that CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in the case.

The problem the prosecutors face is that their case is that the charity given was controlled by Hamas which would sometimes then single out the families of Hamas "martyrs" for assistance. It is not a case of outright support of terrorism. The NY Sun article describes that thus far, the US has had its share of victories and failures (see label: Lawsuit), making this particular case that much more important.

One of the interesting points made in the article is this apparent contradiction:

A group formed by supporters of the defendants, Hungry for Justice, plans to send bloggers each day to cover the trial proceedings, which could last five months or more.

On Friday, Judge Allen Joe Fish imposed what amounts to a gag order on the lawyers in the case. "The court will not tolerate any attempts to have this case tried in the media," the judge wrote.

If bloggers are going to be at the trial, it is a sure bet that the trial will be tried in the media, online.

Come to think of it, considering the US aid that has been sent to Palestinian Arabs--money that has not been tightly monitored, just how strong a case can be made against the Holyland Foundation?

Update: Remember this, from December 2005?

Abbas Approves Monthly Grant To Families of Suicide Bombers

Abbas gave his approval just six days ago, a day before a suicide bomber struck the HaSharon Mall in Netanya, killing five Israelis and wounding scores of others.

The legislation refers to the suicide terrorists as shahids (martyrs), a term generally applied to a person who dies in an operation fighting against Israel.

Under the new law, the terrorist’s family will be paid a base sum of $250 per month. The law takes into account extended family arrangements commonplace in Arab societies. The families of married terrorists are entitled to an additional $50 per month, and $15 are added for each child, $25 for each parent, and $15 for each brother who lived with the terrorist prior to his death.

...Both Israel and the United States have taken legal action in recent years to shut down organizations that distribute money to the families of terrorists, especially suicide bombers.

So, is this law still on the books?

Andy McCarthy--a former federal prosecutor in the case of Omar Abdel Rahman and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing--commented at the time on The Corner:

There is no question that this is murder-for-hire. Under our federal murder-for-hire statute (18 USC 1959, called "violent crimes in aid of racketeering activity"), such a murder includes one committed "for the receipt of, or as consideration for a promise or agreement to pay, anything of value[.] …" For a killing to be a murder-for-hire, there is no requirement that the thing of value even be money, much less that it be paid directly to the person who carries out the murder. (Federal law requires the "thing of value" to be provided by a racketeering organization because the feds can't prosecute murder unless they have some federal jurisdictional hook, like racketeering, drugs, or victims who are federal employees. State murder-for-hire statutes contain no such limitations.)

So

• The Holyland Foundation provided money to families of suicide bombers.
• The US provided money to the PA that could easily have been diverted for the same purpose--and we pay the taxes that make this possible.
• Abbas personally OK'ed a law that did the same thing.
• Israel frees up tax money that goes to the PA...

Who isn't providing money to the suicide bombers' families?

[Hat tip: Powerline]

Technorati Tag: Israel and CAIR and Hamas and Holy Land Foundation.