November 15, 2012, - 4:41 pm
Obama Quietly Removes HAMAS Terrorist Muhammad Salah From Terrorist List; May Get $1.4 Million in HAMAS/Qaeda Funds
While Israel is forced, today, to defend its innocent civilians against hundreds of rockets in the non-stop war perpetrated by HAMAS, another HAMAS war is being won in America with the help of Barack Obama. On November 5th, the day before Election Day, Obama quietly removed HAMAS terrorist and Chicago resident Muhammad Salah from the Treasury Department Terrorist List. Salah was the conduit for Al-Qaeda financing of HAMAS. Salah sued the Department of Treasury in September, and when the answer to the lawsuit was due, the Obama administration chose to remove Salah from the terrorist list, rather than fight for what’s right. You cannot say much better for the Bush administration, which protected Salah every step of the way.
Federal agents and the lawyer for the Boim family, whose son was murdered by HAMAS, didn’t know this was being done. And they are all outraged that this Islamic terrorist–who shouldn’t be walking free on American streets–is not only free, but now is no longer designated as an Islamic terrorist, which means he’s free to go about his business. Muslims are gloating.
Salah was convicted of funding HAMAS in Israel in 1993, after Israeli authorities found $95,000, which he admitted he was transporting to HAMAS, in his Jerusalem hotel room. He pleaded guilty and then spent four-and-a-half years in an Israeli prison, and America’s Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control put Salah on its list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT). This should have meant that Salah was not allowed back into the U.S. or that he served time in our prisons, as well. But it only meant that Salah would have difficulty getting a mortgage, opening a bank account, or getting a job without the government’s permission (permission that they rarely withheld). And HAMAS terrorist Salah walked America’s streets–the streets of Chicago, in his case–freely. Later, Salah was convicted of lying under oath in a lawsuit filed against him, the Holy Land Foundation, and other HAMAS terrorists and financiers. The lawsuit was filed by the family of David Boim, a 17-year-old American murdered by HAMAS. The Boims won a $156 million judgment against several of the parties, and at least one of the parties was founded by HAMAS CAIR chief, Nihad Awad.
While Salah was sentenced to 21 days in prison for his perjury and ordered to pay a $25,000 fine and do 100 hours of community service, in the end, he got away with his HAMAS terrorist-financing activity. Idiotic Federal Judge Amy St. Eve even allowed him to vacation at Disney World. I spoke with the Boim family’s attorney, Nat Lewin, today. He did not know that Salah was taken off the terrorist list. I asked him about $1.4 million the government had also seized from Salah–money that came from Al-Qaeda and was earmarked for HAMAS (more on that, below)–and whether that money was taken from him to pay the judgment the Boims obtained. Lewin told me no and that Judge Richard Posner had somehow excused Salah from responsibility in the case.
I wrote about Salah back in 2004 in the New York Post (a longer version of which appears here), when I wrote about the FBI’s persecution and attempted firing of FBI agent Robert Wright, who had investigated Salah in the 1990s as part of a network of HAMAS and Al-Qaeda financiers, most of them in the United States. The operation was known as “Operation Vulgar Betrayal.” Wright and former FBI agent John Vincent appeared on ABC News to discuss their outrage, after 9/11, that designated Islamic terrorists like Salah were still walking free in America, and the Bush administration refused to do anything about it. Salah was actually working as a college professor in the Chicago area, despite the fact that Wright and Vincent had gotten the government to seize $1.4 million from Salah which was given to him by major Al-Qaeda banker Yassin Al-Qadi (he’s also a designated terrorist), apparently to give to HAMAS.
Because Wright spoke out, he was endlessly harassed and persecuted by FBI brass, who tried to fire him. He begged for Operation Vulgar Betrayal to be re-opened because it involved Al-Qaeda and other Islamic terrorists in America, just as America was attacked and 3,000 Americans were murdered by Al-Qaeda in the 9/11 attacks. Wright’s investigations documented not only the terrorist money-laundering activities of Hamas political director Musa Abu Marzook and the Holy Land Foundation, now shut down for financing Hamas terrorism, but also the fact that Al-Qaeda was financing all of this. By investigating US companies like BMI, Wright uncovered the financial links between Hamas funding and Al Qaeda banker Yassin Al-Qadi, now a U.S. “Designated Terrorist”. Wright’s efforts resulted in the “global terrorist” designation of Muhammad Salah. But Wright’s investigations would “embarrass the Saudis” he was told by FBI brass who laughed at him, as I noted back in 2004. He was told to let sleeping dogs lie.
Justice Dept. officials tried to return $1.4 million Wright had seized and return it to Salah. Hamas political director Marzook was indicted on December 18, 2002 — only after the FBI learned Agent Wright would appear the next night on ABC’s “PrimeTime” to complain about Marzook and Salah. The Bush administration deported Marzook to safety in the Middle East, despite Wright’s insistence on keeping him in custody for prosecution. Marzook still lives freely in terror-host Syria, evading extradition. In retribution for Bob Wright’s public outcry about this, the FBI began an investigation of Bob Wright, and they instructed FBI Internal Affairs Unit Chief John Roberts to lie about it and create trumped-up allegations of misconduct, according to a letter Roberts wrote. In it, Roberts said that FBI Director Robert Mueller was in on the whole thing.
Because the FBI refused to reopen the Operation Vulgar Betrayal, the US Attorney’s office had no choice but to negotiate the return of the terror funds back to the terrorist–the $1.4 million back to Muhammad Salah. However, following the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago held on to the money. If the 9/11 attacks had not happened, the $1.4 million was going to be returned to Salah during October 2001 because of the FBI’s refusal to reopen the Vulgar Betrayal case. The FBI–FBI Chicago Special Agent in Charge Kathleen McChesney in particular–would not re-open the case and refused to work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to continue with the forfeiture process of the terror funds. Even after 9/11, the FBI refused to reopen the Salah case and only did so after Bob Wright went public in 2002.
The Boims should have received that money. And no one knows what has happened to it.
Now that Barack Obama has officially removed Muhammad Salah from the terrorist list, look for him to try to get back the illicit Al-Qaeda/HAMAS funds. Now there is nothing to stop him.
Thanks, Barack.
Tags: al-Qaeda, Barack Obama, CAIR, David Boim, FBI, FBI Special Agent in Charge Kathleen McChesney, FBI Special Agent John Vincent, FBI Special Agent Kathleen McChesney, FBI Special Agent Robert Wright, Hamas, HAMAS in America, John Roberts, John Vincent, Kathleen McChesney, Mohammed Salah, Muhammad Salah, Musa Abu Marzook, Nathan Lewin, Nihad Awad, Operation Vulgar Betrayal, Robert Mueller, Robert S. Mueller, Robert Wright, Vulgar Betrayal, Yassin Al-Qadi
I guess Obama has the flexibility he was looking for.
DS_ROCKS! on November 15, 2012 at 4:50 pm