Financial

We argue that CAIR qualifies under FARA as a foreign agent in part because it has taken cash, loans, pledges of donations and real property from foreign principals.

• Public Statements About Foreign Funding: CAIR’s positions about receiving foreign funds have changed over time from flat denials to carefully-worded admissions. They are useful as a comparison to the actual facts and as a comparison to the wording in the FARA law.  In FARA 611 (b) defining a foreign principal, that foreign principal can be “a government of a foreign country and a foreign political party… a person outside of the United States… a partnership, association, corporation, organization, or other combination of persons organized under the laws of or having its principal place of business in a foreign country…”

• Foreign Funding Transactions: View source documents regarding CAIR’s receipt of Donations, Pledges and Endowments from foreign principals.

In addition to direct FARA violations we have collected volumes of public information which illuminate other aspects of CAIR’s financial dealings.  These do not necessarily represent a “smoking gun” in the context of FARA, but they provide valuable insight into CAIR’s operations and are worthy of further investigation.

• Annual Reports: The national CAIR office and some chapters release annual reports which usually include a page or two on financial activity.  These are useful to use as a baseline in comparison to the financial information CAIR reports to the IRS.

• Real Estate: CAIR owns its Washington, DC headquarters located at 453 New Jersey Ave SE (aka 50 E Street SE).  Also, in the years of 2005-2006 CAIR purchased at least eight (8) residential/townhouse properties on a single block (designated Square 750) bounded by 2nd St, 3rd St, K St, and Parker St in NE DC.  CAIR purchased these properties under the name of one or more of the following three (3) associated corporations: Council on American-Islamic Relations Inc, Greater Washington LLC of Delaware, and Zahara Investment Corporation.  We have obtained public documents from the Washington, DC Recorder of Deeds detailing these transactions.  We also have records of CAIR properties in Orange County, CA and Hillsborough County, FL.

• IRS Documents: As of March 17, 2010 we have collected and uploaded 119 tax documents pertaining to the CAIR national office in Washington, DC as well as nineteen (19) individually incorporated CAIR chapters (both active and defunct) spread across seventeen (17) U.S. states.  We collected most of these documents in digital format from online resources at Guide Star and Foundation Center.  Some documents necessitated a direct written request to the IRS.  These arrived as paper copies and were later scanned and added to the digital archive.  All of the currently posted documents are Form 990’s.  In the near future we will be uploading additional IRS documents including the original paperwork filed to establish the various CAIR entities as non-profit corporations.