American Muslim Council officer selects Hamas lawyer in campaign against FBI

Just five weeks after the FBI termed it a “mainstream” organization, the American Muslim Council (AMC) slammed the FBI for questioning its treasurer during a routine airport security check – and announced that its officer had retained a prominent lawyer – who also represents Hamas – as counsel.

The AMC sponsored a news conference in Washington August 6 for its board of directors treasurer Muhammad Ali Khan, along with New York activist attorney Stanley Cohen. Khan is upset because the FBI questioned him last week when he boarded a Northwest flight from Las Vegas to Chicago. The AMC and related groups denounced the questioning as an act of racism and bigotry.

Considered one of the most radical lawyers in the United States, Cohen is a strong supporter of Hamas who has said after September 11 that he would consider representing Osama Bin Laden if the terrorist was ever arrested. The State Department lists Hamas as a terrorist organization.

The AMC announced that Khan had retained Cohen a day after Hamas murdered five Americans in the bombing of an Israeli university cafeteria. Asked at the news conference about the connection, Khan claimed he’d never heard of Hamas.

Cohen shares an office with Lynne Stewart, the lawyer for Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman (the “Blind Sheik”) who is in prison as a convicted mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York. Stewart is being tried for aiding the Blind Sheik’s clandestine communications with his terrorist followers in Egypt.

The AMC and related groups denounced the questioning as an act of racism and bigotry, faulting the FBI for asking Khan about terrorism.

The AMC-Hamas lawyer said his goal is to force the FBI to stop maintaining terrorist watch lists.

Click here for a Washington Post profile of Stanley Cohen.