2001, HLF was a pro-
Palestinian charitable organization based in Richardson, Texas. Individual
defendants Shukri Abu Baker, Ghassan Elashi, and Mohammad El-Mezain
served as officers and directors for HLF.        Defendant Abdulrahman Odeh
managed HLF’s New Jersey office, and Defendant Mufid Abdulqader was a
speaker and performer who appeared at HLF fundraising events.
      HLF held itself out to be the largest Muslim charity in the United States,
ostensibly with the mission of providing humanitarian assistance to needy
Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied territory of the West Bank and Gaza.
The Government charged that in reality HLF’s mission was to act as a


                       Elashi were
members of a Palestine Committee headed by unindicted co-conspirator Mousa
Abu Marzook. The Government established that Marzook was the leader of
Hamas’s political wing in the 1990s. According to the prosecution’s case, the
Palestine Committee also created other organizations in the United States to
support Hamas.     The Committee created not only HLF but also the Islamic
Association for Palestine (“IAP”), which was a media entity, and the United
Association for Studies and Research (“UASR”), which published papers and
books about Hamas. Defendant Baker was also an IAP board member.
      In 1988, Baker founded the Occupied Land Fund as a Muslim charity in
Indiana. He, Elashi, and El-Mezain later incorporated the organization in
California before renaming it as HLF in 1991. In 1992, HLF moved to Texas,
where it