WND EXCLUSIVE
JIMMY CARTER REFUSES TO CANCEL SPEECH FOR HAMAS FRONT
Terror-tied group featuring former president at fundraiser
A spokeswoman for Jimmy Carter says that, despite national outcry, the former president is going ahead with plans Saturday to deliver the keynote speech at a fundraiser of a Muslim organization that federal prosecutors and a federal judge say is a front group for the terrorist group Hamas.
In what it’s calling a “major” get, the terror-tied Islamic Society of North America has booked Carter as the featured speaker at its national convention in Detroit tomorrow.
It marks the first time that ISNA, which claims to be a moderate umbrella organization for American Muslim groups, has hosted a U.S. president. Carter has also agreed to participate in a breakout discussion session at the event.
In 2007, the Justice Department implicated ISNA in a plot to funnel more than $12 million to Hamas terrorists. According to an unsealed court document, Justice labeled ISNA an unindicted co-conspirator in the successful trial of the Holy Land Foundation, which acted as Hamas’ fundraising arm in America. Much of Holy Land’s leadership is now behind bars.
Hamas is officially designated a terrorist group by the U.S. government. Former Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz says Carter, as “an all-out supporter of Hamas,” may be violating federal laws against providing “material support to a listed terrorist organization.”
The former president’s headliner appearance at ISNA’s national event comes as Hamas renews its calls to destroy Israel and take Jerusalem.
“Hamas murders its opponents, engaged in coup d’états, kneecaps critics, uses children as soldiers – 160 some odd children were killed building these tunnels – and it uses child warriors,” Dershowitz said. “But Jimmy Carter stands behind Hamas.”
ISNA appealed the terrorist co-conspirator designation, but a federal judge upheld it, citing “ample” evidence Holy Land “operated from within ISNA.”
During the trial, federal prosecutors revealed how a number of checks for Palestinian terrorists were deposited into ISNA accounts and then funneled through Holy Land to Hamas.
According to the bestseller “Muslim Mafia,” FBI recordings revealed Hamas leaders discussed ISNA during a secret Philadelphia meeting to plot ways to launder payments through Muslim nonprofit groups.
Other court exhibits included phone records indicating Hamas’ now-convicted U.S.-based leader – Shukri Abu Baker – worked out of ISNA’s headquarters, as well as a three-page memo citing Abu Baker as the point man for “coordinating with ISNA in the accounting” of funds for the Palestinian “Intifada,” the bloody anti-Israel uprising led by Hamas.
Deanna Congileo of the Carter Center in Atlanta defended Carter’s speaking role by arguing he will focus on women’s rights and talk about his new book.
She also insisted that both “President George W. Bush and President Obama also have spoken to the group.”
However, Obama sent a boilerplate message via video and did not appear in person at ISNA’s event. ISNA invited Bush in 2005, but he turned down the invitation and an aide attended in his place.
Carter will share the stage with ISNA leaders tied to Hamas and other terrorists, including:
- Jamal Badawi, a long-time ISNA board member whom is personally listed by the U.S. government as an unindicted co-conspirator in that Hamas finance plot, and;
- Siraj Wahhaj, another long-time ISNA board member and past vice president, who was labeled an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
What’s more, Muhammad Qatanani, currently a key official in ISNA’s religious leadership, was arrested and convicted by Israel in 1993 for being a member of Hamas.
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