by Sperry, Paul
But CAIR has only itself to blame. In 2002, as CAIR was complaining about a “lack of funds” and launching a campaign to solicit Muslims for more dues, Awad privately assured CAIR staffers and the Muslim community at large that “all allegations against CAIR are baseless.”23 That turned out to be false, based on reams of government evidence, and now he and CAIR have lost credibility in the community.
A DESPERATE REORGANIZATION
By 2007, CAIR realized it had to do something drastic to stay in business. So it huddled with its auditor Joey Musmar and counsel Joe Sandler and together they hammered out a reorganization plan.
Most key, CAIR changed its IRS tax-exempt status from a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization to a 501(c)(3) organization in order to attract more donations. Donations to 501(c)(4) organizations are not tax-deductible, while donations to 501(c)(3) organizations are deductible to the full extent of the law.
CAIR also created a holding company to shield its real estate investments. Though cash-poor, CAIR is relatively asset-rich and controls an estimated $3 million worth of real estate in the Washington area, excluding its national headquarters.24
But that could soon change. Things are so bad at CAIR that:
It has considered liquidating some of its investment property to raise cash.
It’s having to rent out the entire first floor of its national headquarters, which is operating with a skeletal staff of ten full-time employees.
It’s begging mosques, including the ADAMS Center in Virginia, for emergency funding.25
What’s more, CAIR has had to:
Send interns to classes on writing effective grant proposals so they can research and apply for government and other grants on behalf of CAIR—some of which have been made under false pretenses.26
Deal with liens filed against its Capitol Hill property by unpaid contractors.27
Put on hold its “Hate Hurts America” advertising boycott of the Michael Savage radio show for lack of funds.
With growing cashflow problems and its grassroots support all but gone, CAIR is relying more and more on foreign cash from big Arab donors to survive, raising new questions about CAIR’s independence and tax-exempt qualifications.
CHAPTER TEN
CAIR’S ARAB PAYMASTERS
“UAE, sovereign wealth funds, Qatar, Saudi, you name it. Pick anywhere in the Gulf. This is [CAIR’s] donor network now.”
—FBI special agent in Washington investigating CAIR and its leaders1
IF THE COUNCIL on American-Islamic Relations doesn’t get its money from grassroots members, where does it get its money?
That’s a question even members of Congress are beginning to ask, including GOP Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia, co-chair of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, who recently queried federal agencies: “Does CAIR receive financial contributions from foreign sources?”
Only he and other lawmakers aren’t getting clear answers. By IRS law, the identities and addresses of CAIR’s major donors—like those of other tax-exempt nonprofit groups—are kept secret. So the bulk of the Hamas front group’s financing remains shrouded in mystery.
“CAIR does not publicize the names of individual donors,” asserts CAIR spokesman Ahmed Rehab.
But there is no doubt that CAIR receives direct funding from foreign sources—including Arab nations tied to the 9/11 plot and other anti-Western terrorism. It’s actively getting major infusions of overseas cash to fund its campaign of deceit.
Of course this is a closely guarded secret at CAIR. Publicly acknowledging it is bankrolled by Arab paymasters would risk raising alarms in Washington that it is controlled by foreign interests in the Middle East, further limiting its access to the political establishment.
CAIR still insists—despite mounting evidence to the contrary—that it is a “grass-roots organization” supported by dues-paying members, while strenuously denying it receives foreign cash.
In fact, in press releases CAIR has stated unequivocally that it receives no “support from any overseas group or government.”2
Once again, CAIR is dissembling. While there was a time when CAIR got most of its revenues from small American donors and dues-paying members, it’s now bankrolled by a handful of fat-cat donors and sheiks from the Persian Gulf—raising serious questions about its independence and tax-exempt status.
CAIR has an annual operating budget of more than $2.7 million, and hopes to double it to $5 million by the end of 2010.3 Records show the group is relying on some two dozen deep-pocketed donors for support, including one generous benefactor who contributes a lump sum payment of $600,000 to CAIR each year.
Together they account for some 60 percent of CAIR’s total budget.4 Who are they? Many of them are Arab donors flush with petrodollars and closely identified with wealthy Gulf governments, according to informed federal law enforcement sources.
“The executive director [Nihad Awad] has gone from just a small pool of [domestic] contributors that were really loyal to that Palestinian cause, and now he’s Gulf-coast-wide,” says a senior FBI special agent in Washington who’s been investigating CAIR and who asked that his name be withheld.
“I mean, UAE [United Arab Emirates], sovereign wealth funds, Qatar, Saudi [Arabia], you name it. Pick anywhere in the Gulf coast,” the agent added in an exclusive interview. “This is the executive director’s donor network now.”5
Qatar is where the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood—Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi—is based. Championed by CAIR as a “prominent scholar,” Qaradawi has been banned from entering the U.S. due to his fatwahs calling for the killing of American troops and his leadership in a charity blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury as a terrorist organization. Doha-based Qaradawi has referred to CAIR as “our brothers there” in America.
WIRE TRANSFERS FROM SAUDI BANKS
Next door in Saudi Arabia, members of the ruling family have transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars in funds directly from their accounts held at the Saudi National Commercial Bank to CAIR’s Citibank account in the U.S., records show.
For instance, Saudi Prince Abdullah bin Mosa’ad in 2007 wired $112,000 to CAIR, according to internal bank records kept by CAIR. “CAIR thanks you and HRH Prince Abdullah bin Mosa’ad for this generous contribution to CAIR,” the national office wrote in an email to the prince’s Saudi-based lawyer after verifying the funds were deposited into CAIR’s account.6
As CAIR’s domestic grass-roots support has dried up, it has stepped up its overseas fundraising efforts. Tax records show its travel budget for fundraising purposes has nearly doubled since 2004.7
Awad makes frequent pilgrimages to the Gulf to personally solicit funds. And he’s often joined by Hooper, who over the years has obtained several passports and is described by government officials as a “heavy traveler.”8 CAIR’s communications honcho boasted at last year’s ISNA convention that he and Awad have the ability to bring in substantial amounts of “overseas money,” according to video logs.9
CAIR’s board recently proposed hiring an “international events manager” to help coordinate all the fundraising and other foreign activities. It has even created a special committee on “international affairs” headed by Awad to help tailor its pro-Arab message to American policymakers.
To that end, Awad not long ago took a trip to Saudi to meet with the secretary general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference to “discuss future CAIR-OIC projects.” The OIC, a Muslim Brotherhood stronghold which promotes the interests of fifty-seven Muslim nations, has defended Hamas terrorists as “freedom fighters,” and rationalized the 9/11 attacks as an act of Muslim “frustration” built up over years of “aggressions committed by the West.”
Awad also hosted the secretary general at CAIR’s headquarters in Washington, while lobbying to be named the first U.S. special envoy to the OIC (President Bush passed him over, appointing instead a Muslim entrepreneur from Texas with a relatively pro-Western bias). Tax records show CAIR has received at least $30
0,000 in grant money from OIC to, among other things, help fight “Islamophobia,” which the OIC calls the “worst form of terrorism.”10
To forge stronger ties in the Middle East and attract more financial support among wealthy Arab nationals, CAIR has also approved the development of an Arabic Web site, complete with a link for accepting donations online. (Fittingly, almost 99 percent of the coding and development work for CAIR’s existing Web site is performed offshore—by a computer contractor in Karachi, Pakistan, a copy of their confidential contract reveals.)
THE UAE ENDOWMENT
Shortly after a company owned by the United Arab Emirates lost a controversial bid to take over control of several major U.S. ports, Awad and other CAIR officials traveled to the UAE to meet with its rulers. It was agreed that the UAE would set up an endowment in the U.S. run by CAIR to fund an “education” program to change negative perceptions about Islam that the UAE believes contributed to the public outcry that derailed its multi-billion-dollar ports deal.
The endowment caught the attention of the U.S. government, which issued a sensitive State Department cable regarding the unusual deal.11
It noted that the UAE Minister of Finance Sheik Hamdan bin Rashid al-Maktoum endorsed a proposal to build a $24 million property in the U.S. to serve as an endowment for CAIR to launch a $50 million image-building campaign through 2011.
“The endowment will serve as a source of income,” Awad told the Arab press at the time, “and will further allow us to reinvigorate our media campaign projecting Islam and its principles of tolerance.” 12
Islam’s image wasn’t the problem with the UAE ports deal, however. It was scuttled as a result of security concerns over UAE’s ties to al-Qaida and the 9/11 plot. Dubai served as an operational and financial base for the hijackers. Eleven of the hijackers, including two Emirates, were deployed to the U.S. from Dubai. The alleged twentieth hijacker, Mohamed al-Qahtani, also spent time in the UAE—where he had contacts with high-level UAE officials and received money for trips to al-Qaida’s base in Kandahar, Afghanistan, according to Gitmo interrogation logs.
Before 9/11, moreover, the UAE supported and formally recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. The Muslim nation still boycotts products (and even professional tennis players) from Israel.
CAIR is working out details of its endowment with the Dubai-based Al-Maktoum Foundation. The anti-Israeli charity has held telethons to support families of Palestinian suicide bombers and other so-called “martyrs.” Not surprisingly, the Arab press reported that CAIR “values highly the stances of Al-Maktoum Charity Foundation.”13
Awad’s ties to the UAE over the Palestinian cause run deep. His name appears alongside several contacts from Dubai and the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi on a phone tree for the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee, court documents reveal. Most of these UAE contacts are connected to charitable fronts for Hamas.14
The Al-Maktoum Foundation is controlled by the ruler of Dubai—Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. While the billionaire puts on a good Western front, he has been known to support Islamic extremists. And after 9/11, he came to CAIR’s rescue. In 2002, then-CAIR Chairman Omar Ahmad signed a DC land document deeding over controlling interest in CAIR’s headquarters property to the sheik’s foundation in exchange for nearly $1 million, as first reported in the 2005 book Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington.
Who is Sheik Mohammed? Before 9/11, he requisitioned C-130 military cargo planes to supply Osama bin Laden’s camps in Kandahar with jeeps, trucks, generators, weapons, cash, and other material support. He and other members of the Emirates royal family are said to have joined bin Laden on hunting parties in Afghanistan.
In fact, U.S. intelligence officials had to call off a missile strike on bin Laden because they spotted a C-130 airplane with tail numbers identified as belonging to the UAE. They soon realized, to their dismay, that Emirates ministers and princes were members of bin Laden’s hunting party, and if they went ahead with the bombing, they “might have wiped out half the royal family in the UAE,” as the former CIA director put it.
These camps acted as al-Qaida’s boardroom, a place where bin Laden and his henchmen schemed and plotted terrorist strikes. Sheik Mohammed and other UAE officials knew bin Laden is a wanted terrorist, yet they had tea with him and hunted with him for months at a time at his desert camps.
Bin Laden’s old hunting partners are now among CAIR’s silent foreign partners.
The amount of the UAE’s pledge toward the $50 million CAIR endowment is undisclosed. But it is not the only Arab government funding it.
According to CAIR board meeting notes, a Washington PR firm used by the Emirates—Hill and Knowlton—has put together a “business plan” to help CAIR raise money from other Gulf states.
“The UAE ambassador is willing to gather all ambassadors of the Gulf Cooperating Council to listen to a presentation,” Awad reported to the board. “In return, hopefully they will write to their respective people to ask for support.”15
The six-member Gulf Cooperating Council was set up by the Saudis as a regional common market that includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the UAE.
THE SAUDI PIPELINE
Following its meeting with government officials in Dubai, CAIR traveled to the Saudi capital of Riyadh to solicit additional funds for the endowment, prompting another sensitive State Department cable.16
At a press conference held at the headquarters of the Saudi-controlled World Assembly of Muslim Youth, CAIR announced the launch of its massive PR campaign and warned potential donors that the U.S. was trying to curtail the political activity of Muslims.
Awad, with Hooper at his side, said CAIR needed a well-funded endowment to change American opinion. He proposed spending $10 million annually for five years on the media campaign.
“We are planning to meet Prince al-Waleed bin Talal for his financial support to our project,” Awad said. “He has been generous in the past.”17
Indeed, the Saudi prince donated $500,000 to CAIR after 9/11. He also presented a $10 million relief check to then-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani—or at least he tried. Giuliani, to his credit, rejected the gift after bin Talal blamed U.S. policy toward Israel for the attacks.
WAMY, the Saudi group that sponsored CAIR’s press conference, has also provided substantial financial support to CAIR, notably during the construction of its multi-million-dollar headquarters. WAMY’s U.S. branch—located in a Washington suburb and formerly headed by bin Laden’s nephew, Abdullah bin Laden—was raided after 9/11 by federal authorities who suspected the group was funding terrorism and radicalizing Muslim youth.
WAMY is listed as a charity, but according to court documents, its real agenda is promoting religious hatred and violent jihad against infidels. Published materials seized by the feds reveal that its goal is to “arm the Muslim youth with full confidence in the supremacy of the Islamic system over other systems.” It teaches teenaged Muslims to sacrifice their lives in jihad. “Are you miserly with your blood?!” it asks them in one booklet. WAMY also teaches them to “love taking revenge on the Jews,” who it calls “humanity’s enemies.”
One of its sister organizations, the Saudi-based International Islamic Relief Organization, is also a CAIR booster. Its American branch has contributed at least $17,000 to CAIR.18
IIRO’s northern Virginia office was twice raided by the FBI as part of a money laundering and terrorism investigation. Before 9/11, IIRO had helped fund six militant training camps in Afghanistan. And its branch in the Philippines was founded by bin Laden’s brother-in-law, Mohamed Jamal Khalifah, a senior al-Qaida member.19
Despite Khalifah’s deep involvement in terrorism, tellingly, CAIR founder and chairman Ahmad testified on his behalf after his arrest on terrorism charges, imploring that the al-Qaida leader had a “good reputation.” Asked about IIRO, Ahmad said, “I’m very familiar with their work. I work very closely with their office in
Washington DC.”20
IIRO operates a dozen branch offices inside Saudi Arabia, each overseen by a member of the Saudi royal family. According to court records, the so-called charity is used by the Saudi government as an instrument to spread militant Islam.21
The Saudi pipeline to CAIR doesn’t end there.
CAIR also has received at least $250,000 from a Saudi-based bank headed by the former director of the Muslim World League, a charity founded by the Saudi royal family and overseen in part by the kingdom’s chief Islamic cleric, himself a government official. Osama bin Laden has identified the Muslim World League as a primary source of al-Qaida funds. Its U.S. offices also were raided after 9/11.
‘MULTIPLE INVESTORS AS CO-OWNERS’
Ahmad Mohamed Ali, the Muslim World League’s former secretary general, has served as president of the Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank for more than twenty years. IDB originally donated a quarter of a million dollars to help CAIR purchase land in Washington to build its headquarters. The grant was announced at the time by the Saudi embassy.
The IDB is not like any bank. It has distributed more than $250 million to the families of Palestinian “martyrs” from two large intifada funds it manages—the Al-Quds Fund and the Al-Aqsa Fund, which get most of their contributions from the Saudi kingdom. It also has a special projects branch that funds projects in non-Muslim countries to propagate militant Islam.
Recent board meeting notes show that CAIR and IDB have discussed the creation of a “building endowment,” bringing in “multiple investors as co-owners” of CAIR’s portfolio of properties.