The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was founded by members of Hamas and at least three of its employees were convicted of plotting against the United States while still on its payroll. Yet the self-described public interest law firm continues to operate with impunity in Washington, the capital of the same government it wishes to overthrow. That could soon change, however, and CAIR will have only itself to blame.
In a 66-page civil lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, CAIR has been accused of fraud and racketeering for allegedly hiring a fake attorney to represent local Muslims, and then covering up the fraud by coercing clients who demanded a refund into signing a secrecy agreement in violation of professional ethics.
In a strange twist, the person who alerted local Muslims to the rip-off was none other than Dave Gaubatz, head of the undercover “Mapping Sharia Project.” Gaubatz uncovered evidence that Morris Days, CAIR’s “resident attorney” and manager of the group’s civil rights division, never attended law school even though he acted as an attorney for hundreds of clients in their dealings with private firms and government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security.
The lawsuit further claims that CAIR officials violated their fiduciary duty by not bothering to check Days’ legal credentials when they hired him in 2006, and then became part of a criminal conspiracy themselves when they failed to inform victims, law enforcement officials and state bar associations of the fraud, choosing to cover it up instead.
In a bold move posted on YouTube, Gaubatz personally served unsuspecting CAIR executive director Nihad Awad with a court summons last Sunday at the group’s 14th annual banquet in Arlington’s Marriott Crystal Gateway Hotel. Awad was one of 14 CAIR officials named in federal terror investigations, and was reportedly caught on a 2003 FBI wiretap in Philadelphia discussing plans to funnel money to Hamas through phony charities expressly set up for that purpose.
From the beginning, CAIR has been less than forthright with the American people about its true goals and intentions. But elected Islamophobes, overzealous counterterrorism officials, or even a suddenly outraged public won’t be the ones to close it down for good. Like a suicidal terrorist, CAIR may prove to be the agent of its own demise.
