Hamas's support network in the United States was left intact after the Holy Land Foundation trial and is active today in the form of the Council on Arab and Islamic Relations (CAIR) and other groups, a retired FBI agent who led the Holy Land Foundation case told the US Senate on Wednesday.
In a 2008 federal trial, the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) and five of its officials were convicted of providing material support to Hamas. The government revealed extensive evidence about the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, and identified a decades-long conspiracy involving numerous individuals in the US and abroad to support Hamas via front organizations in the US.
Testifying before the Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights was Lara Burns, who led the investigation between 2001 and 2008.
Burns spoke of the FBI lawfully wiretapping a meeting of the leaders of the Palestine Committee in 1993 in Philadelphia. During this, Burns said members of the Palestine Committee defined the scope of the conspiracy, which included supporting Hamas abroad and infiltrating universities, media, and politics here in the US with the intention of “normalizing Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood extremist ideology in American society.”
“They also noted their intent to cleanse the curriculum in US-based schools because, quote, ‘We don’t want our children growing up surrendering to the idea of peace with Jews,’” she said.
Burns told the Senate that the leaders knew that Hamas would be designated a terror organization, and that they risked exposure, so they agreed to continue to pursue their agenda by “cloaking themselves under the cover of legitimacy.”
HLF’s role in the conspiracy before Hamas was designated as a terror front in 2001 was to send money to Gaza and the West Bank to support the Hamas social infrastructure, Burns testified. CAIR’s role, she said, “was to defend and protect the other elements of the Hamas support network and to pressure others to adopt its narratives or remain quiet.”
Burns: CAIR co-founder actively participated in conspiratorial meeting
She also noted that the co-founder of CAIR, Nihad Awad, was an active participant in this conspiratorial meeting and remains the executive director of CAIR to date.
While the conspiracy of 1993 did not remain intact in its original sense, Burns told the Senate that elements within this network have evolved and rebranded and “CAIR’s pressure tactics are still in play.”
“CAIR and other elements of this network appear to have continued their acts in furtherance of the conspiratorial agenda as detailed extensively in my written testimony today. For decades, narratives have been intentionally seeded into public discourse that portray terrorist organizations as resistance movements, excuse acts of violence, and intimidate critics into silence.
“On college campuses, in activist spaces, and across social media, slogans and rhetoric that once existed on the fringes have become normalized. And too often people who raise concerns are immediately labeled hateful, intolerant, or extremist themselves.”
“The First Amendment protects speech. It protects dissent. It protects protest. But it does not protect material support to terrorism. It does not protect criminal conspiracies.”
Burns: Some groups mentioned during prosecution still materially supporting terrorists
Burns was then questioned by the Senate on whether some of the groups mentioned during the HLF prosecution as likely providing material support to terrorists are “still in existence today.” She replied yes.
When asked whether she believes they are still actively members of the Muslim Brotherhood Network, she said she does. Burns also said she believes the conspiracy under which the Holyland Foundation was prosecuted is still in existence today.
She again referenced CAIR, noting that while it was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the HLF prosecution, it has never formally disavowed HLF. Both founders of CAIR were captured on the wiretap in 1993, and, as mentioned, Awad is still ED today.
Burns also wrote in her written testimony of two calls in 1999 by Omar Ahmad (the other CAIR founder) which demonstrated he “was directing expenditures of a Hamas fundraising organization.”
Burns then testified that, while CAIR has told Congress it has no ties to Hamas, the documented record says otherwise and that if she were still an active FBI agent today, CAIR would be on her list of organizations warranting further investigation.
She also cited two other organizations as being part of this Muslim Brotherhood network: Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP).
She testified to the role of all three organizations – CAIR, AMP, SJP – “reframing the atrocities [of October 7] as legitimate resistance and/or, as acts of self-defense, consistent with senior Hamas leaders’ messaging.”
“CAIR and AMP have continued to co-sponsor and participate jointly in anti-Israel events wherein narratives are often twisted,” and “CAIR has financially sponsored certain SJP members who violated campus codes of conduct, claiming the students were merely ‘targeted for their pro-Palestinian advocacy,’” she said.
Taken together, Burns said the recent activities of CAIR and the AMP “are consistent with the goals set forth by the original elements of this network in the 1993 Philadelphia Meeting and indicate the conspiracy is on-going.”
“In the 1993 Philadelphia Meeting, this network in effect plotted to silence the free speech of those who disagreed with them via intimidation. The pressure tactics are still in play today. CAIR and other elements of this network appear to have continued their acts in furtherance of the conspiratorial agenda.”
Burns said their conduct since October 7, 2023, further suggests that they have not withdrawn from the conspiracy.
She called on the FBI, the IRS, and the DOJ to instigate criminal investigations into the organizations referenced for violations of the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), Violations of Section 2239B of Title 18 of the US Code, which criminalizes the provision of material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and tax Evasion/ Tax Fraud.
On a federal level, she called for enhanced transparency in reporting for 501(c) (3) tax-exempt organizations, with specific focus on requirements to identify foreign donors, as well as updated federal laws regarding the provision of material support to an FTO.
Burns also called on K-12 schools to report foreign funding and transparency.