More on the Knollenberg/Hezbollah Connection from Debbie Schlussel

Debbie Schlussel has more on the Knollenberg/Hezbollah connection. It's very interesting reading.

March 26, 2008

Thanks, Dr. Death: Suicide Doctor's Nader-esque Congressional Race Will Help Hezbollah's Republican Get Re-Elected; SCHLUSSEL Endorses Dems Running Against Hezbo Republicans

By Debbie Schlussel

A number of readers have asked me what I think of the just-announced Congressional candidacy of Dr. Jack Kevorkian a/k/a Dr. Death. Well, I'm bummed about it, and not for the reasons you might think.

It's rare that I endorse liberal Democrats. But when the liberal Democrat is running against a phony conservative Republican who is one of Hezbollah's two best friends in Congress, I'll take the lib any day. I'd much rather have a sincere liberal than a phony American.

That's the case with Congressman Joe Knollenberg, the man Kevorkian is running against and against whom the liberal Democrat (not Kevorkian) has a chance of beating. I've known Mr. Knollenberg for many years, and he's been my Congressman for several of them. Unfortunately, Knollenberg--along with another Republican, Congressman Darrell Issa--is Hezbollah's go to guy in the U.S. Congress.

Dr. Death's Candidacy May Help Re-Elect Hezbollah's Joe Knollenberg GOP Congressmen Darrell Issa & Joe Knollenberg: Hezbollah's Hookers in Congress; Schlussel Endorses Their Opponents Peters, Hamilton

As I've detailed on this site, Knollenberg has taken thousands in campaign contributions from Hezbollah's officially-designated American agent Nijad Fares and his Hezbollah front-group PAC, American Task Force for Lebanon Policy. And in return, Knollenberg sought $268 million--and got over $86 million--of your tax money for Hezbollah. The money--purportedly to rebuild hospitals and orphanages "destroyed" by Israel--actually went straight into the coffers of Hezbollah for the purposes of sending more Isrealis and American soldiers fighting in Iraq to hospitals and their kids to orphanages. Knollenberg and his then-Chief of Staff Paul Welday sought this money at the request of Fares--whose father Issam Fares was formerly the Hezbollah-installed Prime Minister of Lebanon--and pro-HAMAS/pro-Hezbollah James Zogby, head of the deceptively-named Arab American Institute (very little American about it, but for an office address).

Fares, it should be noted, also donated to Muslim Democrat Congressman Keith Ellison and the Presidential Campaign of Jihad Fred Thompson, which was shabbily run by Fares' other pan-Hezbo friend, Spencer Abraham. The is the company which Joe Knollenberg keeps. Check out all of Nijad Fares' campaign contributions (he's a close friend of the Bush family, FYI).

One other thing about Jihad Joe Knollenberg: He also made earmarks of millions in your tax money, sending it to 1) the anti-Israel/pan-jihadist Arab American National Museum, and 2) the deceptively-named "Seeds of Peace" summer camp, in which victims of terror and kids of Muslim terrorists are told they are equal and that Holocaust-denial is a valid position; the camp was founded by Yasser Arafat's favorite biographer.

So, how does this relate to Congressional Candidate Dr. Death? Well, Kevorkian is properly reviled by most conservative and Republican voters. He will only take votes away from Joe Knollenberg's very viable Democrat opponent, Gary Peters. The election will be very close. In 2006, Nancy Skinner--who barely put up a fight and raised little money--nearly beat Knollenberg. And the time is now to do it.

Moreover, if he wins, it's believed that Joe Knollenberg will thereafter retire and somehow get his son, Michigan State Rep. Marty Knollenberg, into the seat. Besides supporting gay marriage and other gay issues, Marty Knollenberg--as I've repeatedly noted--also took oodles of money from Hezbollah's Nijad Fares.

Why would a Texas agent of Hezbollah donate money to a State Representative in Michigan? Answers: 1) To reward his daddy for sending millions of your tax money to Hezbollah; 2) to reflect pan-Hezbollah policy in the Michigan legislature; and 3) to get Knollenberg to "see things the Hezbollah way" should he get to Congress.

Michigan's Hezbollah-Knollenberg dynasty must be put out to pasture. And that's why I'm supporting liberal Democrat Gary Peters for this seat. Dr. Jack Kevorkian's candidacy will put my efforts at Knollenberg Family Retirement '08 in jeopardy. And I'm not happy about it. He's the Ralph Nader in this race between Hezbollah vs. America.

The McCain/Knollenberg Hezbollah "Connection

The same Ali Jawad that John McCain just removed from his finance committe has also contributed to Joe Knollenberg's campaign and given Joe $2,250 since the year 2000. Click here for the FEC report showing the contributions. Given Joe Knollenberg's recent tirade against Jimmy Carter for talking to Hezbollah, it seems like Joe's got some splaining to do.

The McCain Hezbollah "Connection" *

April 30, 2008 8:37 PM

The campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., removed a man from his Michigan Finance Committee today.

It started after conservative writer Debbie Schlussel called Michigan businessman Ali Jawad not only a supporter of Hezbollah -- a group the US State Department labels a "terrorist organization" -- but also claimed he was a "key agent of the terrorist group in the Detroit area."

After Schlussel started asking questions the McCain campaign removed him from the finance committee for a May fundraiser.

"Apparently he is a well known member of the Arab-American community in Dearborn," a McCain staffer tells ABC News. "He is also a known Republican donor and former Bush finance committee member. When these rumors surfaced he notified the campaign and we removed him from the finance committee. The guy never raised a dime for us and he isn’t even a contributor."

Yes, that's right, the McCain campaign said they removed him because of "rumors."

Jawad is president of Armada Oil & Gas Company and founder of the Lebanese American Heritage Club.

In 1997 he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor insurance fraud. Prosecutors accused him of submitting names of non-employees to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan to receive health insurance benefits and claims. He received two years of probation and he paid approximately $6,000 in fines and restitution.

In this 2002 story, Jawad is quoted saying he "rejects talk that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization that should be shunned by the United States and other governments. 'Killing innocent people -- we reject that,' he said. 'Hezbollah does not fit this category. It has protected its people.'"

Read Schlussel's story -- she lays out many charges against him.

You will note in one photograph in Schussel's story, Jawad is sitting at a table with Michael Rosen, a lawyer and policy advisor with the U.S. Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes of the U.S. Treasury Department, and Andrew Arena, Michigan FBI Special Agent in Charge, and formerly in charge of Counterterrorism for the New York FBI.

This all seems a little odd to me.

Is there anyone out there who thinks McCain supports Hezbollah? Was McCain truly offended by the notion that an Arab-American businessman with sympathy for Hezbollah supports him? Or was today's move just to deprive Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, of some future rebuttal?


* I don't mean "Connection" literally.

UPDATE: I spelled Schlussel's name incorrectly in this original post. Apologies to her; it has been corrected. Moreover, Schlussel says that there was more to the conclusion of USA v. Makki et al, than the small fine I reported. More than $252,000 was ordered to be repaid, most of which came from or Armada Oil, and one associate was sentenced to 8 months in prison and about $75,000 in fines and restitution.

Knollenberg funded by Hezbollah?

From DebbieSchlussel.com

By Debbie Schlussel

When I heard Mitt Romney, a week ago Saturday Night, in the ABC debate, claim that he's the only candidate who "understands radical jihad," I scratched my head. He refuses to ask his church to stop funneling $20 million plus to a HAMAS charity, or even to say he disagrees with it. I like and respect Mormons, but not this outrageous funding decision by their church. Plus, he made anti-American statements when he headed the 2002 Salt Lake Games that jihadists would love. And then, there was his statement at the ABC debate that he will take the Muslim world into "modernity and moderation." But, does he really believe "modernity" equals moderation? Um, I guess he's never seen a jihadist website or been to Dubai. They are more modern than we are. It's just their ideology that's back in the 7th Century and good luck to Mitt in bringing it up to date. Oh, and don't forget Romney's previous statement at a town hall meeting that he "admires Hezbollah."

But now, I come to find out, that Hezbollah's key funder in Congress, Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-Michigan), is a key Romney guy and has been hangin' with Romney all over Michigan for the last week. There he is on stage, denoted by a circle, in the picture below, from a Romney rally in the Detroit area yesterday.

Does Romney have problems with the fact that Knollenberg and his state legislator son, Marty Knollenberg, both took thousands in campaign contributions from Hezbollah's American agents, Nijad Fares and Abdullah Bouhabib, as I've repeatedly noted? Apparently Not. Does Romney have a problem with the fact that, to pay these egregious contributors back, Joe Knollenberg single-handedly (with Sen. Spencer Abraham on the Senate side) doled out at least $86 million of our tax money to Hezbollah in 2000, allowing Hezbollah to rebuild its strongholds in Southern Lebanon and expand? Apparently not.

Is Romney bothered that Joe Knollenberg put "Seeds of Peace"--a summer camp founded by Yasser Arafat's fave biographer--on the federal budget? Or that the camp, until recently run by Clintonista Aaron David Miller, discussed Holocaust denial as a legitimate theory and made Jewish campers and kids of Palestinian terrorists discuss that? Why is our tax money going to this camp in Maine? Ask Mitt Romney's favorite new Michigan Congressman?

Or ask Joe Knollenberg why millions in our federal money went to the jihadist, anti-Israel National Arab American Museum? He single-handedly went to bat for federal pork for this warehouse of enemy propaganda on our soil. And ask Romney why he has allies like this in Michigan.