Elections
Pelosi holds secret fundraiser with Islamists, Hamas-linked groups
3:47 AM 11/02/2012
Democratic leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi headlined a high-dollar fundraiser in May that was attended by U.S.-based Islamist groups and individuals linked by the U.S. government to the Hamas jihad group and to the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood movement.
The donors at the undisclosed May 16 event included Nihad Awad, the co-founder of the Council on American Islamic Relations, according to dataprovided by the nonpartisan Investigative Project on Terrorism.
The CAIR group was named an unindicted conspirator in a 2007 trial of a Hamas money-smuggling group.
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A covertly-taken photograph provided by the IPT shows Pelosi standing near Awad at the fundraiser. Roughly 30 people attended the fundraiser, according to the IPT.
The cheapest tickets cost $5,000, and the most expensive were $30,800 per couple, according to the event invite from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which used the cash to fund Democratic candidates. (View the invite here)
The hosts of the event were DCCC chairman Rep. Steve Israel and two Muslim representatives, Rep. Keith Ellison and Rep. Andre Carson.
Ellison is the DCCC’s “national community outreach chair” and the co-chair of the House progressive caucus.
On Oct. 29, The Daily Caller asked Ellison’s press aide if the congressman would decline donations from Islamist groups. The aide replied that Ellison was not available to comment.
Since the May event, the DCCC has distributed a large amount of money — likely including the Islamists’ funds — to many House candidates who are part of the DCCC’s “Red to Blue” effort, which is trying unseat 55 Republican members of the House.
The list of Red to Blue candidates who got DCCC cash includes Connecticut’s Elizabeth Esty, Iowa’s Christie Vilsack, Maryland’s John Delaney and Florida’s Patrick Murphy.
Murphy is running against Florida Republican Rep. Allen West, an outspoken opponent of the Islamist groups. The groups have targeted him for defeat in 2012.
The Democrats are not expected to recapture the House in this year’s elections, prompting widespread rumors that Pelosi will retire.
The Islamist fundraiser illustrates the increasing ties between American progressives and the various Islamist groups.
That burgeoning alliance was boosted by President Barack Obama’s 2009 speech in Cairo to Muslims, including Egyptians. Prior to the speech, he insisted that Egypt’s secular government allow Muslim Brotherhood members to attend the speech. In 2011 and 2012, he pressured the Egyptian military to let the movement take power after it won elections.
The ties were also highlighted at the Democrats’ Charlotte convention, when party leaders presented and passed a 2012 party platform that excluded several Israel-related sections, including a declaration that “Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel.”
Awad, in an Arabic-language interview on the Brotherhood-friendly station Al Jazeera, commendedthe 2012 draft as “an indication that the Democratic Party’s political platform with regard to the Middle East is developing.”
But the decision to remove the sections was so controversial that top Democratic officials decided to reinsert the Jerusalem section.
The motion to reinsert that section was met with raucous opposition from some delegates, including at least one of the 100 Muslim delegates. Eventually, the text was declared reinserted by the convention chairman, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, after three voice votes failed to clearly show delegates’ approval.
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