Holy Land Foundation, Round Two
Sun, Sep 21, 2008 at 5:25:34 pm PDT
Coming up: the second round in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas funding trial, in which the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) are both listed as unindicted co-conspirators, despite their repeated attempts to be removed from the list: Terrorism Financing Case Back in Court.
The government’s largest terrorism financing case returned to a courtroom in Dallas this week as prosecutors once again try to secure criminal convictions against five men for allegedly raising more than $12 million in what investigators call “blood money” to support overseas suicide bombings.
The case against former leaders of the Holy Land Foundation, a Texas charity that authorities shuttered seven years ago because of its alleged links to the militant Palestinian group Hamas, comes nearly a year after a previous trial ended in disappointment for the government. Jurors acquitted one man outright on 31 charges and deadlocked on charges against the others. Senior U.S. District Judge A. Joe Fish declared a mistrial in October 2007.
The turbulent jury deliberations ignited debate about the strength of the government’s evidence and its pursuit of financiers who back terrorist groups. In the years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, authorities increasingly have accused suspects of providing “material support” to hostile groups, but the Justice Department’s trial record in such cases has been mixed.
