Boxer pulls Muslim award CAIR director's honor rescinded over concerns about group's activities. By Stephen Magagnini and David Whitney - Bee Staff Writers Published 6:48 am PST Thursday, January 4, 2007 Story appeared in METRO section, Page B1 http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/102832.html <http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/102832.html#comments_here> Last November, the head of the local chapter of a Muslim American civil rights group was honored by Sen. Barbara Boxer with a certificate "in recognition of (his) outstanding service." Basim Elkarra, the executive director of the Sacramento chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, was proud of the award, which he said reflected CAIR's bridge-building efforts with Christians, Jews, people of color and the FBI. But Boxer -- who said Wednesday that her staff made the award in her name without her knowledge -- has rescinded it because of her "concerns" about CAIR, a national group based in Washington, D.C., that has been attacked by conservative Web sites for allegedly supporting terrorism. "We made a bad mistake not researching the organization," Boxer told The Bee. "My organization created this problem -- I caused people grief, and I feel terrible, yet I need to set the record straight and I'm setting the record straight." Boxer said she'd heard nothing negative about Elkarra or the Sacramento chapter: "If individuals are doing great work, I commend them personally, but not in the context of the organization." After Elkarra received the award, Boxer said she was checking news online when an account linking her to CAIR and its alleged pro-terrorist activities "popped up. ... I said, 'Wait a minute, is any of it accurate?' " Boxer said her staff came up with "a whole laundry list of things," including what she said was CAIR's unwillingness to condemn Osama bin Laden by name or condemn the Palestinian organization Hamas. She added, "several of them (CAIR officials) have been indicted." Boxer's communications director, Natalie Ravitz, cited news stories detailing the convictions of two individuals, Ghassan Elashi and Ismail Royer. Elashi, a founding board member of the Texas Chapter of CAIR, was sentenced in October to 80 months in prison for engaging in financial transactions with Hamas leader Musa abu Marzook. Royer, a CAIR communications specialist between 1997 and October 2001, was indicted in 2003 on charges that he and 10 others were part of a conspiracy to support jihad overseas and sentenced to 20 years. But Nihad Awad, CAIR's national executive director in Washington, said Wednesday CAIR had issued a statement strongly condemning bin Laden by name after bin Laden aired his post-9/11 video. "Anyone who doubts where we stand on the issue of terrorism does not understand Islam, the Muslim community or CAIR," said Awad, who has appeared with President Bush. As for the two former CAIR officials serving time, Awad said, "Ghassan Elashi was a former member of CAIR in Dallas -- he did not do it on CAIR's behalf. This is true guilt by association. We have tens of thousands of members nationwide, and it will be very unfair to hold the organization responsible for the actions of an individual." Awad said the same is true of Royer: "CAIR had no knowledge of Royer's travels and activities before he joined CAIR." As for CAIR's alleged failure to denounce Hamas or Hezbollah, "We have condemned attacking civilians regardless whether they are Israelis or Palestinians," Awad said. Boxer's office routinely gives out many certificates, particularly to outstanding students. But after Elkarra received an award, Americans Against Hate executive director Joe Kaufman issued a press release urging Boxer to withdraw it. >From his home in Florida, Kaufman said, "I am proud of Sen. Boxer for doing this (pulling Elkarra's award)." Elkarra said he was aware that bloggers for two days were attacking Boxer. "The right wing went all out to attack us on this and she succumbed to it. Two days later, she withdraws the award. You do the math," he said. Rev. Dexter McNamara, executive director of the Interfaith Service Bureau in Sacramento, said he has worked closely with Elkarra and saw no reason why Boxer should have withdrawn the award. "I've had nothing but really positive experiences with him," McNamara said. Boxer said she'd be happy to meet with CAIR officials in Sacramento and Washington and "tell them everything that has come to my attention. I want them to do good things and hope they do good things in the future." (F)AIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to these copyrighted items are reserved. Articles and graphics have been placed within for educational and discussion purposes only, in compliance with "Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. The principle of "Fair Use" was established as law by Section 107 of The Copyright Act of 1976. "Fair Use" legally eliminates the need to obtain permission or pay royalties for the use of previously copyrighted materials if the purposes of display include "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research." Section 107 establishes four criteria for determining whether the use of a work in any particular case qualifies as a "fair use". A work used does not necessarily have to satisfy all four criteria to qualify as an instance of "fair use". Rather, "fair use" is determined by the overall extent to which the cited work does or does not substantially satisfy the criteria in their totality. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml THIS DOCUMENT MAY CONTAIN COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. COPYING AND DISSEMINATION IS PROHIBITED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNERS. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
