John Rossomando
http://www.investigativeproject.org/4166/cair-leaders-curry-favor-with-dictators
The International Criminal Court (ICC) charged
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir with genocide and crimes
against humanity in March 2009, but that did not keep Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Executive Director Nihad Awad from
meeting with the dictator's representatives in November 2009, according
to law-enforcement sources.
Bashir is wanted in connection with the Darfur genocide that stirred a global outcry. He recently stirred controversy by trying to get into the United States to attend this month's opening of the United Nations General Assembly.
The sources told the Investigative Project on Terrorism that the
Sudanese dictator's representatives met with Awad during the 2009 UN
summit seeking his help to gain access to individuals in the Obama
administration.
Awad subsequently traveled to Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar in August 2010 and met with a representative of Bashir.
This was not the first time the CAIR chief met with representatives of dictators. He sought out help
from late Libyan dictator Col. Muammar Gaddafi in September 2009,
seeking his help underwriting CAIR's efforts to distribute 1 million
copies of the Quran to government officials and to the general public in
the United States.
A Libyan news website noted CAIR communications director Ibrahim
Hooper and Chairman Larry Shaw joined Awad in appealing to the Libyan
dictator. "[W]e appreciate your efforts over the years and wish also to
extend your interest will extend to Muslims in America, God willing,"
Awad said at a reception for Gaddafi. This came after Gaddafi's rambling, 100-minute speech to the General Assembly
In addition to the Qurans, Awad sought Gaddafi's help in launching a new entity called the Muslim Peace Foundation.
But CAIR's stance toward Gaddafi shifted after the start of the Arab
Spring when Gaddafi began killing his own people. Awad and CAIR then
denounced him as a madman. The CAIR leader denied receiving any money
from Gaddafi during a March 2011 radio interview, saying that his pitch
had failed.
But it was not as if Gaddafi's human-rights record was unknown in
2009. President Ronald Reagan denounced him as the "mad dog of the
Middle East" following the bombing of a Berlin discotheque that killed that killed American soldiers in 1986, followed two years later by the Lockerbie bombing.
State Department documents
obtained by the IPT under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) show
that Awad, Hooper and Shaw visited Saudi Arabia to solicit $50 million
in governmental and non-governmental contributions.
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