God Damn America?

We wrote here and here about FBI raids in Minneapolis and Chicago that targeted “antiwar” activists who are suspected of providing material support to terrorist groups. We focused on the Minneapolis angle, but Jim Hoft adds valuable information about what happened in Chicago, where the FBI raided the home of Hatem Abudayyeh, the executive director of the Arab American Action Network:

Hatem Abudayyeh is the executive director of the Arab American Action Network (AAAN). Hatem Abudayyeh has been with the Arab American Action Network (AAAN) since 1999, and was appointed Executive Director in 2003. The Arab American Action Network was founded by former PLO operative and close Obama family friend Rashid Khalidi. Obama was a director of the Woods Fund from 1994 through 2001, when the board approved a $40,000 grant to the Arab American Action Network.
In 2003 Barack Obama was an honored guest at a dinner sponsored by the AAAN for former PLO-operative Rashid Khalidi. During the dinner a video was taken that shows Barack Obama celebrating with members of this Palestinian group who are openly hostile towards Israel. Barack Obama even gave a toast to a Rashid Khalidi at this going away party. The LA Times will not release the video from this Jew-bashing dinner.
Here’s a recent quote by Hatem Abudayyeh:

“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. 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. As we have seen in Iraq, where the resistance is standing up to U.S. power, the U.S. military is not indomitable.”

Jim perhaps goes too far by describing Abudayyeh as “Barack Obama’s friend.” As far as I know, they have never met. Nevertheless, Obama’s connections with groups like the Arab American Action Network are uncomfortable at best. It would be nice to have at least a couple of degrees of separation between the President of the United States and those who applaud al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq as “the resistance…standing up to U.S. power.”

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