The Great Birth Certificate Scandal-Cover-Up of the 2008 Election

(Compiler's note: A must read article. I certainly don't know the answer to this scandal, but this author is pointing out a number of related facts and asking the right questions.)

by Joan Swirsky

This week, newscasters reported that al Qaeda's #2 terrorist disparaged the election of Barack Obama, and hurled racial slurs at Obama himself. "The report has not been confirmed by the State Department," they all said, but they reported it anyway.

Last week, Fox News reporter Carl Cameron told viewers that three "anonymous" insiders of Sen. McCain's campaign said that Sarah Palin was, in essence, a diva and a dunce. He - and dozens of others who picked up the story on other channels - never identified, or even verified, the sources of the quotes, but they reported them anyway.

Contrast these shabby examples of "journalism" with the legions of identifiable, verifiable and credible sources who for months have been investigating the disturbing allegation that Barack Obama is ineligible for the presidency because he has failed to meet one of the three requirements that the U.S. Constitution mandates, specifically that he provide proof of his "natural born" U.S. citizenship.

What follows is a partial list of people and organizations that have challenged Obama's eligibility. Further on I will comment on how egregious the media's failure to cover this story has been. And last, I will speculate on the reason for the cover-up of this full-blown scandal.

Attorney Philip J. Berg, former deputy attorney general of Pennsylvania and a longtime Democrat partisan, sued Obama and the Democratic National Committee for what he alleged was the DNC's failure to vet Obama, and Obama's failure to provide an authentic and verifiable U.S. birth certificate. The suit was dismissed as "too vague..." Berg filed a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct.30, to force Obama to produce his birth certificate. On Nov. 3, Justice David Souter rejected Berg's emergency appeal for the court to halt the tabulation of the 2008 presidential election results, but set a schedule for a response from Obama, the DNC and all co-defendants on or before Dec. 1. Berg claims to have a tape recording of Obama's Kenyan grandmother saying that she was present at Obama's birth in Kenya, along with his half-brother and half-sister. Here is his website.

According to WorldNetDaily, blogger Jeff Schreiber said a second case was presented to the Supreme Court on the same issue, i.e., the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has waived its right to respond to a complaint brought by attorney Philip Berg, possibly - among other reasons - because they liked their odds of Berg's petition getting denied. Berg said that if the FEC filed not solely on its own behalf but "on behalf of the DNC and Barack Obama too, it reeks of collusion."

Dr. T.B. Bradley, a forensic psychologist, stated, as part of the Berg case, that, "Upon reading all of the books written by or about Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. aka Barry Soetoro (hereinafter Obama) Applicant discerned that Obama was not a natural born citizen of the United States or if he was a natural born citizen that he had lost his citizenship when his biological mother married Lolo Soetoro, a citizen of Indonesia. Obama then became a citizen of Indonesia as a result of his mother's expatriation of herself and her son, by self declaration on legal public educational records that Obama was formally known as Barry Soetoro, a citizen of Indonesia [and] was not US Constitutionally qualified to hold the Office of the United States Senator from Illinois or the Office of the President of the United States."

Author, radio host, blogger, and Chicago attorney Andy Martin filed a suit in Hawaii's Supreme Court to compel Gov. Linda Lingle to release a certified copy of Obama's vital statistics record. His request was denied. On Nov. 18, he petitioned a judge in Hawaii for access to Obama's original 1961 birth certificate, and reported that "the judge reserved judgment." But when he arrived back in the states, he learned that Judge Bert Ayabe had dismissed the case.

Former presidential candidate Alan Keyes filed a suit with the California Secretary of State asking that the state's 55 Electoral College votes not be cast on December 15 until Obama verifies his eligibility to hold the office. Keyes' suit was filed by Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation, along with California Electors Wiley S. Drake and Markham Robinson. The action states: "Should Senator Obama be discovered, after he takes office, to be ineligible for the Office of President of the United States, and, thereby, his election declared void....(a) usurper will be sitting as the President of the United States, and none of the treaties, laws, or executive orders signed by him will be valid or legal." Former California Secretaries of State have reviewed background documents to verify the eligibility of candidates.

In 1968, the Peace and Freedom Party submitted the name of Eldridge Cleaver as a qualified candidate for POTUS. Then Secretary of State, Frank Jordan, found that according to Cleaver's birth certificate, he was only 34 years old, one year shy of the age needed to be on the ballot. Mr. Jordan removed Mr. Cleaver from the ballot. Cleaver unsuccessfully challenged this decision to the Supreme Court of the State of California and to the Supreme Court.

Lt. Col. Donald Sullivan, a retired 23-year veteran of the Army, National Guard, and Air Force filed another suit in North Carolina, which claimed Obama should not have been on the state's election ballot because his citizenship is in doubt.

David M. Neal of Ohio filed a suit in Warren Common Pleas Court to force the Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, to request documents from the Federal Elections Commission, the Democratic National Committee, the Ohio Democratic Party and Obama to show the presidential candidate was born in Hawaii. The case was denied.

Cort Wrotnowski of Connecticut asked the court to order Secretary of State, Susan Bysiewicz, to verify Obama's citizenship before allowing the candidate to appear on the state ballot. The case was denied.

Steven Marquis filed a suit Washington State Superior Court, calling for Secretary of State, Sam Reed, to determine whether Obama is a citizen before Election Day, claiming the Hawaii birth certificate reveals neither the hospital where Obama was born nor a doctor's name the baby's footprint. The case was denied.

Rev. Tom Terry of Georgia appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court the day before the election to determine authenticity of Obama's original birth certificate and his qualifications to be president. Georgia Superior Court Judge Jerry W. Baxter denied Terry's request for an injunction against Secretary of State Karen Handel.

Author Jerome Corsi, who has written extensively about this case, traveled to Hawaii and Kenya. He learned that the Certification of Live Birth that the Obama campaign posted is, according to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, not the same as a Certificate of Live Birth, which authenticates Hawaiian birth.

Obama's half-sister, Maya Soetoro, has named two different Hawaii hospitals where Obama could have been born. In November 2004 she said he was born at Queens Medical Center in Honolulu, but in February 2008, she said he was born in the Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children. Before the election, the Internet site, WorldNetDaily, retained a private investigator in Hawaii to visit both hospitals, but he reported that sheriff's deputies were stationed at both hospitals to fend off inquiries.

Leo C. Donofrio a retired attorney, started a website (supporting link) and filed a suit in New Jersey on November 3, asking Secretary of State, Nina Mitchell Wells, for an emergency stay prohibiting Obama, Sen. McCain, and Socialist Worker's Party candidate Roger Calero, from appearing on New Jersey's ballot, claiming all three are not "natural born citizens." On Nov. 6, Supreme Court Justice David Souter denied Donofrio's application. But the case has now entered the docket of the U.S. Supreme Court and Justice Clarence Thomas has decided to send it to conference on December 5th! This means that only 10 days before the Electoral College votes, the nine Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court will meet privately to discuss Donofrio's case.

Douglas J. Hagmann, director of HomelandSecurityUS.com, has reported that 17 lawsuits in 12 states are challenging the eligibility of Obama to become the next President of the United States.

Numerous activist groups have undertaken letter-writing campaigns to the Supreme Court Justices, members of the Electoral College, and elected officials, as well as sending urgent appeals to the White House and the Department of Justice.

Websites like Citizens for the United States Constitution, We The People, PeoplesPassion, America Must Know, and Faith2Action have sprung up in passionate defense of our Constitution's integrity. The last of these has even posted the names and addresses of Electoral College members from each state, as well as an ad in The Washington Times.

Dozens of petitions, like this one, have been circulated.

And dozens of mostly-conservative writers (including Devy Kidd and Miichelle Malkin), bloggers and journalists have written about his strange case and potential Constitutional crisis, as I have in a series of articles - here and here and here and here.

Coverage of the above by the media: Zero.

A DEAFENING SILENCE

It is no mystery that the leftist media have refused to mention this potentially looming Constitutional crisis in virtually all of their print and electronic coverage. Having shilled for Obama for the past two years - dismissing his longtime radical associations, obfuscating his radical voting record, and taking a pass at their jobs of vetting a presidential candidate - their failure to cover the most explosive story of the 2008 campaign speaks volumes about collusion of the highest order.

Then there are the late-night comics, as well as snarky "humorists" like Bill Maher and Jon Stewart, who take pride in being irreverent and "outing" both people and subjects that others avoid. Not a word.

But what about the failure of the powerful conservative media - how to explain their total blackout of this story? Let's look at their reactions:

Fox News: Total Silence. Did the healthy shares that Saudi Arabia bought of Fox influence the network's non-coverage of this story? After all, it's no secret which candidate the Saudis endorsed! We know that TV shows, including Fox, are on a seven-second delay, the better to bleep out offensive or inappropriate material. Doesn't it strike Fox viewers as strange that not one of their outspoken guests, even once, mentioned this story? Who warned them not to?

Rush Limbaugh: Total Silence. Why has the Excellence-in-Broadcasting's "Dr. of Democracy" - the man who eats sacred cows for breakfast - not touched this story?

Mark Levin: Total Silence. Why has this popular radio host, commonly known as "the Great One," abandoned his well-deserved reputation as a Constitutional scholar to studiously not address this Constitutional issue?

Laura Ingraham: Total Silence. Here is another radio powerhouse and former clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas taking pains not to mention this case...not a word!

Bill O'Reilly: Total Silence. Yes, the guy who claims he's "just looking out for the folks"...voiceless!

Sean Hannity: Total Silence. The iconic radio and TV host who tackles every controversial subject under the sun...missing in action!

I could go on and on, but you get the picture. The very people - the so-called loyal opposition - who should have been shouting this story from the rooftops for months on end went mute. Ordinarily they would be the first to tell you that our Republic has no more precious document than the U.S. Constitution - a document that set the stage for the greatest experiment in human freedom since the beginning of recorded history. People like me - and multi-millions of others - are aware of what happens when the "salami tactics" of tyrants are employed in the service of leftwing ideology.

First, there is a charismatic character promising "change" and "hope," but who changes his tune once in power. Second there is a whittling down of the laws of the land and the arrogant dismissal of the documents on which the nation was founded. Third there is the blacking-out of all media that disagree with Dear Leader's message. And fourth there is the rounding-up and incarceration - or worse - of all dissidents.

This is not theory. This is history. But while both left and right media thought it appropriate to comment at length about Obama's seven-page Questionnaire for those seeking work in his administration - a probing that makes a Pap Test, mammogram, colonoscopy, and endoscopy in one visit seem mild by comparison - not one of these cowardly journalists has asked the simple question: Mr. Obama, where is your birth certificate?

Or were they not cowards but patriots?

SCROUNGING FOR ANSWERS

I've written several books, not one of them fictional. And thousands of articles, not one of them based on sinister suspicions or conspiracy theories. But the case of the U.S. media's complete non-coverage of this major story has gotten me to speculate on what - or who - may be behind this phenomenon. What force could be so powerful as to silence our country's putative guardians of free speech - the titans of the Fourth Estate?

Perhaps the mystery goes back to 2004, when President Bush won his second term in office and in his first press conference in the White House said that he had "earned political capital and intended to spend it."

Then - suddenly and inexplicably - he went into a year-long hibernation. He rarely appeared in public and gave no major speeches. Finally he reemerged - albeit weakly - in late November or early December of 2005

Could it be that shortly after the president's reelection, he and major government officials received highly credible evidence from America's ruthless Islamist enemies that they had a number of devastating (probably nuclear suitcase) weapons - set up and ready to be activated in as many as six-to-10 of our major cities - unless he (the president) tacked left and played nice for the following two years?

Was America taken hostage?

The president, one could speculate, had only two choices: (1) play "chicken" and possibly sacrifice the lives of millions of Americans and the destruction of major American cities, or (2) opt for the lesser of two evils, the second being to pave the way for a dangerous Trojan Horse - qualified or not - to capture the White House.

Could it be that the media blackout of the most explosive story of any presidential election in American history has been choreographed by none other than the current POTUS - the most powerful man in the entire world? This would certainly explain why President Bush has not "been himself" since January 20, 2005. It would also explain why the all-powerful media have taken his marching orders - including the New York Times, which takes particular pleasure in undermining and sabotaging the president, even when it comes to national security issues.

If this happened, it would have had to involve the highest echelon in our intelligence services, who might have paid personal visits to publishers throughout the United States, as well as to top TV and radio executives, who themselves would have passed down iron-clad orders - to their anchors, broadcasters, even comedians - to follow the blackout order or face Draconian consequences. Clearly, they followed their marching orders.

On November 4 - Election Day - the Dow was above 9,000. It is now plummeting to below 7,000, suggesting that even the "globalists" among us prefer tax cuts and capitalism to tax hikes and not creeping but galloping socialism - or what the esteemed Dr. Jack Wheeler insists is fascism.

Buyers' remorse is in the air. America has been hijacked. What a price we will pay if the Supreme Court and the Electoral College abandon their oaths to uphold the U.S. Constitution by capitulating - as the media have - to our enemies. God Save America!

Surprise! CAIR officials slapped with subpoenas

(Compiler's note: A must read to know who is involved - at least at the highest levels.)

By Joseph Farah

Terror-linked Muslim lobby's dinner turns into public relations nightmare

WASHINGTON – When the Council on American-Islamic Relations held its 14th Annual Banquet at the Marriott Crystal Gateway Hotel tonight, it was planning to raise funds and honor some of its supporters, but instead several top officials of the Muslim lobby group were served with subpoenas for various civil and criminal offenses.

The dramatic surprise, caught on video, was a result of the research work of the Mapping Sharia Project, headed by Dave Gaubatz. He personally served CAIR Director Nihad Awad at the banquet tonight while North Carolina state Sen. Larry Shaw, D-N.C., a CAIR national board member, was addressing the festivities.

Four CAIR clients have filed a federal civil complaint alleging criminal fraud and racketeering against CAIR, a self-described public interest civil rights law firm. The lawsuit also names CAIR's national leadership as individual defendants.

The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that Morris Days, the "resident attorney" and "manager for civil rights" at the now defunct CAIR MD/VA chapter in Herndon, Va., was in fact not an attorney and that he failed to provide legal services for clients who came to CAIR for assistance and who had paid for CAIR legal services.

While attorney David Yerushalmi represents the four plaintiffs in this particular lawsuit, two of whom are African-American Muslims, the complaint alleges that, according to CAIR internal documents, there were hundreds of victims of fraud scheme by CAIR and Days.

According to the complaint, CAIR failed to conduct a background check on Days prior to hiring him and when the group discovered the fraud, it set about a cover-up.

The suit charges CAIR officials purposefully concealed the truth about Days from their clients, law enforcement, the Virginia and D.C. state bar associations and the media. When CAIR got irate calls from clients about Days' failure to provide competent legal services, CAIR is charged with fraudulently deceiving clients about Days' relationship to CAIR, concealing the fact that CAIR had fired him for criminal fraud.

"The evidence has long suggested that CAIR is a criminal organization set up by the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas to further its aims of stealth Jihad in the U.S.," Yerushalmi said referring to the fact that CAIR has been named by the federal government as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror financing trial. "But our investigation and this complaint makes clear that CAIR’s criminal activities know no bounds."

Yerushalmi alleges CAIR has engaged in a massive cover-up of a criminal fraud in which hundreds of CAIR clients have been victimized.

"The fact that CAIR has victimized Muslims and non-Muslims alike demonstrates that CAIR is only looking out for CAIR and its ongoing effort to bilk donors out of millions of dollars of charitable donations thinking they are supporting a legitimate organization," he said.

The complaint also alleges that in addition to covering up the Days fraud scheme, CAIR officials in D.C. forced angry clients who were demanding a return of their legal fees to sign a release that bought the client-victims' silence by prohibiting them from informing law enforcement or the media about the CAIR-Days fraud. According to the agreement, if the "settling" clients said anything to anyone about the fraud scheme, CAIR would be able to sue them for $25,000.

The four plaintiffs contacted their attorney David Yerushalmi only after they had spoken to Gaubatz, a private researcher who had been investigating CAIR for its connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and its ties to global jihad.

The complaint identifies CAIR as a racketeering enterprise under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), which is a criminal racketeering statute that allows victims to sue the defendants in civil court. In addition to damages, the plaintiffs are seeking injunctive relief under this and other statutes to shut down CAIR and to prevent the individual defendants from engaging in public interest legal work in the future.

The named defendants are: the Council on American-Islamic Relations Action Network Inc. (dba CAIR); Nihad Awad aka Nihad Hammad, who serves as executive director of CAIR National; Parvez Ahmed, who was the chairman of the board of CAIR National during the relevant time period; Tahra Goraya, who was the national director of CAIR but who has since resigned; Khadijah Athman, who is the manager of the "civil rights" division of CAIR; and Nadhira al-Khalili, Esq., who is in-house legal counsel for CAIR. All were handed subpoenas this evening.

According to the complaint, CAIR's in-house Washington, D.C.-based attorney Khalili was directly involved in taking the legal files out of the CAIR Virginia office and concealing them in the D.C. office.

Also named as defendants are Ibrahim Hooper and Amina Rubin, CAIR's director of communications and coordinator of communications, respectively. According to the complaint, these two were directly responsible for issuing fraudulent press releases about the Days fraud scheme, thus aiding and abetting the CAIR cover-up.

CAIR officials were not available for comment tonight.

Also addressing the dinner was Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the nation's first Muslim member of Congress. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, reportedly turned down an invitation to address the banquet.

As WND previously reported, CAIR allegedly defrauded a number of Muslims recently seeking help with citizenship delays, and then threatened to sue them if they complained to the media, according to a security watchdog group which has obtained internal CAIR documents.

The former legal director of CAIR's Maryland/Virginia chapter shook down Muslim hardship cases for thousands of dollars without providing promised services, officials with the Mapping Sharia Project charge.

CAIR, a nonprofit group, promoted the services of the employee, Morris L. "Jamil" Days, whom it publicly described as a civil-rights attorney, even after discovering Days was unlicensed and was fraudulently representing CAIR's clients.

CAIR's board allegedly covered up the scandal by paying defrauded Muslim families partial restitution payments while insisting they sign agreements releasing CAIR from legal liability, officials said.

A video of the encounter is here:



The Mapping Sharia Project had threatened to sue CAIR for "damages in the amount of $25,000 for the purpose of conducting meetings, workshops, press releases, flyers and the like to reverse ... the damage to CAIR's reputation caused by the recipient's breach" of the agreement to remain silent about the "incident."

Earlier this year, the board also fired Days and closed the chapter's offices in Herndon, Va. The chapter director, Khalid Iqbal, is no longer with CAIR.

CAIR refused to respond to the allegations, which came to light only after American Muslims provided evidence to the Mapping Sharia Project.

"I really don't know anything about this," CAIR spokesman Ahmed Rehab said. He referred questions to CAIR communications director Ibrahim Hooper, who declined comment.

Earlier this year, CAIR launched a $250,000 fundraising campaign that included a promotional on its website touting its mission to help Muslims, particularly those confronting citizenship problems.

"Everyday, CAIR works hard to defend the rights of American Muslims who encounter a delay in gaining citizenship," the group said.

In fact, CAIR has "victimized" poor Muslim immigrants, says Gaubatz.

"CAIR continues to put Muslim Americans at risk through the pretense that they represent them in any way," Gaubatz said. "CAIR is receiving support from big foreign donors, not because of their effectiveness in discrimination cases, but because of their false image in the media."

Gaubatz says CAIR, which last year was named an unindicted co-conspirator in a federal terror-financing case involving Hamas, controls some $7 million in real estate assets in Washington through a limited liability holding company that includes silent Middle Eastern investors.

He says his group has filed a formal complaint against CAIR concerning the alleged fraud with the District of Columbia.

WND has previously reported on CAIR's extensive ties to terrorism and extremism. Although CAIR is a nonprofit organization, it does not disclose complete directories of its staff or advisory boards, and even refuses to make its federal tax filings readily available to the public. But a review of federal criminal court documents, past IRS 990 tax records and Federal Election Commission records detailing donor occupations, reveals that Washington-based CAIR has been associated with a disturbing number of convicted terrorists or felons in terrorism probes, as well as suspected terrorists and active targets of terrorism investigations.

"Their offices have been a turnstile for terrorists and their supporters," said one FBI veteran familiar with recent and ongoing cases involving CAIR officials.

WND has reported that at least 14 CAIR officials have been caught up in terror investigations.

Congressional leaders say they are warning lawmakers and other Washington officials to disassociate from the group due to its growing terror ties.

"Groups like CAIR have a proven record of senior officials being indicted and either imprisoned or deported from the United States," said U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., co-founder of the House Anti-Terrorism/Jihad Caucus.

CAIR itself recently was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in an alleged scheme to funnel $12 million to the terrorist group Hamas. In the Holy Land Foundation case, federal prosecutors also listed CAIR as a member of the U.S. branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, a worldwide jihadist movement that gave rise to Hamas, al-Qaida and other terrorist groups. The government will retry the Holy Land case, which ended in a hung jury.

"There was a lot of evidence presented at the recent Holy Land Foundation trial which exposed CAIR and others as front groups for the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States," Myrick said.

Still, CAIR is lobbying House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers and other sympathetic members of Congress to pressure the Justice Department to expunge its name from the case, arguing the negative publicity has hurt membership and fundraising.

The federal judge during the trial refused a written request by the group to strike its name from the list of co-conspirators. The petition is still pending before the court.

Here is another brief clip showing the delivery of the legal documents:

CAIR, which runs 33 offices and chapters nationwide, also recently helped defeat an anti-terror plan by Los Angeles police to map the local Muslim community for extremist neighborhoods.

Critics counter that CAIR has no legitimate voice to make such complaints, because the group is itself an extremist organization that has employed or appointed to its boards of directors and advisers an inordinate number of radical co-conspirators, suspected and convicted terrorists, and other criminals.

Indeed, the list is long and growing, and includes:

• Muthanna al-Hanooti: The CAIR director's home was raided last year by FBI agents in connection with an active terrorism investigation. Agents also searched the offices of his advocacy group, Focus on Advocacy and Advancement of International Relations, which al-Hanooti operates out of Dearborn, Mich., and Washington, D.C.

  FAAIR claims to be a consulting firm raising awareness of Sunni grievances in Iraq, but investigators suspect it's a front supporting the Sunni-led insurgency.

  Muthanna al-Hanooti, wearing traditional headgarb

  Al-Hanooti, who emigrated to the U.S. from Iraq, formerly helped run a suspected Hamas terror front called LIFE for Relief and Development. Its Michigan offices also were raided last September. In 2004, LIFE's Baghdad office was raided by U.S. troops, who seized files and computers.

  Al-Hanooti is related to Shiek Mohammed al-Hanooti, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He currently leads prayers at a Washington-area mosque that aided some of the 9/11 hijackers.

  The FBI alleges al-Hanooti, an ethnic-Palestinian who also emigrated from Iraq, raised money for Hamas. In fact, "Al-Hanooti collected over $6 million for support of Hamas," according to a 2001 FBI report, and was present with CAIR and Holy Land officials at a secret Hamas fundraising summit held last decade at a Philadelphia hotel.

  Prosecutors recently added his name to the list of unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land case.

  Al-Hanooti denies supporting Hamas, although he's praised Palestinian suicide bombers as "martyrs" who are "alive in the eyes of Allah."

  Earlier this year, his younger brother, Hamid al-Hanooti, was found dead in Iraq after reportedly being held by local security forces as a suspected terrorist.

• Laura Jaghlit: A civil-rights coordinator for CAIR, her Washington-area home was raided by federal agents after 9/11 as part of an investigation into terrorist financing, money laundering and tax fraud. Her husband Mohammed Jaghlit, a key leader in the Saudi-backed SAAR network, is a target of the still-active probe.

  Last decade, Jaghlit sent two letters accompanying donations – one for $10,000, the other for $5,000 – from the SAAR Foundation to Sami al-Arian, now a convicted terrorist. In each letter, according to a federal affidavit, "Jaghlit instructed al-Arian not to disclose the contribution publicly or to the media."

  Investigators suspect the funds were intended for Palestinian terrorists via a U.S. front called WISE, which at the time employed an official who personally delivered a satellite phone battery to Osama bin Laden. The same official also worked for Jaghlit's group.

  In addition, Jaghlit donated a total of $37,200 to the Holy Land Foundation, which prosecutors say is a Hamas front. Jaghlit subsequently was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the ongoing case.

• Abdurahman Alamoudi: Another CAIR director, he is serving 23 years in federal prison for plotting terrorism. Alamoudi, who was caught on tape complaining bin Laden hadn't killed enough Americans in the U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, was one of al-Qaida's top fund-raisers in America, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

  Nihad Awad

• Nihad Awad: For the first time, wiretap evidence from the Holy Land case puts CAIR's executive director at a Philadelphia meeting of Hamas leaders and activists that was secretly recorded by the FBI. Participants allegedly hatched a plot to disguise payments to Hamas terrorists as charitable giving.

  During the meeting, according to FBI transcripts, Awad was recorded discussing the propaganda effort. He mentions Ghassan Dahduli, whom he worked with at the time at the Islamic Association for Palestine, another Hamas front. Both were IAP officers. Dahduli's name also was listed in the address book of bin Laden's personal secretary, Wadi al-Hage, who is serving a life sentence in prison for his role in the U.S. embassy bombings. Dahduli, an ethnic-Palestinian like Awad, was deported to Jordan after 9/11 for refusing to cooperate in the terror investigation.

  Awad's and Dahduli's phone numbers are listed in a Muslim Brotherhood document seized by federal investigators revealing "important phone numbers" for the "Palestine Section" of the Brotherhood in America. The court exhibit shows Hamas fugitive Mousa Abu Marzook listed on the same page with Awad.

  Omar Ahmad

• Omar Ahmad: U.S. prosecutors also named CAIR's founder and chairman emeritus as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land case. Ahmad too was placed at the Philly meeting, FBI special agent Lara Burns testified at the trial. Prosecutors also designated him as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood's "Palestine Committee" in America. Ahmad, like his CAIR partner Awad, is ethnic-Palestinian.

  (Though both Ahmad and Awad were senior leaders of IAP, the Hamas front, neither of their biographical sketches posted on CAIR's website mentions their IAP past.)

• Nabil Sadoun: A current CAIR board member, Sadoun has served on the board of the United Association for Studies and Research, which investigators believe to be a key Hamas front in America. In fact, Sadoun co-founded UASR with Hamas leader Marzook. The Justice Department added UASR to the list of unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land case.

  Mohamed Nimer

• Mohamed Nimer: CAIR's current research director also served as a board director for UASR, the strategic arm for Hamas in the U.S.

  (Tellingly, CAIR neglects to mention Nimer's and Sadoun's roles in UASR in their bios.)

• Rafeeq Jaber: A founding director of CAIR, Jaber was the long-time president of the Islamic Association for Palestine. In 2002, a federal judge found that "the Islamic Association for Palestine has acted in support of Hamas." In his capacity as IAP chief, Jaber praised Hezbollah attacks on Israel. He also served on the board of a radical mosque in the Chicago area.

• Rabith Hadid: The CAIR fund-raiser was a founder of the Global Relief Foundation, which after 9/11 was blacklisted by Treasury for financing al-Qaida and other terror groups. Its assets were frozen in December 2001. Hadid was arrested on terror-related charges and deported to Lebanon in 2003.

  Siraj Wahhaj

  Siraj Wahhaj: A member of CAIR's board of advisers, Wahhaj was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The radical Brooklyn imam was close to convicted terrorist Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, and defended him during his trial.

  He was also a featured speaker at tonight's dinner.

• Randall "Ismail" Royer: The former CAIR communications specialist and civil-rights coordinator is serving 20 years in prison in connection with the Virginia Jihad Network, which he led while employed by CAIR at its Washington headquarters. The group trained to kill U.S. soldiers overseas, cased the FBI headquarters, and cheered the space shuttle Columbia tragedy. Al-Qaida operative Ahmed Abu Ali, convicted of plotting to assassinate President Bush, was among those who trained with Royer's Northern Virginia cell.

• Bassam Khafagi: Another CAIR official, Khafagi was arrested in 2003 while serving as CAIR's director of community affairs. He pleaded guilty to charges of bank and visa fraud stemming from a federal counterterror probe of his leadership role in the Islamic Assembly of North America, which has supported al-Qaida and advocated suicide attacks on America. He was sentenced to 10 months in prison and deported to his native Egypt.

  Ghassan Elashi

• Ghassan Elashi: One of CAIR's founding directors, he was convicted in 2004 of illegally shipping high-tech goods to terror state Syria, and is serving 80 months in prison. He's also charged with providing material support to Hamas in the Holy Land Foundation trial. He was chairman of the charity, which provided seed capital to CAIR. Elashi is related to Hamas leader Marzook.

• Hamza Yusuf: The FBI investigated the CAIR board member after 9/11, because just two days before the attacks, he made an ominous prediction to a Muslim audience.

  "This country is facing a terrible fate and the reason for that is because this country stands condemned," Yusuf warned. "It stands condemned like Europe stood condemned because of what it did. And lest people forget, Europe suffered two world wars after conquering the Muslim lands."

CAIR, which receives financial backing from Saudi and Emirati royalty, denies charges that it has a secret agenda to Islamize America. But a Muslim Brotherhood document declassified in the Holy Land case reveals that CAIR's parent was among Muslim organizations enlisted in a secret plot to destroy the American system from within and eventually take over the country.

Written early last decade in Arabic, the manifesto lays bare the subversive role of CAIR's forerunner, the Islamic Association for Palestine, and other Muslim groups in America to carry out a "grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by the hands of the believers, so that it is eliminated and Allah's religion is made victorious over all other religions."

CAIR's founder Ahmad, while claiming to be a moderate and patriotic American, last decade told a group of Muslims in Northern California that they are in America to help assert Islam's rule over the country.

"Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant," a local reporter quoted him as saying, adding, "The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth."

Ahmad insists he was misquoted. However, an FBI wiretap transcript quotes Ahmad agreeing with terrorist suspects gathered last decade at the secret Philly meeting to "camouflage" their true intentions.

He compared it to the head fake in basketball. "This is like one who plays basketball: He makes a player believe that he is doing this, while he does something else," Ahmad said. "I agree with you. Like they say, politics is a completion of war."

What's more, Hooper, CAIR's communications director, also has expressed his wish to overturn the U.S. system of government in favor of an "Islamic" state.

"I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future," Hooper said in a 1993 interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "But I'm not going to do anything violent to promote that. I'm going to do it through education."

Though conceding he made the remark, Hooper argues that he's never advocated violence. He says he and Muslims like him should work instead through the media and use "education" to help turn America into an Islamic state.

Attrition through Enforcement

Apprehensions decreased by 67 percent in southern Luna County in New Mexico thanks to the construction of a border fence and increased resources. Also, the completion of a pedestrian fence in Santa Teresa has allowed for the re-deployment of agents to other areas.

In Columbus, N.M., a 6-mile pedestrian fence has resulted in decreased apprehensions by 60 percent and a 100 percent decrease in narcotics.

“It is clear that the implementation of infrastructure in targeted areas of New Mexico has had a tremendous impact on reducing the volume of apprehensions in those areas,” El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent Victor M. Manjarrez, Jr. said in a U.S. Customs and Border Protection news release.

The Department of Homeland Security is looking to complete 370 miles of fencing along the southern border by the end of 2008.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection website has more on this story.

Al-Qaeda Increases Efforts To Obtain Dirty Bomb

By Gordon Thomas

MI6 has issued a global priority warning to all security services that Islamic terrorists are now closer to obtaining material to create a “dirty bomb” to launch against Western targets.

Osama bin Laden has long made this a priority and reinforced it with regular messages from his mountain redoubt in the north-west province of Pakistan. He has repeatedly said every “true Muslim must make it his duty to assist in all ways possible to find the next powerful weapon to destroy our enemies”.

After the election of the new Pakistani president, the controversial Asif Ali Zardari, who has served a nine-year jail term on corruption charges he has strongly denied, MI6 fear there will be little ability to provide strong leadership against the new wave of Islamic extremism that al-Qaeda has launched across the country.

Groups such as the newly formed Pakistan Taliban have proclaimed it is focussing on creating a “dirty bomb”.

MI6 agents based in Islamabad fear the mounting instability in Pakistan will make it easier for them to do so.

While Pakistan is the only Muslim country with a nuclear arsenal, it has in the past provided its expertise to Iran.

Pakistan’s Islam bomb was developed in the 1990s by the rogue scientist, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan. He sold them to pariah states like North Korea and Libya. He was placed under house arrest by Pervez Musharraf.

But since Musharraf was forced to resign, restrictions on Khan’s detention have been virtually lifted–a decision that has alarmed Western diplomats in Pakistan.

While Musharraf readily agreed for the US to place stringent security around Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, there are serious concern that President Zardari will not be able to resist the rampant pressure al-Qaeda is mounting from its terrorist infrastructure base in Waziristan province in the north-west of the country.

A senior U.S. security official in Islamabad said: “Our concern is the sudden rise in intelligence which strongly indicates that al-Qaeda has renewed plans to gain access to nuclear material that could form a primitive nuclear device, one perhaps that a suicide truck bomber could use”.

In a “dirty bomb”, conventional explosives are surrounded with radioactive material.

The MI6 priority alert says such a device, while having a limited effect as a nuclear weapon, would create widespread panic.

An indication of how the threat has increased has been the number of terrorist-related websites which contain details of how to create a “dirty bomb”. As soon as the sites are discovered, they are eradicated by MI6’s experts. But within days they reappear elsewhere.