By Debbie Schlussel

Mark Twain, once said, “There are lies, damn lies, and statistics.”

But Twain lived in the 19th Century. In the 21st Century, there are lies, damn lies, and Michael Moore “documentaries.”

Like Twain, Moore wants to be the great social commentator of our era. But, “Fahrenheit 9-11” (F911), his latest propaganda film, shows why he will forever remain in “wanna-be” status.

It’s typical Moore: lies, half-truths, far-left wackos and kooks as experts, snarky cheap shots, and just plain nonsense.

F911 starts out by recounting the tired liberal-left canard about George W. Bush “stealing” the 2000 Presidential Election. Gee, we haven’t heard that one before. And for those who actually read the paper and peruse bookstores, there’s little else new in this waste of celluloid.

Moore shows endless shots of Bush and administration officials being made up for TV appearances, montages of Bush golfing and on vacation, a shot of Bush with his dog – all accompanied by the sarcastic vocal commentary of Michael Moore. (You didn’t expect the self-important, schlubby Moore to spare us and stay off-screen, did you?)

In Moore’s world, liberal politicians never get made up or hair coiffed for TV appearances. In Moore’s world, Bill Clinton never golfed, never vacationed for months on Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard, never had a dog named “Buddy” – all while Slick Willie had the opportunity (several times) to have Osama Bin Laden handed over to him, but declined.

But that’s Moore’s world. He has learned the Costas Gavras (the famous Socialist-Communist director who produced Anti-American films) technique well. Bush and other administration “villains”–so cast by Moore–are shot from down below, to make them look even more evil.

Moore spends much time on Bin Laden family members flying out of the US when the rest of America was grounded, right after 9-11. Showing a clip of Khalil Bin Laden at the airport, a chyron on the screen cleverly reads “days after 9-11.” But, how many days? In fact, while some Bin Ladens did get to fly out early, most of the Bin Laden family flew out of America, after the rest of America could already fly. Moore says the FBI was not allowed to interview them, but in fact, the FBI was allowed to interview them and chose not to. That is disturbing, but it’s not what Moore “reported”.

The close relationship between the Bush family, including the current President, and the Saudi Royal Family is troubling. But it’s nothing new, and Moore offers no alternative. The Saudi Royals are, no doubt, despicable. They foster and fund madrasas, mosques, and clerics who preach the death of the West, Christians, and Jews. They hold telethons to fund the “martyrs” and allowed Al-Qaeda to grow. Women can’t drive, and non-Muslims are the equivalent of slaves. Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar is slimy and dishonest.

But the precarious Saudi Royal Family is better than the alternative–the Saudi masses who hate us even more and who love Osama Bin Laden.

If Crown Prince Abdullah is deposed by its extremist population, Bin Laden is the most popular replacement. Given the large Saudi investment in our economy (upon which Moore touches) and large holdings in our banking system, a change in Saudi leadership could result in the collapse of our economy. $2 a gallon oil? That would be a pleasant memory from the past, and only rich phonies like Michael Moore would be able to afford to drive. The Saudis are the largest producers of oil, and the radical Saudi population would see to it that we go back to the horse and buggy.

That is why it’s important for Bush to remain on good terms with the sleazy country that is the home to public beheadings and 15 of the 19 hijackers. Leftists from Moore’s “Amen” crowd won’t let us drill for oil in Alaska, so we can get away from dependence upon the Saudis. Not a peep about that in F911.

And while there’s plenty of factual material to use against the Saudis, Moore fabricates on that, too. He claims that the US Secret Service’s Uniformed Division protects only the Saudi Embassy, no others. That’s just plain false. Any tourist to Washington, DC, will see plenty of Secret Service Police guarding all of the other foreign embassies which request such protection. Other than guarding the White House and some federal buildings, it’s the largest use of personnel by the Secret Service’s Uniformed Division.

Since Moore lies about little things like that, what else has he lied about in this master docu-fakery?

Then there are Moore’s Congressional “experts.” F911 features extensive interviews with two of the biggest wackos ever elected to Congress, Reps. Jim McDermott and John Conyers, both far-left Democrats. They spout off against everything from the USA Patriot Act to the War on Iraq.

But he fails to tell us that Jim McDermott was on the take from Saddam Hussein. McDermott was one of three Congressmen who went on Saddam’s propaganda tour of Iraq in Fall 2002. The trip was funded by Life for Relief and Development (LRD), a “charity” which laundered money to terrorist group Hamas’ Jordanian operation. LRD is funded in part by Shakir Al-Khafaji, a man who did about $70 million in business with Saddam through his Falcon Trading Group company (based in South Africa). LRD’s Iraqi offices were raided by US troops last week, and the Detroit-area “charity” is suspected of funding uprisings, such as the one in Fallujah. Its officials bragged of doing so at a recent private US fundraiser.

Mr. Alkhafaji, one of two Americans named in Iraqi newspapers as a participant in Saddam’s “Oil for Food” scam, gave Congressman McDermott $5,000 in October 2002 for McDermott’s legal defense fund in a lawsuit against him. He’s not biased about Iraq, right?!

Then there’s Conyers. He’s the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. Heaven help us if the Democrats retake the House majority, and he becomes Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. The far-left Conyers never met a terrorist he didn’t like.

Take the June 13 Muslim American Society fundraising dinner for Islamic Relief, a charity with links to the Muslim Brotherhood. Conyers and his wife were the guests of honor. They watched and clapped as the Sanabel Al-Quds “dancing” troop from Milwaukee—featuring boys as young as seven—sang in Arabic of martyrdom and jihad for Allah and Palestine. They didn’t need to understand Arabic, as the young boys used a rifle to simulate killing and pistol-whipping, simulated throat-slittings and beheadings, and dishonored the American flag.

The War in Iraq is a major focal point of the film. Moore shamelessly dishonors our brave soldiers. He makes fun of soldier’s musical choices in Iraq (“The Roof is on Fire”) and depicts multiple wounded and dead Iraqis and soldiers raiding a home in Iraq searching for a militant. That’s what happens in war. People get wounded and killed. Moore shows the militant’s female relatives crying. “He’s a college student,” they cry out in Arabic. College students would never be terrorists, would they? Tell that to the Israelis, where the “colleges,” such as Bir Zeit University, are the breeding grounds for terrorists.

Very telling is the presence of the Al-Jazeera microphone in one segment of a women crying, “Allah Hu Akbar” (Allah is Great). Moore apparently thinks the sympathetic Terrorist News Network (Al-Jazeera) is the epitome of accurate news reporting.

Other BS in the Moore film:

* He shows Britney Spears saying she supports the President on Iraq. As if there weren’t a host of brain-dead bimbo celebs, (Madonna, Sean Penn, Russell Simmons, Lenny Kravitz, Susan Sarandon, The Dixie Chicks, etc.), spouting off on the other side.

* Moore repeatedly features Sam Kubba, of the American-Iraqi Chamber of Commerce, denouncing the War in Iraq as money-driven. But Kubba is a fringe character. Most Iraqi-Americans and their prominent leaders, such as Nabil Roumayah of the Detroit-based Iraqi Democratic Union, supported the war, whether they were Chaldeans (Christian Iraqis) or Shias.

* In very selectively edited clips, Moore poses the absurd notion that the main news anchors—Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, and Ted Koppel—wholeheartedly support Bush and the War in Iraq. Jennings, Rather, and Koppel supporting the War and Bush? Puh-leeze! Has Moore forgotten the hour-long Saddam softball interview Rather did just prior to the war, Jennings’ condescending coverage and Koppel’s critical “Nightline” episodes every step of the way?

* Moore exploits the grief of Lila Lipscomb, the mother of a soldier who died in Iraq. She denounces Bush and the War. But there are many mothers and relatives of US soldiers, alive and dead, who served there who don’t agree with her. Don’t look for them in this agit-prop “film.”

* Moore, as many misinformed “journalists do, makes light of the claimed Bush connection between Saddam and Al-Qaeda. But what about the meeting between hijacker Mohammed Atta and Iraqi Intelligence agents in the Czech Republic before 9-11? What about the Iraqi training camp in Salman Pak where Al-Qaeda used abandoned planes to train to hijack them? What about Ramzi Youssef, the Iraqi Secret Service agent and mastermind of the 1993 WTC bombing, who is the nephew of 9-11 Al-Qaeda mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? What about Iraqi Intelligence and Secret Police (Mukhabarat) at a Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Al-Qaeda terror planning convention? These are just some connections, and there are others in “The Connection,” by Stephen Hayes, that you won’t see in Moore’s silver screen screed.

Not just the film–but the audience that populated the promotional screening I attended–looked like it came out of far-stage-left of Democratic Party central casting.

Those surrounding me were literally the “Great Unwashed.” They smelled as if they hadn’t taken a shower in weeks, not because they couldn’t afford running water, but because it’s cool to be dirty and nasty in the far-left. Not for any good reason, but just because they can. With their awful stench wafting universal, they want to make the rest of us as miserable and skanky as the Hate-America crowd.

It’s emblematic of the filmmaker and his fake-umentary. Michael Moore and “Fahrenheit 9-11” stink.

By Debbie Schlussel
"He was becoming very extreme in his ideas and views. I never thought that he would go to that level."

That’s what Muzammil Siddiqi says about Adam Gadahn, the American convert to Islam and one of seven suspected Al-Qaeda operatives sought by the FBI.

But Siddiqi, the Executive Director of the Islamic Society of Orange County—Gadahn’s former mosque, is the real extremist. Siddiqi taught regular classes and delivered the weekly Friday afternoon sermons at Gadahn’s mosque. And given his views, it’s no surprise that Gadahn is now suspected of involvement with terrorists.

In 1995, Siddiqi praised jihad and martyrdom in the Kansas City Star. "Those who die on the part of justice are alive, and their place is with [Allah], and they receive the highest position, because this is the highest honor."

Siddiqi wants the United States to become a Muslim country through "gradual change," and that shariah (Islamic law) should become our law. "Allah’s rules have to be established in all lands, and all our efforts should lead to that direction," he wrote in 1996.

He opposes Muslims serving in the U.S. military or defending the U.S. "Islam will not allow a Muslim to be drafted by non-Muslims to defend concepts, ideologies, and values other than those of Islam . . . . A Muslim shall defend non-Muslim lands not," Siddiqi said in an article entitled, "Basic Principles of Involvement in War in Islam," in 1991.

"America has to learn," Siddiqi said at an October 2000 protest outside the White House. "If you remain on the side of injustice, the wrath of God will come. Please! Please all American, do you remember that, that Allah is watching everyone . . . . If you continue doing injustice, and tolerating injustice, the wrath of God will come."

In 1989, the L.A. Times asked whether he agrees with the death sentence fatwa issued by Iran against author Salman Rushdie. Instead of saying no, he said that it would have to be determined by Islamic law.

Siddiqi is one of the most prominent Muslim leaders in America. Until late 2001, he headed the Saudi-funded Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which owns and controls at least 27% of America’s mosques and many American Islamic schools through an ISNA subsidiary.

ISNA is at the forefront of promoting extremist Wahhabi Islam and often uses extremists to take over and seize control of relatively moderate mosques. Sometimes that involves violence, such as a May 1987 scuffle at a Tampa mosque by the family of the now indicted, alleged Islamic Jihad frontman, Sami Al-Arian. In a letter, Al-Arian refers to an official at an ISNA conference agreeing to donate $20,000 to his terror efforts.

While Siddiqi headed the ISNA, the group aided Hamas Political Director Musa Abu Marzook, by giving his legal defense fund a platform at its conferences around the U.S. In an open letter published in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Marzook thanked ISNA while he was in prison awaiting extradition. Marzook was unsuccessfully fighting deportation. Now in Syria, the United States has indicted him.

Siddiqi and ISNA aren’t the most disturbing things in the Adam Gadahn saga. More disturbing are the failure of Gadahn’s parents to check into Siddiqi, who headed their son’s new mosque.

President Bush shares that failure.

Siddiqi was a frequent honored guest of the Bush White House, which chose him as the Muslim representative to lead the national prayer service at National Cathedral right after 9-11. Bush gladly accepted a Koran from Siddiqi at a September 26, 2001 White House meeting, reminding Americans that Siddiqi "led the service at the National Cathedral." "He did a heck of a good job and we were proud to have him there," Bush gushed.

Then there’s the media, including the New York Times and LA Times, which took great pains to distance Gadahn’s extremism from Siddiqi’s "moderation." Rather than mention a single radical view of the extremist cleric, the L.A. Times refers to him as "the Harvard-educated" Muslim leader. As if one educated at Harvard couldn’t possibly be the least bit radical.

With the President, the media, and America’s Muslims honoring extremists like Siddiqi, the resulting Adam Gadahns are no surprise. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

By Debbie Schlussel
The Nation of Islam’s influence on Michael Jackson is disturbing. But it’s nothing, compared to the group’s influence on someone much more important –hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons.

The founder and Chairman of Def Jam Records, Simmons heads up the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN). Simmons and his wife also recently sold the Phat Farm hip-hop clothing empire for about $140 million.

They appear in fashion and celebrity magazines. Writers gush over their 50,000 square foot mansion and his wife’s two Bentleys, 25-carat diamond ring, and world’s largest collection of Louis Vuitton bags (numbering in the thousands). Reporters laud the former drug dealer’s yoga, vegetarian lifestyle.

Simmons is the most influential figure in the rise of hip-hop and rap and one of the most influential figures in American pop culture.

But, in that role, Simmons has surrounded himself with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and his acolytes. At Farrakhan’s request, the Simmonses co-chaired the Million Family March Entertainment Initiative in 2000 and enlisted many celebrities. Simmons calls Farrakhan “a saint,” featuring him at HSAN events.

Simmons’ receptivity to Farrakhan’s anti-Semitic, supremacist views culminated in a dangerous voter registration and political drive launched in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Simmons announced his “One Mind. One Vote” campaign on ABC Radio. His aim to register millions of young urban voters might seem laudable. But Simmons’ HSAN is headed by Farrakhan’s right-hand man and has supported some frightening, anti-Semitic candidates.

These individuals include:

• Benjamin Chavis Muhammad: The President and CEO of HSAN, Chavis Muhammad was organizer of Farrakhan’s 1995’s “Million Man March” and 2000’s “Million Family March.” In 1994, he was fired as Executive Director of the NAACP when he stole at least $64,000 to settle a sexual harassment suit. He blamed his ouster on “right-wing Jews.” Rather than allow him to remain an anti-Semitic pariah, Simmons personally sought and hired him. Chavis runs Simmons’ current hip-hop voter-registration drive.

• Cynthia McKinney & Earl Hilliard: HSAN was founded when the two then-Congressmen were invited by Simmons and Chavis Muhammad to the first Hip-Hop Summit in 2001. Hilliard’s blueprint for a nationally and regionally organized hip-hop political movement became Simmons’ HSAN. Both were defeated in 2002 primaries when their anti-Semitic, Islamist statements became a national issue.
• Will Mega: A contestant on CBS’ reality show, “Big Brother,” Mega was an unsuccessful November 2003 candidate for Philadelphia City Council. He announced his candidacy at the 2003 Philadelphia Hip-Hop Summit (hosted by Simmons) and is the Philadelphia delegate to the National Hip-Hop Political Action Committee.

  But Mega was national field marshal for the New Black Panther Party and a close aide to its late leader Khalid Abdul Muhammad (a Farrakhan disciple). He organized and appeared beside Muhammad at both Million Youth Marches in Harlem–including the 1998 event, at which Muhammad called then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani a “cracker” and a “devil” and urged attacks on police. Sixteen policemen were injured. In 2001, Mega called Whites and Jews “evil and unrighteous” and the enemy. His mentor, Muhammad, called Jews, “bloodsuckers.”

• Ras Baraka: The Deputy Mayor of Newark, Baraka is the son of ousted New Jersey Poet Laureate Amiri Baraka. The elder Baraka’s “poems” claimed Israel and the Jews knew of and planned the 9-11 WTC attacks. He compared Giuliani to David Duke and Clarence Thomas to feces. The son, Ras, stands by his father. And Simmons stands by him, having featured Ras in his “Def Poetry Jam.”
  

Ironically, also in honor of King Day, Simmons embarked on a campaign to denounce anti-Semitism. Israeli newspaper, Ha’aretz, announced that he wrote an article protesting the wave of anti-Semitism sweeping Europe and the U.S. The article is co-written by Rabbi Marc Schneier, a frequent apologist for Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and now, Simmons.

Simmons and Schneier wrote that Dr. King, would decry the “moral laryngitis” of leaders who fail to speak out against anti-Semitism.

But unlike Simmons, King strongly opposed anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in his famous “Letter to an Anti-Zionist Friend.” The loudest case of moral laryngitis he’d likely lament is that of Simmons. His anti-Semitic Farrakhan friends and hip-hop associates are the outrage everyone seems to ignore.

It’s incredible that Simmons’ would pretend, in Ha’aretz and the New York Daily News, that his hip-hop nation–rife with anti-Semites—is “the community that comes together as one . . . united in its condemnation” of anti-Semitism. Even scarier, that he wants to register voters mirroring his views.

Call it hip-hop hypocrisy. Call it chutzpah.

All the yoga and Bentleys in the world won’t change this: Russell Simmons’ hip-hop “enlightenment” is a Def-Sham.

By

The Nation of Islam’s influence on Michael Jackson is disturbing. But it’s nothing compared to the group’s influence on someone much more important–hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons.

The founder and chairman of Def Jam Records, Simmons heads up the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN).

Hip-Hop refers to the culture surrounding rap music. Simmons and his wife also recently sold the Phat Farm hip-hop clothing empire for about $140 million.

They appear in fashion and celebrity magazines. Writers gush over their 50,000-square-foot mansion and his wife’s two Bentleys, 25-carat diamond ring, and world’s largest collection of Louis Vuitton bags (numbering in the thousands). Reporters laud the former drug dealer’s yoga, vegetarian lifestyle.
Simmons is the most influential figure in the rise of hip-hop and rap and one of the most influential figures in American pop culture.

But in that role Simmons has surrounded himself with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and his acolytes. At Farrakhan’s request, the Simmonses co-chaired the Million Family March Entertainment Initiative in 2000 and enlisted many celebrities. Simmons calls Farrakhan “a saint,” featuring him at HSAN events.

Simmons’s receptivity to Farrakhan’s anti-Semitic, supremacist views culminated in a dangerous voter registration and political drive launched in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Simmons announced his “One Mind. One Vote” campaign on ABC Radio. His aim to register millions of young urban voters might seem laudable. But Simmons’s HSAN is headed by Farrakhan’s righthand man and has supported some frightening, anti-Semitic candidates.

The individuals include Benjamin Chavis Muhammad. The president and CEO of HSAN, Chavis Muhammad was organizer of Farrakhan’s 1995 “Million Man March” and 2000’s “Million Family March.” In 1994, he was fired as executive director of the NAACP when he reportedly stole at least $64,000 to settle a sexual harassment suit.

He blamed his ouster on “right-wing Jews.” Rather than allow him to remain an anti-Semitic pariah, Simmons personally sought out and hired him. Chavis runs Simmons’s current hip-hop voter-registration drive.

The Cynthia McKinney and Earl Hilliard connection: HSAN was founded when the two, then members of the US House of Representatives, were invited by Simmons and Chavis Muhammad to the first Hip-Hop Summit in 2001.

Hilliard’s blueprint for a nationally and regionally organized hip-hop political movement became Simmons’s HSAN. Both were defeated in 2002 primaries when their anti-Semitic, Islamist statements became a national issue.

Will Mega: A contestant on CBS’s reality show Big Brother: Mega was an unsuccessful November 2003 candidate for the Philadelphia City Council. He announced his candidacy at the 2003 Philadelphia Hip-Hop Summit (hosted by Simmons) and is the Philadelphia delegate to the National Hip-Hop Political Action Committee.

But Mega was national field marshal for the New Black Panther Party and a close aide to its late leader Khalid Abdul Muhammad, a Farrakhan disciple. He organized and appeared beside Muhammad at both Million Youth Marches in Harlem–including the 1998 event, at which Muhammad called then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani a “cracker” and a “devil” and urged attacks on police. Sixteen policemen were injured.

In 2001, Mega called whites and Jews “evil and unrighteous,” and the enemy. His mentor, Muhammad, called Jews “bloodsuckers.”

Ras Baraka: The deputy mayor of Newark, Baraka is the son of ousted New Jersey poet laureate Amiri Baraka. The elder Baraka’s poems claimed Israel and the Jews knew of and planned the 9/11 WTC attacks. He compared Giuliani to David Duke and Clarence Thomas to feces. The son, Ras, stands by his father. And Simmons stands by him, having featured Ras in his “Def Poetry Jam.”

Def Poetry Jam, Simmons’s touring Broadway show, now features Palestinian rapperette/poetess Suheir Hammad. Her rantings attack Christianity and Judaism and claim that even several Israeli lives aren’t worth the life of one Palestinian boy. Her act was covered approvingly by Al-Jazeera.

Ironically, also in honor of King Day, Simmons is embarked on a campaign to denounce anti-Semitism. He wrote an article in The New York Daily News protesting the wave of anti-Semitism sweeping Europe and the US. The article is co-written by Rabbi Marc Schneier, a frequent apologist for Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and, now, Simmons.

Simmons and Schneier wrote that King would decry the “moral laryngitis” of leaders who fail to speak out against anti-Semitism.

But, unlike Simmons, King strongly opposed anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in his famous “Letter to an Anti-Zionist Friend.” The loudest case of moral laryngitis he’d likely lament is that of Simmons, whose Farrakhan friends and hip-hop associates are the outrage everyone seems to ignore.

It’s incredible that Simmons would pretend, in Haaretz and the New York Daily News, that his hip-hop nation–rife with anti-Semites– is “the community that comes together as one… united in its condemnation” of anti-Semitism. Even scarier, that he wants to register voters mirroring his views.

Call it hip-hop hypocrisy. Call it chutzpah.

All the yoga and Bentleys in the world won’t change this: Russell Simmons’s hip-hop “enlightenment” is a Def-Sham.

By Debbie Schlussel

Hitler’s favorite propagandist has finally been rehabilitated.

At Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony, Hollywood gave Leni Riefenstahl its kosher seal of approval.

As it does every year, the Oscars ceremony paid homage and tribute to all of the great actors, directors, composers, and other showbiz types who passed on in the previous year.

But along with recently deceased legends like Bob Hope, Gregory Peck, Donald O’Connor, Robert Stack, Buddy Hackett — and even John Ritter, Ms. Riefenstahl was so honored.

Incredibly, the Hollywood audience in attendance gave loud applause in response to the televised photo and name of the German filmmaker who used concentration camp prisoners as extras.

Should Hollywood’s most important institution accord any recognition to this woman?

Riefenstahl claimed she was never a Nazi and didn’t sympathize with Hitler, but her actions and statements indicate otherwise. During the Nazi era, Riefenstahl:

• was personally hand-picked by Hitler to make films glorifying Hitler, the Nazi party, and the infamous Nazi-run Berlin Olympics, at which Jews were excluded. (In 1932, Hitler told her, “Once we come to power, you must make my films.”)

• received financing for several of her films from Nazi propaganda officer Goebbels’ and his Ministry.

• “employed” Gypsy prisoners of concentration camps as extras in her films, their last stop before deportation to Nazi death camps where half of them were exterminated.

• Deleted the names of Jewish co-writers from her first film, “The Blue Light” when it was re-issued in 1938.
  

Riefenstahl “played a leading role in making propaganda for the most evil regime in human history,” said Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, in protesting the Academy recognition.

Would someone worthy of Academy Award tribute utter these famous Reifenstahlisms about Hitler?:

• “Your deeds exceed the power of human imagination. They are without equal in the history of mankind. How can we ever thank you?” (1940 telegram from Riefenstahl congratulating Hitler on conquering Paris)

• “I must confess that I was so impressed by you and by the enthusiasm of the spectators that I would like to meet you personally.”

• “That evening I felt that Hitler desired me as a woman” (regarding one of her many meetings with Hitler, though she denied they were lovers).
  

Was it ignorance, or just “the Academy’s” insistence on judging the art and not the artist?

If the standard is the latter, then Hollywood has a more lax standard for Nazis than for anti-Communists.

Remember Elia Kazan? He also died in 2003 and was part of the televised memorial honor roll that included Riefenstahl, Sunday.

But in 2002, actors like Nick Nolte, Ed Harris, Amy Madigan, and Ed Begley, Jr. protested the Lifetime Achievement Oscar that masterful director Kazan received. They sat on their hands, faces angry with rage, as Kazan took the stage to accept his award. They couldn’t forgive Kazan’s anti-Communist patriotism and his testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities at the height of the Cold War.

In left-wing Hollywood’s eyes, Kazan’s magnificent films, “A Streetcar Named Desire,” “East of Eden,” and, ironically, “Gentleman’s Agreement” (an ahead of its time film decrying anti-Semitism) were irrelevant. His talent wasn’t as important as his naming names of members of the Communist Party – even though the Venona Papers revealed that those he named were in fact Communists working to overthrow the U.S.

No such outrage from the entertainment industry’s liberal elite for the Nazi filmmaker who glorified the genocide of six million Jews and the murder of five million others.

No actors sitting on their hands. Just lots of applause.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has a strange version of exclusivity.

The Wall Street Journal, Friday, detailed comedian Rob Schneider’s failed repeat bids for membership in the Academy. While its membership includes that “fine actor”, Martin Lawrence, and now honors a Nazi propagandist, the Oscar purveyor is too highbrow to accept the likes of Schneider, whose movies make whopping multi-millions.

The Academy “will find it easier to endorse you for membership once you’ve turned in a strong performance . . . that showcases additional strengths.”

“What the hell was I thinking, wanting to join an organization like that, anyway?” Schneider asked. “My thanks to the remarkably distinguished committee of actors for considering me (Ed Begley, Jr.?).”

If only he’d taken some money from Goebbels and added a “Heil Hitler” to the “Deuce Bigalow, Male Gigolo” sequel he’s now filming.

By Debbie Schlussel

Do you believe in miracles?

The 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey victory over the Soviet Union was a sports and political miracle.

Two decades later, it has inspired an entertainment miracle.

The miracle is that, in 2004, Hollywood actually released a great movie that is uplifting, pro-American, and devoid of sex and violence. That movie, “Miracle,” debuts today [Friday, February 6, 2004] and is destined to be a hit. “Miracle” tells the story of coach Herb Brooks’ and his 1980 team’s incredible David-versus-Goliath victory.

In January 1981, when U.S. hostages were released from Iran, they viewed a highlight tape of major events they missed during their 444 days of captivity. Several freed hostages said the highlight of highlights was Brooks’ team’s semifinal victory over our Communist nemesis. The victory ultimately led to a Gold Medal for the U.S. (over Finland).

Amidst shouts of “USA, USA,” announcer Al Michaels’ rhetorical question and answer, “Do you believe in Miracles? Yes!” is the most memorable sports broadcast quips. Young boys dressed as the U.S. Hockey Team for several Halloweens to follow.

The miracle was not just that Americans beat the Soviets. It was that amateur working-class American kids beat paid, seasoned Russian professionals. Despite all of the odds against them in a depressing time of Jimmy Carter malaise, hostages in Iran, double-digit inflation, a virtually “kick-me” sign on America around the world, and lines at the gas pump, the American spirit triumphed. The team of freedom triumphed over the team of tyranny. The unlikely victory was the first spark in what became America’s comeback — the Reagan Revolution.

“Miracle” masterfully tells the story in the context of those events. While President Carter is decrying America’s bleak future, the U.S. Hockey team is out of earshot, playing touch football in the Minnesota snow with the patriotic spirit that portends of their victory.

But there may never be another “Miracle on Ice.”

Yesterday’s Communist threat has largely been replaced by today’s radical Islam –arguably a much more potent enemy. There’s no Bin Laden-sponsored Taliban Hockey Team to beat. The Taliban was banned from the Games in 1999 because of their treatment of women. Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad don’t field ice hockey teams for us to beat. Palestinians, who visited the Olympics as terrorists in 1972, now have an official Olympic delegation.

Al Michaels’ praise of America’s “miracle” amidst chants of “USA” has been replaced by left-wing sportswriters admonishing such patriotic displays. At the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, USA Today’s Christine Brennan dedicated a whole column to denouncing American flag-waving and shouts of “USA” and any other show of American pride. (Yet, on PBS, she praised Australians cheering their own at the 2000 Sydney Summer Games. “They’re charming.”)

Another sportswriter denounced the Salt Lake Games as the most “nationalistic” since the Hitler’s 1936 Berlin Games. American patriotism now equals Nazism?

Salt Lake Organizing Committee President and now-Massachusetts Republican Governor Mitt Romney also admonished Americans. “Around the world it was like, ‘Boy, those Americans, always beating their chests,’” he told The Guardian. “This is not our time to talk about how great America is. It’s not designed to be a patriotic American display.”

Funny, he didn’t say that, when hitting up Congress for America’s taxpayers to heavily subsidize the already heavily-sponsored Games featuring multi-millionaire professional athletes.

That’s another difference emphasized in Disney’s “Miracle” film.

Kurt Russell, playing coach Brooks, tells the audience that the Games and the athletes he coached were different, then.

Gone from today’s Olympics are the working-class, amateur U.S. Hockey Team players who made the 1980 victory over professional, Soviet-subsidized players twice as sweet. Brooks coached guys like Mike Eruzione, the team captain who scored the winning goal against the Soviets, but never played in the professional National Hockey League (NHL). Guys like goalie Jim Craig, whose laid-off father desperately needed him to forgo the Olympics for the money an NHL career would provide. They beat the Soviets when months earlier an NHL All-Star team could not.

Eruzione and his teammates reunited to light the Olympic Cauldron in Salt Lake in 2002. But it was empty symbolism.

In 2002, those amateurs–who had spunk, sparkle, and an underdog hunger to win for the U.S.—had long been replaced by “Dream Teams” of spoiled multi-millionaire, pro athletes. Instead, players were led by team captain and Detroit Red Wing Chris Chelios– who threatened NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman’s life during the 1994-95 NHL lockout, and led the rest of the U.S. Hockey team in trashing dorm rooms and destroying furniture as team captain of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Thousands were spent haggling with these hockey “pros” regarding Olympic drug testing policy. Brett Hull whined about the trip to “far away” Salt Lake Games. On the dorm-trashing team with Chelios, Hull complained about the distance to Nagano, too.

“Miracle” shows the grueling conditioning Brooks put the team through. It’s doubtful today’s soft pros could withstand a lick of it.

The 1980 team was tough and gritty. They had no product endorsements or part-time jobs by Home Depot and Staples. They were no billions in tax subsidies. 1980 Olympians slept in converted prisons on prison cots, and organizers nearly declared bankruptcy on a $168 million budget. There were no $28 million opening ceremonies or $2 million temporary Olympic cauldrons and sculptures.

But there was heavy American pride.

For that, audiences at last week’s sneak preview of “Miracle” applauded and wept. That Hollywood finally depicts that in a positive way is a huge “miracle” in 2004.

[Debbie Schlussel used to represent coddled NHL players.]

By Debbie Schlussel
A U.S. Attorney is endangering the nation’s only jury conviction of terrorists since 9/11. Tuesday, three men convicted in the first post-9/11 terror trial were supposed to be sentenced. Instead, these members of Detroit’s "sleeper cell" may go free.

Their defense attorneys are getting help from an unlikely source – U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Collins, the Justice Department’s top official in Detroit, who is leading the way to overturn these convictions.

Richard Convertino, the star prosecutor of the Detroit U.S. Attorney’s Office, won the case – and Collins’ actions may cost Convertino his job.

A seasoned litigator, Convertino helped prosecute the infamous Bank and Credit Commerce International (BCCI), put a corrupt Oklahoma state senator behind bars and got convictions against Detroit’s Mafia and gang leaders.

He took the same aggressive stance against the terrorists, who were arrested less than a week after 9/11. But Collins and Justice Department bureaucrats back in Washington were more worried about taking risks, justifying budgets and preserving fiefdoms than stopping terror. They opposed and sabotaged Convertino’s prosecution of the terrorists every step of the way.

According to several of his colleagues, Collins’ political ambitions also played a role: Popularity with Detroit’s large Muslim community would be an asset in any future run for political office.

The same colleagues say Collins was infuriated to see subordinate Convertino win headlines with the prosecution.

Collins had another reason to oppose the prosecution. Two of the convicted men received thousands in funding for commercial driving lessons and attempts to get hazardous hauling certificates from Access, the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services. The Muslim welfare group gets millions in federal money for such "job training."

A conviction would embarrass Access leaders, who meet with Collins monthly. That includes Noel Saleh, Access’ vice president and attorney, who stated in Collins’ presence, "I could be convicted of terrorism," because he funded Hezbollah.

Convertino’s June conviction of the terrorists caught the attention of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), who wanted Convertino to testify at a hearing on false identity documents and terrorism. When Convertino informed his bosses, they pulled him off the terror-cell case. Also removed: co-counsel Keith Corbett, chief of the Organized Crime Strike Force and a 25-year federal prosecutor.

Grassley had to subpoena Convertino and hailed him as a "hero" at the hearing. Collins responded by trying to demote Convertino and Corbett. He had staff search Convertino’s previous case files, including that of the sleeper cell trial, looking for what Grassley calls the "slightest foot-fault" in Convertino’s stellar career.

Convertino’s only comment: "This whole situation is ridiculous and unnecessary, and unfortunately has caused considerable embarrassment to the Department of Justice."

Collins’ attack on Convertino has seriously jeopardized the terrorism convictions. His staff found a letter they claim was improperly withheld from the terrorists’ defense attorneys, giving them grounds to file a motion for a new trial. That motion prompted a long Dec. 12 hearing smearing Convertino and Corbett.

Prosecutors have to turn exculpatory evidence over to defense attorneys. But the rambling, nonsensical letter accused the Bush family of being drug dealers and claimed that the prosecution’s key witness planned to overthrow the U.S. "electorally." Its author is convicted drug dealer Butch Jones, who’s facing the federal death penalty and looking to make a deal. He has suddenly clammed up.

Before becoming U.S. attorney, Collins represented Jones, one of the nation’s most notorious drug kingpins and gang leaders, and is privately fighting his Washington superiors on their insistence on the death penalty for him. (Justice Department sources say that, in an internal memo, he’s now trying to claim Jones as a source of anti-terror info.)

Michael Schwartz, former head of the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission, which investigates ethics violations by attorneys, said the letter was not "exculpatory at all" and a "proverbial tempest in a teapot where there was no impropriety in failing to turn over what turned out to be a fairly useless document."

Another complication: Attorney General John Ashcroft repeatedly commented on the trial on national TV – violating a gag order in the case, for which the judge admonished him Tuesday. This may make it harder for Ashcroft to intervene to stop Collins’ own misbehavior.

Sadly, Collins’ zeal to defame Convertino and Corbett is matched only by questions raised about both his desire to stop terrorists and his ethics. He refused to cancel his appearance as guest of honor and keynote speaker at a November dinner co-hosted by a Hamas money launderer and author of an anti-Semitic book. At an awards luncheon, he was the "date" of a man videotaped raising money for a terrorist group (the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), calling him, "a great American."

When his office discovered that two defense attorneys in the terrorism trial stole a federal judge’s stationery and forged the judge’s signature, Collins overlooked the crimes.

Sen. Grassley is pursuing the issue of Collins’ retaliation against Convertino, sending four letters and making several phone calls to Ashcroft and Collins, saying it "will not be tolerated." He has yet to receive a satisfactory response from either and has threatened hearings.

By Debbie Schlussel

It’s a combination of political correctness run amok, extreme Keystone Kopp-ery, and just plain “Cover Your Rear 101” at the FBI and Detroit U.S. Attorney’s office.

A month ago, the New York Post ran my column on FBI Director Robert
Mueller’s pending national award to terrorist sympathizer and 22-year terror suspect Imad Hamad.

This led the FBI to rescind the award, last week. But in the week since, FBI Headquarters, Detroit FBI Special Agent in Charge Willie Hulon, and Detroit’s U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Collins have floundered in multiple, contradictory press releases, photo opportunities, and other politically correct pandering to Hamad and other terror supporters.

Unfortunately, in the heart of Islamic America, it’s emblematic of how those who support terrorism often co-opt those who are supposed to investigate and prosecute it.

When I first contacted FBI officials in Washington, they assumed Hulon–who nominated Hamad for the award—had vetted him. But after checking the federal law enforcement database, FBI sources said they discovered Hamad was a subject of “over a dozen open investigations” involving terrorism and related matters. Most of the probes were conducted by Hulon’s own Detroit-based agents. An indictment of an FBI national awardee could prove embarrassing, the sources said.

Privately, rank-and-file FBI agents were outraged by Hulon’s reckless nomination of Hamad. They well knew, as their boss should have, of Hamad’s not-so-secret activities and statements. Several congratulated me upon the award’s revocation.

But under pressure from Hamad and Detroit’s vocal Islamic community, Hulon and Collins held an “emergency meeting” with Hamad and their BRIDGES group, Tuesday, to try to get the revocation reversed. The group, “Building Respect in Diverse Groups to Enhance Sensitivity,” is the reason for Hamad’s nomination. Though Collins has declined repeated requests for the BRIDGES membership list, members who have been identified in press accounts are hardly diverse or worthy of respect and enhanced sensitivity.

They include Hamad and:

• Mohammed Abdrabboh – the attorney for individuals accused of illegally funneling over $53 million cash to Yemen, in 2002; his law firm represents an accused Al-Qaeda money launderer, a convicted Hezbollah arms smuggler, and Middle Easterners charged with “conspiracy to import listed chemicals,” harboring illegal aliens, visa fraud, etc.
• Noel Saleh – the thrice-disciplined attorney, who is still listed as Suspended” (as of 10/14/03) with the U.S. District Court in Detroit, recently sued John Ashcroft to prohibit the Patriot Act. Saleh is an admitted financial supporter of Hezbollah. He represented Hamad and Rabbih Haddad, recently deported for operating Global Relief Foundation, shut down for links to Al-Qaeda. Saleh is Vice President and attorney of ACCESS (Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services), which was raided by Hulon’s agents for Medicaid fraud, and which funded commercial driving lessons for two convicted members of Detroit’s Al-Qaeda sleeper cell.

In solidarity with these malefactors, Hulon and Collins called for FBI Director Mueller to meet with Hamad and give him the award when Mueller visits Detroit today (10/16/03). They claimed Hamad is not under investigation. Is it possible that “over a dozen investigations” involving their friend were suddenly completed in a week?

Not likely. One of those investigations apparently involves Hamad’s close ties to Muthanna Al-Hanooti, Mohammed Alomari, and their charities, LIFE for Relief and Development and FAAIR (Focus on Arab American Issues and Reform). Hidden in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Southfield, Michigan, LIFE is believed to fund Hamas via contributions to Hamas front groups identified in 2001 by FBI Assistant Director for Counterterrorism and Counterintelligence, Dale Watson.

One such front, Human Appeal International, believed by the FBI to be Hamas’ Jordanian operation, was listed in LIFE tax returns as one of three supported organizations receiving millions in contributions. Human Appeal and another organization LIFE works with, Human Relief Foundation, are listed as participants in the “101 days campaign” website of Sheikh Youssef Al-Qaradawi, spiritual leader of terrorist group Muslim Brotherhood. The site is believed to raise money for homicide bombings Al-Qaradawi supports.

Alomari’s book, “The Secrecy of Evil“, and other writings allege Jewish control of the world and the Bush administration. His Daru Salam mosque radio website claimed Jews and the U.S. “organized” the 9/11 attacks. A 1996 LIFE fundraiser, arranged by Hanooti, featured speaker Sheik Abdulmunem Abu Zant, an ardent Hamas supporter, who said, “May G-d attack the Jews and those who stand with them. May G-d attack the Americans and those who stand with them.” Hanooti appeared with indicted Islamic Jihad frontman Sami Al-Arian at a recent American Muslim Council lobbying seminar. LIFE’s original registered agent (under its previous name, International Relief Association), Masood Aijazi, worked for Khalid bin Mahfouz, the financier of Mawafaq Foundation, designated a terrorist charity by the U.S. government.

Hamad’s relationship with these parties is long-term and tight. A 1999 press release by Hamad’s American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee credits Hamad with getting Senator Carl Levin, then-Senator Spencer Abraham, and David Bonior to grant LIFE a license to send millions to Iraq. “We have a special relationship with ADC here in Detroit.” Hanooti said. “This is another example of the value of cooperation between our organizations . . . to advance our common agenda.” In May 2003, Hamad visited terrorist-sponsor Syria and Lebanon with Hanooti and Alomari. Given all of this, a recent FAAIR newsletter photo of Collins (below) smilingly posing between Al-Hanooti, Hamad, and Alomari, at a FAAIR event, is disturbing. It is bad enough that a U.S. Attorney would associate with known anti- Semites. Worse, if Collins’ office ever indicts them, it could be embarrassing.

PHOTO of U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Collins (center), with investigatees/terror supporters Muthanna Al-Hanooti, Imad Hamad, unidentified person, and Mohammed Alomari.

Just a week ago, on the day the revoked award was to have been given, Hamad appeared on Mitch Albom’s ABC Radio show. Asked whether he had ever been involved with terrorist groups and whether he was a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist, Hamad’s response was an unconvincing, “Not really.”

This did not seem to bother FBI SAIC Hulon, who hugged Hamad for TV news cameras. That’s no surprise, given other recent flubs by Hulon’s Detroit FBI.

In February, Hulon’s agents raided Michigan-based Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA), a Saudi-funded charity suspected of Al-Quaida links. Months before 9/11, its website urged jihad suicide operations against America and linked to fatwahs “to crash one’s plane on a crucial enemy target to cause great casualties.” But while openly investigating IANA, Hulon’s agents allowed IANA’s leader, Mohammed Al-Ahmari, to leave the country, and he remains untouchable in Saudi Arabia.

As a result, sources close to the Justice Department say the investigation and prosecution were transferred to federal agencies in Boise, Idaho, where Saudi national Sami Al-Hussayen was indicted for providing material support to terrorists and secretly funneling money to IANA.

Collins, too, has been a Justice Department disappointment, with a mediocre record of terrorism convictions. Some of Collins’ blunders were made under the tremendous influence of Hamad. After 9-11, federal agents visited temporary visa holders from Middle Eastern countries for surprise interviews. But in the Detroit area, Hamad convinced Collins to send out warning letters asking the men to voluntarily show up for interviews at his office. Only a third did. Others disappeared. “It’s like telling terrorists and aliens: We’re looking for you, go hide,” said one Special Agent in Charge, at the time.

More frightening, a USA Today article implies Collins and Hulon may have employed Hamad as a translator. Their relationship is a little too close for comfort. In May, while other awardees brought their significant others, Collins was Hamad’s date to a Detroit News awards banquet.

It’s sad that top federal agents and prosecutors would sacrifice national security for political correctness. That’s just another indication that the war on terrorism is like a 1980’s Adam Ant song:

Desperate But Not Serious.

By
[NOTE: An abridged version of this ran in the New York Post. As a result, the FBI revoked the award the agency planned to give Imad Hamad.]
Madeline Sweeney might be turning over in her grave.
On October 9th, the courageous flight attendant murdered aboard Flight 11, which hit the World Trade Center’s North Tower on 9/11, will be honored posthumously by FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Unfortunately, she is being honored along with a man who supports terrorism and was himself a suspected terrorist.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Debbie Schlussel

Madeline Sweeney might be turning over in her grave.

On October 9th, the courageous flight attendant murdered aboard Flight 11, which hit the World Trade Center’s North Tower on 9/11, will be honored posthumously by FBI Director Robert Mueller.

Unfortunately, she is being honored along with a man who supports terrorism and was himself a suspected terrorist.

When Sweeney’s husband, Michael, accepts her award for Exceptional Public Service at a ceremony at FBI Headquarters in Washington, Imad Hamad will be bestowed with the same honor – the only other non-FBI civilian to be so honored in America, this year.

Given Hamad’s record, it is outrageous the FBI would honor him for anything. And it is an abomination of Sweeney’s heroism in the face of sudden death by terrorists. (Information she gave on a phone call to the ground helped the FBI piece together evidence and reconstruct the hijackings.)

Born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, Hamad was a suspected member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Communist faction of Palestinian terrorism responsible for countless homicide bombings and the October 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi.

The INS was so opposed to Hamad’s presence in the United States that it fought to deport him for over two decades. But, under political pressure from Michigan politicians, like Senator Carl Levin and Rep. David Bonior, the immigration judge chose to disregard classified evidence, and he is now a U.S. citizen. (Hamad’s lawyer, Noel Saleh, proudly proclaimed that he – Saleh – financially supported Hezbollah.)

Since then, as Midwest Regional Director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), Hamad has been busy promoting the terrorist cause—doing interviews throughout the Detroit media supporting Hezbollah, Hamas, and Islamic hate.

In a 2002 broadcast on Detroit’s FOX affiliate, Imad Hamad supported a Palestinian Authority TV “Sesame Street”-style program that urges Palestinian children to kill Jews and Christians and urges them to become homicide bombers. In it, a boy sings, “When I wander into Jerusalem, I will become a suicide bomber.” Another song: “How pleasant is the smell of martyrs . . . the land enriched by the blood, the blood pouring out of a fresh body.” Hamad called the program “patriotic.”

In a March 1999 Detroit News interview, Hamad defended the same program and Palestinian textbooks that portray Westerners, Christians, and Jews as the enemies of Islam and the Arab World.

Hamad has opposed virtually every arrest, indictment and conviction of Islamic terrorists.

When men were arrested (and later convicted) for smuggling arms to Hezbollah over Detroit’s Ambassador Bridge, Hamad wished for “better U.S. relations with Hezbollah,” the terrorist group which murdered over 300 American Marines and civilians. “People here are morally supportive” of Hezbollah, he said. When Customs raided several Islamic businesses and arrested owners for laundering over $50 million per year to Yemen in violation of the Patriot Act, Hamad protested. When four Detroit Al-Quaida sleeper cell suspects were charged (three were convicted) of plotting to blow up landmarks and tourist attractions, Hamad protested that, too.

Then there’s the 2002 National Palestinian Student Conference on the Palestine Solidarity Movement, whose ostensible purpose was to promote divestment from Israel. “Annihilate the Jews” was chanted in Arabic at the University of Michigan conference, which featured indicted alleged Islamic Jihad frontman Sami Al-Arian as its keynote speaker, along with other anti-Western, anti-Semitic speakers, some with terrorist ties. Hamad’s Michigan ADC sponsored and endorsed the conference, which was organized by ADC-University of Michigan chief Fadi Kiblawi. Under Hamad’s “leadership,” Kiblawi authored an article stating he wished to “strap a bomb to one’s chest and kill” Jews.

At Michigan ADC’s April 25th awards banquet, Hamad gave its “Attorney of the Year” award to Nabih Ayad, an attorney for several accused terrorists and over 130 illegal Middle Eastern immigrants who paid off an INS employee to become instant greencard holders. Hamad and Ayad sued to keep them from being deported. Ayad’s clients, include Omar Abdel Fatah Al-Shishani—accused of attempting to launder $12 million in phony bank checks to fund Al-Quaida—who recently pled guilty to a lesser charge and is awaiting sentencing. Hamad defended him, too.

Hamad has been busy globetrotting to promote the Islamist cause. In January, he led a delegation to terrorist sponsor state Syria, where Syrian officials discussed American disinformation campaigns targeting Arabs and Muslims and hailed Hamad for “enlightening the US public opinion about the reality of the situation in the Middle East.” In May, he visited Lebanese Parliament President and former Shi’ite Amal Militia chief Nabih Berry, leading a delegation which included several men who head Detroit Islamic charities that are suspected Hamas and Al-Quaida fronts.

Hamad’s latest effort is opposing Michigan Senate Resolution 77, which denounces Palestinian terrorism and supports Israel in fighting against it.

Hamad was nominated for the award by Detroit FBI Special Agent in Charge Willie Hulon because he organized BRIDGES, a group of Arabs who meet with Hulon and other Detroit federal agents once a month to protest arrests of suspected terrorists, and because he enlisted Hulon to partner with ADC for its unique brand of sensitivity training for Detroit area high schoolers. Since Hamad has opposed the FBI and other government efforts to thwart terrorism every step of the way and given his views, the FBI award is like an award to Fritz Kuhn and his Nazi-sympathizing German American Bund during World War II.

That would be bad enough.

But Robert Mueller is equating Hamad with a heroic murdered flight attendant who acted bravely in the face of terrorists.

You’d think the FBI would have more respect for the dead.

Stop the FBI from giving this absurd award to terror supporter, Imad Hamad. Call FBI HQ @ (202) 324-3000, ask for Director Robert Mueller’s office and lodge your complaint.

Debbie’s column in the New York Post