GOVERNMENT’S MEMORANDUM IN OPPOSITION TO PETITIONERS ISLAMIC SOCIETY OF

NORTH AMERICA AND NORTH AMERICAN ISLAMIC TRUST’S MOTION FOR EQUITABLE

RELIEF

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS

DALLAS DIVISION

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA §

§

v. § CR NO. 3:04-CR-240-P

§

HOLY LAND FOUNDATION §

FOR RELIEF AND DEVELOPMENT, §

also known as the “HLF” (01) §

SHUKRI ABU BAKER, (02) § ECF

MOHAMMED EL-MEZAIN, (03) §

GHASSAN ELASHI, (04) §

HAITHAM MAGHAWRI, (05) §

AKRAM MISHAL, (06) §

MUFID ABDULQADER, (07) and §

ABDULRAHMAN ODEH (08) §

GOVERNMENT’S AMENDED MEMORANDUM IN OPPOSITION TO

PETITIONERS ISLAMIC SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA AND NORTH

AMERICAN ISLAMIC TRUST’S MOTION FOR EQUITABLE RELIEF 

INTRODUCTION

The United States, through its undersigned counsel, hereby submits its

memorandum in opposition to Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the North

American Islamic Trust’s (NAIT) motion for equitable relief. Through this motion – filed

without leave of court and without formal intervention – ISNA and NAIT seek a range of

declaratory and injunctive relief stemming from the public filing of Attachment A (“List

of Unindicted Co-conspirators and/or Joint Venturers”) to the government’s May 29,

2007 trial brief. As part of the requested relief, ISNA and NAIT seek the “expunging of

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Petitioners’ names from any public document filed or issued by the Government that

identifies Petitioners as unindicted co-conspirators.” Pet. Mot. at 3. According to

Petitioners, their motion is an effort to combat the negative press it allegedly incurred by

being identified as a participant in a network of U.S.-based organizations affiliated with

the designated foreign terrorist organization, HAMAS. ISNA and NAIT allege that the

Government’s identification of them as unindicted co-conspirators and/or joint venturers

nearly fourteen months ago caused them significant injury, resulting in a violation of their

Fifth and First Amendment rights.

The Court should deny the Petitioners’ motion for equitable relief. First,

Petitioner’s motion is untimely, coming more than a year after the filing of the

Government’s Trial Brief. Petitioners were aware back in May 2007 that the Government

publicly filed its Trial Brief. They were also aware that during the 2007 trial, another

listed co-conspirator/joint venturer, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR),

moved for leave to file an amicus brief (ecf # 777) asking for essentially the same relief,

for the same reasons, that Petitioners seek here. Yet, Petitioners, without explanation,

waited over a year to file this motion.

Even if their filing were timely, which it is not, Petitioners’ motion would be moot. 

During last year’s trial, numerous exhibits were entered into evidence establishing both

ISNA’s and NAIT’s intimate relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Palestine

Committee, and the defendants in this case. Accordingly, there is no possible basis for

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Rather than repeating its arguments in opposition to CAIR’s nearly identical brief last year, the 1

government will focus on those arguments specific to these Petitioners.

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petitioner’s “expungement” from the Government’s list of co-conspirators and joint

venturers. Even sealing the co-conspirator list at this juncture would be futile – the

evidence has been appropriately introduced during the course of a public trial. 

ISNA and NAIT also lack standing. Petitioners cannot trace any current injury to

the Government’s Trial Brief, as opposed to the actual exhibits that were introduced at

trial. Petitioners also lack standing because their alleged injury cannot be redressed.

Finally, with respect to Petitioners’ legal arguments, Petitioners merely repeat the

arguments made by CAIR in its proposed amicus submission. The government hereby

incorporates by reference, as if fully set forth below, its opposition to CAIR’s motion

seeking similar relief (ecf # 824). 

1

The Government respectfully submits that petitioner’s belated motion to litigate

their status diverts this Court’s attention from the imminent retrial of this case, and could

have been brought many months ago. For these reasons, and those set forth below,

Petitioners’ motion for equitable relief should be denied. 

FACTUAL BACKGROUND 

1. On July 26, 2004, a federal grand jury indicted HLF; Shukri Abu Baker,

HLF’s Secretary and Chief Executive Officer; Mohammed El-Mezain, HLF’s Director of

Endowments; Ghassan Elashi, HLF’s Chairman of the Board; Haitham Maghawri, HLF’s

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 The defendants Akram Mishal and Haitham Maghawri have not been arrested in this case and

2

are fugitives.

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Executive Director; Akram Mishal, HLF’s projects and grants director; Mufid

Abdulqader, one of the HLF’s top fundraisers; and Abdulrahman Odeh, the HLF’s New

Jersey representative. In addition to charging the defendants with providing material 2

support to a foreign terrorist organization, the indictment also charged the defendants

with engaging in prohibited financial transactions with a Specially Designated Global

Terrorist, money laundering, filing false tax returns, and several conspiracy charges,

including: conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, 18

U.S.C. § 2339B(a)(1); conspiracy to provide funds, goods and services to Specially

Designated Global Terrorist, 50 U.S.C. §§ 1701-1706; and conspiracy to commit money

laundering, 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h). The indictment also seeks the forfeiture of $12.4

million in HAMAS assets. 

2. On May 29, 2007, the Government submitted a Trial Brief in support of the

evidence and arguments to be relied upon in its case-in-chief. As explained in the brief,

its purpose was to provide the Court with an overview of the case, the scope of the

conspiracy, and information regarding the different kinds of evidence that the

Government intended to seek to admit at trial, as well as the evidentiary bases for the

admission of that evidence. The Government did not detail all of the evidence that it

intended to present in its case-in-chief, nor did it describe all of the evidence showing the

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existence of the alleged conspiracy and the statements made in furtherance of the

conspiracy. Instead, the Trial Brief outlined the law with respect to types of evidence the

Government intended to admit and provided background to the Court for evaluating their

admissibility.

With regard to the breadth of the conspiracy, the Government provided: 

Although the indictment in this case charges the seven named individual

defendants and the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, it

will be obvious that the defendants were not acting alone. . . . the

defendants were operating in concert with a host of individuals and

organizations dedicated to sustaining and furthering the Hamas movement. 

Several of the individuals who hold leading roles in the operation of Hamas

are referenced by name in the indictment. A list of unindicted

coconspirators is attached to this trial brief. (Attachment A). 

The object of the conspiracy was to support Hamas. The support will be

shown to have take several forms, including raising money, propaganda,

proselytizing, recruiting, as well as many other types of actions intended to

continue to promote and move forward Hamas’s agenda of the destruction

of the State of Israel and establishment of an Islamic state in its place. 

Trial Brief at 31. 

Thus, to provide greater clarity to the Court and the defense regarding the

complexity and magnitude of the global HAMAS-affiliated conspiracy to be

demonstrated in the Government’s case-in-chief, the Government identified in an

attachment to the Trial Brief those individuals and organizations which it intended to

prove were engaged in supporting HAMAS. Attachment A to the Trial Brief listed 246

different individuals and organizations as either unindicted co-conspirators and/or joint

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venturers under one or more headings: 

(1) individuals/entities who are and/or were part of the HAMAS social

infrastructure in Israel and the Palestinian territories; 

(2) individuals who participated in fundraising activities on behalf of HLF; 

(3) individuals/entities who are and/or were members of the U.S. Muslim

Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee and/or its organizations; 

(4) individuals/entities who are and/or were members of the Palestine

Section of the International Muslim Brotherhood; 

(5) individuals who are and/or were leaders of HAMAS inside the

Palestinian territories; 

(6) individuals who are and/or were leaders of the HAMAS Political Bureau

and/or HAMAS leaders and/or representatives in various Middle

Eastern/African countries; 

(7) individuals/entities who are and/or were members of the U.S. Muslim

Brotherhood; 

(8) individuals/entities that are and/or were part of the Global HAMAS

financing mechanism; 

(9) individuals/entities that Marzook utilized as a financial conduit on

behalf and/or for the benefit of HAMAS; 

(10) individuals who were HLF employees, directors, officers and/or

representatives; and 

(11) HAMAS members whose families received support from the HLF

through the HAMAS social infrastructure. 

 ISNA and NAIT are listed in the attachment under the seventh heading,

individuals/entities who are and/or were members of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. 

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Besides the category descriptions, the Government did not provide any further

information regarding specific individual and organizational links to the conspiracies

described in the Indictment and in the Trial Brief. 

3. The trial commenced on July 16, 2007. The Government called its first

witness on July 25, 2007. During the trial, the Court entered into evidence a wide array

of testimonial and documentary evidence expressly linking ISNA and NAIT to the HLF

and its principals; the Islamic Association for Palestine and its principals; the Muslim

Brotherhood in the United States and its Palestine Committee, headed by HAMAS

official Mousa Abu Marzook; and the greater HAMAS-affiliated conspiracy described in

the Government’s case-in-chief. See, e.g., Government Exhibits 1-16, 3-1, 3-3, 3-23, 3-

49, 3-50, 3-64, 3-85, 3-89, 5-1 through 5-14, 5-23 through 5-26, 5-42, 5-78, 16-59, 16-87,

20-33. 

4. On August 14, 2007, CAIR filed a motion requesting that this Court permit

it to submit an amicus curiae brief in opposition to the “public issuance” of the

Government’s list of unindicted co-conspirators and/or joint venturers filed with the Trial

Brief. The government responded on September 4, 2007, and CAIR replied September

13, 2007. The Court did not rule on the motion. Petitioners’ current motion, which

essentially repeats those arguments advanced by CAIR, was filed June 18, 2008, over a

year after the Government filed the co-conspirator/joint venturer list at issue, over ten

months after CAIR filed its brief, and nearly eight months after the Court declared a

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mistrial. The retrial of this matter is scheduled to begin September 8, 2008.

ARGUMENT

I. THE COURT SHOULD DENY THE PETITIONERS’ MOTION AS TIMEBARRED

It is axiomatic that a district court has the inherent power “to control the

disposition of the causes on its docket with economy of time and effort for itself, for

counsel, and for litigants.” Landis v. N. Am. Co., 299 U.S. 248, 254, 57 S.Ct. 163, 81

L.Ed. 153 (1936); Woodson v. Surgitek, Inc., 57 F.3d 1406, 1417 (5th Cir.1995) (“The

federal courts are vested with inherent power ‘to manage their own affairs so as to

achieve the orderly and expeditious disposition of cases[,]’ ... includ[ing] the power of the

court to control its docket[.]”). Included within the court’s inherent power to control its

docket is the power not to entertain untimely filings, particularly from non-parties who

have neither sought nor obtained the court’s permission to participate in the case. This is

all the more true when the movant seeks to invoke the court’s equitable powers. It is the

“long-established doctrine of courts of equity that their extraordinary relief will not be

accorded to one who delays the assertion of his claim for an unreasonable length of time.” 

Hayes v. Port of Seattle, 251 U.S. 233, 239 (1920).

In this case, the Petitioners have inexplicably delayed for more than a year before

seeking the requested relief. The government’s Trial Brief setting forth its legal position

with respect to co-conspirators and joint venturers was filed May 29, 2007. Petitioners

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Petitioners’ motion recognizes that CAIR filed a proposed amicus brief, but spends mere

3

paragraphs addressing it and the government’s arguments in opposition. Even those paragraphs ignore

entirely the government’s jurisdictional arguments in opposition to CAIR’s filing.

ISNA, immediately following the mistrial, did issue a press statement parroting almost verbatim

4

its current grievance. Yet, despite its promise to “vigorously employ all legal avenues available,” it

waited until the eve of retrial to interject itself into this case. See “Islamic Society of North America,

HLF Verdict Press Statement,” www.isna.net/articles/Press-Releases (attached).

The only time Petitioners raised this issue with the government was in the middle of the last 5

trial, when the prosecution’s attention was exclusively devoted to trying the case. It is hardly surprising

that, as Petitioners’ counsel complains, prosecutors were unwilling to divert their attention to what was,

as exhibits establishing the conspiracy/joint venture were introduced into evidence, a moot exercise of

sealing the co-conspirator list. By the time Petitioners called the government to confer with respect to

this motion, the sealing of the co-conspirator list would have been pointless – the evidence had already

been made public during the trial. 

Not only do Petitioners fail to explain their delay, but they fail to provide any explanation or 6

support for their failure to seek the court’s permission to file the instant motion.

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failed to raise any issue at that time. Nor did Petitioners choose to join CAIR in its

submission on August 14, 2007, even though that filing raised the identical issues

Petitioners raise now. And, even after the government immediately announced its 3

intention to retry the case following the court’s declaration of a mistrial in October 2007,

Petitioners were silent. When the Court set the trial date for mid-August and then finally 4

for September 8, Petitioners did nothing. Instead, Petitioners waited until the virtual eve

of retrial, in the midst of pretrial preparations, to file what could have been raised at

countless earlier opportunities.5

Petitioners offer no explanation as to why they did not seek leave to file a motion

immediately following the Government’s filing of its Trial Brief, or at any point 6

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thereafter. In particular, Petitioners provide no explanation as to why they waited until

after evidence at trial had already established their ties to defendants and the conspiracy at

issue, or how the relief they request can, at this late date, have any impact on evidence

already in wide circulation in the public domain. At this juncture, the Petitioners’ motion

only serves to divert the Court’s attention from the pressing task of preparing for and

completing an on-going criminal matter. The Court should therefore exercise its

discretion to reject the petitioner’s untimely motion. 

II. PETITIONERS’ CLAIMS ARE MOOT

Even were the Court to consider Petitioners’ motion, the Court would lack

jurisdiction to act on the requested relief. Article III of the U.S. Constitution limits the

jurisdiction of federal courts to the resolution of “actual, ongoing controversies.” Honig

v. Doe, 484 U.S. 305, 317 (1988). The law is well-settled that federal courts have no

authority “to give opinions upon moot questions or abstract propositions, or to declare

principles or rules of law which cannot affect the matter in issue in the case before it.”

Church of Scientology of California v. United States, 506 U.S. 9, 12 (1992) (quoting Mills

v. Green, 159 U.S. 651, 653 (1895)); see also United States Parole Comm’n v. Geraghty,

445 U.S. 388, 397 (1980) (Mootness is “the doctrine of standing in a time frame. The

requisite personal interest that must exist at the commencement of litigation (standing)

must continue throughout its existence (mootness).”). Moreover, because mootness goes

to the heart of the constitutional power of a federal court to consider the rights of the

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See, e.g., “In Search of Friends Among The Foes,” by John Mintz and Douglas Farah, The 7

Washington Post, September 11, 2004, p. A01 (“Some of the same Brotherhood people who started MSA

[Muslim Students Association] also launched the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) in 1971. * * * In

1981, some of the same people launched the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which was also

cited in [Yussef] Qaradawi’s speech.”); “Muslim Brotherly Hate,” FrontPageMagazine.com, June 30,

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parties and afford any relief, it is a “jurisdictional question” that “a federal court must

resolve before it assumes jurisdiction.” North Carolina v. Rice, 404 U.S. 244, 246

(1971). 

Generally, any set of circumstances that eliminates an actual controversy after the

commencement of a lawsuit renders that action moot. See Arizonans for Official English

v. Arizona, 520 U.S. 43, 67 (1997). That means, “throughout the litigation, the plaintiff

‘must have suffered, or be threatened with, an actual injury traceable to the defendant and

likely to be redressed by a favorable judicial decision.’” Spencer v. Kemna, 523 U.S. 1, 7

(1998) (quoting Lewis, 494 U.S. at 477) (emphasis added). Thus, if an event occurs while

a case is pending that makes it impossible for the court to grant “meaningful relief” to a

prevailing party, the case must be dismissed as moot. Church of Scientology, 506 U.S. at

12. 

Petitioners’ claims against the Government are plainly moot. ISNA and NAIT

have asserted no justiciable claim because no “meaningful relief” is available, in light of

the fact that their participation as a joint-venturer and/or co-conspirator is a matter of

public record in this case, and was a matter of public discussion even prior to the filing of

the government’s Trial Brief. 

7

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2006, frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp; “The Truth About The Muslim Brotherhood,”

Assyrian International News Agency, June 16, 2006, www.aina.org/news/20060616105850.htm. 

The Muslim Brotherhood, also known as the Ikhwan Al Muslimin, was founded in Egypt in 8

1928 by Hassan Al Banna. Its ultimate goal is the creation of a global Islamic State governed by Sharia

law. Muslim Brotherhood members first migrated to the United States in the 1960s where they began

their grassroots work on campuses, through an organization called the Muslim Students Association. At

that time, the U.S.-Muslim Brotherhood was loosely structured and in its infancy. Govt. Exh. 3-89. By

the mid-1980s, the U.S.-Muslim Brotherhood had grown exponentially, established numerous front

organizations, developed a solid hierarchical structure, and received direction from the International

Muslim Brotherhood’s General Guide. Id. HAMAS was established in 1987 as an outgrowth of the

Muslim Brotherhood, by Muslim Brotherhood leader Sheik Ahmad Yassin. Govt. Exh. 21-61, 3-6. In

the late-1980s and early 1990s, the U.S.-Muslim Brotherhood was controlled by Palestinian Muslim

Brotherhood members, and the leader of the U.S.-Muslim Brotherhood was Mousa Abu Marzook, who in

1989 was selected to be the leader of HAMAS, a position that he held while residing in the United States

and controlling the US-Muslim Brotherhood. Govt. Exh. 3-1. Marzook was arrested in New York in

1995, deported to Jordan, and subsequently expelled to Syria, where he currently serves as the head of

the HAMAS political bureau under Khalid Mishal. See generally testimony of Matthew Levitt.

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The evidence introduced at trial, for example, established that ISNA and NAIT

were among those organizations created by the U.S.-Muslim Brotherhood. Govt. Exh. 3- 8

64 (seized from the home of HAMAS leader Ismail Elbarasse); Govt. Exh. 3-3 (Muslim

Brotherhood document noting that ISNA was founded by the US-Muslim Brotherhood) ;

Govt. Exh. 3-85 (1991 memorandum authored by U.S.-Muslim Brotherhood Shura

Council member Mohamed Akram Adlouni, recognizing ISNA and NAIT as Muslim

Brotherhood organizations.) Government’s Exhibit 3-85, entitled An Explanatory

Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal of the Group, described the Brotherhood’s

strategic goal as a kind of “grand Jihad”:

 The Ikhwan must understand that their role in America is a kind of grand

Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western Civilization from within

and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the

believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious....

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Govt. Exh. 3-85. At the end of the document, the memorandum lists those Muslim

Brotherhood organizations that – if they all worked together – could help accomplish this

grand objective. These organizations include ISNA, NAIT, the Occupied Land Fund

(OLF )(the former name of the Holy Land Foundation), the Islamic Association for

Palestine (IAP), the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR), and others. Id.

ISNA and NAIT, in fact, shared more with HLF than just a parent organization.

They were intimately connected with the HLF and its assigned task of providing financial

support to HAMAS. Shortly after HAMAS was founded in 1987, as an outgrowth of the

Muslim Brotherhood, Govt. Exh. 21-61, the International Muslim Brotherhood ordered

the Muslim Brotherhood chapters throughout the world to create Palestine Committees,

whose job it was to support HAMAS with “media, money and men.” Govt. Exh. 3-15. 

The U.S.-Muslim Brotherhood created the U.S. Palestine Committee, which documents

reflect was initially comprised of three organizations: the OLF (HLF), the IAP, and the

UASR. CAIR was later added to these organizations. Govt. Exh. 3-78 (listing IAP,

HLF, UASR and CAIR as part of the Palestine Committee, and stating that there is “[n]o

doubt America is the ideal location to train the necessary resources to support the

Movement worldwide . . .”). The mandate of these organizations, per the International

Muslim Brotherhood, was to support HAMAS, and the HLF’s particular role was to raise

money to support HAMAS’ organizations inside the Palestinian territories. Govt. Exh. 3-

17 (objective of the Palestine Committee is to support HAMAS).

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All the exhibits cited herein were admitted into evidence and posted publicly on the Court’s 9

website. Due to their volume, we have not resubmitted them here. In the event that the Court or

Petitioners do not have access to the exhibits, government counsel will provide them upon request.

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During the early years of the HLF’s operation, HLF raised money and supported

HAMAS through a bank account it held with ISNA at NAIT. Govt. Exh. 5-1 through 5-

14, 5-23, 5-24, 5-25, 5-26, 5-42. Indeed, HLF (under its former name, OLF) operated

from within ISNA, in Plainfield, Indiana, where Defendant Shukri Baker was employed. 

Govt. Exh. 5-6, p. 3; 1-16. ISNA checks deposited into the ISNA/NAIT account for the

HLF were often made payable to “the Palestinian Mujahadeen,” Govt. Exh. 5-23, 5-24, 5-

25, the original name for the HAMAS military wing. Govt. Exh. 1-174. From that

ISNA/NAIT account, the HLF sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to HAMAS leader

Mousa Abu Marzook, Nadia Elashi (defendant Ghassan Elashi’s cousin and Marzook’s

wife), Sheikh Ahmed Yassin’s Islamic Center of Gaza, the Islamic University, and a

number of other individuals associated with HAMAS. Govt. Exh. 20-55, 20-56. 

ISNA was also discussed during the 1993 Philadelphia conference, a meeting of

the Palestine Committee convened to discuss the impact of the Oslo Accords. Govt. Exh.

16-47. During the conference, Palestine Committee members discussed using ISNA as

official cover for their activities. Govt. Exh. 16-0059 at 10-11; 16-60. In short, evidence

introduced during the course of a public trial demonstrates that ISNA and NAIT are

indeed co-conspirators/joint venturers, and no relief that the Court can grant would alter

the state of the record in that regard. 

9

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ISNA’s post-trial Press Statement stated that ISNA “never was, and is not now, affiliated with

10

or influenced by any international organizations including the Muslim Brotherhood.” It did not address

any of the Muslim Brotherhood documents introduced during the trial that state the contrary.

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Although Petitioners seek “expungement” of their names from any document

reflecting their co-conspirator status, they cannot expect this Court to alter evidence

properly admitted during the course of a public trial. The law is well-settled that the

public has a presumptive right of access to the records of judicial proceedings, PressEnterprise Co. v. Superior Court, 464 U.S. 501, 509 (1984), and that public information

regarding “[t]he source of evidence admitted at trial and the circumstances surrounding its

admittance are important components of the judicial proceedings and crucial to an

assessment of the fairness and the integrity of the judicial proceedings,” Napue v. Illinois,

360 U.S. 264, 269 (1959). See also United States v. Briggs, 514 F.2d 794, 805 (5th Cir.

1975) (“[I]t must be recognized in the process of balancing private injury and

governmental interests that wholly different, and valid, governmental interests apply to

naming the private citizen . . . in trial testimony.”). 

Petitioners, in fact, do not dispute that once such information is admitted into

evidence at trial it is properly in the public domain. Instead, Petitioners ignore entirely

the evidence presented at trial, relying only on the government’s representation that ISNA

and NAIT were not subjects or targets of the criminal investigation to support their

contention that they were unfairly included within the universe of co-conspirators and

joint venturers. See Petitioners’ Mot at 14, 18-19; see also Press Statement (attached).10

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To be clear, the purpose in introducing this evidence at trial had little to do with ISNA and 11

NAIT. The documents and testimony at issue give the background and context for the conspiracy in

which the defendants operated, and constituted evidence as to the defendants’ participation in the

charged illegal conspiracies. That ISNA and NAIT appeared in these documents and share a common

history with these defendants is a reflection of the evidence, not any attempt to “disparage” or “vilify.” 

Pet. Mot. at 12.

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Petitioners’ status as co-conspirators/joint venturers, however, is not inconsistent with the

government’s earlier representations. Even were the Court to agree to strike Petitioners’

names from the attachment to the Trial Brief, or seal it, that would not prevent

Petitioners’ involvement with HLF, and others affiliated with HAMAS, from remaining a

matter of public record. That has already occurred as a consequence of the presentation

of evidence at trial.11

Because this Court is unable to provide Petitioners with any “meaningful relief,”

as contemplated by law, their motion for equitable relief must be denied.

III. PETITIONERS LACKS STANDING

An “essential and unchanging part”of the case-or-controversy requirement is also

the doctrine of standing. Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560 (1992). To

establish standing, a plaintiff must, at an “irreducible constitutional minimum,”

demonstrate: (1) an injury-in-fact; (2) a causal connection between the injury and the

conduct complained of; and (3) a likelihood that the injury will be redressed by a

favorable decision. Lujan, 504 U.S. at 560-61. The party invoking federal jurisdiction

bears the burden of establishing these elements and of coming forward with evidence of

specific facts which prove standing. Grant v. Gilbert, 324 F.3d 383, 387 (5th Cir. 2003);

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RELIEF Page 17

Lujan, 504 U.S. at 561. 

Petitioners have no justiciable claims resulting from the Government’s decision

not to file the portion of its Trial Brief enumerating unindicted co-conspirators and/or

joint venturers under seal. Even assuming cognizable injury, Petitioners cannot trace its

alleged injury to the Trial Brief, versus the public evidence properly admitted during trial.

 A simple Google search for “Muslim Brotherhood” and “Explanatory Memorandum,”

for example, reveals nearly 1000 “hits” for Government’s Exhibit 3-85, with many

providing a hyperlink to the document itself. Broader searches reveal over 250,000

references. Even articles cited by the Petitioners discuss actual evidence introduced at

trial, and not merely the Government’s Trial Brief. See, e.g., Petitioners’ Mot., Appendix

B, pp. 16-22 (Rod Dreher, The Muslim Brotherhood is Here, Pittsburgh Trib. Rev., Sept.

16, 2007; Rod Dreher, A Nation Asleep, Dallas Morning News, Oct. 28, 2007; Cal

Thomas, A New Fifth Column?, Fort Worth-Star-Telegram, Oct. 26, 2007). 

Consequently, Petitioners cannot demonstrate any “causal connection between the

[alleged] injury and the conduct complained of,” such that the injury is “fairly traceable to

the challenged action . . . and not the result of the independent action of some third party

not before the court.” See Lujan, 504 U.S. at 560.

Finally, as discussed in connection with the above mootness argument, and for the

reasons set forth therein, there is no likelihood that the Petitioners’ alleged injury could be

redressed. Even a favorable decision by this Court to strike Petitioners’ names from the

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RELIEF Page 18

Government’s Trial Brief attachment would not remedy Petitioners’ alleged injury, as its

involvement as a participant in the conspiracy and/or joint venture has already been

disclosed at trial. See, e.g., Lujan, 504 U.S. at 560-61; Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737, 751

(1984) (“The injury must be ‘fairly’ traceable to the challenged action, and relief from the

injury must be ‘likely’ to follow from a favorable decision.). In the absence of

redressibility, and therefore standing, Petitioners’ motion must be denied.

CONCLUSION

For all the foregoing reasons, the Government respectfully requests that this Court

deny Petitioners’ Motion for Equitable Relief.

July 11, 2008

Respectfully submitted, 

 RICHARD ROPER

 United States Attorney

Northern District of Texas

 By: /s/ Elizabeth J. Shapiro 

 JAMES T. JACKS

BARRY JONAS

ELIZABETH J. SHAPIRO

D.C. Bar 418925

 Assistant United States Attorneys

 1100 Commerce St., Third Floor

 Dallas, Texas 75242

214.659.8600

214.767.2898 (facsimile)

elizabeth.shapiro@usdoj.gov

 

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I hereby certify that on July 11, 2008, I electronically filed the foregoing with the Clerk of

the Court by using the CM/ECF system which will send a notice of electronic filing to the

following:

Linda Moreno

Law Office of Linda Moreno

P.O. Box 10985

Tampa, Fl. 33679

Joshua L Dratel 

Aaron J. Mysliwiec

Law Office of Joshua L Dratel 

2 Wall St, 3rd Floor 

New York, NY 10005 

Nancy Hollander

Theresa M. Duncan

Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg & Ives

20 First Plaza, Suite 700 

Albuquerque, NM 87102 

Marlo P Cadeddu

Law Office of Marlo P Cadeddu

3232 McKinney Ave, Suite 700

Dallas, TX 75204

John D. Cline

Jones Day

555 California St., 26 Fl. th

San Francisco, CA. 94104-1500

Greg Westfall

Westfall Platt & Cutrer

Mallick Tower

One Summit Ave, Suite 910

Fort Worth, TX 76102

In addition, I have served on this same day, by electronic mail, the following counsel for

third party petitioners Islamic Society of North America and North American Islamic Trust:

Lisa Graybill Hina Shamsi

Legal Director ACLU Foundation

ACLU Foundation of Texas 125 Broad Street, 18 Floor th

P.O. Box 12905 New York, NY 10004

Austin, TX 78711 hshamsi@aclu.org

LGraybill@aclutx.org

 /s/ Elizabeth J. Shapiro 

ELIZABETH J. SHAPIRO

 Attorney, U.S. Dept. Of Justice

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