HAMAS spokesman Ahmed Yousef’s Central Ohio connection

HAMAS spokesman Ahmed Yousef (left) and Columbus resident Anisa Abd El Fattah/Caroline Keeble (right) and one of the books they co-authored

One name that was in the national news this week was HAMAS spokesman Ahmed Yousef, the former director of the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR), which operated as the command for HAMAS in North America. Yousef fled the US to avoid prosecution and testifying in the Fawaz Damra trial in Cleveland, immediately reappearing in Gaza as the official HAMAS spokesman.

Yousef’s name was in the news for comments he made endorsing Barack Hussein Obama for president, as reported by Mosheh Oinounou of Fox News, “A HAMAS Problem for Obama”:

While Sen. Barack Obama sought to improve his relationship with the Jewish community today by meeting with leaders in Philadelphia, comments by a Hamas political adviser this weekend could potentially hurt the Democratic presidential candidate.

During an interview on WABC radio Sunday, top Hamas political adviser Ahmed Yousef said the terrorist group supports Obama’s foreign policy vision.

“We don’t mind — actually we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will (win) the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with great principle, and he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community but not with domination and arrogance,” Yousef said in response to a question about the group’s willingness to meet with either of the Democratic presidential candidates.

What might be of interest to those of us in Central Ohio is that HAMAS spokesman Ahmed Yousef co-authored two books with would-be Columbus Board of Education candidate Anisa Abd El Fattah/Caroline Keeble. Those two books were The Agent and Al-Aqsa Intifada (under her given name, Caroline F. Keeble). Fattah/Keeble was the longtime director of public affairs for UASR, which again was the command for HAMAS in the US. There Yousef and Fattah/Keeble co-edited the UASR journal, the Middle East Affairs Journal.

Here’s a shot from one of the MEAJ issues showing their co-editorship:



I have also highlighted Yousef’s article in the table of contents, “Martyrdom Operations: Motivations, Preparations and Repercussions”. For the uninitiated, “martyrdom operations” are terrorist suicide bombings, and Yousef’s article is a defense of such.

After UASR closed down after being found liable for a $156 million federal court judgment in the death of an American teenager killed by HAMAS in Israel, Fattah/Keeble left the DC area and returned to Ohio, settling in Columbus. From here she has operated under the rubric of the National Association of Muslim American Women. In that capacity, she declared in a Sept. 15, 2007 letter to the editor in the Columbus Dispatch that all Israelis, including civilians, were legitimate target of terror attacks, “Israelis in Gaza aren’t civilians”.

It’s only appropriate then that the Dispatch published her co-author Ahmed Yousef’s op-ed last June (covered here, “A New Low for the Columbus Dispatch”).

New report documents Anisa Abd El Fattah shilling for Iranian ayatollahs

A report released yesterday by the Investigative Project discusses the efforts by Columbus resident Anisa Abd El Fattah (aka Caroline Keeble, would-be Columbus Public Schools Board member) on behalf of the Iranian mullahocracy, which she has said is a “truly democratic” regime. While still Director of Public Affairs for HAMAS front (and since closed) United Association for Studies and Research (UASR), Fattah even moderated a panel discussion advocating for opening relations with the “Axis of Evil” member and state sponsor of terrorism.

Before looking what the report says, it bears reminding readers that Fattah recently appeared at a conference for Anjoman Islami, an Iranian-backed group which FBI Director Louis Freeh identified in congressional testimony as a domestic terror threat. Anjoman Islami/Muslim Student Association-Persian Speaking Group is also one of the leading purveyors of anti-Jewish hate literature and activities in the world.

Here’s the relevent excerpt from the IPT report (pp. 4-5; footnotes in the original):

Anisa Abd El Fattah, who served as a member of CAIR’s board of directors, has led its campaign to rehabilitate Iran in the United States. In a series of articles and interviews in 1998–2000, she portrayed Iran as a moderate, democratic, and unfairly demonized nation.

For example, in a June 1998 letter to the editor of the Washington Times, she wrote:

The United States has only one strategic asset in the Middle East, namely Israel. This is ludicrous when the region consists of nearly 25 other countries, mostly Arabian. Iran, though not Arabian, is by far the most prosperous and stable of them all. It is also the only one of these countries that is truly democratic. In fact, an Iranian representative chairs the Organization of the Islamic Conference, a representative body of the Muslim world.26

Abd El Fattah co-hosted a panel sponsored by UASR at the 1999 AMC convention in Crystal City, Virginia. The panel, entitled “U.S. and Iran, Time to Talk,” was scheduled to feature Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Sayyid Hadi Najad Hossenian, but he was barred from the event by the State Department.27 Advising the audience that Hossenian would not appear, Abd El Fattah spoke out against the pro-Israel pundits who she claimed were responsible for Hossenian’s exclusion. “I don’t know about you, but what that tells me is that I have a challenge; and that challenge is to speak louder than them [the pro-Israel groups], be more active than they are. They love Israel. We love America, and we also love Iran,” she said.28

In fact, here is Anisa Abd El Fattah’s entire June 25, 1998, letter to the editor to the Washington Times:

On June, 22 you published an Op-Ed piece by Kenneth Timmerman, “No time to play nice with Iran.” The sole focus of this column is that if Iran makes a dime anywhere, it will invest that dime in nuclear arms. This, Mr. Timmerman fears, would have “devastating consequences for U.S. national security and for our allies in the Middle East.”

Such fears are the very reason the United States has only one strategic asset in the Middle East, namely Israel. This is ludicrous when the region consists of nearly 25 other countries, mostly Arabian. Iran, though not Arabian, is by far the most prosperous and stable of them all. It is also the only one of these countries that is truly democratic. In fact, an Iranian representative chairs the Organization of the Islamic Conference, a representative body of the Muslim world.

Iran will sell oil, whether it be to U.S. companies or not. It also will develop the necessary armaments to secure itself against other nuclear powers in the Middle East. The recent nuclear tests conducted by Pakistan and India prove that we are incapable of policing the proliferation of nuclear arms. In addition, we do not have the moral right to deny security and deterrence to one country while we ship arms to another, especially in the same region.

We need pragmatic and effective policies in the Middle East that serve America’s enlightened interest. Normalizing relations with Iran would be a good place to start.

ANISA ABD EL FATTAH
Falls Church

So she vows that Iran will develop nuclear weapons to “secure itself against other nuclear powers in the Middle East” — Israel being the only country fitting that description — and that we have “no moral right” to deprive “Axis of Evil” member Iran of nuclear weapons while supporting the only “truly democratic” country in the Middle East — Israel. Instead, she believes that we should reward Iran’s support for terrorism throughout the Middle East, most notably Hezbollah which at the time had killed hundreds of American peacekeepers and other military personnel, by normalizing relations with the Iranian mullahocracy.

In another letter to the editor by Fattah published by the Columbus Dispatch this past September, she identified Israeli citizens — men, woman and children alike — as legitimate targets for terrorist attacks, saying:

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.

And then are her recent public defense of neo-Nazis and expressions of support for the neo-Nazi website, Stormfront.

But don’t worry: she’s still considered a moderate by the Columbus Dispatch.

Top Ten Central Ohio Terrorism-Related Stories of 2007

Now safely into the new year, we here at Central Ohioans Against Terrorism would like to take a few minutes to reflect on the major terrorism-related Central Ohio news stories here in 2007. Needless to say, it was an eventful year. Let’s hope that 2008 is equally as interesting.

1. Nuradin Abdi guilty plea in shopping mall terror plot
   
   
   After years of heated denials and conspiracy theories, the extremists in the Muslim community were shocked in late July when Nuradin Abdi, arrested as part of the Columbus Al-Qaeda cell run out of Masjid Omar Ibn El-Khattab just north of campus, agreed to a plea deal rather than go to trial on multiple charges of terrorism support, including a plot to shoot up a Columbus-area shopping mall. Local CAIR officials, including national vice chair Ahmad Al-Akhras and Ohio chapter president Asma Mobin-Uddin, had made a series of bizarre claims, including that Abdi had been tortured and was being drugged by federal authorities. A federal appeals court quickly rejected their conspiracy theories, concluding that Abdi was putting on an act (in accordance with stated Al-Qaeda incarceration guidelines). Abdi was sentenced to 10 years in prison on a charge of material support for terrorism in November. And as Dirk Thompson of 610 WTVN reported, Abdi’s attorney went on an anti-American rant in front of the local media following the announcement of the plea deal.
   
   Related Nuradin Abdi COAT posts.



2. Christopher Paul arrested as part of Columbus Al-Qaeda cell
   
   
   In April, Worthington-raised Christopher Paul (nee-Paul Kenyatta Laws, aka Abdulmalek Kenyatta) was arrested after a federal indictment was unsealed charging Paul with plotting to attack American tourists overseas. Paul is a 1983 graduate of Worthington High School. Following his arrest, CAIR officials became confused, as Adnan Mirza tried to distance the Muslim community from Paul, while Ahmad Al-Akhras came out in his defense, claiming that Paul was a “loving husband” and led a “good family”. (see, “Columbus Al-Qaeda Man Charged, CAIR Not Pleased”)




3. Hilliard HAMAS cleric Salah Sultan appears at Middle East terror confab
   
   
   Salah Sultan (right) sitting on the speaker dais with Specially Designated Global Terrorists Khaled Mishal (left) and Yousef Al-Qaradawi (middle)
   
   
   Salah Sultan speaking at the terror confab in Qatar
   Notwithstanding having been defended by the Columbus Dispatch and a number of area Islamic leaders as a “moderate”, Salah Sultan showed his true colors this past summer when he appeared at a conference honoring HAMAS spiritual leader Yousef Al-Qaradawi in Doha, Qatar. Sultan delivered a tearful speech praising his mentor and also produced a paper on Qaradawi’s “scientific thought” (both being published on Qaradawi’s personal website). Sultan was even photographed with Qaradawi, and he could be seen in the Al-Jazeera live coverage of the event during the speech by HAMAS head Khaled Mishal. Both Qaradawi and Mishal have been listed by the US government as Specially Designated Global Terrorists. Also in July, Sultan was identified by name in a LA Times article as one of two clerics preaching holy war and “sharing the outlook of Al-Qaeda” in Bahrain.
   
   Related Salah Sultan COAT posts.
   
   Related FrontPage Magazine articles:
   
   Hometown Jihad (04/03/2006)
   Hometown Jihad: Blowback (05/24/06)
   Hometown Jihad: Our Newest Citizen? (09/08/06)
   Hometown Jihad: The Return of Salah Sultan (03/29/07)
   Hometown Jihad: The HAMAS Connection (05/11/2007)



4. October-terror-fest at the Ohio Statehouse
   
   
   The Interfaith Association of Central Ohio sponsored an event, “The Many Voices of Islam”, in the Ohio Statehouse atrium in October featuring two known HAMAS operatives, Anisa Abd El Fattah and Robert “Farooq” Crane, and one official for the now-closed Toledo Kindhearts terror fundraising “charity”, Zulfiqar Shah, who as Southeast Asia director for the group partnered with the Al-Khidmat Foundation in Pakistan, founded by Osama bin Laden mentor and Al-Qaeda founder Abdullah Azzam. The event was organized by local extremist Abukar Arman, and was also sponsored with a $1,000 grant from the Ohio Humanities Council, a taxpayer-funded organization.




5. Cleveland imam quits before he starts
   
   
   Instead of just reporting the news, COAT became part of the news when blogger Tom Blumer of Bizzyblog reported back in September that the newly-hired imam for the Islamic Center of Cleveland, Ahmed Alzaree, had preached some virulently anti-Jewish sermons in his previous post in Omaha, Nebraska. We then followed up with additional information noting other troubling aspects to Alzaree’s preaching and breaking news of his terrorist ties (and the establishment media’s ignoring of such). Even after multiple articles by the Cleveland Plain Dealer came out defending the imam, who was scheduled to begin his new job in early November, two days before he was scheduled to start, he announced that he was quiting. According to the Plain Dealer, one of the reasons cited by Alzaree for throwing in the towel was our COAT post, “Cleveland’s new imam: interfaith “moderate” or two-faced jihadist?”. Alzaree was brought in to replace deported former imam Fawaz Damra (see below in “Honorable Mention”).




6. Abukar Arman tossed from Franklin County Homeland Security oversight committee
   
   
   A front-page article in the Columbus Dispatch and a coordinated political cover-up by City Hall and the Franklin County Commission (more on the cover-up) weren’t enough to save Abukar Arman’s position with the county Criminal Justice Planning Board, which oversees Franklin County Homeland Security. After my FrontPage expose discussing Arman’s vocal support for terrorism in a series of published articles, Arman was forced to resign from the board, in addition to losing his full-time job with the Columbus Public Schools. County Commission officials withheld information related to the Arman investigation from Dirk Thompson of 610 WTVN and myself, while simultaneously providing the exact same information to Dispatch reporter Barbara Carmen. Only after the Dispatch article appeared did the Commission release the requested information.
   
   Related Abukar Arman COAT posts.




7. Hilliard HAMAS cleric Salah Sultan denied US citizenship, flees the US for Bahrain
   
   
   As noted above (item #3), Hilliard-based HAMAS cleric Salah Sultan appeared at a terrorist confab in Qatar in July. But perhaps the most important reason for Sultan’s unashamed open association with designated terrorists in July is that earlier in the year he had been denied US citizenship based on his previous known terrorist associations and had fled the country. Once informed about the rejection, Sultan picked up most of his family and moved to Bahrain. But even his arrival there was met with controversy, as Bahraini politicians complained in May that Sultan and his buddy Wagdi Ghoneim had received almost instantaneous citizenship there (as reported by Al-Wasat). The Bahraini press noted Sultan’s hasty departure and the denial of his US citizenship. Even Bahraini bloggers have been critical of Sultan and his jihadist crew.




8. HAMAS operative Anisa Abd El Fattah/Caroline Keeble interviewed for open Columbus Public School Board spot
   
   
   Anisa Abd El Fattah on the left; Caroline Keeble on the right. Two different versions of the same person.
   During the investigation into Fattah’s appearance at the October-terror-fest at the Ohio Statehouse, I noticed that Fattah’s non-jihad persona, Caroline Keeble, had been interviewed by the Columbus Public School Board last January for an open position on school board. The results of my investigation were published in a PJM article, “HAMAS: Coming to a School Board near you”. The resume she had submitted as part of her application (obtained with great difficulty from the school district despite an Open Records Act request) made no mention of the HAMAS front organizations she had worked for during the 1990s and earlier this decade, nor her longtime consulting position with now convicted terrorist leader Abdurahman Alamoudi or her founding board member position with the national Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Though one of the few candidates to receive an interview by the school board, she did not get appointed to either of the two open seats she applied for.




9. Muslim Brotherhood leader identified in Central Ohio
   
   
   I haven’t done much follow-up reporting on this issue since my original post, but one bombshell piece of evidence that came out of the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial in Dallas this past summer was a phonebook of Muslim Brotherhood leaders in North America. One entry in this Muslim Brotherhood leadership directory was an individual, Hany Saker, located in Columbus and identified as such by the readily identifiable 614 area code. As I reported back then, the office phone number listed for Saker was an Ohio State University number. Elsewhere in the phone directory Saker is listed as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood Board of Directors, and also the Eastern regional leader in North America. We hope to have more reporting on this story in 2008.




10. Hate Sheikh Siraj Wahhaj appears at Columbus fundraiser for Islamic group headed by mayoral advisor
    
    
    Hate sheikh Siraj Wahhaj (left) and his longtime buddy and Mayor Coleman advisor Ahmad Al-Akhras (right)
    
    When the Islamic Foundation of Central Ohio needed a keynote speaker for their annual fundraiser, its president Ahmad Al-Akhras turned to his old friend and prominent hate sheikh Siraj Wahhaj for help. Wahhaj was named by US Attorney Mary Jo White as an un-indicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Wahhaj had appeared at a March 2006 fundraiser for Sunrise Academy in Hilliard to raise money for their new gym, in June 2006 for the CAIR-Ohio annual banquet, and again in February 2007 at Sunrise Academy for yet another fundraiser for Masjid Abubakar Al Siddique. Among many other things, Wahhaj says that he isn’t sure that Osama bin Laden is responsible for 9/11; he calls for the return of the global Islamic caliphate and the imposition of Islamic shari’a law, including punishment by amputations and stoning; and he calls for the violent overthrow of American government.

Honorable Mention:

Censorship State at Columbus State for Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week

(graphic courtesy of DarthDilbert)
When the Terrorism Awareness Project student group at Columbus State Community College wanted to promote their events for the national Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week in October, CSCC administrator Timeka Rashid prohibited the group from posting promotional fliers around campus and warning the student leaders not to discuss her prohibition. After I exposed Rashid’s censorship of the student events in a FrontPage Magazine article, “Censorship State”, CSCC relented and did not interfere any further in the group’s scheduled activities. As reported by Jacob Laskin in 2006, Rashid had previously prevented the same student group from hosting a screening of the documentary, Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West.

I later reported that Columbus State’s earlier censorship efforts were in response to a letter from former Congresswoman Mary Rose Oakar sent to CSCC president Valeriana Moeller asking for the school’s cooperation in obstructing events related to Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week.


Akron-born jihadist pleads guilty to terror charges, sentenced to 15 years


In April, Akron native Mahmud Faruq Brent pled guilty to supporting a terrorist organization and in late July was sentenced to 15 years in prison for attending a Lakshar-e-Taiba terrorist training camp in Pakistan. A convert to Islam, Brent had been living in Maryland driving a taxi at the time of his arrest. The case was part of the Virginia Jihad Network series of prosecutions.


Cleveland Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Fawaz Damra deported


The two faces of Fawaz Damra
The year 2007 started off right as federal officials deported Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Fawaz Damra in early January. Damra had been the longtime imam of the Islamic Center of Cleveland. He was deported for lying to authorities about his ties to the terrrorist organization, failing to disclose them on his citizenship application, and for recruiting suicide bombers to attack Israel. Damra had been hailed as an "interfaith moderate" in Cleveland, that is, until videos surfaced of him calling Jews "the sons of apes and pigs" and fundraising for jihad along with PIJ leader Sami Al-Arian. Then there was his prior tenure with a NY-based front for Al-Qaeda.

Go to the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Fawaz Damra archive.


Jihad Julio Pino at Kent State


One of the most underreported stories of the year (one we didn’t even have a chance to get to) involves Kent State Latin American History professor Julio “Jihad” Pino, who was found earlier this year operating a now-closed jihadist forum, the “Global War” blog, which proclaimed: “Are You Prepared for Jihad? IN THE NAME OF OBL. 2007: THE YEAR OF ISLAMIC VICTORY!” University of North Carolina-Wilmington Criminology professor Mike Adams exposed Pino’s jihadist rants in an article at Townhall back in February. A series of articles by Adams ran throughout the year expanding on the story. Things at Kent State came to a head in November when the History department chairman, John Jameson, was fired by the university after he approved a paid leave for Pino to travel to the Middle East without university approval. No action has been taken by the university against Pino.

Anisa Abd El Fattah backs Ron Paul and neo-Nazi STORMFRONT

Vote for Ron Paul, infidel.

UPDATE #1: Welcome everyone visiting from LGF, Atlas Shrugs, Ace and RoP!

UPDATE #2: For a visual comparison of her Anisa Abd El Fattah persona (her nom de jihad), and her Caroline Keeble identity, take a look at the top of this post.

Sultan Knish informs us that our local HAMAS operative, former CAIR national board member and would-be Columbus Public School Board member Anisa Abd El Fattah/Caroline Keeble has a couple of recent posts on the “Muslims for Ron Paul” Yahoo forum coming out in favor of presidential hopeful Ron Paul and wishing neo-Nazi website STORMFRONT the best of luck in their battle against ADL. How nice.

This is the same Anisa Abd El Fattah who spent this past weekend speaking at a conference for an Iranian government front group identified by former FBI Director Louis Freeh as a direct domestic terror threat.

But don’t worry: the Columbus Dispatch still thinks she’s a moderate.

In her first message, she encourages candidate Paul not to bow to outside pressure calling for him to return donations from neo-Nazi leaders:

Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2007 19:48:00 -0800 (PST)
To: Muslims_for_RonPaul@yahoogroups.com
From: caroline keeble
Subject: Re: [Muslims_for_RonPaul] ADL Concerned About Ron Paul Supporters

Well, this will be the first test for Ron Paul. We will know if he is really our man if he stands for the Constitutional rights of all Americans to participate in the political process and to exercise their right to free speech. Campaign contributions are free political speech, and I think the ADL should be very careful not to attempt to chill or deprive Americans of their Constitutional rights. We already know they believe that only their flunkies have rights, and that they have the power to dictate to others who to vote for, etc. So this will be the test. Let’s see how Paul responds when it comes to dealing with the ADL.

Anisa

Next up, she offers a prayer for STORMFRONT:

Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 10:49:12 -0800 (PST)
To: Muslims_for_RonPaul@yahoogroups.com
From: caroline keeble
Subject: Re: [Muslims_for_RonPaul] ADL Extremism vs. Stormfront Extremism

28 USC 241 is a criminal statute. Traditionally only the US Attorney, or an Attorney General can file a suit under this statute. This is why the National Association of Muslim American Women filed a complaint back in January with the DOJ, requesting a Department of Justice investigation of the Jewish Lobby, including the ADL, not only for their routine attempts to tar and feather every Muslim and Arab as terrorist or potential terrorists, but also because there is a very good chance that these organizations, and their supporters are the sources of the so-called secret evidence that is the cause for many of the wrong arrests, imprisonments and other acts that have been carried out unfairly against Muslims and Arabs. Once tried in courtrooms these cases fall apart because the groups and individuals that provided the secret evidence, or who spread the rumors are liars.

There is also a very good chance that if we had gotten the investigation, it would have been proven that much of the testimony they have provided in Congressional hearings and private meetings has been lies, or rather perjury and false statements made to government officials, both crimes under 18 USC 1001. We attempted to circulate a petition asking Muslims and Arabs to sign onto the request for an investigation, to demonstrate to the DOJ that this was a serious initiative, and an issue of importance to nearly 8 million American citizens. We got 98 signatures, and so the Lobby continues with these tactics because they feel emboldened by Muslim and Arab apprehension about speaking up and pushing back. I pray that the people of Stormfront and their followers will have better luck with their people than we did with ours. It’s time for someone to stand up to the JDL and the ADL, and for their attempts to chill and deprive other Americans of rights be stopped.

Anisa

The Sultan notes this is not the first, or even the second time that Fattah has come out in support of the neo-Nazis (see my previous FPM article, “Islamofascist Defends Fascists”, covering her unashamed approval of neo-Nazis). In her published exchange with UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh, she goes out of her way to defend “White nationalists”, explaining the motive for their “fear mongering”:

The point is that every American has equal rights to free speech. That aspect of White nationalist behavior that includes fear mongering, name calling, and intimidation is wrong, yet they argue that their actions result from their frustration that they are stereotyped, and misrepresented by the media and made to appear as enemies of blacks and Jews, and others, when they simply want to preserve the white race, and its majority status. They feel that Jewish supremacism threatens their existence, and that Jewish activism is aimed at limiting their rights, and many Christians feel that same way.

No doubt, Ron Paul is proud to have her support.

Terror-linked group’s Central Ohio connections

A tip to my latest investigative article published today by PJM: “NY Congressman Gregory Meeks’ cozy relationship with a terror-linked organization”. It concerns a DC-based group, the Peace and Justice Foundation, and its attempts to hold events on Capitol Hill. One such function back in August was ejected from the US Capitol by the US House of Representatives Sergeant-at-Arms the day before the conference because of the terror-linked speakers that were scheduled to appear. The group publicly defends a number of terrorist organizations, convicted terrorist leaders, at two convicted cop killers.

This story has ties to Central Ohio, in that the Peace and Justice Foundation published an open letter on Abukar Arman’s website endorsing the recent HAMAS-fest at the Ohio Statehouse (a letter I responded to here), and three of the speakers at the August event that got tossed from the US Capitol grounds were from the Columbus area: (would-be Columbus Public School Board candidate) Anisa Abd El-Fattah/Caroline Keeble, (former Franklin County Homeland Security Oversight Board member) Abukar Arman and (Mayor Coleman advisor) Ahmad Al-Akhras.

Here’s the intro:

Why is a powerful congressman trying to pave the way for terror-linked speakers to appear on Capitol Hill?

That’s the question that comes to mind following the abrupt cancellation of the Muslim Mobilization Conference by the US House of Representatives Sergeant-at-Arms. The event, originally scheduled for August 11, would have taken place in the Cannon House Building Caucus Room had it not been for the last minute discovery of the terror-linked speakers that the DC-based Peace and Justice Foundation had invited to participate.

However the organization is claiming that Congressman Gregory Meeks, who initially helped organize the event, is actively working with them to reschedule, notwithstanding the organization’s public defense of several global terrorist organizations and two notorious cop killers. And a review of the Peace and Justice Foundation’s corporate documents shows that the group has been operating illegally for nearly a decade without any accountability whatsoever for funds it has raised for a wide variety of extremist causes.

Read it all at PJM.

Another Anisa Abd El Fattah colleague sentenced to prison

The Investigative Project on Terrorism reports that Abdelhaleem Ashqar, a former colleague of Columbus resident and would-be Columbus Public School Board member Anisa Abd El Fattah/Caroline F. Keeble, was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison last week for refusing to testify about his role in HAMAS financing. Ashqar was formerly a research associate for the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR), which one convicted terrorist leader described as “the political command for HAMAS in the United States”. Anisa Abd El Fattah was the longtime director of public affairs and past president of the organization and served with Ashqar.

Ashqar’s conviction adds to the lenthy list of former UASR associates and former associates of Fattah’s who have been convicted of terrorism charges, fled the country to avoid prosecution, or have been listed by the US government as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists”.

Here’s a quick rundown of UASR’s greatest hits:

• UASR was found jointly liable in federal court in a $156 million judgment for the murder of Chicago teenager David Boim, who was gunned down by HAMAS gunmen while waiting for a bus in Israel in May 1996.
• UASR founder and former political director Mousa Abu Marzook is currently the political director for HAMAS in Damascus. The US government has listed Marzook as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
• UASR executive director Ahmed Yousef co-authored two books with Anisa Abd El Fattah/Caroline F. Keeble and is now the official spokesman for HAMAS. Yousef fled the US in 2005 to avoid prosecution in the Fawaz Damra trial.
• According to the Department of Justice’s trial brief in the Holy Land case, UASR “was designed for ideological research and development intended to promote a fundamentalist view of the Palestinian issue. The UASR was also involved in passing Hamas communiques to the United States-based Muslim Brotherhood community and relaying messages from that community back to Hamas.”
• UASR board member Abdurahman Alamoudi was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to 23 years in federal prison for working with Libyan intelligence to assassinate the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. The US Treasury Department estimated that Alamoudi had raised more than $1 million for al-Qaeda. Anisa Abd El Fattah served for 10 years as a consultant to Alamoudi and his American Muslim Council.
• A federal judge refused to allow Fawaz Damra attend a March 2004 UASR event while he was on trial on charges related to his terrorist fundraising due to the organization’s terrorist ties. Damra was deported in January 2007 for failing to disclose his ties to Palestinian Islamic Jihad in his citizenship application.
• Mohamed Nimer, a former UASR board member, is named in the amended RICO statement for the lawsuit Estate of John P. O’Neill, Sr., et al. v. Al Baraka, et al. as one of the “proven links to Islamic Terrorists.”

You are known by the company you keep.

Anisa Abd El Fattah laments dead HAMAS terrorist-in-chief

In commemoration of today’s taxpayer-financed “Many Faces of Islam” conference at the Ohio State Capitol atrium, featuring HAMAS operative Anisa Abd El Fattah, I thought it might be appropriate to revisit some of the professional history of our fellow Columbus resident and would-be Columbus Public School Board member. (You might also want to revisit our post regarding Fattah’s defense earlier this year of neo-Nazis and UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh’s recent take of the same.)

Below is a 2004 press release from Fattah in her previous position as the Director of Public Affairs for the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR), which one convicted terrorist leader described as “the political command for HAMAS in the United States”. The topic is the assassination of HAMAS founder and terrorist-in-chief Ahmed Yassin by the Israelis following HAMAS terror strikes against Israeli civilians. Yassin had been named a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US in 1995.

But in her press release, Anisa Abd El Fattah laments the dead terror chief and hails “the Islamic Resistance Movement”, the formal name for HAMAS. Again, Fattah — who has publicly defended terrorist organizations and has herself personally worked for multiple convicted and designated terrorists (Mousa Abu Marzook, Abdurahman Alamoudi, et al.) — is at this very moment participating in an event at the Ohio Statehouse.

Here’s her press release as retrieved from U.S. Newswire:

United Association for Studies and Research Condemns Murder of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin

3/23/2004

From: United Association for Studies and Research, 703-750-9011 [number no longer active - ed.]

WASHINGTON, March 23/U.S. Newswire/ — The United Association for Studies and Research (UASR), a Muslim American think tank, condemns yesterday’s murder of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder and spiritual leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement in Palestine and calls upon Israel to end its policy of extra judicial murders of Palestinian people, the destruction of their homes and property and the continued illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories.

“We condemn the murder of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and also Israel’s policy of targeted assassination,” says UASR Director of Public Affairs, Anisa Abd el Fattah. “It is ironic that Yassin was killed only days after releasing a statement saying that his organization was willing to cooperate with the Palestinian Authority, and other Palestinian groups in an effort to prevent anarchy should Israel withdraw from Gaza. To most political analysts, this was a signal that the Islamic Resistance Movement was preparing to perhaps moderate its activities and focus more on alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian people, rather than attacking Israel. Sheikh Yassin, contrary to what Israel says, had offered Israelis many opportunities to enter a truce, and to end the practice of targeting civilians by both sides but Israel refused these offers. Israel proved yesterday that it is not interested in peace with the Palestinian people, and that it has reserved for itself the right to kill at will, in violation of international laws, and any recognized and civilized concept of justice. Israel has continued its attempts at provocation today by issuing public statements threatening other acts of violence against Palestinians and other extra judicial killings. We believe that Israel has taken this path of escalated violence to avoid what has become the inevitable reality. Israel can no longer justify its illegal occupation of Palestinian lands beyond its 1967 borders, nor can it any longer justify its attacks on the Palestinian people, which it claims as retaliation, and the destruction of their homes and property. The United States should be the first to strongly and without reservations, condemn these acts of provocation and also Israel’s criminal policy of targeted assassinations, and the United Nations Security Council should take immediate steps to ensure the security of the Palestinian people and their property, and to end the occupation.

Please forward questions or comments to UASR at 703-750-9011 or by fax at 703-750-9012. [UASR is now defunct, so these numbers are no longer active — ed.]

Needless to say, the Israelis had their own take on their successful assassination in light of Yassin’s direct role in directing terrorist attacks targeting Israeli civilians:

The founder and leader of the Hamas terrorist organization, Ahmed Yassin, was killed today in the northern Gaza Strip.

Yassin was the leader and mentor of Hamas in the territories, and the authorizing and initiating authority for all Hamas terrorist attacks emanating from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Although he was not a religious authority, many named him “Sheikh Yassin,” for his status as leader of Hamas.

The perception that Yassin was the “political” leader and left the management of terrorist activities to others is incorrect. In fact, there is no differentiation between the “political” and “military” wings of Hamas. Yassin, himself, often authorized and encouraged attacks and strongly preached against Israel. . .

Yassin was the senior authority in the decision making process for carrying out terrorist attacks, and was the main address in all matters concerning the determining the policy for terrorism. He was viewed as a highly admired and charismatic persona serving as a main factor in attacks against Israel.

May Ahmed Yassin rot in Hell. Thanks to the Israelis for eliminating this POS from the planet. We owe you our thanks.

And remember Anisa Abd El Fattah’s defense of terrorist leader Ahmed Yassin next time the Columbus Dispatch rises to her defense.

HAMAS operative nearly appointed to Columbus Public School Board

On the left is Anisa Abd El Fattah, who is a known HAMAS operative; on the right is Caroline Keeble, who was interviewed for an open position earlier this year on the Columbus Public School Board. Unfortunately, they are the same person.

Hamas: Coming to a School Board Near You?
By Patrick Poole

Exactly how did a known Hamas operative obtain an interview with and almost get appointed to the Columbus, Ohio Public School Board, which oversees one of the largest school districts in the country? And what does this incident tell us about the domestic terror threat and the process of radicalization happening right now in the US?

Those were the questions raised during my research for an article I recently wrote titled “Hamas in the House .” It revealed that a woman named Anisa Abd El Fattah was scheduled to speak at an “interfaith” event to be held in the atrium of the Ohio State Capitol later this month. Not only was Fattah past president of the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR), an organization founded by Specially Designated Global Terrorist Mousa Abu Marzook and described by another convicted terror leader as “the political command for Hamas in the United States,” but she also co-authored two books with current Hamas spokesman Ahmed Yousef. Yousef fled the US in 2005 to avoid prosecution and immediately reappeared as one of the top leaders of Hamas. He has been described by one Middle Eastern newspaper as “The Smiling Face of Hamas.”

Additionally, for more than a decade Fattah was a paid consultant to convicted terror leader Abdurahman Alamoudi’s now defunct American Muslim Council, as well as a founding board member of the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). CAIR, as FBI agent Lara Burns revealed this summer during the Holy Land Foundation trial, was founded as part of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee and thereby directly connected to Hamas.

During the research I conducted for that previous article, I discovered that Fattah had been one of thirty-two candidates who applied for an open position on the Columbus Public School Board, and that she had made it far along enough in the process to become one of fifteen individuals who actually received an interview by the board.

How did Fattah’s extensive terror-connected credentials escape the notice of the school board screeners and the media who covered the candidates for the open position?

[read the rest at PJM]