Update: CAIR Wants to Be Removed from ‘Unindicted Co-Conspirator’ List
The Council on American Islamic Relations has filed their Amicus Curiae brief (PDF file) in the Holy Land Foundation trial, asking the court to take the unprecedented step of removing them from the list of unindicted co-conspirators.
Reading the document makes it clear that CAIR really doesn’t like having their status as an unindicted co-conspirator reported in any way, by anyone. They cite many media sources reporting on the trial, and several blogs, including Counterterrorism Blog (Steven Emerson), Jihad Watch (Robert Spencer), Militant Islam Monitor, and of course LGF.
Here’s the link to the PDF file: Amicus Curiae brief. I’m no lawyer, but after reading this extended farce pretending to be an argument, I’d be very surprised if they get what they’re asking for.
In this rather amazing section, CAIR’s lawyers complain about the inclusion of Hamas terrorist leaders on the co-conspirator list, including Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi.
Each and every one of the over three hundred listed unindicted co-conspirators, whether an individual or an organization, suffer massive harm to their good names, their reputations, their privacy, and their economic well-being. Included on the list are main political members of Hamas, both living (Mousa Abu Marzook and Khalid Mishal) and dead (Abdel Aziz Rantisi and Ahmed Yassin), persons who have pled guilty to material support of Hamas (Mohamed El Shorbagi), persons who have been acquitted of engaging in a Hamas conspiracy (Mohammad Salah and Adbelhaleem Ashqar), persons awaiting trial (Ismail Elbarasse), a slew of person that have never been indicted, and a variety of organization engaged in advocacy on the part of Muslim Americans and Palestinians.
In this case, the public smear accomplished by the public naming of all of these unindicted co-conspirators is even greater than any case in the past. In Briggs and the other cases, the branding that was accomplished by publicly naming the unindicted co-conspirators was that of ‘criminal.’
Wow. Remember, they’re talking about leaders of the officially designated terrorist group Hamas—violent, murderous fanatics who openly espouse genocide. And their inclusion on a list of co-conspirators has damaged their reputations?
At Counterterrorism Blog, Jeffrey Imm has a post on the Amicus Curiae brief, including a helpful list of links to their coverage of the Holy Land Foundation trial and the role played by CAIR: CAIR Cites Counterterrorism Blog in HLF Legal Filing.