Authors: Paul Sperry
66
“CAIR Elects N.C. State Senator Larry Shaw as Board Chair,” CAIR,
PRNewswire-U.S. Newswire
, 3 March 2009. Shaw is listed as vice president of another nonprofit group called the Muslim Peace Foundation, which was started to “build alliances between people of all faiths who are working for the cause of peace and justice in this nation and worldwide.” According to its articles of incorporation recently filed with the District of Columbia, the entity lists CAIR’s Awad and Hooper as fellow officers. Its registered office is located at 227 Massachusetts Ave., SE, but the IRS says it “has not filed an application and has not been recognized as a tax-exempt organization.”
67
Author (Sperry) interview by phone, 22 March 2009.
CHAPTER NINE: PULLING THE CURTAIN BACK ON CAIR
1
Joshua Salaam, “Status Report,” CAIR Civil Rights Department, 27 June 2002, 1.
2
Memo from Iqbal to CAIR board, “Subject: Concern about CAIR Staff Turnover,” 7 September 2004, 1. (See Appendix.)
3
Salaam, “Status Report,” 2.
4
Email from Wazir to staff interns, along with Awad and other executives, “Subject: Regarding the Online Intern Profiles,” 16 July 2008.
5
http://themuslimguy.com/about-a.i.html
6
Jeff Brumley, “Chairman of Council on American-Islamic Relations resigns,”
Florida Times-Union
(Jacksonville), 8 July 2008.
7
Undercover video of Hooper taken by Chris Gaubatz at ISNA convention, 30 August 2008.
8
Ibid. Hooper declined comment, arguing he doesn’t talk to “Islamophobes.”
9
Letter from Haddadi to Omar Ahmad and Awad, “Subject: Discrimination at CAIR,” 19 March 2001, 1. (See Appendix.)
10
Ibid, 4.
11
“CAIR Staff Meeting,” minutes, 1 May 2007, 1. “CAIR has a total of 5,133 members.” (See Appendix.)
12
“CAIR Board Meeting,” minutes, Washington, D.C., 5-6 January 2002, 3.
13
“Council on American-Islamic Relations 2007-2008 Strategic Plan,” memo,
Company Proprietary
, 14 January 2007, 2. (“Long-term” goals.)
14
“The public naming of CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator has impeded its ability to collect donations as possible donors either do not want to give to them because they think they are a ‘terrorist’ organization or are too scared to give to them because of the possible legal ramifications of donating money to a ‘terrorist’ organization,” CAIR’s lawyers said in an amicus brief filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Also, a June 2009 ACLU report, “Blocking Faith, Freezing Charity: Chilling Muslim Charitable Giving in the ‘War on Terrorism Financing,’” complains that CAIR’s Dallas-Fort Worth chapter has suffered a drop in contributions since the naming of CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator. The ACLU reports the chapter president, Moufa Nahhas, saying the following: “Contributions to CAIR have gone down, so we can hire fewer people, can run fewer activities. People are afraid to come to events. Mosques are also hesitant to open the doors to us, to the organization. In Richardson (Texas, the headquarters of the Holy Land Foundation), the mosque doesn’t even want the administration of CAIR to come and pray there, because of fear.…People don’t want to serve on the board. They say they support us and want to help, but they don’t want to be named as a member of the board. People don’t want a letter or newsletter from CAIR coming to their house -- they don’t want their name on the mailings.”
15
“June 2002 Membership Status Report for Board Meeting,” 1. The 9,211 total includes 3,000 supporters CAIR could not locate, so the 9,211 total represents a cold, not active, list of members. In addition, CAIR counted family memberships twice, padding the total by 1,728.
16
Ibid. Map of CAIR’s “Members/Donors by State.” (See Appendix.)
17
Audrey Hudson, “CAIR Membership falls 90% since 9/11,”
Washington Times
, 12 June 2007, A01.
18
Salaam, “Status Report.”
19
CAIR IRS Form 990, 2006, 1. CAIR IRS Form 990, 2005, 1. CAIR IRS Form 990, 2004, 1.
20
CAIR IRS Form 990, 2006, 4, 31.
21
Ibid, 10.
22
CAIR IRS Form 990, 2006, 25. CAIR IRS Form 990, 2004, 14.
23
“CAIR Board Meeting,” minutes, 2.
24
See Appendix for internal CAIR listing of its investment properties (excluding the New Jersey Ave. headquarters property) plus current market value.
25
Letter from CAIR official Rizwan Mowlana to ADAMS Center Board of Trustees, RE: “Emergency Fund for CAIR MD/VA,” 11 March 2005. “I urge you to consider allocating us a sizeable donation.”
26
Letter from Haddadi to Omar Ahmad and Awad, “Subject: Discrimination at CAIR,” 4. “My interns are sent to grant-writing classes,” she complained, “and are givin the responsibility of researching and grant-writing on behalf of CAIR.” CAIR appears to have provided misleading information while applying for public grants. CAIR’s national office often shares its fundraising proceeds with its chapters, but at least one chapter repeatedly denied any such co-mingling of funds while soliciting grant money. “CAIR-MD [Maryland] does not receive any financial assistance from CAIR-National,” former CAIR-MD Executive Director Seyed Rizwan Mowlana wrote in a 2003 proposal to the National Conference for Community and Justice for a $100,000 grant to help fight “severe discriminatory backlash” against the local Muslim community. Also, in soliciting Muslim members for donations, Mowlana claimed: “CAIR-MD does not receive funds from CAIR-National, which means your donations keep us alive.” Yet that same year, Mowlana confirmed in a letter faxed to then-CAIR National Operations Director Khalid Iqbal terms of an agreement struck between headquarters and the chapter for revenue-sharing. In the letter, dated Nov. 10, 2003, Mowlana wrote that “ALL funds raised by CAIR-National [at Maryland mosques], including monthly pledges, will be split 60/40 (60 percent for CAIR-Maryland and 40% for CAIR-National).”
27
Notice of Mechanic’s Lien, Mark Merino Construction vs. Council on American-Islamic Relations (453 New Jersey Ave.), Government of the District of Columbia, $1,918, 14 October 1999.
CHAPTER TEN: CAIR’S ARAB PAYMASTERS
1
Author (Sperry) interview by phone, 22 March 2009.
2
“Islamaphobic Smear Campaign Goes Public,” CAIR Press Release, 8 November 2001. More recently, in a statement made on its “Urban Legends” rebuttal now missing from its website, CAIR admits taking gifts from foreign individuals, but still denies they’re tied to foreign governments. “There is nothing criminal or immoral about accepting donations from foreign nationals,” CAIR maintained. “The U.S. government, corporations, and non-profit organizations routinely receive money from foreign nationals.”
3
“Council on American-Islamic Relations 2007-2008 Strategic Plan,” 2. In August 2009, CAIR co-hosted with the Hollywood-based Writers Guild of America a seminar to help Muslims write screenplays. CAIR had held a similar seminar with Fox Entertainment.
4
Schedule B (IRS Form 990), CAIR, 2006. Identities of individual donors are redacted by IRS. (See Appendix.)
5
Author (Sperry) interview by phone, 22 March 2009.
6
Email from Saudi lawyer Yusuf Giansiracusa to Awad assistant Tena Qureshi, 20 May 2007. “Please be advised that on Saturday, 19th May 2007, an amount of SAR 420,000 ($112,000) was deducted from the account of HRH Prince Abdullah Bin Mosa’ad at NCB (National Commercial Bank) and transferred to the CAIR account.” A Citibank report of CAIR’s account activity reveals that on May 21, 2007, the amount of $111,982.00 was wired from “HRH Prince Abdullah” to CAIR’s checking account. (See Appendix.) On May 23, 2007, Qureshi emails Giansiracusa: “CAIR thanks you and HRH Prince Abdullah Bin Mosa’ad for this generous contribution to CAIR.”
7
CAIR IRS form 990, 2006, 2. Travel expenses related to fundraising that year totaled $93,436, compared with $56,617 in 2004 (and a total travel budget of $8,847 in 1995). Also, “CAIR National Office 2005 Goals and Achievements,” CAIR report, 2. “Br Nihad made more than two overseas fundraising trips.”
8
Hooper was issued his most recent U.S. passport in February 2006, according to State Department records. Born in Canada, he has obtained six U.S. passports beginning in 1981, an unusually large number considering the time span.
9
Transcript of spycam video of Hooper taken by Chris Gaubatz at ISNA convention, 30 August 2008. Hooper boasts that Awad is good for bringing in, single-handedly, “over a half-million in overseas money” each year.
10
CAIR IRS Form 990, 2006, 1. Also, Siraj Wahhab, “’Islamophobia Worst Form of Terrorism,”
Arab News
, 17 May 2007. And, “1st Annual Report on Islamophobia – 2007,” (Draft), OIC, November/December 2007, 3.
11
In a June 12, 2009, House floor speech, U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., said the sensitive but unclassified May 2006 State Department cable was brought to his and other members’ attention on Capitol Hill. He says U.S. embassy staff in Abu Dhabi cabled that the UAE press was reporting “that Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al-Maktoum, deputy ruler of Dubai and UAE minister of finance and industry, has ‘endorsed a proposal to build a property in the U.S. to serve as an endowment for CAIR.’”
12
“UAE Hamdan Okays Setting Up Endowment in U.S.,”
Financial Times/Global News Wire/The Emirates Source
, 21 May 2006.
13
Ibid.
14
“Important phone and fax numbers (Palestine Section/America).”
15
“CAIR National Board Meeting,” Report from CAIR National, Submitted by Nihad Awad, meeting held in Chicago, 28-29 October 2006, 1.
16
According to Wolf, the sensitive but unclassified June 2006 State Department cable was written by U.S. embassy staff in Saudi Arabia, who reported the following after meeting with a CAIR delegation: “One admitted reason for the group’s current visit to the KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) was to solicit $50 million in governmental and non-governmental contributions.” The core delegation, according to the cable, consisted of then-CAIR Chairman Parvez Ahmed, Awad, and Hooper. Just three months after the trip, Hooper denied soliciting Saudi government funds. “To my knowledge, we don’t take money from the government of Saudi Arabia,” he said in a September 2006 MSNBC appearance on the Tucker Carlson Show.
17
Javid Hassan, “Media Campaign in U.S. to Dispel Islamophobia,”
Arab News
, 21 June 2006.
18
Sperry,
Infiltration
, 258. Also, Check No. 1958, Account 056001118, First Virginia Bank, Falls Church, Virginia; IRS Form 990, International Relief Organization, 1995; IRS Form 990, IRO, 1997.
19
Chris Mondics, “Follow the Saudi Money,”
Hoover Digest
, No. 2, 2009, 91.
20
Testimony of Omar Ahmad, In the matter of Mohammad Jamal Khalifah, File A29 457 661, 20 December 1994.
21
Mondics, “Follow the Saudi Money,” 91.
22
“CAIR Board Meeting,” minutes, CAIR National, Washington D.C., 5 May 2007, 1.