WOW!
****The facts are clear… The terrorists benefit from the Holy Land Foundation, and we’re not going to allow it. … Money raised by the Holy Land Foundation is used by Hamas to support schools and indoctrinate children to grow up into suicide bombers [and] to recruit suicide bombers and support their families.”
Bush’s accusations were not supported by any evidence but the president spoke and so the government had to act. The FBI raided the HLF offices in Dallas and seized their financial records, database, wire transfers, donor lists, and correspondence, freezing all their assets. Yet the government came up with no evidence linking HLF to Hamas.
The Holy Land Foundation was the largest Muslim charity in America. It provided aid to refugees, orphans, victims of human and natural disasters, the poor and the needy throughout the world, regardless of faith or political affiliation. According to Mohammad Abumoharam, a relief worker in Gaza, “HLF has been able to significantly alleviate the suffering of thousands in Palestine.”
Then, at precisely 7 a.m. CDT, on July 27, 2004, the homes of Shukri Abu Baker, Ghassan Elashi, Mufid Abdulqader, Abdulrahman Odeh, and Mohammad Elmezain were raided by local and federal officers. All five men, who came to be known as the HLF- 5, were taken into custody. Four years and two trials later, all five were sent to federal prison, serving sentences ranging from 15 to 65 years.
Accusing charity organizations that support Palestinians of “funding terrorism” requires a great deal of creativity but also a certain amount of collaboration between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. John Boyd, one of the attorneys who represented the HLF in the cases that were brought, told me he felt that “all the rules that have been put in place to protect innocent people had been suspended in this case,” and that the judges who were involved, “abdicated their duties to uphold the law and defend innocent people.”
LG~~IMHO article was written by a very slanted LSM peep. A “terrorist” is only a “freedom fighter” so funding would go the same way.