Posted by
Gabrielle Cusumano on Friday, October 01, 2010 8:14:24 PM
"Hatem Abudayyeh, who serves as executive director of the Arab-American Action Network, took part in a meeting for Arab-American leaders held in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on April 22, according to appointment data posted on the White House website."
October 01, 2010
Target of FBI terror-support raid visited W.H. From: www.politico.com/blogs/joshgerstein/
An Arab-American activist who attended an outreach session at the White House complex in April had his Chicago home raided by the FBI
last week and appears to be a focus of an unfolding federal terrorism-support investigation.
Hatem Abudayyeh, who serves as executive director of the Arab-American Action Network, took part in a meeting for Arab-American leaders held in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on April 22, according to appointment data posted on the White House website.
"He attended a briefing held by the Office of Public Engagement on April 22, 2010, to update members of the Arab-American community on issues of their concern," White House spokesman Shin Inouye said.
The guest list for the event was drafted by the Arab-American Institute. Inouye said President Barack Obama did not take part in the session, which appears to have involved more than 80 people.
Last Friday, FBI agents executed a search warrant at Abudayyeh’s Chicago home as part of a coordinated series of raids involving at least one other Chicago site, along with the homes of anti-war activists in Minnesota. A copy posted on the web of a grand jury subpoena served on one target of the raids in Minneapolis demands "all records of any payment provided directly or indirectly to Hatem Abudayyeh, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ("PFLP") or the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia ("FARC")."
A search warrant served on a Minneapolis anti-war activist, Michael Kelly, ordered agents to seize records relating to Kelly’s travels to "Palestine, Colombia, and … within the United States." It also mentions possible connections to Hezbollah.
The warrant and subpoena suggest the probe, which is being run by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago, is focusing on illegal support for terrorist organizations, particularly by a Minnesota-based group called the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. PFLP, FARC and Hezbollah are designated as terrorist groups by the U.S. government. A spokesman for Fitzgerald’s office declined to comment on the probe.
Abudayyeh has not been charged with any crime, nor do the court documents made public by targets of the searches make any explicit allegation of ties between the Chicago activist and any of the groups.
The White House briefing Abudayyeh attended was organized by the Arab-American Institute in connection with its annual dinner and related events, AAI President James Zogby said Friday.
"Each year we do a leadership summit of our institute leadership also of leadership from the Arab-American network. That is a network of Arab –American community and social service organizations and the group in Chicago is one of the network members and so they were invited," Zogby said. "We did, as part of the weekend, a White House briefing and Hatem was included as part of the network."
Zogby said the national network Abudayyeh’s group is part of works on domestic issues, such as immigration reform and civil liberties. "I know Hatem is active on those issues in Chicago. He’s very much a part of immigration reform coalitions there. That that would have been the purpose of the network’s inclusion in this meeting," Zogby said.
A lawyer for Abudayyeh, Jim Fennerty, said he was not aware of his client’s White House visit. Asked if the investigation into Abudayyeh was underway at the time of his White House visit in April, Finnerty said, "We only became aware of [the probe] when people got their houses raided and search warrants carried out…..I think the grand jury started sitting a year ago though." The lawyer said the investigation may extend back to protests held in connection with the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., in 2008.
Fennerty said he believed his client was being targeted because of his anti-war activism. On the Israeli-Palestinian issue, the attorney said Abudayyeh supports "a single, secular democratic state," not the two-state solution endorsed by the U.S.
In a 2006 interview with Fight Back News, an outlet run by Minneapolis activist Kelly, Abudayyeh seemed to disagree rather strenuously with at least some of the U.S. government’s use of the "terrorist" label.
"The U.S. and Israel will continue to describe Hamas, Hezbollah and the other Palestinian and Lebanese resistance organizations as ‘terrorists,’ but the real terrorists are the governments and military forces of the U.S. and Israel," Abudayyeh said. "The vast majority of the world sees and understands this, and are in full support of Lebanese, Palestinian and worldwide resistance to Israel and the U.S.’s naked aggression, war, imperialism and occupation."
Fennerty said he was surprised to hear Abudayyeh was invited to a White House event. "He runs like a social-welfare office that helps people get citizenship, apply for benefits, welfare if they’re entitled to it," the lawyer said.
According to a bio on the AAAN website, Abudayyeh has been affiliated with the group since 1999 and took over as executive director in 2003.
Abudayyeh’s White House visit was noted Thursday by several conservative websites, including the Gateway Pundit blog at First Things magazine.
Abudayyeh’s group, AAAN, briefly drew attention during the presidential campaign following reports that a foundation on whose board Obama served donated $40,000 to the group for "community organizing" in 2001. Conservative critics said the group and Abudayyeh have promoted anti-Israeli views. AAAN officials said the organization is strictly focused on local community issues and doesn’t get involved in international politics.
In 2003, Obama spoke at an AAAN-sponsored farewell dinner for Rashid Khalidi, a professor who was decamping from the University of Chicago to Columbia. During the 2008 campaign, the
Los Angeles Times obtained a video of the event and reported that Obama lavished praise on Khalidi, who once served as a spokesman for the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Other speakers at the event railed against Israeli policies.
Late in the 2008 campaign, Republican
nominee Sen. John McCain attacked the Times for failing to make the video public. The newspaper said it obtained the video on the condition that it not be released publicly.
High-level contacts between politically active Arab-American leaders and White House officials have stirred controversy in the past after the activists became caught up in terrorism-related probes. In some cases, defense attorneys for those charged have sought to use their White House visits to undermine the prosecution’s assertions that the individuals were dangerous. Article can be found at: www.politico.com/blogs/joshgerstein/
4:07
This is a speech by Hatem Abudayyeh from the opening rally, and highlights from the march for peace and immigrant rights in Chicago's Little ...
by CIMC | 1 year ago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqQDHrzoB0U
Khalidi Tape News: The Guest List
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/31740_Khalidi_Tape_News-_The_Guest_List
Khalidi Tape News: The Guest List
Oct 29, 2008 at 11:12:45 am PST
A PUMA blog has done some good investigative work, and pieced together a verified guest list for that party for Rashid Khalidi: The Khalidi Tape: Putting the Bits and Pieces Together with New Details.
Verified Information Location: Burbank Manor, 6312 W 79th St., Burbank, Illinois
Time: Friday, August 1, 2003
6pm - Reception
7pm - Dinner and Reception
Those who attended:
1. AAAN (Arab American Action Network)
2. Not In My Name
3. Ali Abunimah (a Palestinian rights activist in Chicago who helps run Electronic Intifada, who met Obama in 2000)
4. Bernadine Dorhn and Bill Ayers
5. Barack Obama
6. Mayor of Chicago Richard Daley
7. Rashid Khalidi
8. Mona Khalidi
9. Gihad Ali, a Palestinian spoken word poet
10. NPR Worldview host Jerome McDonnell (not McDonald as written in the e-mail)
11. Camilia Odeh (director of SWYC Southwest Youth Collaborative)
12. Sanabel debka troupe (traditional Palestinian dance group)
13. Hatem Abudayyeh
14. Others - Up to 50 to 500 guests
Posted by Da Gunny
OK, not the Times' head exactly, but the CIO of something called Dune Capital is offering a $150,000 reward for a digital copy of the video being held captive by the LA Times of a dinner in honor of Rashid Khalidi, former Arafat spokesperson, founder of the Arab American Action Network and radical anti-Israel professor (who knew, way back when we first started talking about Rashid Khalidi, that he'd be at the center of such a national whirlwind?):
There is a report that during his toast to Khalidi, Obama said:
...He congratulates Khalidi for his work saying "Israel has no God-given right to occupy Palestine" plus there's been "genocide against the Palestinian people by Israelis."...
Imagine the explosion if that's true? The degree to which Obama has had his radical connections covered up has been astounding, but having him on video actually saying such a thing...? Forget the LA Times, there would be money-bags in the Jewish Community who'd be crying for the sake of their collective necks if this comes out (oh please, let it be true). I'd expect some serious backlash against the likes of Alan Solomont, the NJDC and J-Street (all one and the same) for all the excuse-making and dissembling and cover they've been doing. As if many of us don't already know we're being betrayed, this would be the capper.
Here's the reported guest-list:
There's an excellent piece (via LGF) here: The Khalidi Tape: Putting the Bits and Pieces Together with New Details that contains the guest list:
Verified Information
Location:
Burbank Manor, 6312 W 79th St., Burbank, Illinois
Time:
Friday, August 1, 2003
6pm - Reception
7pm - Dinner and Reception
Those who attended:
1. AAAN (Arab American Action Network)
2. Not In My Name
3. Ali Abunimah (a Palestinian rights activist in Chicago who helps run Electronic Intifada, who met Obama in 2000)
4. Bernadine Dorhn and Bill Ayers
5. Barack Obama
6. Mayor of Chicago Richard Daley
7. Rashid Khalidi
8. Mona Khalidi
9. Gihad Ali, a Palestinian spoken word poet
10. NPR Worldview host Jerome McDonnell (not McDonald as written in the e-mail)
11. Camilia Odeh (director of SWYC Southwest Youth Collaborative)
12. Sanabel debka troupe (traditional Palestinian dance group)
13. Hatem Abudayyeh
14. Others - Up to 50 to 500 guests
Volunteer Solomonia operatives have attempted to contact a couple of those on the list. No surprise that they aren't available.
Here's video background on the former PLO terrorist employee (from the site above):
Discover the Networks has a profile of Khalidi's AAAN here. Here's an interview with AAAN executive director Hatem Abudayyeh that includes a number of choice quotes, such as:
...The Israeli government and its military killing machine has again attacked Lebanon as they did in 1982, one of the most brutal invasions in the long history of their aggression against the Palestinians and Arabs...But the Lebanese resistance is bravely fighting back, defending its nation and its people from this massive aggression...
Yeah, that's Hizballah he's talking about. Get the gist?
Barack needs to stop lying about his past and people need to stop covering for him. If he and his allies want to make excuses for all this and try to explain it away, so be it, but let's have the argument on that basis. It's bad enough we have some of the most overt voter fraud in the offing any of us has seen in his or her lifetimes, those of us who are actually legitimate, living voters have a right to have ALL of the facts on the table before we walk into the voting booth.
5:55 Added to
queue
Sean Hannity on Rashid Khalidi
Other Notes:
• The Minha Husaini connection: The campaign's second Muslim outreach coordinator has an Islamist background, having served as an intern in the Muslim Public Service Network. Immediately upon her appointment by Obama, she met with a group of about 30 Muslims including such notorious figures as CAIR's Nihad Awad; the Muslim American Society's Mahdi Bray, who has publicly supported Hamas and Hizbullah; and Johari Abdul Malik of the Dar al-Hijrah Mosque in Falls Church, Virginia, who has advised American Muslims: "You can blow up bridges, but you cannot kill people who are innocent on their way to work."