Audio: Amateur Author Ed Klein: Clinton and Obama Have “nothing but Mutual Contempt for Each Other”

Hannity’s radio show today featured some interesting dish from former NYTs Magazine Editor, Ed Klein, the author of the explosive new book about Obama; The Amateur.

The book gets its title from the words Bill Clinton uttered when he was  trying to encourage Hillary to take on Obama in the Democratic primary of 2012:

Obama doesn’t know how to be president. He doesn’t know how the world works. He’s incompetent. He’s…he’s…Barack Obama’s an amateur.

I’ve always suspected that Bill Clinton despised Obama, so I’m always aghast when I see  him give interviews propping him up, or even starring in campaign ads for him. It makes them look like BFFs, and I wonder what the hell is going on. Why would you do that for someone you hate?  Klein has a very simple answer for that.

Clinton says there is no loyalty in politics, but he’s been pretty loyal to Obama this year, for someone who hates him.

Hat tip: Smitty, of the Other McCain, who was listening to Hannity in the car.

Linked by Doug Ross, thanks!

Bank of America Files Suit Against Deadbeat Congressman Emanuel Cleaver – Demands Payment of More Than $1.5 Mil

In what is certain to cause him election year migraines, the Bank of America has filed suit against Missouri Rep. Emanuel *Spittlegate* Cleaver, seeking repayment of $1.5 million from Cleaver, his wife and The Cleaver Company for a 20 year loan that originated in 2002 at a 6.25% interest rate. Cleaver has received three (3) forbearances over the ten year period.

Jacob Turk, Cleaver’s opponent in the District 5 2012 House race, noted on his Facebook page, today, that  Cleaver voted on September 23, 2010 for H.R. 5297 which ‘increases the government guarantees on SBA 7(a) loans from 75 percent to 90 percent’, in essence, putting taxpayers on the hook for his bad debt.

The Kansas City Star reports:

The bank that loaned the Kansas City congressman and his wife $1.3 million in 2002 to buy the Grandview Auto Wash at 12204 Blue Ridge Extension is now demanding payment of more than $1.5 million, after the Cleavers repeatedly fell behind on repaying the loan.

The suit, filed last week in Jackson County Circuit Court, said the demand for repayment came after three attempts to delay foreclosure. Bank of America also is seeking attorney’s fees and a receiver to protect collateral.

“The Cleaver Company failed and refused, and continues to fail and refuse, to pay the outstanding obligations due and owing … under the note and other loan documents,” the lawsuit said.

In an email statement, Cleaver said, “This is a business dispute. The business has been run by an outside manager for years.” He said because it was a legal matter, he would have no further comment.

According to court documents, the outstanding principal totals $1.2 million with interest totaling $240,545 as of March 6. Late fees have reached $54,587. Both Cleavers had personally guaranteed the debts, according to the suit.

The loan was originally part of a Small Business Administration program. It was not clear Thursday how much money, if any, taxpayers will have to provide if the loan defaults.

The Bank of America lawsuit documents are here.

Here’s Jacob Turk’s entire statement from his Facebook Page:

“I am saddened anytime a business fails, because I know from my experience how hard they are to own. But for Emanuel Cleaver to borrow $1.3 million from a lender, backed by a guarantee from U.S. taxpayers, and fail to pay that debt is unconscionable. How much of this money did Cleaver or his wife personally receive?

Cleaver voted on September 23, 2010 for H.R. 5297 which ‘increases the government guarantees on SBA 7(a) loans from 75 percent to 90 percent’. Are we to pay 90% of Cleaver’s bad loan debt?”

Cleaver’s HR 5297 Summary, here.

Linked by Gateway Pundit, and Human Events, and Fire Andrea Mitchell, and Tarpon’s Swamp, and Bizzy Blog, and Newsbusters, thanks!

Financial Motives?: Gloria Allred’s News Conference With Cain Accuser’s Ex-Boyfriend – Updated with Gloria Cain Interview

I thought that it looked bad for Cain, but I’m not a lawyer. Professor Jacobson of Legal Insurrection wasn’t impressed – he  thought the  whole press conference had a very seedy feel to it.

The truth is that the press conference shed little light on the truth.  The ex-boyfriend, who now is a physician in bankruptcy, said he sent Bialek to meet Cain in Washington D.C. in 1997 because the three had met at a convention afterparty, that Bialek went, that the boyfriend paid for the flight and room, that he never upgraded the room, that when she returned she said Cain touched her “inappropriately” but gave no details, and that they didn’t discuss it again until a few weeks ago.  That’s it.

Since Allred made a point of bringing up Cain’s “financial motives”, here’s some info on Zuckerman’s personal bankruptcy:

In September 2007, Stratford Center filed an action in the Illinois state court to reform the remaining three leases. The case was tried in a bench trial and on June 8, 2010, Judge Popejoy entered judgment in favor of Stratford Center. Judge Popejoy’s decision reformed the lease in question and awarded $187,657.00 in damages jointly and severally against Stratford Pediatric and Dr. Victor Zuckerman (“Zuckerman”), the principal physician in that practice.

On September 2, 2010, Stratford Center served a citation to discover assets on Chase Bank. Both Stratford Pediatric and Zuckerman banked at Chase. Under Illinois law, the service of the citation created a lien on Stratford Pediatric’s and Zuckerman’s accounts. 735 ILCS 5/2-1402(m)(2). On September 12, 2010, Chase responded to the citation by producing bank statements and identifying several accounts held by Stratford Pediatric and Zuckerman. These statements identified $10,117.49 held in Stratford Pediatric’s accounts and $47,507.60 held in Zuckerman’s accounts.

In May 2010 (after the bench trial, but before the judgment was entered) Stratford Pediatric sold its assets to Central DuPage Hospital for $333,000.00 in cash. This money was mostly transferred to Zuckerman’s personal accounts. He soon went on a gambling and day trading spree and lost all of the money. In July 2010, Zuckerman moved to Louisiana. On September 15, 2010, Zuckerman filed a chapter 11 petition in the Western District of Louisiana. His creditors include, among others, Stratford Center (with claims of $675,000.00), his ex-wife (with claims of $89,000.00), and the IRS (with claims of $50,000.00).

He claimed in the presser that he filed the chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy …..“Due to many economic factors”.

Uh huh. Internet snoops have sniffed out another possible factor:

In May 2010 (after the bench trial, but before the judgment was entered) Stratford Pediatric sold its assets to Central DuPage Hospital for $333,000.00 in cash. This money was mostly transferred to Zuckerman’s personal accounts. He soon went on a gambling and day trading spree and lost all of the money. In July 2010, Zuckerman moved to Louisiana. On September 15, 2010, Zuckerman filed a chapter 11 petition in the Western District of Louisiana. His creditors include, among others, Stratford Center (with claims of $675,000.00), his ex-wife (with claims of $89,000.00), and the IRS (with claims of $50,000.00).

Anyhoo….

UPDATE:

Via Gateway Pundit: Now here’s someone I find to be a credible witness: Gloria Cain on Sharon Bialek: I Don’t Believe That Woman:

MORE:

I don’t believe a word of what Allred and her client are alleging, but that doesn’t mean Cain is completely off the hook. There’s also the small matter of his persistent lack of preparedness in interview after interview:

Michelle Malkin: The real Cain scandal: Video cringe alert:

It’s his continued lack of preparedness on, and familiarity with, basic domestic and foreign policy issues. Sorry, Cain fans. Tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. But like Rick Perry, Herman Cain is just not ready for prime time. The real Cain scandal: He can barely form a coherent thought on Libya when put on the spot and garbles collective bargaining 101 facts.

This Milwaukee Sentinel Journal editorial board session — all on video, in all its prolonged cringe-worthiness — sums up the problem with the Cain Train. The paper’s recap.

Read it all.

Previously:

Fiancee who Came to Cain Accuser, Bialek’s Defense – Not Actually Her Fiancee

Video: Lie Detecting Speech Software Shows Cain To Be “Totally Truthful” – His Accuser – Not So Much

“Gold-Digger” Sharon Bialek Lived In Same Building As David Axelrod, Once Accused Ex-Boyfriend Of Harassment

Hat tip: Charles B.

It Begins…Democrats Introduce Bill to Seal Obama’s Presidential Records

Bryan Preston At PJ Tatler reports:

According to Judicial Watch, Rep. Edolphous Towns (D-NY) has introduced the Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2011. That bill would do with Obama’s presidential records what Obama has already done to his personal and collegiate records: Seal them up.

In an obvious effort to protect President Barack Obama, a group of congressional Democrats has introduced legislation to create an official process that will allow the commander-in-chief to keep presidential records secret after he leaves office.

Rep. Edolphous Towns

Ironically, Obama revoked a similar George W. Bush order in one of his first official acts as president. In 2001 Bush penned an executive order severely limiting public access to his presidential records. Shortly after swearing in, Obama killed it as part of his much-ballyhooed commitment to government transparency. At the time, the new president claimed that he was giving the American people greater access to “historic documents.”

Keep reading. Hypocrisy – Thy Name is Obama.

The bill is called the Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2011.

Judicial Watch reports:

The veteran Brooklyn congressman (Edolphus Towns) who recently introduced the law in the U.S. House has yet to explain why it’s necessary. What’s certain is that Obama has failed miserably to keep his promise of running the most transparent administration in history.

Dems must not be all that terribly confident about his prospects in the 2012 election if they’re already trying to help him cover his tracks.

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Linked by Doug Ross in Larwyn’s Links, thanks!

As Obama Sinks In The Polls, Dems Try To Find An End Run Around Voters

The totalitarian left is coming up with creative ways to handle that pesky tendency voters have of disagreeing with them.

We heard from the Governor of North Carolina,  yesterday, calling for the suspension of elections until we can get our fiscal house in order.

“You have to have more ability from Congress, I think, to work together and to get over the partisan bickering and focus on fixing things. I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that. The one good thing about Raleigh is that for so many years we worked across party lines. It’s a little bit more contentious now but it’s not impossible to try to do what’s right in this state. You want people who don’t worry about the next election.”

The Republicans sure are taking it seriously as they look to score political points. Here’s a statement from GOP spokesman Rob Lockwood:

“Now is a time when politicians need to be held accountable more than ever. To suspend an election would be removing the surest mechanism that people have to hold politicians accountable: the right to vote. Does the Governor not believe that people of North Carolina have the ability to think for themselves about whether or not the actions of elected officials are working?”

Now Obama’s former Economics adviser, Perter Orzag is calling for “a little less democracy” in an article in TNR: Too Much of a Good Thing:

To solve the serious problems facing our country, we need to minimize the harm from legislative inertia by relying more on automatic policies and depoliticized commissions for certain policy decisions. In other words, radical as it sounds, we need to counter the gridlock of our political institutions by making them a bit less democratic.

Reason has at it:

What’s the big problem with democracy? Well, for starters, not enough deficit spending. Yes, really. Orszag complains that it’s hard to just run up the federal credit card tab as high as he wants to, even though “virtually all responsible economists agree” that America, despite running record-setting deficits in recent years, needs bigger deficits in the short term.

Virtually all responsible economists agree that we should be aiming to reduce the deficit in the long-term but not in the short-term. We need an even larger deficit in 2011 and 2012, to support a weak economy—but a much smaller deficit in 2020 and 2050, to put the nation back on a sustainable fiscal course. Yet our polarized political system has proved incapable of reaching a consensus on this common-sense approach.

What we need, then, are ways around our politicians. The first would be to expand automatic stabilizers—those tax and spending provisions that automatically expand when the economy weakens, thereby cushioning the blow, and automatically contract as the economy recovers, thereby helping to reduce the deficit.

That “virtually all responsible economists” label is quite convenient. Who isn’t broadly in favor of following the guidance of responsible economists? But is there any doubt that Orszag, with his unflappable faith in the Bigger Deficits Now strategy, would label just about any economist who didn’t favor higher short-term deficit spending as “irresponsible”? Peel away the cute anti-democracy framework, then, and Orszag has done little more than argue that America should be governed more by empowered technocrats who agree with…Peter Orszag.

By “virtually all responsible economists”, I think he means the Keynesians, who – if I’m not mistaken have been fully discredited by Obama’s gross economic failures.

Whatevs. We should just handover complete control of the economy  to those guys, anyway.

Time will tell if more Dems jump on the anti-Democratic bandwagon.

In which case, the drones will have to come up with a new chant for their protests- “This is what Democracy looks like” may no longer be operative.

Screenshots: Alec Baldwin and His Sick, Twisted Followers on Twitter Viciously Attack Michelle Malkin

After conservative blogger, Michelle Malkin, wrote a tweet gently mocking Alec Baldwin , for the spate of unhinged tweets he wrote about the  execution of Troy Davis, Wednesday night, he fired off a series of tweets calling on his followers to attack her:

As a man of the left, Baldwin would have known that a barrage of vile, left-wing sputum would soon follow. Immediately, Malkin was under unrelenting, vicious attack by Baldwin’s rabid followers.

(CONTENT WARNING)…

Screenshots via The Right Scoop:

A “Christian” follows these tweets with:

Even more vile  screenshots below the fold:

Obama’s Uncle Omar Is An Illegal Alien, Yet Has MA Drivers License and Federal SS#?

Obama’s uncle Omar,” Onyango Obama, (also known as, Obama Onyango), who was arrested last week in Framingham, MA, last week, was ordered to be deported in 1992, according to two federal law enforcement officials with knowledge of the case. Despite his illegal status, Uncle Obama has a valid MA drivers license and a  federal SS.

Boston.com via Weasel Zippers:

Onyango Obama, who is from Kenya and is known as the president’s Uncle Omar on his father’s side, had lived a quiet life in Massachusetts until last Wednesday, when police said the car he was driving darted in front of a police cruiser, nearly causing the officer to hit his car.

The federal officials, who spoke about Obama’s immigration status on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak about the case, said Obama had been told to leave in 1992, but he did not go.

Obama is the second relative of the president to have defied a deportation order, reigniting debate over illegal immigration and raising questions about how a man who had lived in the United States illegally for years had managed to secure a job, a Massachusetts driver’s license, and apparently, a federal Social Security number, without being detected by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

“There are hundreds of thousands of people who have been ordered deported and just ran off and nobody’s looking for them,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors strict controls on immigration.

Onyango Obama’s sister, Zeituni Onyango, also faced deportation before a Boston immigration judge granted her asylum last year. She, too, had avoided the spotlight, living in public housing in South Boston despite a deportation order. Her immigration status was leaked to the media days before her nephew’s historic election in 2008.

Here’s Sean Hannity discussing the strange story on his show, last night.

Local CBS affiliate WBZ reported that Aunt Zeituni and Uncle Omar are brother and sister.

Aunt Zeituni, allegedly also has a valid SS# issued between 2001 and 2002 in the state of Indiana, although she is not known to have ever lived in Indiana.

Zeituni and Omar’s famous nephew allegedly has a SS# issued in CT, although he’s never lived in CT.

The President has little to do with his  Massachusetts relatives.

Pretty weird, huh?

Scene Stealing Squirrel and Dramatic Chipmunk Join Biden In China

After witnessing several days worth of cringe-worthy gaffes and missteps by Joe Biden in China, some comic relief may be in order.

Daniel Foster at the Corner found an interesting pic of Biden in China, and decided he had to have a caption and photoshop contest. He wasn’t taking no for an answer:

Cornerites, you must submit your captions in the comments below or e-mail me your photoshop job. You must do one or both — but under no circumstances neither — as soon as is humanly possible. I’ll update the post with selected captions, and winning photoshop(s) will go on the homepage.

Again, kindly do this immediately.

Naturally, he got submissions right away. (I’m going to have to be that firm next time I have a photoshop contest.)

Of course, this was a good excuse to dust off the scene stealing squirrel, and his furry pal, dramatic chipmunk:

Via Ace of Spades HQ, where a caption contest has also been waged. CONTENT WARNING IF YOU GO THERE.

Video: Rick Perry’s Response To Obama’s “He Should Be More Careful About What He Says” Remark

Rick Perry made a comment that most people would never have heard, had Wolf Blitzer not asked Obama about it in an interview. Obama responded by saying that Perry should watch what he says, but he’ll “cut him some slack”, (this time)...

What’s sad and ironic, is Obama’s response drew more attention to his lack of military service, and his thin skinned prickliness, than Perry’s supposed disrespect, so Obama”s the one who should watch what he says.

The entire brouhaha as summed up by AoSHQ:  Perry: The Troops Prefer A President Who’s Worn The Uniform /Obama: Watch Your Mouth, But I’ll Cut You Some Slack / Perry: You’re Killing Jobs

Video via Weasel Zippers

Video: New Drug Spenditol All The Rage In Washington

Especially among Democrats, I hear:

Brought to you by Concerned Women For America, via Freedom’s Lighthouse:

“Spenditol is Washington’s answer to all the painful problems Americans face. How to borrow $800 Billion for a Stimulus that didn’t create jobs or fix the Economy? Spenditol!”

Side effects include (government) bloating, amnesia, enlarged debt, nausea, anxiety, heart palpitations,  loose rules, and (national) suicide.

Hat tip: Brian B.

 

Video: Monday Night Silly – Cone-ing?

I don’t get ‘planking’, and I don’t get this….but I have to admit it’s slightly humorous, or as my 13 year old says, “freaking hilarious”:

Hat tip: My 13 year old.

 

Report: ATF’s Melson Tells Congressional Investigators He Knew Nothing About Gun-Walking Until the Controversy Erupted

Kenneth Melson was expected to testify before Congress at some point in July,  as part of a deal between Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy  and the committee’s top Republican, Iowa’s Charles Grassley.

According to John Solomon reporting for The Daily Beast,  that  deposition took place on the 4th of July: Gun Sting Surprise:

While many Americans celebrated over barbecues and fireworks, acting ATF director Kenneth Melson arrived Monday with a private attorney on Capitol Hill for the interview, the sources said, speaking only on the condition of anonymity.

During hours of questioning, Melson told investigators for the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that he has recently learned that other federal agencies may have withheld crucial information about possible drug cartel connections to the gun trafficking ring that his agency had tried to crack during a 15-month operation that used controversial tactics, the sources said.

***

In his interview, Melson said most of the operational decisions for the Fast and Furious operation were approved by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix, which was leading a special strike force on gun trafficking, and that even he didn’t know about the specific orders to let straw buyers walk off with guns until after the controversy erupted, according to the sources.

He told the investigators he has subsequently learned that ATF agents during the operation did observe straw buyers transferring guns they had purchased to third parties, a possible legal violation, but did not interdict the weapons at the instructions of their immediate supervisors, the sources added.

Under questioning, Melson confirmed information the congressional investigators had received elsewhere that DEA and FBI had information about possible cartel connections to the gun trafficking ring under investigation but did not share it with ATF at the time. He expressed his own concerns about the flow of information from other agencies during a critical time in the war against Mexican border violence, the sources said.

Congressional investigators now want to know whether any of the players belatedly disclosed to the ATF had been working as assets or informants for other federal agencies, the sources said.

Melson also disclosed the existence of documents about the ATF case that have not yet been turned over to congressional investigators, the sources added.

Read the full report at The Daily Beast.

It sounds to me like they might be going for the “communication breakdown” defense – the lack of information sharing between agencies  is supposed to explain  how more than 1,700 weapons were allowed to walk across the border straight into the hands of criminals.

Hmmm. It still doesn’t make sense. It’s like they want to make the fall guy, the ‘communication breakdown’. But there has to be someone who knew what was going on, and was giving the orders.

See also:

Hot Air: Video: Mexican officials want Fast & Furious officials extradited for trial

UPDATE:

Hans Spakovsky of PJ Media has more on Melson’s “the secret testimony” to congressional investigators: Gunwalker: The ATF’s Kenneth Melson Blows the Whistle on the Justice Department:

This morning, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley released a copy of a letter they sent to Attorney General Eric Holder on July 5 about Melson’s testimony. Melson’s revelations raise even more serious issues not only about the operation itself, but about apparent attempts by the Justice Department to mislead Congress on the details of the operation.

Contrary to the Justice Department’s denials, according to Melson, ATF agents specifically witnessed transfers of weapons from straw purchasers to third parties without taking any further action. Melson claimed that it was not until the public disclosure of the operation that he personally reviewed the “hundreds of documents” related to the case. He said he became “sick to his stomach” when he learned the full story. Even more shocking is that some of the “gun trafficking ‘higher-ups’ that the ATF sought to identify were already known to other agencies and may even have been paid as informants” by agencies such as the FBI and the DEA.

I was afraid some sort of  fix was in, but no – this looks very bad for the Justice Dept. I didn’t realize that he was meeting with investigators behind their back…

The details of Operation Fast & Furious just keep getting worse from the standpoint of prosecutorial ineptitude and incompetence.  But with Melson’s testimony, it is also appears that the Justice Department and specifically Deputy Attorney General James Cole have been obstructing Congress and engaging in a cover-up to prevent Congress and the public from finding out just how much the leadership of the Justice Department was involved in this expanding scandal.

US Ambassador to the United Kingdom AWOL For Dinner Honoring Reagan

Missing man: American ambassador Louis B Susman

Tongues are wagging in London over the absence of  the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Louis B Susman,  at the dinner celebrating Ronald Reagan’s centenary. Some are seeing it as a blatant snub.

The London Evening Standard reported:

It was one of the most glittering events of the year, attracting some of the greatest names in American and British politics.

But as the British roasted lamb and the sunny Californian chardonnay were cleared away, one notable absence was the hottest topic among guests at the Guildhall dinner in honour of Ronald Reagan‘s centenary.

Where was the American ambassador to London, Louis B Susman?

He had, it soon transpired, been invited. But despite a guest list that boasted four British Cabinet ministers, ex-Prime Minister, nine US congressmen and a senator and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, there was no sign of President Obama‘s representative in London.

And in a warm atmosphere evoking the closest days of the special Anglo-US relationship of the Eighties, the surprise at Mr Susman’s absence turned to annoyance.

“Our ambassador should be here,” said Lynn de Rothschild, the American entrepreneur who is married to Sir Evelyn de Rothschild and was one of Hillary Clinton‘s key fundraisers in 2008 as well as a supporter of several Republican presidential candidates. “This was an historic dinner to mark Reagan’s centenary and to celebrate him as the man who ended the Cold War. What could not be more important?

“Why is our ambassador not here on Independence Day? No excuse. How is it that America is not represented in this room by our ambassador? It is appalling that no representative of our government is in this room. This has the feel of petty partisanship.”

Susman had attended other grand centenary events, but according to the US embassy spokesman: “Ambassador Susman was pleased to be invited to the dinner but was unable to attend.”

Thus far, that has been the only explanation for his absence.

You may remember only a few months ago, Susman’s boss, Obama was being compared to Reagan after a State of the Union speech that media sycophants labeled, “Reaganesque”.

Hat tip: Brian B.

Linked by Michelle Malkin, and Fausta, thanks!

Stranahan On The WeinerGate Sock Puppets

You can hear him talking about it on Blog Talk radio. I was listening to it earlier, today, but fell asleep before it finished. Not because it’s boring. It’s not at all. I was just tired from staying up too late, last night. What I found out before I fell asleep is that Stranahan is 99.9% sure that  the sock-puppet for Nikki Reid, one of the underage Weiner Twitter-fans, and Starchild(?), and possibly PatriotUSA76 is the same person, a troubled liberal, woman named Jenny who goes to UCLA, and has a very tenuous relationship with the truth.

But I’m still listening to find  what the heck her motive could possibly be. A spurned ex-sexter perhaps? That would be conjecture. He has been able to confirm her identity.

Patterico has more: The Owner of the Nikki Reid Account Speaks Out

This post will reveal the first batch of alleged direct messages and e-mails from Gennette Cordova to Nikki Reid.

There is much more coming. This is just the initial batch. Perhaps the most interesting line I see is Gennette telling Nikki on June 6:

Hey. I’m not supposed to talk over messages anymore. If you want my number/you’re able to call, let me know.

In another  bizarre turn of events in the WeinerGate saga, a person who claims to be a  “janitor”, ( political operative who is hired to clean up messes) has threatened both Ace and Patterico in emails.

Stranahan this morning: Your Friday Morning Weinergate Crazy Update.

Crazy is right.

Questions About Huma Abedin

While many parts of the right-wing blogosphere are still investigating the mystery behind sock-puppets,  “Betty and Veronica” in this extended Scooby-doo episode known as, “Weinergate”, I remain intrigued by Huma Abedin, the aggrieved wife, who didn’t see what the “fuss” was all about early on, and was not only willing to ‘stand by her man’ after less than a year of marriage to the louse, but was actually going to help him fight to keep his seat. As a wife and mother who has read all the gory details about Weiner’s sordid online activities, I have found Huma’s lack of concern, curious.

Now comes some disconcerting news about Abedin’s relations.

According to reports, Huma, herself is still an observant Muslim, and her mother has established ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is dedicated in its own words to “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within.”

Her brother is a fellow at the radicalized Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (OCIS) at Oxford University in England where number of Muslim Brotherhood members sit on the board.

FrontPage Magazine has been ringing  alarm bells about her family’s connections to this insidious Islamic organization.

Ms. Abedin’s mother, Saleha Mahmoud Abdeen, is reportedly part of a special woman’s unit known as the Muslim Sisterhood or the International Women’s Organization (IWO) which, according to a counter-terrorism report obtained by the Terrorism Committee of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, operates within the Brotherhood in Egypt and possibly other Arab nations as well. The Egyptian newspaper Al-Dostor confirms that the Sisterhood includes 63 international members in 16 different countries.

The group is being portrayed by Western media in a benign fashion, as noted in Der Spiegel and on its Facebook page. But a report by the Egyptian opposition newspaper Al-Liwa Al-Arabi paints a far more ominous picture. It reveals that these women, who are “the wives of some of the highest-ranking leaders in the Muslim Brotherhood” are being recruited to:

[S]muggle secret documents for the members since women go undetected by security surveillance…to spread the Brotherhood’s ideology by infiltrating universities, schools and homes…to lay the plans for the Sisterhood to work at the state level…[and]…to fulfill the interests of the Brotherhood and also to benefit from international women’s conferences and unify all efforts to benefit the Brotherhood globally.

Furthermore, the Sisterhood’s mission includes:

[O]rganiz[ing] projects which will penetrate its prohibited ideology into the decision making in the West and in an indirect way under the guise of “general needs of women”…through the university and the state capitals and institutions and is done in accordance to the project Al-Islam Huwa Al-Hal (Islam is the solution).

The newspaper then lists the names of the women who belong to the organization on a country-by-country basis. There are a dozen members of the Sisterhood from Saudi Arabia. Saleha Mahmoud Abdeen (Abedin) is one of them.

***

It has also been revealed in the Arab media that Huma Abedin’s brother Hassan is a fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (OCIS) at Oxford University in England. A number of Muslim Brotherhood members sit on the board, including Qatari cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who has incited violence against Jews and Israel on numerous occasions.

***

Hassan Abedin himself has expressed an interest in spreading Islam in the West, meeting with billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. Alwaleed is one of the largest shareholders in both Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and Citigroup. He is also the same prince Alwaleed whose $10 million dollar check for post 9/11 disaster relief was rejectedby then-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani when the prince suggested U.S. policies in the Middle East contributed to the attacks.

***

Which brings us to Anthony Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, who is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s deputy chief of staff. Ms. Abedin was born in Kalamazoo, MI, but moved to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at the age of 2, before returning to the United States 16 years later to attend college. A detailed report from 2007 shows that the aforementioned Abdullah Omar Naseef was instrumental in the Abedin family’s move around 1977 — the same year that the Muslim Sisterhood was established. Huma Abedin has been working for Mrs. Clinton since 1996. Between that job and being married  to a Congressman — in a ceremony officiated by Bill Clinton — Ms. Abedin is privy to sensitive and secret information. Walid Shoebat explains the significance: “Huma Abedin is a practicing Muslim and is still well-connected to her family. She also has access to highly sensitive State secrets–admitted by Hillary herself–as well as significant influence in the Obama administration.”

This brings us to a curious sidebar: how it is possible for a “practicing Muslim” woman to be married to a Jewish American? Islamic scholarship and Sharia law forbid Muslims from marrying non-believers. Mr. Shoebat translated the Al-Marsid newspaper, which reported on the Weiner/Abedin marriage specifically:

Dr. Anwar Shoeb of the faculty of Islamic law in Kuwait declared that the marriage between Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin is null and void, considering it adultery as confirmed in the Sharia position, prohibiting the marriage of a Muslim woman to a non-Muslim, regardless of whether he is a Jew or a Christian. In this case, he assured the invalidity of the marriage certificate between them.

Yet far more importantly, how is it that Huma Abedin’s mother’s and brother’s associations with the Muslim Brotherhood, direct and indirect respectively, have remained beyond scrutiny? As for Ms. Abedin herself, it strains credulity to assume that she is unaware of those associations, just as it is impossible that Mrs. Clinton doesn’t know. NPR reported that Mrs. Clinton visited Dar al-Hekma college last Tuesday, where Saleha Mahmoud Abdeen is a vice dean and the school’s co-founder.

***

So, we essentially have a parent who is a member of the Muslim Sisterhood, and a daughter who holds an “important and sensitive position” in one of the highest echelons of the federal government. In this context, would it really be that out of line to suggest that the real scandal in the Weiner family has less to do with Anthony, and far more to do with his wife Huma and her apparent enabler, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton?

Jamie Glazov interviewed Jihad Watch’s Robert Spencer about the Weiners’ strange marriage.

Frontpage: Robert Spencer, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

I would like to talk to you today about Anthony Weiner’s marriage to his Muslim Brotherhood wife, Huma Abedin.

How is it exactly that a Muslim woman connected to the Muslim Brotherhood is married to a Jewish man? Something is not fitting here, right?

Spencer: Jamie, Islamic law prohibits a Muslim woman from marrying a non-Muslim man. A Muslim man may marry a non-Muslim woman, but not the other way around. This is yet another manifestation of Islamic supremacism: the idea is that a wife will become a member of her husband’s household, and the children will follow the religion of the father. Thus, Muslim men marrying non-Muslim women ultimately enriches the Islamic community, while the non-Muslim community must forever be made to diminish.

***

FP: This all seems very strange. What do you personally think is going on?

Spencer: Either Weiner converted to Islam to marry Abedin, and a Muslim was officiating at the ceremony along with Clinton, or the marriage is a sham and Abedin, at very least, is fully aware of that — and probably the others are also. I don’t see any other possibilities.

FP: Sorry, I am a bit confused about the Bill Clinton angle. Isn’t this a bit of a bizarre person to ask to officiate your wedding? One would think that in getting married, you have things like faithfulness and loyalty on your mind, no?

Spencer: Yes, Bill Clinton is a strange choice, indeed — unless the whole point of the union had to do more with the Clinton connection than with faithfulness and loyalty.

FP: According to Islamic Law, Huma Abedin could be killed, right? If the whole thing is not a charade and a trick, it is a bit curious that her family, who are Muslim Brotherhood and Muslim Sisterhood operatives, have allowed this and not punished her, no?

Spencer: Yes, Jamie. If the marriage is not a sham, it is exceedingly strange that Huma Abedin’s mother and other Muslim Brotherhood connections would have no problem with it. She is, of course, a high profile individual in the United States, and thus is in a very different situation from that of a woman in Saudi Arabia who might enter into a relationship with a non-Muslim man. In Saudi Arabia, such a woman would almost certainly be murdered…

Is Abedin actually being deceptive in her marriage to Weiner to follow Muslim Brotherhood instructions and to infiltrate the U.S. government? Or has Weiner converted to Islam? If she’s an observant Muslim, what are the other possibilities?

It is all very strange and disconcerting.

See also:

The American Thinker: The Muslim Brotherhood and Weiner

Ahead of the curve, as always….

Pamela Geller in November 2007: Hillary’s Huma: Infiltration, Islam’s Secret Weapon?

Linked by The Conservatory, thanks!