California Conservative

Frontpagemag’s Joe Kaufman asks several questions about Keith Ellison’s fundraising vacation to Florida this past weekend that deserve to be answered. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that Ellison will suddenly grow a spine and answer them. Nonetheless, here’s some information you should examine:

At the beginning of this month, I received an e-mail about a lecture that was taking place on October 14th at the Southwest Focal Point Senior Center, located in Pembroke Pines, Florida. The event was being sponsored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and the Keynote Speaker was listed as Keith Ellison, a candidate for United States Congress from Minnesota and a man that has raised thousands of dollars through CAIR. Our group, Americans Against Hate, planned to be there and welcome him in protest. All was fine, until we attempted to sit in on the event.
When I received the e-mail concerning the lecture, I wanted to corroborate the information to make sure that it was correct. I searched the Internet. I found nothing. I went onto CAIR’s and CAIR-Florida’s websites; nothing. I went onto Keith Ellison’s campaign website; nothing. Details about this event were nowhere to be seen. It wasn’t until I spoke with someone from the Pembroke Pines Police Department that I found out the information was indeed accurate. Questions popped up in my head: Why is this event being made a secret? Why is a Congressional Candidate from Minnesota campaigning in South Florida? And right before the election?

Everyone in Minnesota’s Fifth District should be wondering why Keith Ellison kept this event secret. Furthermore, they should wonder why Ellison left the district for an entire weekend right before the election to raise funds from a terrorist group in Florida.

We’re also left pondering why CAIR didn’t highlight this event on their websites. After all, I found out easily that Baghdad Jim McDermott, John Conyers and John Dingell all had festivities planned in their ‘dishonor’ as CAIR’s Man of the Year in Seattle and Michigan respectively. At minimum, you’d think that CAIR and/or Ellison would’ve issued a statement through US Newswire announcing the event.

I think that the question gets answered here:

We were also protesting Florida Gubernatorial Candidate Jim Davis for doing the same. Ellison had taken money from CAIR’s National Executive Director Nihad Awad, CAIR’s National Chairman Parvez Ahmed, and CAIR’s Government Affairs Director Corey Saylor. Jim Davis had accepted money from CAIR-Florida’s Communications Director Ahmed Bedier. Given CAIR’s ties to the terrorist organization Hamas, given the fact that four CAIR representatives have previously been charged by the U.S. government with terrorist activity, and given the fact that CAIR is being sued for its role in the attacks on 9/11, we believed our case was strong.

As I’ve written several times, CAIR’s activities have been troubling at minimum, scary at maximum. Their ties to terrorists are well-documented and numerous. Here’s just an inexhaustive smatterng of that documentation:

Certainly the record of CAIR supports the charges of terrorist sympathizing. Ghassan Elashi, a founding board member of the Texas Chapter of CAIR was indicted last December for engaging in financial transactions with Hamas leader Musa abu Marzook. And Democrats are supporting this group?
CAIR advisory board member Siraj Wahhaj was named in 1995 by US attorney Mary Jo White as a possible co-conspirator in plans to blow up New York City landmarks including the World Trade Center in 1993. Ismail Randall Royer, a communication specialist for CAIR was indicted earlier this year in Virginia that he and 10 other Muslim men were part of a conspiracy to support violent jihad overseas.
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United States Attorney Richard B. Roper announced that five brothers who operated a family-run, Richardson, Texas, company that sold computers and Internet services mostly to customers in the Middle East, were convicted yesterday in a federal court in Dallas, Texas. Following a four-week trial before the Honorable Sam A. Lindsay, United States District Judge, the jury found Bayan Elashi, Ghassan Elashi, Basman Elashi, Hazim Elashi, Ihsan Elashyi, a/k/a Sammy Elashyi, and Infocom Corporation each guilty of conspiracy to violate the Export Administration Regulations and the Libyan Sanctions Regulations. Each of the brothers was also found guilty of conspiracy to file false Shipper’s Export Declaration forms.

Siraj Wahhaj was named by U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White as a possible co-conspirator to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and testified as a character witness for convicted terror mastermind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. According to Salon.com, in a 1991 speech before the Islamic Association of North Texas, Wahhaj called Operation Desert Storm “one of the most diabolical plots ever in the annals of history,” and predicted that America will fall unless it “accepts the Islamic agenda.” He has openly expressed his desire to see the American government replaced with a caliphate.

Doesn’t that raise other questions for you? It did for me the first time I read that information. The first question that popped into my head is “Why are Democrats so involved with these types of terrorist-supporting groups?” Perhaps this information from CAIR’s website will put things in perspective:

Working with Conyers, the Ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Democrats have introduced legislation to end racial profiling, limit the reach of the Patriot Act, and make immigration safe and accessible.
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House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Congressman John Dingell (D-MI), Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY), and other Congressional Democrats were joined yesterday by national leaders of the Muslim American community in a roundtable discussion on issues of mutual concern to Democrats and Muslim Americans. The discussion centered on working together to defend civil rights and to restore civil liberties.

Doesn’t this information scare you? Knowing that Conyers has “introduced legislation to…limit the reach of the Patriot Act” should get peoples’ undivided attention immediately. That information says that Democrats’ goal was in watering down the Patriot Act, one of the most important tools in thwarting terrorists threats. That information should motivate every conservative to (a) contribute to the candidates in tight races, (b) work at GOTV operations between now and Election Day and (c) vote and persuade their neighbors and coworkers to vote Republicans into office.

To do anything less is essentially unilaterally deciding to (a) elect Democrats and (b)nominate John McCain in 2008. Forgive me if I don’t see the wisdom of that.

At the day’s end, Keith X (Hakim) Ellison should explain his trip to his would be constituents but he won’t. That’s why I’m here. I’m here to shine the light on Mr. Ellison’s shameful connections with CAIR’s terrorist supporters.

Technorati Tags: Election 2006, Keith Ellison, CAIR, Nihad Awad, Pelosi, Patriot Act

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 18th, 2006 at 9:52 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Corruption, Elections, Patriotism, Pelosi, Subversives, Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.