UPDATE #1 (10/9/07): Since someone from the Columbus Dispatch has been doing several Google searches today trying to obtain information on this conference (way to keep up, guys!), I’ll make it easy for them. Go here (this is to your own site, Dispatch!), here, here, here, and here. Nothing gets by the establishment media!
In Anisa Abd El Fattah’s immediate circle of colleagues, she is about the only one that hasn’t been designated a global terrorist by the US government, been tried and convicted on terrorism-related charges, or fled the country to avoid prosecution by the Feds. She headed an organization that one convicted terrorist leader described as “the political command for HAMAS in the United States”, which was named by federal prosecutors this past May as unindicted co-conspirator in the current Holy Land Foundation terror finance trial; and she co-authored two books with the current spokesman for HAMAS, Ahmed Yousef, who fled the US in 2005 and immediately reappeared in Gaza in his new position within the HAMAS leadership.
So why is she speaking at a conference held in the Ohio State Capitol atrium later this month?
That’s the question I ask in my FrontPage article this morning, “HAMAS in the House”. The conference, “The Many Faces of Islam”, sponsored by the Interfaith Association of Central Ohio, is being organized by local terror apologist Abukar Arman, who was forced to resign from the Franklin County Homeland Security oversight board this past summer after I revealed his extremist statements in support of HAMAS, Hezbollah and other terrorist leaders.
(If you have an opinion on this proposed event that you would like to express on the matter, I might suggest contacting William Carleton [wcarleton@csrab.state.oh.us], Executive Director of the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board.)
Here’s a quick rundown of Abd El Fattah’s background:
- She served as president and director of public affairs for the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR), which convicted terrorist supporter Mohammed Salah described as “the political command of HAMAS in the United States”. UASR was founded by Mousa abu Marzook, who is now the deputy political director for HAMAS and has been identified as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. (For more info on UASR, including it’s connections to Al-Qaeda, see Scott Wheeler’s 2004 investigative report, “Alleged Terrorist Threat Operates in DC Suburb”).
- She has co-authored two books with her former UASR coworker Ahmed Yousef, The Agent: The Truth Behind the Anti-Muslim Campaign in America and Al-Aqsa Intifada. Yousef fled the US in 2005 to avoid prosecution in the Fawaz Damra trial (Damra was convicted and deported earlier this year), and he shortly reappeared in Gaza as the official spokesman for HAMAS. One Middle Eastern daily recently called Yousef, “The Smiling Face of HAMAS”. Fattah and Yousef also co-edited the UASR’s quarterly publication, the Middle East Affairs Journal.
- FBI Agent Lara Burns in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance trial that UASR was part of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine (HAMAS) Committee in America. A 1991 document released during that revealed that the head of the UASR, a position that Fattah herself held, was part of the Central Committee. UASR was named as unindicted co-conspirator by federal prosecutors this past May in that trial.
- In her role at UASR as director of public affairs, Fattah released a press statement dated March 23, 2004, condemning the targeted assassination of HAMAS founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin following a wave of suicide bombings targeting civilians.
- Fattah was also actively involved in the formation of the American Muslim Council, founded and headed by convicted terrorist leader Abdurahman Alamoudi, who is currently serving 23 years in prison. Her own bio states that she “has been credited with developing the blueprint for what later became the American Muslim Council, and served for nearly 10 years as an unofficial advisor”.
- She also served as a founding board member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which federal prosecutors have said is also affiliated with HAMAS.
- In a recent letter to the editor published in the Columbus Dispatch, Fattah indicated that any Israeli man, woman or child in Gaza was fair game for terror attacks: “There are no Israeli civilians in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. There are only illegal Jewish settlers, who, by Israeli law, are also citizen-soldiers. They are heavily armed with fully automatic weapons.”
Here’s the conclusion:
What remains to be seen is whether officials responsible for booking this conference at the Ohio Statehouse were aware of the extremist views of the scheduled speakers, and whether a sponsoring Ohio legislator was needed to book the event. But in light of the precedent recently established by the US House Sergeant-at-Arms in denying these extremists from holding their event in such a prominent public venue, perhaps Ohio legislative leaders will be prompted to reconsider their tacit endorsement for these terror-tied extremists and the legitimacy that such an event held in the political epicenter of Ohio would give them.
