Stand by your sham: Omertà for Omar

Yesterday I wrote about David Steinberg’s PJ Media column “Ilhan Omar’s Husband No Longer Works for Minneapolis Councilwoman. Sources Say Omar Asked for Him to Be Fired.” Among other things, David’s column shows how much news related to the Omar saga remains unreported in the media. It is out there for the asking with just a little work if you want to find it.

PJ Media appended this easily overlooked footnote to explain David’s use of anonymous sources:

Anonymous sources used in this article have provided information to PJM over the past two years that all proved to be verifiable through publicly available legal documents, databases, professional background checks, and time-stamped social media posts. Sources have expressed fear of threats by Omar and her supporters — and we have been able to verify the threats. See Preya Samsundar and David Steinberg’s coverage of Guhaad Hashi, who was convicted of a stabbing shortly before becoming a key member of Omar’s campaign — during which he posted several threats, including a video, towards local Somalis who spoke up about Omar.

My own sources are well aware of Mr. Hashi. The footnote applies to my sources as well. One of them provided me the mug shot of Hashi below (under the name Guhaad H Said).

Preya Samsundar first reported on Hashi in the 2016 Alpha News article “A community forced into silence.” David previously noted Hashi’s work for Omar earlier this year in a tweet I posted here. I would like to add a footnote to David’s footnote.

I am advised that Hashi entered the United States with Omar as Guhaad Omar and reclaimed his name when he became a citizen. According to my source, Omar was his fake sister; he was her fake brother. They may have a familial relationship of a more distant kind.

Incidentally, that would still leave five Omar siblings unaccounted for among the seven whom the Star Tribune attributes to Omar’s family. (In a classic case of the blind leading the blind, the New York Times follows the Star Tribune on this point — while fact-checking Trump!)

Can either the Star Tribune or the Times name one Omar sibling other than Ilhan with the name Omar? As of this date, neither the Star Tribune nor the Times has ever done so.

Yet we know that Sahra Noor is Omar’s sister. We know that Leila Elmi is Omar’s sister. What is going on here? (Hint: We think Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is Omar’s brother and Nur Said Elmi is her father.)

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