IRS Tightens its Grip in CAIR Probe

From Will at The Other News:

The IRS has forwarded a congressional complaint lodged against the Council on American-Islamic Relations to its investigations unit for further review.

The FBI also has been alerted to evidence the prominent Muslim group has solicited funds from state sponsors of terrorism.The 8-page complaint originally was submitted by U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, the co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, after the IRS stripped Washington-based CAIR of its nonprofit status for failure to file annual tax reports as required by federal law.

Wolf cited a 2009 letter in which CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad solicited funds from Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhafi. Referring to the brutal tyrant as “Your Excellency,” Awad asked for donations toward a $15 million fundraising drive.  

He thanked Gadhafi for his “generous support.”According to a diplomatic cable, CAIR Chairman Larry Shaw, a black convert to Islam, followed up by praising Gadhafi’s “leadership.” 

“We have felt for years pride and glory in your leadership,” Shaw, a longtime North Carolina state senator, told the terrorist leader in 2009. “We want to assure you that Muslims in America are your brothers and supporters. They share with you your interests and aspirations.”

Wolf noted that Gadhafi’s “deplorable” human-rights record was well known to CAIR, long before he slaughtered his own people during the recent civil unrest. He also has a long history of supporting international terrorist attacks, including the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Gadhafi personally ordered the attack, which killed 270. 

CAIR’s Awad also personally solicited funds from Sudanese President Omar Hassan Bashir, an internationally indicted war criminal, Wolf said in his June 24 letter to the IRS director.

“I request that the IRS investigate whether Awad and CAIR may have violated U.S. law in soliciting or accepting money from foreign governments or agents during the period that CAIR failed to file” its tax records, he said.

CAIR repeatedly failed to file its annual disclosure report, IRS Form 990. CAIR blames a clerical error for the delinquency, and claims to have completed the forms. However, several news organizations, including Politico.com, have asked CAIR for the 2007-2010 documents, and CAIR has not been able to produce them.

“Compliance with this law is the only assurance the public has that an organization claiming tax-exempt status is not abusing this privilege,” Wolf wrote. “Given CAIR’s status as an un-indicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror-financing case, this failure to comply with federal disclosure laws is all the more troubling.”

In a July 14 letter obtained by WND, IRS official Lois G. Lerner, director of exempt organizations, wrote that information raising questions about the legality of a tax-exempt organization’s activities is automatically forwarded to the IRS’ Dallas office “to determine if it warrants an examination or other action.” 

Wolf, in turn, sent the IRS letter and several pages of evidence to FBI Director Robert Mueller for criminal investigation. The FBI in 2007 cut off all formal ties to CAIR after evidence emerged from the Holy Land trial that the group was fronting for Hamas, a federally designated terrorist group.

At a recent appearance in Florida, GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said he would pursue an aggressive criminal investigation of CAIR if elected to the White House. “Absolutely,” Gingrich stated, when asked about it by a concerned citizen. 

Critics say CAIR should, at a minimum, be subjected to disclosure requirements under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The law requires foreign agents to report funding from foreign governments and all lobbying activities on their behalf.

According to the bestseller, “Muslim Mafia,” which cites sensitive embassy cables and bank wire transfers, CAIR has solicited millions of dollars in funds from the Saudi Arabian and UAE governments, while publicly denying it takes foreign cash.

The book uncovered evidence of direct payments of more than $100,000 into CAIR’s Citbank account from members of the Saudi royal family. It also noted the Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank in 2007 opened an account for “CAIR Trust,” involving a $1 million grant for a religious endowment to be used “for the construction of a multi-purpose Waqf complex for CAIR in the U.S.”

In addition, the book learned that redacted pre-2007 tax statements filed by CAIR reveal that Saudi businessman Adnan Bogary has contributed a whopping $600,000 a year to the group’s coffers.CAIR co-founder Omar Ahmad, a leader of the radical Muslim Brotherhood in America, once bragged:

“We can have as many organizations as we want” in America, no questions asked. The only thing the Brothers have to worry about, he advised, is covering up “orders” from abroad, as well as the “financial connections,” so that the organizations appear independent. 

“If you cover those bases, you will find that you, as an American organization, can do whatever you want,” the FBI recorded Ahmad saying during a secret Hamas meeting in Philadelphia, according to “Muslim Mafia”. Hamas is a subsidiary of the Muslim Brotherhood.

All told, CAIR has received more than $6.6 million in cash and loans, and more than $54 million in pledges from foreign principals based in Saudi Arabia, Iran, the UAE, Kuwait and other countries hostile to U.S. interests.

At one point after 9/11, according to the book “Infiltration,” CAIR’s national headquarters were deeded over to the ruler of Dubai, a known sponsor of Hamas suicide bombers and their families. Dubai was the transit point for many of the hijackers as they entered the U.S. Funds for the 9/11 plot, moreover, were transferred through the city.

Yet CAIR has failed to report these payments, while using such funds to target U.S. politicians, organizations and businesses for foreign-influence operations – potentially in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, contends Center for Security Policy President Frank J. Gaffney.

“The evidence showing that CAIR should register as a foreign agent is conclusive,” said Gaffney, a former Reagan Pentagon official. “Hundreds of Americans, including elected officials, community groups, corporations and private citizens, have been – and continue to be – targeted by CAIR.”He says CAIR has a subversive agenda to support jihad and to Islamize America. 

“CAIR attempts to silence anyone opposed to the Muslim Brotherhood’s insinuation of Shariah – the totalitarian doctrine of authoritative Islamic law – into the United States, with a relentless program of accusations of bias, racism and ‘Islamophobia,’” Gaffney said.

He notes that CAIR has met and coordinated with foreign principals on at least 30 occasions. And he says CAIR has engaged in at least 50 political-influence operations on behalf of foreign principals in the U.S.According to “Muslim Mafia,” CAIR has a stated strategy of placing staffers and operatives in key congressional committees dealing with homeland security to try to undermine efforts to crack down on Islamic terrorism.

In one year alone, the book says, CAIR officials made more than 70 trips to the U.S. Capitol to lobby against the Patriot Act, for one example.CAIR is acting as a foreign agent, Gaffney asserts. Yet since its founding in 1994, it has failed to properly identify itself as such to the Justice Department and to the American public. Justice enforces the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA.

Gaffney urges American citizens to oppose CAIR’s political influence operations funded by hostile foreign governments by writing the Justice Department and requesting an investigation of CAIR under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Read the full story here.