Urge State Department to Investigate Flotilla Passengers

We, the undersigned support the petition of the JCRC of New York,  and call upon the State Department to investigate any and all of the passengers of the Mavi Marmara and other ships from Turkey ’s IHH flotilla who apply for visas to enter the United States on a speaking tour. Supporters have announced the opening event in New York City on Sunday, June 13th.

The research report, "The Role of Islamic Charities in International Terrorist Recruitment and Financing", published by the Danish Institute for International Studies meticulously documents the connections of IHH to terrorist activities. For example:

During the later Seattle trial of would-be Al-Qaida Millenium bomber Ahmed Ressam, federal prosecutors called [French counterterrorism] magistrate Jean-Louis BruguiereBruguiere to the stand as an expert witness. Bruguiere testified that IHH had played “[a]n important role” in the Al-Qaida Millenium bomb plot targeting LAX. Under repeated questioning, Bruguiere insisted that “[t]here’s a rather close relation:

The IHH is an NGO, but it was kind of a type of cover-up… in order to obtain forged documents and also to obtain different forms of infiltration for Mujahideen in combat. And also to go and gather[recruit] these Mujahideens. And finally, one of the last responsibilities that they had was also to be implicated or involved in weapons trafficking. (p. 16)"

According to Section 212 of the  Immigration and Naturalization Act, the State Department shall deny visas to representatives of and those providing assistance to terrorist organizations. The significant documentation proving that IHH is a terrorist organization provides a prima facie  argument that the passengers of the "flotilla" are inadmissible to the United States .

We respectfully urge the U.S. State Department to excercise its statutory obligation to investigate and determine that any such applicants determine, by clear and convincing evidence, that the he/she did not know, and should not reasonably have known, that the IHH is widely considered a terrorist organization and associated with Hamas and the Union of the Good, an Islamic umbrella affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Furthermore, they should prove, by the above standard, that the cash in the possession of the passengers of the Mavi Marmar was not meant to fund or to give things of value to support terrorist activity or a terrorist organization, namely Hamas.

Any  such visa applicant, who cannot provide the requisite clear and convincing evidence, should be deemed inadmissible to the United States .

View Signatures without signing