Why Are American Officials Meeting With Terrorists' Supporters? by Andrew Cochran

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The internet sites and cable TV shows are buzzing about the
visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Syria today. She's not the
only Member of Congress meeting with the Assad regime - three
Republican Congressmen, including the normally sensible and reliable
Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia, also met with Assad this week against the
express wishes of the Bush Administration. Do the four of them remember
that they voted for the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003?
The "Findings" in that Act include: "Terrorist groups, including
Hizballah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine--General Command, maintain offices, training camps, and other
facilities on Syrian territory, and operate in areas of Lebanon
occupied by the Syrian armed forces and receive supplies from Iran
through Syria." and "The Government of Syria is pursuing the
development and production of biological and chemical weapons and has a
nuclear research and development program that is cause for concern."
Did Speaker Pelosi, second in line to succeed to the office of
President of the United States, forget what she said on October 15, 2003,
when she supported the Act? "The people of Israel and the cause of
peace in the Middle East have been the traditional targets of the
groups helped by Syria, but today’s attack on the U.S. convoy in Gaza
is a reminder that the United States, and our interests around the
world, are foremost on terrorist target lists." What possible good
could come out of meeting with Syria and why send the unmistakable
signal that the Act was a mistake? I called three of the
Congresspersons' offices to ask for an explanation and received no
response.

But there's no need to limit this criticism to just Congress. One
top Bush Administration official, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, invited Dr. Yahya Basha to set up a dinner with Muslim Americans in Detroit in February.
Does Secretary Chertoff know or care about Dr. Basha's past and that of
the organizations with which he has associated for years? Dr. Basha is
a board member of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles and
was the president of the American Muslim Council,
two groups with a long history of associations with terrorists and
their supporters. For instance, the AMC is now defunct because its
founder and chairman, Abdurahman Alamoudi, was convicted for plotting to kill the Saudi Crown Prince. According to the Treasury Department, Alamoudi had "a close relationship with al Qaida and had raised money for al Qaida in the United States." Basha personally refused to support the Afghanistan campaign to remove the Taliban and Al Qaeda after the 9-11 attacks.

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MPAC's "senior adviser," Maher Hathout (also president of the Islamic Center of Southern California), called Israel
"the apartheid brutal state" and a nation of "butchers," and accused
the United States of committing state terrorism. He also raised funds
to defend a convicted cop-killer,
the militant formerly known as H. Rap Brown. On March 12 of last year,
Hathout spoke at a fundraiser for Sami al-Arian, who ran Palestinian
Islamic Jihad from his offices at the University of South Florida and
was ultimately convicted of funding PIJ. MPAC consistently criticized
the Treasury Department and the Bush Administration for freezing the
assets of the charities in the U.S. used to funnel money to the
terrorists.

The dinner raises serious questions whether the Secretary of
Homeland Security has any idea against whom we should set up our
homeland security.

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April 3, 2007 06:13 PM   Link