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Head CAIRorist Nihad Awad speaking on April 20, 2002 in Washington, D.C. on a stage bearing the flag of Hezbollah. (powerline)

Charles Johnson has this story at Little Green Footballs on how California Senator Barbara Boxer has rescinded an award to CAIR — the pro-Hamas, pro-Hezbollah terrorist front group in the US. From the article,

Boxer’s communication’s director, Natalie Ravitz, said a letter withdrawing the certificate was sent to Elkarra on Dec. 21.

Ravitz said two former members of the council had been sentenced to prison. She also said that CAIR had refused to label Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist organizations.

Ghassan Elashi, a founding member of the Texas chapter of CAIR, was sentenced in October to 80 months in prison for engaging in financial transactions with Hamas leader Musa abu Marzook.

Ismail Royer, a former CAIR communications specialist, was indicted in 2003 on charges of being part of a conspiracy to support terrorist activities overseas and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Awad, the group’s national director, said CAIR strongly condemned bin Laden by name after the Sept. 11 attacks. He said Elashi and Royer were not involved with CAIR when they committed their crimes.

“This is true guilt-by-association,” he told The Sacramento Bee. “We have tens of thousands of members nationwide, and it will be very unfair to hold the organization responsible for the actions of an individual.”

Asked about criticism that the council had failed to condemn Hamas or Hezbollah, he said, “We have condemned attacking civilians regardless of whether they are Israelis or Palestinians.”

Johnson adds,

I fully expect Boxer to cave in to the pressure and re-issue the award to Elkarra.

But it’s important to note that Nihad Awad is lying again. Both Ghassan Elashi and Ismail Royer were indeed working for CAIR when they committed the crimes for which they were convicted.

Read Johnson here for more on Nihad Awad, Ghassan Elashi and Ismail Royer.

Back in December, powerline had this post on the Boxer story which listed some facts about head CAIRorist Nihad Awad:

• Nihad Awad publicly declared his enthusiasm for Hamas at Barry University in Florida in 1994: “I’m in support of Hamas movement more than the PLO.”

• This same year, according to the Weekly Standard, when Mike Wallace of CBS’s “60 Minutes” asked Awad if he supports the “military undertakings of Hamas,” Awad stood up for the terrorist group and told him, “The United Nations Charter grants people who are under occupation [the right] to defend themselves against illegal occupation.”

• In an August 19, 2006 interview on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, Awad rationalized suicide terrorism by suggesting it’s really about fighting injustice. He refers to the writing of author Robert Pape on the subject: “He found out that it [suicide terrorism] has more to do with occupations and fighting injustice than religion. It really responds to the myth and the known notion now that has been used by several commentators and some politicians as a cliché because it sounds maybe dramatically well but factually it is not.”

• Shortly after September 11, 2001, Awad and CAIR placed on their website a picture of the World Trade Center in flames and under it a call for donations. It read, “What you can do for the victims of the WTC and Pentagon attacks,” and by clicking on “Donate to the NY/DC Emergency Relief Fund” one was unsuspectingly sent directly to the website of the Holy Land Foundation. A week later, the wording of the site was changed, as visitors to the site were directly told to “Donate through the Holy Land Foundation.” The link was on CAIR’s website until early December 2001, when the information mysteriously disappeared.

• On December 4, 2001, the reason for the disappearance was apparent, as the Holy Land Foundation’s assets were blocked by the United States government for funneling money to Hamas. According to the White House website, “The U.S.-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development [provided] millions of dollars each year that [was] used by HAMAS.”

• On Sept. 16, 2000, at a Washington rally sponsored by CAIR, AMC, and MPAC, Awad declared: “They [the Jews] have been saying ‘next year to Jerusalem,’ we say ‘next year to all of Palestine!'”

Hang in there, Barbara, and kudos for standing up to those Crazy-Ass Islamic Radicals. Now, if President Bush would just wake up.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 6th, 2007 at 12:24 pm and is filed under General, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.