Counterterrorism Blog has another fascinating graph by Aaron Mannes, produced with the Semantic Web software at the University of Maryland: CAIR’s Legal Gambit (and another Graph).

Ultimately, the question will come down to the evidence – was the U.S. Attorney wrong in naming CAIR (and the other organizations) as unindicted co-conspirators. The evidence is overwhelming that CAIR was part of a network of Islamist organizations in the United States (see my post with a network graph on CAIR’s founding or here for a quick guide to the CT Blog’s coverage of the HLF trial.)

Since a picture tells a thousand words, here is another graph (for more on the graphs and my work at University of Maryland see here, to view this graph on my live site see here) of the network of Hamas affiliated organizations linked to the Holy Land Foundation and their fundraising. CAIR is obviously well linked in this dubious group. Also, at the center of the graph is the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), which was effectively CAIR’s parent organization – illustrated in my earlier network graph. In a civil lawsuit the IAP was found liable in the death of David Boim, an American citizen killed in a Hamas bombing.

CAIR’s legal gambit to set a precedent for its removal from the list of unindicted co-conspirators should be a reminder that CAIR and its Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood sponsors are sophisticated political players that understand politics and democratic principles and intend to employ them to their own advantage.

At the same time, the silver lining is that the American Muslim community’s broader refusal to support CAIR indicates that their worldview is not prevailing in the United States. Non-Muslim U.S. authorities (in government and without) should join the American Muslim community in rejecting the self-proclaimed leadership of CAIR and its ilk.