Ghassan Elashi | Ghassan Elashi | Hamas | Home Front | Arrested | 20021218 | |||
Ghassan Elashi | Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development | Home Front | Arrested | 20021218 | ||||
Ghassan Elashi | Infocom | Home Front | 20021218 |
Terror Networks | ||||
Controversial Muslim charity (CAIR) accused of links to Hamas settles lawsuit rather than disclosing sources of funding | ||||
2025-03-01 | ||||
![]() Evidence in past court proceedings has shown links between The Council on American-Islamic Relations Foundation Inc. and both Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
CAIR Inc. settled with Lori Saroya Thursday, months after US Magistrate Judge David Schultz ruled any assets owned by the group are all within the "scope of permissible discovery" as part of the former Minnesota chapter leader’s lawsuit against the controversial Muslim rights group. Saroya filed her federal defamation complaint against CAIR last year after the group dropped a lawsuit against her, which accused her of embarking on a "defamation campaign" against the organization. CALL FOR FEDERAL PROBE Lawmakers are demanding a federal investigation into the nonprofit,
Referring to court proceedings which showed the links, he added: “The allegations that CAIR receives funding from Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, if true, are deeply concerning and require an immediate investigation.”
Once the HLF was compromised, a new group with no obvious ties to Hamas had to become the funnel for cash; US Authorities concluded that was CAIR during its prosecution of the earlier group, as cited in a report by The Program on Extremism at George Washington University. Evidence in the trial against HLF showed that Ghassan Elashi, the treasurer of the charity, became the founding board member of CAIR’s Texas chapter and that HLF transferred funds to CAIR for “consulting services.” The prosecution also presented evidence that Hamas provided “seed money” for CAIR, according to a congressional hearing. UNDISCLOSED AMOUNT “The history is very clear,” said Lorenzo Vidino, director of the Program on Extremism at GWU. “CAIR was created by this core group of Hamas leaders in the US in the early 1990s. There are FBI wiretaps of a workshop given by the group’s leaders on how to deal with the media and create a veneer of respectability and use the language of civil rights.” CAIR is the now the largest Muslim civil rights group in the country, and includes 33 chapters, including two in California. Related: Lori Saroya 12/01/2024 Islamic Advocacy Group C.A.I.R. Must Turn Over Donor Lists, Federal Court Rules Lori Saroya 11/26/2024 Controversial Muslim group CAIR forced to reveal sources of funding after defamation case against former employee backfires Lori Saroya 01/26/2024 Controversial Muslim group CAIR now fighting a sex scandal lawsuit after it's dropped by White House over ‘happy' Hamas attack remark Related: CAIR: 2025-02-27 High-ranking gamer banned for pro-Israel stance could forge new legal precedent for US Jews CAIR: 2025-02-11 Suspect charged with hate crime for attack on Jews in Brooklyn with metal shears CAIR: 2025-02-08 Former CAIR-KY gov’t affairs director accosts random Jew in Manhattan office building hallway, demands ISIS jihad on recording witnesses Related: Holy Land Foundation: 2025-02-08 Former CAIR-KY gov’t affairs director accosts random Jew in Manhattan office building hallway, demands ISIS jihad on recording witnesses Holy Land Foundation: 2024-12-14 Biden Quietly Commuted Sentences Of Chinese Spies Holy Land Foundation: 2024-12-03 Support dwindles for cracking down on nonprofit terror financing Related: Ghassan Elashi 05/27/2009 Muslim charity member gets 65 years in prison Ghassan Elashi 11/24/2008 HolyLandFoundation members found guilty of supporting terrorism Ghassan Elashi 09/29/2008 Key evidence unveiled in Holy Land case | ||||
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Home Front: WoT |
Muslim charity member gets 65 years in prison |
2009-05-27 |
![]() Shukri Abu Baker, 50, of Garland, Texas, was the first of five members of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development to be sentenced. Ghassan Elashi, 55, of Richardson, also got 65 years. Another defendant, Mohammad El-Mezain, 55, was sentenced to 180 months for one count of conspiracy to support a terrorist organization. After a jury failed to reach a verdict in 2007, the men were convicted in a second trial last November on 108 charges stemming from allegations the charity sent more than $12 million to Hamas. It's illegal to give support to Hamas, which has been listed by the U.S. as a terror group since 1995 and is blamed for hundreds of suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians. The charity leaders were convicted on charges ranging from supporting a terrorist organization to money laundering and tax fraud. The two men still to be sentenced -- Mufid Abdulqaderand Abdulrahman Odeh -- were convicted of conspiracy. The charity itself was convicted on 32 counts. It wasn't accused of violence, but of bankrolling schools and social welfare programs that the U.S. government says are controlled by Hamas. The defendants said they only fed the needy and gave much-needed aid to a volatile region. "I did it because I cared, not at the behest of Hamas," Abu Baker told the judge Wednesday. Because I cared, dammit! U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis cut off Abu Baker and told him: "You didn't tell the whole story. Palestinians were in a desperate situation, but that doesn't justify supporting Hamas." The charity's supporters say the prosecution was a politically motivated product of former President George W. Bush's "war on terror" and a prime example of anti-Islamic hysteria after the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Defense attorneys also protested that an Israel official was allowed to testify anonymously that Hamas members were among the leaders of the charity's benefactors. The Israeli agent, who testified under the pseudonym "Avi," also appeared at the 2007 trial. |
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Home Front: WoT |
HolyLandFoundation members found guilty of supporting terrorism |
2008-11-24 |
IPT News November 24, 2008 updated 5:25 p.m. DALLAS A jury convicted five former officials at the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) on all counts [apprx 100 counts] in the Hamas-support case after 8 days of deliberations [following 15 years of investigations and two trials costing millions in legal cost]. The men, Shukri Abu-Baker, Ghassan Elashi, Mohamed El-Mezain, Mufid Abdulqader and Abdelrahman Odeh, could face up to 20 years in prison for their convictions on conspiracy counts, including conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. The verdicts, read Monday afternoon, ended a two-year saga in what is considered the largest terror financing case since the 9/11 attacks.... |
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Home Front: WoT |
Key evidence unveiled in Holy Land case |
2008-09-29 |
Prosecutors have begun walking jurors through what they consider some of the most provocative and damaging documents that the government has amassed against the five accused Holy Land Foundation charity organizers. FBI Special Agent Lara Burns continues her testimony today on the web of connections she says the agency found between the former Richardson-based foundation once the largest Muslim charity in the U.S. and the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian-based Islamist group that the government says is the parent organization of Hamas. Last year, the government failed to secure any convictions against the defendants on charges that they funneled more than $12 million to Hamas after the U.S. declared it a terrorist group in 1995. Last year's three-month trial ended in a hung jury after 19 days of deliberations on what was widely considered a mountain of disjointed evidence. During the first week of the retrial, for which the government has pared the number of charges against the defendants, prosecutors appeared to be taking more time to surround the testimony with context, even asking Ms. Burns to spell difficult Arabic names for jurors, most of whom are taking notes. Last week, Ms. Burns told jurors that Hamas political leader Mousa Abu Marzook whom the U.S. has designated a terrorist lived in this country in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She said he led a committee of Palestinians that answered to the Muslim Brotherhood. The group was tasked with marshaling "media, money and men" to support the Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation, according to prosecution court documents. Prosecutors reopened what they characterize as a trove of Muslim Brotherhood archival material seized primarily from the home of unindicted co-conspirator Ismail Elbarasse. The government says those documents prove that Holy Land was founded to be the primary fundraising arm of Hamas. Among the documents prosecutors showed jurors last week was what they said was a 1991 Muslim Brotherhood strategy paper describing its plans for the U.S. The Brotherhood sought "a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions," the document states. Mr. Elbarasse allegedly was a confidant of Mr. Marzook. Prosecutors last week showed jurors a $100,000 check they said was signed by Mr. Marzook, written out of the joint account he shared with Mr. Elbarasse to the fledgling Holy Land Foundation about two months after it relocated from California to Richardson in 1992. Mr. Marzook is related by marriage to defendant and Holy Land co-founder Ghassan Elashi, already serving prison time for business-related crime in connection with Mr. Marzook. Mr. Marzook is an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land case but faces other federal charges in Dallas and Chicago. He is believed to be living in Syria, where he is Hamas' No. 2 political leader. The government says some of its evidence came from a covert search the FBI performed at the Virginia home of unindicted co-conspirator Abdelhaleem Ashqar. Documents obtained from his home were not acquired with a traditional search warrant, but were secretly photographed, with permission from then-U.S. Attorney Janet Reno, by agents gathering intelligence on Hamas activities. Mr. Ashqar, formerly an assistant business professor at Howard University in Washington, was acquitted in early 2007 on charges of supporting Hamas. But he was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for refusing to testify before a Chicago grand jury about his alleged Hamas ties. Jurors last week also saw a video of a fiery speech from defendant Mohammad El-Mezain, advocating violent jihad by Palestinians against Israelis. Some of the tapes in the government's possession had to be refurbished after they were dug up from the back yard of a Virginia home once lived in by another unindicted co-conspirator, Fawaz Mushtaha. Prosecutors say a man who bought the home after Mr. Mushtaha left found a cache of tapes when he dug up the yard for a home improvement project. When neighbors told the homeowner that immigration officials had previously raided the house, he contacted federal authorities and turned over the videos. Mr. Mushtaha was a member of the same Palestinian folk band Al Sakhra, or "the rock," as defendant Mufid Abdulqader. The band played at several Holy Land fundraisers, some of which allegedly included fiery speeches by Islamic clerics. |
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-Lurid Crime Tales- |
CAIR Accused in Terror Trial |
2007-06-05 |
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which brands itself as a mainstream promoter of civil rights, has been named with two other prominent U.S. Islamic groups as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in a plot to fund the terrorist group Hamas. When the DOJ names "co-conspirators" without indictment, they are signalling that they are trying to make a case against the party named. CAIR has never been a civil rights group; members work to advance the Islamofascist agenda. ![]() Federal prosecutors also cited the Islamic Society of North America and the North American Islamic Trust as participants in a plot with five officials of the defunct Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, who go on trial July 16 in Dallas, the New York Sun reported. CAIR is a spinoff of the defunct Islamic Association for Palestine, launched by Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook and former university professor Sami al-Arian, who pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to provide services to Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Several CAIR staffers have been convicted on terrorism-related charges, and CAIR founder Omar Ahmad allegedly told a group of Muslims they are in America not to assimilate but to help assert Islam's rule over the country. The officials on trial in Dallas include Ghassan Elashi, who founded CAIR's Texas chapter. The Holy Land Foundation also gave $5,000 in seed money to set up CAIR's Washington office, according to congressional testimony by counter-terrorism researcher Steven Emerson... |
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Fifth Column |
Islamic Groups (CAIR) Named in Hamas Funding Case |
2007-06-04 |
HT to the Captain Federal prosecutors have named three prominent Islamic organizations in America as participants in an alleged criminal conspiracy to support a Palestinian Arab terrorist group, Hamas. reeaallly? Prosecutors applied the label of "unindicted co-conspirator" to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America, and the North American Islamic Trust in connection with a trial planned in Texas next month for five officials of a defunct charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. While the foundation was charged in the case, which was filed in 2004, none of the other groups was. However, the co-conspirator designation could be a blow to the credibility of the national Islamic organizations, which often work hand-in-hand with government officials engaged in outreach to the Muslim community. should, but we'll see. Perhaps the FBI, et al, could QUIT using them for sensitivity training? hmmmm? A court filing by the government last week listed the three prominent groups among about 300 individuals or entities named as co-conspirators. The document gave scant details, but prosecutors described CAIR as a present or past member of "the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee and/or its organizations." The government listed the Islamic Society of North America and the North American Islamic Trust as "entities who are and/or were members of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood." The secretary-general of the Islamic Society of North America, Muneer Fareed, said his group was surprised to be named in the Texas case. "I can tell you categorically that the current administration of ISNA, as well as its stakeholders, they have no connection to my knowledge with any Holy Land foundations," he said. Mr. Fareed denied his group has any ties to Hamas, though he said it is difficult to police all 300 mosques under his umbrella. "We might have a kid whose dad was president of Hamas for all I know," he said. "How do you verify these things?" he oughtta be dragged outside and kicked with steel-toed boots just for that stupidity The Islamic official expressed frustration at the lack of detail in the prosecution's filing. "Perhaps there's some evidence. I just don't really know what it is," he said. "I don't know how much they got" Spokesmen for CAIR did not respond to messages seeking comment yesterday. Efforts to contact the North American Islamic Trust were unsuccessful. The identification of the alleged co-conspirators could aid prosecutors when the Holy Land Foundation and five of its officials, Shukri Abu-Baker, Mohammad El-Mezain, Ghassan Elashi, Mufid Abdulqader, and Abdulraham Odeh, go to trial on July 16 in Dallas. Statements by and about co-conspirators are exempt from rules barring hearsay. RTWT - Discovery should've been fun. Now, expose the whole rat's nest. On the front page, dammit |
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Home Front: Culture Wars |
Upset Over Accurate Depiction Of Terrorism By Fox, Islamists At CAIR Cry "Bauer" |
2007-01-18 |
Fox is under siege again by the Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR] the Saudi funded Wahhabist pressure group from whose loins sprung convicted terrorists Ghassan Elashi, Randal Todd "Ismael" Royer and Bassem Khafagi...among others. Note to Boston Herald columnist Lauren Beckham Falcone [Fox's face of terror: Muslims voice concern over portrayal of terrorists on '24'] who according to her bio "covers pop culture, style and all things feature-y for Boston Herald." Let others do the heavy lifting on this subject in the future honey because you obviously don't have a clue and worse, were ridden hard and put up wet in this matter by the very group that through your [along with your editor's] inattention to detail have been given undeserved legitimacy. One of the scenes which might have offended CAIR on night one of the new 24 run was a classic, with star Kiefer Sutherland's character [as we noted yesterday] Jack Bauer literally chewing the throat out of an Islamic terrorist, then spitting out the bloody gore with a look of pure malevolence. In our opinion it was the best thing to happen on television in a very long time, giving both a civics lesson in the proper deportment towards terrorist scum while at the same time allowing a glimpse of red-blooded American masculinity defending the homeland. |
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Home Front: WoT |
US businessman gets 7 years for Hamas connections |
2006-10-13 |
DALLAS A businessman was sentenced Thursday to nearly seven years in prison for having financial ties to a high-ranking terrorist and for making illegal computer exports to countries that support terrorism. Ghassan Elashi was convicted during two separate trials on 27 counts, including conspiracy and money laundering. Elashi faces a third trial in February for his role in helping run the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a Muslim charity that federal agents shut down in 2001 after the government accused it of funneling millions to Hamas. Holy Land officials have said the group aided hospitals, schools and orphans in the West Bank and Gaza. |
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Home Front: WoT |
Two get prison in exports to Syria, Libya |
2006-01-26 |
![]() Hazim and Ihsan Elashi, their three brothers and their company were convicted in 2004 on charges of making illegal technology shipments to Libya and Syria. The Elashis ran InfoCom Corp., a Richardson firm that did up to $5 million in business a year selling computers and Internet services to mostly customers in the Middle East. Prosecutors say they shipped computer products to Libya and Syria from 1997 to 2000, violating a ban on exporting technology, goods or software to countries the U.S. government lists as state sponsors of terrorism. Agents from the FBI investigated InfoCom for years and raided the business the week before the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the original indictments against the brothers, calling it part of a campaign against "the financiers of terror." The men also were involved in the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a Muslim charity that was closed after the Treasury Department accused it of being a front for the militant group Hamas. Bayan Elashi, Ghassan Elashi and Basman Elashi have not been sentenced on the exporting charges |
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Home Front: WoT |
Brothers Found Guilty of Terrorism Support |
2005-04-14 |
Three Dallas-area brothers were convicted Wednesday of supporting terrorism by funneling money to a high-ranking official in the militant Palestinian group Hamas. Ghassan and Bayan Elashi Ghassan Elashi, head of Texas Chapter of CAIR and their company were found guilty of all 21 federal counts they faced: conspiracy, money laundering and dealing in property of a terrorist. Basman Elashi, who faced the same counts, was convicted of three counts of conspiracy but acquitted of the other charges. The brothers, all born in the Middle East, were convicted the same day jurors began deliberating, after nearly two weeks of testimony, and are to be sentenced Aug. 1. Prosecutors said each count carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence. "We hope it sends a message that we are going to vigorously pursue terrorists' assets," prosecutor Nathan Garrett said. Ghassan Elashi, free pending sentencing, left without commenting. Mistake. Put him in the hoosgow before he makes a "It's hard times for people of Middle Eastern descent," said his lawyer, Tim Evans. It's even tougher when they're terrorists who are trying to destroy western civilization Prosecutors said the men tried to hide a $250,000 investment by Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzook biography, now head of Hamas "political bureau", protected in Syria. Thanks, clueless Justice Dept. in their Richardson computer company by making it look as if it came from his wife. Payments were allegedly funneled to Marzook in return for the investment. Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the Elashis' indictments in 2002, calling the defendants "terrorist money men." Marzook lived in Louisiana and Virginia until 1995, when the federal government labeled him a terrorist, which made it illegal for anyone in the United States to have financial dealings with him. Marzook was deported and is believed living in Syria. Prosecutors said the Elashis' computer company, InfoCom Corp., continued to make payments to Marzook's wife until 2001. Prosecutors presented evidence from wiretapped conversations, financial documents and InfoCom employees that they said showed the Elashis were dealing with Marzook and not his wife. In closing arguments Tuesday, attorneys for the Elashis said prosecutors had failed to prove that the men broke any laws. Defense lawyer Michael P. Gibson vowed to appeal and said prosecutors had sensationalized the case. "There is no evidence that money ever funded any terrorism," Gibson said. "This is not a terrorism case, it's a financial crimes case." Defense attorneys said Marzook's wife Nadia Elashi, a cousin of the defendants All in the family. Will surprises never cease? controlled the $250,000 invested in InfoCom. They said she used the payments she received in return to cover living expenses, not to support terrorism. The Elashis' lawyers also said government officials knew about the arrangement between InfoCom and the Marzooks for several years but took no action to stop it. Marzook and his wife were named in the same indictment as the Elashis but have not been captured. The three Elashis and two of their brothers were convicted last year on separate charges of making illegal technology shipments to Libya and Syria, countries the U.S. government considers state sponsors of terrorism. All five are awaiting sentencing in that case. The Elashis also were active in the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a Muslim charity that was shut down in 2001 after the government accused it of funneling more than $12 million to Hamas. The charity is expected to go on trial early next year. |
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Home Front: WoT |
FOX Grovels for CAIR |
2005-02-09 |
Notwithstanding either the serial pro-terrorist pronouncements by CAIR leaders, and the arrests of 3 of their leaders, for Patriot Act violations, CAIR has coerced FOX to disclaim any possible suggestion that there is general Muslim opposition to the counter-terror war, that might arise from the current storyline of "24." World Net Daily, February 9, 2005 ...The Fox show, which has a story line that runs the entire season, is based on 24 hours at a counter-terrorism unit. In its fourth season, this year's story centers on a terrorist sleeper cell planning an attack on the United States. CAIR is a spin-off of the Islamic Association For Palestine, a group identified by two former FBI counter-terrorism chiefs as a U.S. front group for the terrorist group Hamas. Since 9-11, CAIR has seen three of its former employees indicted on federal terrorism charges. Randall Todd "Ismail" Royer was sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges he trained in Virginia for holy war against the United States and sent several members to Pakistan to join Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Kashmiri terrorist group with reported ties to al-Qaida. Bassem Khafagi, was arrested in January 2003 while serving as the group's director of community relations. The previous December, Ghassan Elashi, the founder of CAIR's Texas chapter, was indicted for financial ties to Hamas leader Musa Abu Marzook. Current CAIR leaders also have made statements in support of Hamas and the domination of the U.S. by Islam. As WorldNetDaily reported, CAIR's chairman of the board, Omar Ahmad, was cited by a California newspaper in 1998 declaring the Quran should be America's highest authority. He also was reported to have said Islam is not in America to be equal to any other religion but to be dominant... You calling us out, CAIR? FOX's snivelling weasel-words: "Hi. My name is Kiefer Sutherland. And I play counter-terrorist agent Jack Bauer on Fox's 24. I would like to take a moment to talk to you about something that I think is very important. Now while terrorism is obviously one of the most critical challenges facing our nation and the world, it is important to recognize that the American Muslim community stands firmly beside their fellow Americans in denouncing and resisting all forms of terrorism. So in watching 24, please, bear that in mind." OK FOX, quote a single major American Muslim leader who has ever denounced or resisted either Hamas or Hizbollah terror. |
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Home Front: WoT | ||||
Holy Land Foundation indicted in Dallas | ||||
2004-07-27 | ||||
The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, its executive director, its chairman and five other men were named in the 42-count federal indictment unsealed Tuesday. The indictment alleges count or counts of conspiracy, providing support to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiracy to deal in the property of a terrorist and dealing in the property of a specially designated terrorist. The indictment also alleges money laundering, conspiracy to impede an investigation by the IRS and filing false tax returns.
Attorney General John Ashcroft and senior FBI officials planned a news conference later Tuesday in Washington to discuss details of the indictment. Among the men charged were Shukri Abu Baker, the foundation's former chief executive, and chairman Ghassan Elashi. Three charges of filing a false tax return applied only to Abu Baker and Elashi. Tim Evans, Elashi's attorney, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment Tuesday.
On Monday, the foundation filed a complaint with the inspector general of the Justice Department and asked for an investigation because it claimed the FBI fabricated its case.
Holy Land, which claims to be the largest U.S. Muslim charity, has been shut down since about $4 million of its assets were frozen by the U.S. government in late 2001. Federal courts have repeatedly rejected Holy Land's appeals to get its assets unfrozen, concluding that the government has sufficient evidence linking the charity to terrorism. The charity has insisted that its money went only for relief to refugees, orphans ,
The indictment charges that Holy Land provided financial aid to the militant group Hamas as far back as 1988. John Boyd, a lawyer for the Holy Land Foundation, said he had not seen the indictment and could not comment in detail. However, he questioned the use of old transactions in the indictment. "If these are related to transactions in '88 and '89, that is six years before Hamas committed its first terrorist acts and seven years before Hamas was declared a terrorist organization," Boyd said. Israel banned Holy Land from operating within its borders in 1997 and said it funneled money to the families of suicide bombers. Israeli government officials hailed the U.S. move against the group. Holy Land had close ties to a computer and Internet-hosting company in suburban Dallas that was raided a few days before the terror attacks in September 2001. Agents seized computer hard drives and boxes of documents from the offices of InfoCom Corp. -- directly across the street from Holy Land's offices. | ||||
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