Is CAIR a Foreign Agent?

If you reside in the United States and receive payments from a foreign government, federal law requires you to register as an foreign agent. The law doesn’t restrict your activities, but it does demand that you make public whose payroll you are on.

Everyone knows that the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a patriotic domestic American organization. They’re as American as apple pie — right?

Then why do they receive money from foreign governments, including Iran?

And, more importantly, why don’t the members of CAIR’s board of directors have to comply with the law and register as foreign agents?

I posted last year about the serving of court papers to Nihad Awad, the Executive Director of CAIR, at the group’s annual banquet. The same team that videotaped the operation recorded the rest of the proceedings at the banquet, including the fascinating little snippet that is featured in the video below:


So you tell me — why does CAIR get a free pass on its funding by the “Interests Section of Iran”?

A number of American soldiers have been injured and maimed by Iranian weapons shipped to Iraq and Afghanistan, and I’ll wager that they would have some strong opinions about all this.

Here’s what Frank Gaffney has to say about it:

CAIR Thanks Iran? For What Exactly?
by Frank Gaffney

This Saturday, the Council on American Islamic Relations will hold its 15th Annual fundraiser in Arlington, Virginia. Last year, our investigative teams went undercover to the November 23, 2008 CAIR 14th Annual Banquet fundraiser, and secretly videotaped the proceedings. They were there to videotape the moment when Nihad Awad, Executive Director of CAIR, was served court papers for a civil suit for fraud, now on appeal. But to their surprise, our team discovered that six of the tables at the fundraiser were identified with signs for foreign embassies officially attending the event: the embassies of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. Those same embassies were listed in the CAIR 14th Annual Banquet’s printed program (see below) in a section titled “Thanks To: “ on page 20, which appears to give credit to supporters for the fundraiser

- - - - - - - - -

Even more concerning, was the presence of the “Interests Section of Iran” — a country that does not have an embassy in the U.S., since the countries have long cut off diplomatic relations. The “Interests Section of Iran” is the de facto diplomatic representation of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the United States. And therefore any gifts from the “Interests Section” to CAIR — say, a donation to a fundraiser — would constitute a gift from the government of Iran.

And sure enough, the “Interests Section of Iran” is listed in the printed program for CAIR’s 2008 14th Annual Banquet, on the “Thanks To:” section on page 20. That’s the page read aloud in our undercover video when Ahmed Bedier, the past director of CAIR-Tampa (Florida) and Master of Ceremonies for CAIR’s 14th Annual Banquet, personally thanks everyone listed on the page — including the “Interests Section of Iran.” You can watch it here, along with some background on CAIR and the controversies surrounding CAIR.

But the big question is what’s happening this weekend. CAIR’s next fundraiser is this Saturday, October 24, at the Arlington, Virginia Marriott Crystal Gateway, featuring keynoters Jesse Jackson and Imam Siraj Wahhaj. It’s the big one: their 15th annual event with the Obama-esque motto “CAIR- Leading The Change.” Shouldn’t the FBI — and the IRS — and maybe Congress be asking whether all those foreign embassies will attend again this year, including the “Interests Section of Iran” — and whether they are donating to CAIR as part of their attendance?

An easy question to ask, and easy to answer. CAIR just needs to open their books to show what they have received from the “Interests Section of Iran” in 2008 — and earlier years — that was worth that thank-you mention in the printed program… To be continued…

Under the Bush administration CAIR easily got away with such blatant sedition, and you can bet that the Obama administration will have even less interest in taking on the premier American lobbyist for the Muslim Brotherhood.

It will be up to ordinary citizens like you and me to raise a stink about this. Contact your senators and your congressmen about the issue.

Make your feelings known, but remember: Be polite!

If they seem disinclined to listen, remind them that there is an election coming up in just a little more than a year’s time…