BREAKING: Ground Zero Mosque Investor was contributor to Terror Group.

[Soul Crusher]

Mosque Investor Was Terror Contributor
Updated: Thursday, 02 Sep 2010, 6:02 PM EDT
Published : Thursday, 02 Sep 2010, 6:01 PM EDT

BY CHARLES LEAF

________________________ ________________________


MYFOXNY.COM - Fox 5 News reported Thursday that one of the financial backers of the Islamic mosque and cultural center project in Lower Manhattan once contributed to a terror group, although the investor says the contribution was made because he thought he was giving money to a harmless charity.

One of the key players in Sharif El-Gamal's Mosque near Ground Zero is Egyptian born businessman, Hisham Elzanaty. Fox 5 News has learned exclusively and confirmed with Mr. Elzanaty’s attorney that Elzanaty made a “significant investment” in the development of the mosque near Ground Zero.

Fox 5 has also uncovered Elzanaty has teamed up with El-Gamal on at least two real estate deals: the controversial mosque site and another deal involving a commercial property in the Chelsea section of Manhattan.

In the Chelsea deal, mortgage documents show Elzanaty played a major role signing off as the guarantor on El-Gamal's $39-million mortgage.

When Fox 5 News reporter Charles Leaf tracked down Elzanaty outside his Long Island home in Roslyn Heights last week Elzanaty avoided the camera and did not answer a single question about his business dealings with El-Gamal.

Fox 5 News has also independently confirmed information obtained by the New York Post, that in 1999 Hisham Elzanaty sent money to an organization that would later be deemed by the US government to be a terrorist group.

The organization was the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, also known as HLF. The now defunct group’s 1999 tax records show Elzanaty contributed more than six-thousand dollars to HLF.

Two years later, in 2001, HLF was shut down by the federal government and designated as a global terrorist. After a mistrial in 2007, in 2008 five HLF leaders were convicted of providing material support to Hamas.

The Investigative Project on Terrorism, (IPT) is a non-profit research group that focuses on radical Islamic terrorist groups. The research group shared their information on HLF with Fox 5 News and IPT’s Managing Director, Ray Locker tells us HLF, “masked what their true purpose was, they funneled money to Hamas which used that money to conduct terrorist operations. In many cases they gave that money to the widows and children of so-called martyrs. ”

Federal investigators say HLF was set up as the largest Muslim charity in the United States based in Richardson, Texas, but from its inception the group existed to support Hamas.

Mr. Elzanaty's attorney tells Fox 5 News exclusively his client believed he was making contributions to an orphanage.

But IPT’s Ray Locker claims even back then TV and newspapers were reporting suspicions of the group’s ties to terror, “If you gave money (to HLF) in 1999 you probably had some inkling that HLF was giving money to Hamas and therefore to terrorist operations.”

Mr. Elzanaty's contribution to HLF came in the same year his Egyptian parents, Abdou Elzanaty and Abed Raboh Fawkia Elzanaty, were killed in a plane crash. On October 31st 1999 Egyptair flight 990 left New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport bound for Cairo, but crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Nantucket Island killing 217 people. US investigators concluded the flight’s pilot deliberately crashed the plane in a suicide, while Egyptian investigators disagreed concluding the flight had mechanical problems.

Elzanaty’s attorney tells Fox 5 the tragic plane crash changed Mr. Elzanaty's life and brought him closer to Islam.

 
See below for the 1999 IRS 990 form for the organization known as: Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF).

It shows Hisham Elzanaty’s $6,050 contribution.  (Specific street addresses and names have been removed by Fox 5 News)

In 2001 the HLF was shut down by the US government and designated as a global terrorist. After a mistrial in 2007, in 2008 five HLF leaders were convicted of providing material support to Hamas, a group on the US governments List of Foreign Terrorists.

US Governments List of Foreign Terrorists:

http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/other/des/123085.htm

Investigative Project on Terrorism:

http://www.investigativeproject.org/

________________________ ________________________ ________________

You idiots supporting this are going to look like the fools we said you were. 

[James]

Good thing Nancy Pelosi called for an investigation of...wait a minute...never mind.

[Soul Crusher]

240 , Mons, Straw, blacken, KC, Jag, et al are again going to look like fools for supporting this mess. 

[George Whorewell]

He had "no idea". He thought he was financing some harmless pistachio salesmen from Medina that wanted to build a Mosque next to an explosives factory.

Next: Mindless rationalizations, finger pointing, Sarah Palin bashing and moral equivalencies gallore.

[Fury]

Oh brother, it's always "I had no clue I was funding terror". I knew it was only a matter of time until something like this came out. You can't be pro-Sharia without supporting terrorists whose goals are to install Sharia Law where you live. 

[Lord of the Roidz]

Another bigoted post by the Islamophobic 333386. How dare you have the audacity to be on the side of 70% of America...which apparently are all bigots as well. Terrorists and their sympathizers have rights , you know. In fact, I bet the Justice department is already preparing another Lawsuit in case someone somehow manages to inconvenience a suspected terrorist and annoy him while he's planting explosives. Just because he's middle eastern, is yelling Allah-Akbar and is carrying a bomb doesn't give Law enforcement the right to question him. The Obama administration will see to it that this kind of Terrorist harrassment stops immediately.

[OzmO]

240 , Mons, Straw, blacken, KC, Jag, et al are again going to look like fools for supporting this mess. 

1 or 2 of them in particular didn't need this story to look foolish 

[Soul Crusher]

Ozmo - its very simple, you don't have an unconditional right to do whatever the hell you want wherever, however, like this, especially when the funding is from dubious sources like this. 

What's worse, and BF and I posted threads about this which I will bump, this Imam is already running a scam with an existing mosque. 

[OzmO]

Ozmo - its very simple, you don't have an unconditional right to do whatever the hell you want wherever, however, like this, especially when the funding is from dubious sources like this. 

What's worse, and BF and I posted threads about this which I will bump, this Imam is already running a scam with an existing mosque. 

I told you from the very beginning that i was against this.  The more i read about it and find out the worse it gets.

It's not going to happen.

[Soul Crusher]

I told you from the very beginning that i was against this.  The more i read about it and find out the worse it gets.

It's not going to happen.

Oh i know you were.  I was making that statement out loud to those who just screamed religious freedom over and over while ignoring other things surrounding this thing. 

[Soul Crusher]

Backer of NYC mosque gave to Hamas-linked charity
         
DAVID B. CARUSO | September 3, 2010 05:26 PM EST | 

Compare other versions »

Compare 05:26 PM EST04:48 PM EST and 05:26 PM EST04:48 PM EST versions


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NEW YORK — One of the investors in a proposed Islamic center near ground zero is a Long Island medical clinic owner whose expressions of sympathy for Palestinians included a donation to a charity later shut down for links to Hamas.

The developer leading the project confirmed Friday that Hisham Elzanaty, 51, is among the members of a real estate partnership that paid $4.8 million last year for the vacant clothing store that is to be torn down and replaced by a cultural center and mosque.

The partnership's general manager, Sharif El-Gamal, confirmed Elzanaty's role in response to a media report about his reputed involvement.

"All of these investors are committed, as I am, not to receive funding from any organization that supports terrorism or is hostile to America," El-Gamal said in a statement.

Reached by telephone, Elzanaty declined to speak immediately with The Associated Press on Friday, but said he may have something to say later.

El-Gamal has so-far declined to reveal the names of his other financial backers, but has said the eight-member group is diverse and includes Jews and Christians.

Those involved with the Islamic Center proposal have come under intense scrutiny from groups opposed to the project, and critics point to a donation Elzanaty made to the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development a decade ago as evidence that its backers secretly harbor extremist views.

Tax records show that Elzanaty gave $6,050 to the foundation in 1999. At the time, it was the largest Islamic charity in the U.S. It raised millions of dollars from Americans in the 1990s, telling donors the money would fund schools, orphanages and social welfare programs.

Two years after Elzanaty made the donation, the U.S. government froze the foundation's assets and accused it of acting as a fundraiser for Hamas, which was labeled a terrorist organization by President Clinton in 1995.

The foundation and some of its leaders were indicted in 2004 on charges of supporting Hamas. Five were ultimately convicted.

A New York television station, Fox affiliate WNYW, was the first to report Elzanaty's investment in the Islamic center project and his donation to the Holy Land Foundation. The tax filing listing the donation was provided to The Associated Press by The Investigative Project on Terrorism, a nonprofit group headed by Steven Emerson.

Elzanaty's lawyer told a WNYW reporter in a report broadcast Thursday night that his client had no knowledge of the group's involvement with Hamas when he donated the money, and had intended the cash to go to an orphanage.

Many other donors to the foundation gave thinking their donations would fund humanitarian programs.

Other people and companies who donated money, equipment or services to the foundation the year Elzanaty gave included NBA star Hakeem Olajuwon, the Microsoft Corp., and a medical equipment company owned by General Electric, according to tax records.

When the foundation's leaders were indicted, Attorney General John Ashcroft said, the case was not "a reflection on the well-meaning people who may have donated funds to the foundation."

Newspaper stories questioning whether the Holy Land Foundation had ties to Hamas began appearing as early as 1993 and Israel banned the Richardson, Texas-based foundation from operating there in 1997. It wasn't until after the 9/11 attacks, however, that U.S. officials cracked down.

The real estate partnership behind the drive to build the Islamic center, led by Manhattan real estate investor Sharif El-Gamal, had previously declined to reveal the names of its financial backers.

City property records show that Elzanaty has been involved in other real estate deals with El-Gamal. He was listed as a guarantor on a $39 million mortgage that El-Gamal's investment group assumed when it purchased a Manhattan commercial building in 2009.

Elzanaty, whose mother and father died on a flight from New York to Cairo that went down in the Atlantic in 1999, has made no secret of his past philanthropy involving the Palestinians. In a 2002 interview with Newsday, he spoke of a hesitation to donate to Middle Eastern charities because of concerns that it could unwittingly land him in a terror investigation.

"When you see people surrounded by tanks and F-16s, you ask how can we help?" he told the paper. "But you don't want years later to have a knock on the door and someone asking why did you donate money?"

[Fury]

Where are all the dipshit far-leftists like kcballer to tell us that we're islamophobes and that these people are doing nothing wrong? Funny how the far-left has gone silent on this mosque. I'd say they're cutting their losses as they know they're not able to spin all the stuff coming out on these clowns.

[Soul Crusher]

240 is left with telling me I should be running around with piss filled super soakers around NYC. 

Blacken & mons have gone missing along with all the other dopes.   

[Fury]

It's pretty funny that these people, who the leftists and apologists have spent months trumpeting as the perfect examples of "moderate" Muslims, have, once again, turned out to be pro-Sharia, terrorist-financing scumbags. Wonder how many more examples of this people will need to see before they stop making that idiotic, unfounded argument? Probably another thousand as they're clueless morons. 

[240 is Back]

240 is left with telling me I should be running around with piss filled super soakers around NYC. 

water baloons also work.  use deer piss.

[Soul Crusher]

It's pretty funny that these people, who the leftists and apologists have spent months trumpeting as the perfect examples of "moderate" Muslims, have, once again, turned out to be pro-Sharia, terrorist-financing scumbags. Wonder how many more examples of this people will need to see before they stop making that idiotic, unfounded argument? Probably another thousand as they're clueless morons. 

I'm not gloating, and neither are you, but seriously, when are these people going to wake up already and stop following the idiotic crap from people like Obama, Bloomberg, MSNBC, etc?

[240 is Back]

idiotic crap from people like Obama, Bloomberg, MSNBC, etc?

I would be ok with bloomberg as President.

[Fury]

I'm not gloating, and neither are you, but seriously, when are these people going to wake up already and stop following the idiotic crap from people like Obama, Bloomberg, MSNBC, etc?

They'll wake up when they've got the blade to their neck.

People's opinions change. I remember you speaking positively about Palin at one point. 

[Soul Crusher]

And you know what, after this Mosque thing, I would never go for it.  Before this, I would have been ok with him as prez, but never after this latest episode.  Some things are just too much.   

[240 is Back]

People's opinions change. I remember you speaking positively about Palin at one point. 

LOL!  I bashed her from minute 1, remember?

I like many of her positions on issues - but she is a major RINO - and she just doesn't appear to have the maturity to be president.  The way she's bickering with reporters on twitter isn't presidential.  ya gotta be ablve the fray.  She's too jerry springer.

[Fury]

LOL!  I bashed her from minute 1, remember?

I like many of her positions on issues - but she is a major RINO - and she just doesn't appear to have the maturity to be president.  The way she's bickering with reporters on twitter isn't presidential.  ya gotta be ablve the fray.  She's too jerry springer.

I agree but I don't think going on The View is much better. 

And you know what, after this Mosque thing, I would never go for it.  Before this, I would have been ok with him as prez, but never after this latest episode.  Some things are just too much.   

He's showed his true colors with this mosque. He's an opportunist dirtbag like the rest of them. I guarantee the only reason he's supporting this thing is because of Middle Eastern business deals that you posted about.

[Skip8282]

Bump for the silent apologists.

[240 is Back]

let's take him to gitmo and sort this all out.

[Soul Crusher]

BUMP

[Hugo Chavez]

BUMP

I assume this is one of the threads you bumped to prove Rauf is a terrorist lol...  where's the info here that he was involved or knew that the charity was bogus and intended to support hamas?  The other threads you bumped don't seem to support him being a terrorist either.  I'm still looking through the threads in case I missed something but so far, I don't see the justification for him being a terrorist lol..