While Islamist organizations, such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), are celebrating Monday's declared mistrial in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case in Dallas, the defendants and their supporters might want to keep the non-alcoholic champagne on ice for the moment. A major development last week, along with the Department of Justice's vow to press forward with retrying the case, does not bode well for the defendants. Last week, the Palestinian Authority closed down all of the zakat committees because of their ties to HAMAS. The decision, announced last Thursday by Jamal Bawattna, PA Minister of Religious Endowments, strikes at the key contention of the defense in the Holy Land case - that the zakat committees who received funds from the Holy Land Foundation had no known ties to HAMAS. While this angle hasn't been reported in the Western press, the English-language jihadist forums  have been abuzz with the news (CAUTION: link is to the...(Read Full Post)