Why is a Hamas-linked Muslim Brotherhood organization given entrée in public schools? In the American Thinker December 19, I asked: “Why is a representative of a terror-linked organization, a defender of jihad terror groups and an apologist for Islamic supremacism welcome to speak in public schools?”

I was referring to Hassan Shibly, a representative of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who spoke at Tampa’s Steinbrenner High School in November. After I broke the story at my website Atlas Shrugs on December 4, giving specifics of where and when the CAIR rep spoke, and then published the article in the Thinker, “Hamas High School in Florida?,” patriots made hundreds of calls and sent hundreds of letters, emails, Tweets and Facebook messages in protest to Steinbrenner school officials.

The main person responsible was Kelly R. Miliziano, a teacher in the Social Studies Department at Steinbrenner. And she announced Wednesday that the school has scheduled additional religious speakers to balance the CAIR operative — a Hindu priest or a Christian pastor.

The problem with that is that Shibly is a political speaker. A Hindu priest or Christian pastor won’t counter the poisonous propaganda that Shibly spews to our impressionable young minds. An informed counter-jihad speaker such as Robert Spencer, Nonie Darwish, Wafa Sultan or I myself must be given a chance to speak, so as to counter the lies of Hamas-tied CAIR.

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Freedom is more embattled in America today than ever. My group, the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), has begun tracking the activities of numerous active groups that are threats to freedom in the United States today on our Threats to Freedom Index. We plan to augment it periodically and publish it annually.

All Threat to Freedom groups have beliefs or practices that attack or malign American Constitutional freedoms and/or lawful initiatives for American self-defense.

My colleague Robert Spencer and I compiled the list from records of Threat to Freedom group statements and activities as they appear in their own publications and websites, as well as from reports from concerned citizens and mainstream media reports.

Threat to Freedom group activities can include misrepresentation of anti-terror and other law enforcement initiatives, attempts to restrict the freedom of speech regarding Islamic jihad or other threats to freedom, defamation of freedom fighters, disinformation campaigns in the mainstream media regarding attempts by the U.S. and Israel to defend themselves, and more.

Listing as a Threat to Freedom group does not in itself imply that a listed group calls for or participates in violence or criminal activities, although it does not rule out their doing so.

Here are the first groups listed on our AFDI Threats to Freedom Index. There is more detail in my book Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance.

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A few weeks ago, I told you that Judicial Watch is investigating a decision by the Obama Justice Department to shield from prosecution a radical terrorist who was involved in financing the terrorist group Hamas. His name is Omar Ahmad and he is one of the co-founders of the radical Council on American Islamic Relations (known as CAIR).

We think it’s important that the American people know why our federal government is protecting terrorists and terrorist-fronts (such as CAIR) here at home, while our men and women in uniform continue to spill their blood fighting terrorists abroad. It makes a mockery of the sacrifice of our military and military families, and represents a nonsensical approach to national security to say the least.

This is a battle we have been fighting for a very long time. Judicial Watch has been heavily involved in exposing the financial networks that make terrorism possible going back almost ten years now. In the days after 9/11, Judicial Watch called on the Bush administration to investigate and, if necessary, shut down terrorist front groups. (We listed them by name.) We also published a special report demonstrating how these terrorist financial networks operate and who operates them.

Perhaps most importantly, we took on the case of two FBI agents — Special Agent Robert Wright and retired Special Agent John Vincent — who were silenced by the FBI when they attempted to expose the government’s mishandling of terrorism investigations in the days before 9/11.

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Did the Obama Justice Department refuse to prosecute a radical Muslim with alleged terrorist ties for political reasons? That question is at the center of a new Judicial Watch investigation.

Recently we filed a lawsuit against the DOJ for failing to respond to our request for public records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The documents relate to a decision by the DOJ not to prosecute the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and its co-founder Omar Ahmad, who has been linked by federal investigators to the terrorist group Hamas.

Importantly, the decision not to prosecute reportedly was made over the objections of special agents of the FBI and prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Dallas, Texas.

On May 9, 2011, we sent a FOIA request to the DOJ’s Office of Information Policy (OIP) and here’s what we’re after:

• “The March 31, 2010 memorandum entitled ‘Declination of Prosecution of Omar Ahmad’ from Attorney General David Kris to Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler.”
• “Any and all communications, contacts, or correspondence between the Office of the Attorney General (AG), the Office of Deputy Attorney General (DAG), or the Office of the Associate Attorney General (Assoc. AG) and the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) or any CAIR groups concerning, regarding, or relating to the prosecution or declination of prosecution of Omar Ahmad.”
• “Any all communications, contacts, or correspondence between the Office of the AG, the Office of the DAG, or the Office of the Assoc. AG and the U.S. Congress concerning, regarding, or relating to the prosecution or declination of prosecution of Omar Ahmad”
• “Any and all communications, contacts, or correspondence between the office of the AG, the office of the DAG, or the office of the Assoc. AG and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas concerning, regarding, or relating to the prosecution or declination of prosecution of Omar Ahmad.”

On May 9, 2011, Judicial Watch also filed a similar request with the DOJ’s National Security Division (NSD) seeking access to contacts and correspondence between the NSD and CAIR, Congress, and the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of Texas regarding the decision not to prosecute. (The time frame for these requests is January 20, 2009 to May 1, 2011.)

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The Hamas-tied Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) is viciously going after Congressman Peter King (R-NY), who is planning on holding hearings about the radicalization of Muslims in America.

On Monday, CAIR’s daily “American Muslim News Briefs” mailing contained no fewer than three shots at King:

Rep. King Turns Dispute with Mosque into Personal Vendetta

King Hearing Witness: ‘We Are at War with Islam’

Video: GOP Rep. Bashes Islam, First Muslim in Congress

You might get the idea from this that King’s hearings are actually going to do some good. After all, if the Hamas group CAIR is angry, King must be doing something right. Yet last week I called King’s hearings a “show trial” after King told Politico that he was “not planning to call as witnesses such Muslim community critics as the Investigative Project on Terrorism’s Steve Emerson and Jihad Watch’s Robert Spencer.” I wrote that “for King not to avail himself of Emerson’s knowledge and Spencer’s scholarship is an astounding case of willful blindness.” Even worse, King (R-NY) said he was going to call Muslim Brotherhood-linked Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN).

I support increasing awareness of the jihadist threat in our midst. Who more than I? But when Politico reported that King, who is the new chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, plans to take “testimony primarily from Muslims” during his upcoming hearings, I thought, why? The media considers it its mission to take its spin primarily from Muslims. The cultural elites are constantly haranguing us with the Islamic supremacist narrative of calling any candor or criticism of jihad “Islamophobia.”

Islamophobia amounts to the enforcement of blasphemy (sharia) laws. In Muslims countries the punishment for “blasphemy” is death. In the West, the punishment of “blasphemy” (candor aboutIslam) is character assassination. News is edited, rearranged, and altered to deliberately omit the motive behind attacks on nations and non-Muslims, whether it’s Russia, Egypt, Lebanon, Thailand, Nigeria, Somalia, India, Pakistan…or Fort Hood, Texas.

What we need is sunlight, not more obfuscation.

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Muslim civil rights group says movement fails to repudiate Islamophobia

WASHINGTON, July 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization today offered support for an NAACP resolution passed earlier this week asking the Tea Party movement to condemn racism within its ranks.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) echoed concerns by delegates at the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that the Tea Party has failed to repudiate elements within the movement who use racist or bigoted language.

SEE: NAACP Votes to Repudiate Racist Elements Within the Tea Party

http://tinyurl.com/25fyjtr

“If the Tea Party wishes to be taken seriously by mainstream Americans, it must repudiate all those who express or promote extremist, racist or bigoted views while claiming to be affiliated with the movement,” said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper.

Hooper noted the NAACP’s list of racist incidents tied to the Tea Party movement and cited similar examples of Islamophobic incidents, including: (more…)

I am one of the featured speakers at the Inaugural statewide Tea Party Convention in Tennessee’s beautiful Smoky Mountains this weekend. But look at this: the unindicted co-conspirator, terror-tied Muslim Brotherhood front group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is trying to get the good, decent Americans of the Tennessee Tea Party to crush free speech by dropping me from the Tea Party convention this weekend.

Why is CAIR starting this campaign now? This is all about the mosque that Muslims are planning to build near Ground Zero. I spoke the truth about this supremacist initiative on the Sean Hannity radio show last week, in a debate with Islamic apologist Michael Ghouse. Who won the debate? Well, you be the judge:

The next day I was scheduled to be on the Mike Huckabee Show on Fox News along with a representative from the mosque, but at the last minute they decided not to send anyone. They sent Huckabee a written statement, which he read to me on the air. And now CAIR sends around this press release full of lies and distortions, trying to intimidate the Tennessee Tea Partiers into canceling me. The CAIR press release starts this way:

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called on the organizers of the inaugural Tennessee Tea Party Convention to be held this weekend in Gatlinburg to drop an anti-Islam speaker who claims that ‘Hitler and the Nazis were inspired by Islam’ and that Islam ‘mandates’ lies and deception.

Sounds terrible, right? Except for one thing: it’s true. (more…)

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is attempting to bully the Tennessee Tea Party Convention into dropping Pamela Geller as one of their speakers for their event this weekend in Gatlinberg.

In a stirring piece of Orwellian propaganda, CAIR cautioned the group via press release:

“The Tea Party needs to decide whether it is a legitimate national political movement or just a safe haven for bigots and extremists,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. “We ask that convention organizers not legitimize Geller’s extremist anti-Muslim rhetoric by offering her an official platform.”

And CAIR should know a little something about being a safe haven for bigots and extremists. After all, their former communications director sits in jail right now after pleading guilty to weapons and explosives charges. He also admitted helping terrorists gain entry to a training camp in Pakistan.

While concerned about Ms. Geller’s exercise of free speech and the Tea Party’s exercise of free association, we missed CAIR’s press release denouncing the violation of human rights in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, Syria, etc… We’re sure they wrote one, it just wasn’t distributed as widely as this one.

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I finally got out and about – a beautiful Saturday night in New York City — and I had to bolt home. Times Square was evacuated, emptied of tourists, as police officers and firefighters closed the area because of a car bomb – bomb materials found in an SUV.

The SUV was filled with propane tanks, fireworks, filled gas cans, clocks with batteries, and two clocks with batteries, electric wire and more. A police official said: “It looks as if the perp was trying to light it up, and was interrupted by the cops, panicked and took off. It looked like someone tried to detonate it and we got to it in time. This is a big deal. It has the makings of a real car bomb.” A police officer who was on the scene said: “I did a lap around the vehicle. The inside was smoking. I smelled gunpowder and knew it might blow. I thought it might blow any second.”

Despite all that, the feds said at first that it wasn’t a terrorist attack. Then what was it?

That line was so absurd in this case that they had to change their tune, and fast. Now New York Governor Paterson and even DHS Secretary Janet “Nudnik” Napolitano are saying it was a terrorist attack attempt. Said Napolitano: “We’re taking this very seriously. We’re treating it as if it could be a potential terrorist attack.” But everyone was saying that they had no idea who was behind it. Police are now searching for a “white man” – a search the mainstream media is playing up big, hoping that the terrorist will turn out to be a non-Muslim. As if there are no white Muslims! Tell that to the North Carolina jihadis arrested last year.

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On April 5 the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued a press release urging GOP leaders to “insist” that Congresswoman Sue Myrick (R-NC) withdraw support from the non-profit grassroots advocacy organization ACT! for America. CAIR referred to ACT! for America, one of the largest national security (and pro-American and pro-Israel) citizens organizations in the United States, as an “anti-Islam hate group.”

As we at the Center for Security Policy have reported previously at Big Government, we believe – with the backup evidence to prove it at CAIRObservatory.org – that CAIR has been operating as an unregistered foreign agent, as defined by the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).  FARA § 611 (o) states that foreign agents who engage in any activity to “influence any agency or official of the Government of the United States or any section of the public within the United States” must register as a foreign agent and report such activity to the Department of Justice.  Therefore as Rep. Myrick and GOP leaders are “officials of the government of the United States,” CAIR’s attempt to influence their conduct and associations in this way is a clear violation of the FARA statute.

On April 13 CAIR-Tampa echoed the CAIR national office message  with this action alert and directed readers to a petition calling for 5,000 signatures condemning the GOP and Myrick for associating with ACT! for America.  CAIR could only find a single spokesperson to prop up their attack on ACT! For America, a certain Reverend Wilifred Allen-Faiella of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Coconut Grove, FL.  The CAIR action alert quotes from her letter which echoes, word for word, CAIR’s talking points from their smear campaign:

“As a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ who preached love for all I am appalled that a Congresswoman can support a hate-filled group such as “Act for America”.  Their statements about Muslims constitute hate speech and no responsible leader of this country founded on the principles that all are created equal should associate herself with such an anti-American group.”

Big mistake in spokepersons, CAIR.

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The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), claims to be “America’s largest Islamic civil liberties group.”  But that’s a myth.  As we reported here on BigGovernment.com last fall, only 1% of CAIR’s latest reported revenues actually came from Muslim American members.

Meanwhile foreign donors have given CAIR over $6,000,000 in cash and loans, and over $50,000,000 in pledges.  That’s 1% from American members; tens of millions from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.  Shouldn’t there be a law to let the American public know the truth about CAIR and their foreign donors? Of course, and there is one.  CAIR just doesn’t follow it.

The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), enacted just before World War Two, still requires foreign agents spreading propaganda to register so Americans can know what they are up to.  Back then the problem was foreign agents working for the Nazis.  Today the problem is foreign agents like CAIR, defending Jihadists in the media and pushing Muslim Brotherhood values in America.

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At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) 2010, Robert Spencer and I are launching a new organization, the Freedom Defense Initiative (FDI), by presenting a conference entitled “Jihad: The Political Third Rail — What They Are Not Telling You.” The conference is designed to speak the truths that others will not speak – and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is enraged.

The conference is designed to educate Americans about the Muslim Brotherhood’s infiltration at the highest levels of the U.S. government, as well as its war on free speech: its attempt to silence and discredit those who speak up against the jihad and Sharia encroachment in the West. Emphasis will be on the international character of the jihad against the West and on how the Islamic war on free speech (and the media’s self-imposed blackout on this issue, as in the Fort Hood massacre) is part and parcel of the same jihad against the West that terrorists are pursuing by violent means.

And that’s too much for CAIR. Ibrahim Hooper, the spokesman for the unindicted co-conspirator and front for the Muslim Brotherhood CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations), said, “They’re free to be anti-Muslim bigots if they like, but it’s really up to the organizers of CPAC to determine if they’re going to allow their conference to be associated with the hate-filled views of those who will be speaking.”

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Christmas. Who needs it? Not Best Buy, that’s for sure. After all, Best Buy is loathe to use that hateful word in its advertising. It’s so “religious” and tinged with racism, America, and tradition. It makes Best Buy shudder to think of using that foul word, Christmas. But, advertising for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha? Heck, why not? What could be more welcoming and tolerant?

And so, Best Buy has issued a Thanksgiving sales flyer wishing all good multi-cultural, Muslim loving Americans a happy Eid al-Adha this year.

Don’t you feel your heart warming already? Isn’t your PC bone tingling with happiness? And aren’t you secretly gleeful that those rotten, evil, reactionary, hatemongering Christians are getting theirs… even if Christians do make up about 75 percent of the United States?

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On November 17, 2009, a prominent Senator and five leading Members of Congress sent a letter to the IRS asking for an investigation of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) concerning their possible violation of the Lobbying Disclosure Act which limits the expenditures a non-profit can spend on lobbying  If CAIR has exceeded the limits of that law, they risk losing their non-profit status.  Other penalties may be more severe:  if the Secretary of the Senate or Clerk of the House of Representatives determines that CAIR should have registered and find “a knowing violation by a preponderance of the evidence,” CAIR could be “subject to a civil fine of not more than $200,000, depending on the extent and gravity of the violation,”  and if CAIR “knowingly and corruptly failed to comply,” they could be subject to imprisonment up to 5 years.    Our separate analysis of CAIR tax returns, compared to audio evidence recorded in 2006, reveals another potential issue for IRS investigators – more on that follows below…

The November 17 letter to the IRS was signed by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), Ranking Member on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.    The members of Congress signing the letter also have extensive experience in intelligence, counter-terrorism and investigations:

• Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC), Deputy Whip, founder of the Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus, who also serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
• Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), who serves on the Judiciary Committee and the Armed Services Committee
• Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA), who serves on the United States House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing, and Terrorism Risk Assessment
• Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ), who serves on the  Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming
• Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), who serves on the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs for the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

Our own investigation revealed another problem CAIR may have with the IRS.

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On November 12 2009, the federal government moved to seize four mosques and a New York City skyscraper owned by the Alavi Foundation, a group allegedly under the direct control of the Iranian government.  The following day, the Washington Times exposed the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) for allegedly lobbying on behalf of the Iranian government in violation of the Lobbying Disclosure Act and the Foreign Agents Registration Act.  We believe that a third U.S.-based group may be guilty of illegal ties to Iran under the Iranian Assets Control Regulations: the Council On American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

On November 18, 2006 and November 23, 2008, CAIR held their gala annual fundraisers at the Marriott hotel in Arlington, Virginia.  We’ve posted previously that the Interests Section of Iran attended both events.   Because the U.S. and Iran do not have diplomatic relations, the Interests Section of Iran, sponsored by the Embassy of Pakistan, functions as the defacto embassy representing Iran’s government.

At the 2008 event, we recorded video of Master of Ceremonies and then CAIR-Tampa Executive Director Ahmed Bedier giving personal thanks to “the Interests Section of Iran”  for their support:

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Last week, right after the Fort Hood shootings by Major Nidal Malik Hasan that killed thirteen people and wounded thirty, the Council on American Islamic Relations showed up on PBS and MSNBC with their three standard talking points, here paraphrased:

1. So sorry about the dead and wounded, but…
2. The media’s real concern should be the possible backlash that could maybe happen sometime against Muslim Americans… and most important…
3. IT IS FORBIDDEN to report or analyze the shooter’s jihadist motivations!

Or as Nihad Awad, Executive Director of CAIR instructed MSNBC’s Chris Matthews:

“I’m really not happy to see that his religion is becoming the subject…even if this guy uttered the words Allahu Akhbar or God is great, so what? It tells me that this is an isolated incident…We need to find out how he thinks and what he did, but I will NEVER come to the conclusion that religion is the motive…”

Media outlets like leftwing MSNBC and PBS give CAIR airtime because of the group’s claim to the title of “America’s largest Islamic civil liberties group.” But that claim rests on a smoke and mirrors illusion of political support from Muslim Americans and the U.S. Congress. That political support for CAIR seems to be diminishing and indeed nearing the vanishing point. In fact, much of their current support appears to derive from foreign sources. As a matter of stated policy, CAIR openly solicits and accepts donations from foreign embassies, foreign organizations and individuals from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and other Middle Eastern states.

However, even that foreign support can’t conceal the reality that CAIR is a rapidly shrinking organization that may be approaching obsolescence. A look at just three printed programs distributed in 2006, 2008 and 2009 to attendees at CAIR’s annual fundraisers, and their most recent publicly available IRS tax documents, shows an unrelenting downward trend in their public support over the last five years. The numbers don’t lie, and they are drawn from CAIR’s own public documents.

So you don’t have to wait for Hollywood’s remake next year of The Incredible Shrinking Man ; a real-life remake is going on in Washington starring the controversial lawfare and lobbying group, The Incredible Shrinking Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Let us count the ways that CAIR is shrinking:

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The radical left took a couple of hits on the chin yesterday, losing two significant governorships in Virgina and New Jersey. Add to this the embarrassing outing of one of their WFP endorsed RINO’s in NY-23, and this was not a banner cycle for the President Obama’s ACORN movement.

The Democratic Socialists and Marxists did score one important win in Staten Island yesterday, with the election of their WFP candidate for City Council, Debi Rose.

This is the same Debi Rose who recently exercised her 5th amendment right to avoid incriminating herself in an ACORN-WFP campaign finance related scandal.

There are two reasons this very local election is important beyond Staten Island.

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[PREVIOUSLY: On Friday, we presented the undercover video from the 2008 CAIR Annual banquet showing that the "Interests Section of Iran" - the defacto embassy of Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism as named by the U.S. State Department - was thanked by Master of Ceremonies Ahmed Bedier for their support.  And the "Interests Section of Iran" was also listed in the "Thanks To" section on page 20 in the 2008 printed program.]

October 24 – tonight’s the big night for the 15th annual fundraiser for CAIR – the Council on American Islamic Relations, named by the Justice Department in 2007 as an unindicted terrorism finance co-conspirator because of their ties to Hamas, a terrorist organization.   This event should be of particular interest to Mr. Stuart A. Levey, Under Secretary in the Treasury Department’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence – as well as to Attorney General Eric Holder at the Department of Justice – because of the apparent support for CAIR’s 2008 annual fundraiser by the “Interests Section of Iran.”

Members of Congress should also note two matters of concern from the 2008 annual fundraiser, now that Big Government has presented documentary evidence that the “Interests Section of Iran” attended the event:

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This Saturday, the Council on American Islamic Relations will hold its 15th Annual fundraiser in Arlington, Virginia.  Last year, our investigative teams went undercover to the November 23, 2008 CAIR 14th Annual Banquet fundraiser, and secretly videotaped the proceedings.  They were there to videotape the moment when Nihad Awad, Executive Director of CAIR, was served court papers for a civil suit for fraud, now on appeal.  But to their surprise, our team discovered that  six of the tables at the fundraiser were identified with signs for foreign embassies officially attending the event: the embassies of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.  Those same embassies were listed in the CAIR 14th Annual Banquet’s printed program (see below) in a section titled  “Thanks To: ” on page 20, which appears to give credit to supporters for the fundraiser.

SKMBT_pdf2 –

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