The Hillary Clinton campaign is very worried about what the right-wing noise machine will do to Barack Obama should he become the Democratic nominee. So, in a friendly show of Democratic solidarity, the Clinton campaign has been digging up and throwing all the right-wing talking points it can find at Barack Obama. The Clinton campaign says that they are doing this now so Obama will be ready for the Republicans in November. The Clinton campaign is so committed to helping out the likely Democratic nominee that they have even prepared a three-page essay containing right-wing attacks on Barack Obama. I thank the Clinton campaign for such foresight and for their due diligence. I have no doubt they are committed to getting Barack Obama elected in November.
Sadly, there is very little chance that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee. Short of a nomination stolen by the super delegates, Hillary Clinton has no chance. However, in the event that the super delegates hand the nomination to Hillary Clinton, it is imperative that those of us who want a Democratic victory in November do what we can to dig up all the right-wing talking points against Hillary Clinton now so that she will be prepared when the general election comes. All Democrats, including MoveOn.org (a group that Hillary Clinton remains grateful to for bailing out her husband), should help vet the former First Lady in the event of a stolen nomination.
We all know what the usual attacks will be on Mrs. Clinton. There is no need to repeat them here. What we must do is vet her against attacks such as this one that the McCain camp is making against Senator Obama.
I take no joy in typing up right-wing talking points. But I consider it my duty as a voter to help Mrs. Clinton should she be the nominee.
One issue that Mrs. Clinton feels is relevant is who a politician associates with. She made it abundantly clear at the debate this week that no matter how tenuous the association, a candidate must be held accountable for the words or actions of these associates. I fear that this position that Mrs. Clinton has taken may come back to hurt her in November. The Republicans will surely bring up Abdurahman Alamoudi in connection with any Clinton general election campaign. Hillary Clinton should be prepared to defend this association.
Abdurahman Alamoudi was the founder of the American Muslim Council. He was charged with laundering money from Libya and of providing money to al Qaeda, Hamas and other terrorist organizations. He was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to 23 years in prison. It turns out Mr. Alamoudi was also involved in an assassination plot. Unfortunately it turns out that Mr. Alamoudi and his organization, the American Muslim Council, had raised money for both George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton.
The American Muslim Council and an associated group held a fundraiser in 2000 where they raised $50,000 for Hillary Clinton. Mr. Alamoudi also separately contributed $1000 to Mrs. Clinton’s Senate campaign. When the news of this fundraiser and contribution surfaced Hillary Clinton was forced to return the money:
Hillary Rodham Clinton said yesterday that she would return $50,000 in political contributions received at a fund-raising event sponsored by a Muslim organization based in California.
Mrs. Clinton said she was offended by remarks attributed to members of the organization, the American Muslim Alliance. The group’s president has been quoted as defending a United Nations resolution that he said allowed for the use of armed force by Palestinians against Israel, while other members have been accused of making anti-Semitic remarks.
Mrs. Clinton’s decision to return the money, as well as $1,000 from an official of another American Muslim group, the American Muslim Council, puzzled leaders of both Muslim organizations. The groups acknowledge that they have some members with extreme views on Israel, but say that they are mainstream and oppose terrorism. Officials in the groups yesterday took issue with the characterizations of the remarks.
Hillary Clinton tried to distance herself from the fundraiser but it turned out that she had accepted a plaque from them:
At a news conference in Queens, Mrs. Clinton announced that she would return the money. ”The statements that are attributed to the organization and some of its members are offensive and outrageous,” she said. ”I don’t want anyone to be under a misimpression. I don’t want anyone to have a false idea about what I believed was the case, so I am going to return all of the money.”
Mrs. Clinton also said she would return $1,000 to Mr. Alamoudi of the American Muslim Council. She said she did not know that the fund-raising event, which was held in Boston in June, had been sponsored by the American Muslim Alliance even though she was photographed at the event accepting a plaque from the chairman of the group’s Massachusetts chapter.
Unfortunately there was also a letter with Mrs. Clinton’s signature thanking the group for the fundraiser:
At the same time, Mrs. Clinton acknowledged that a White House office had written what she called a form letter, on official stationery, to the American Muslim Alliance, thanking the organization for a plaque it awarded her at a fund-raising reception in Massachusetts, where she raised $50,000 last June. After the donations were disclosed last week, Mrs. Clinton returned the money, saying that she had not been aware that the alliance, some of whose members have been quoted as defending the use of violence against Israel, had been an event sponsor.
Mr. Lazio’s aides asserted that the letter was proof that Mrs. Clinton had misled New Yorkers about her knowledge of the event.
But Mrs. Clinton, whose aides had learned that some reporters had obtained the letter, called a news conference and forcefully denied the Lazio campaign accusation. She said the letter was an automatic response by the White House gift office after she had returned to Washington from the trip to Massachusetts. She said the signature was electronically generated and she had never seen the letter before yesterday.
Mr. Lazio’s spokesman, Dan McLagan, laughed off that explanation. ”She said she didn’t remember the group, or the plaque,” Mr. McLagan said. ”But she thanked the group for the plaque. Surprise, surprise, Mrs. Clinton wasn’t telling the truth again. I’m shocked.”
Mrs. Clinton had, in fact, acknowledged receiving the plaque, as one of hundreds she had been given.
One can understand that with so much money coming in, it is hard to keep track of who you are thanking for fundraisers. However, I suspect the Republicans in November will not be so kind.
To make matters worse, Mr. Alamoudi has been quoted in public supporting Hamas and Hezbollah:
At another Washington rally, on Oct. 28, 2000, the AMC’s Mr. Alamoudi led the thousands in attendance to chant their support for Hamas and Hezbollah. "Hear that, Bill Clinton, we are all supporters of Hamas," he declared. "I wish they argued that I am also a supporter of Hezbollah." (When the New York Daily News asked about these comments earlier this week, Mr. Alamoudi denied making them, telling the reporter: "You better check your Arabic." When the reporter noted that he had given the speech in English, Mr. Alamoudi replied, "It was in English? Oh my God, I forgot!")
Back while Hillary Clinton was in the White House, she and Bill Clinton had no problems inviting groups such as Mr. Alamoudi’s to the White House. The White House maintained that these meetings were part of their "big tent" approach:
In the spring of 1996, I had lunch with a senior adviser to the Clinton Administration and to Hillary. I asked him if there was any concern over the article I had published in The Wall Street Journal that revealed that both the president and first lady had hosted militant Islamic groups, which had, at the White House, proclaimed their support for terrorism.
"This administration believes in a big tent." the adviser responded. "Besides, we’ve gotten no flak, so why should we back off?"
Hillary Clinton herself defended these associations and meetings:
The most telling moment of the first lady’s news conference–which has yet to be reported–came in response to a question as to why, she has met repeatedly over the years with other groups that had openly supported Hamas, Hezbollah and other foreign terrorist organizations.
"I think what you’re referring to," she said, "is that over the course of the last seven years as part of the administration’s efforts to open lines of communication and build bridges with Muslim Americans and Muslim leaders from all over the world, many, many people have been invited to the White House. I have been part of some of those events. I have hosted some of them. I would imagine that some of the people who were invited were members of organizations with whom I would have had serious disagreements about some of the things those organizations have said. . . . So I think that if you want to talk about what the White House has tried to do, what the administration has tried to do to try to promote a framework for peace, it certainly included lines of communication to many different groups and many different individuals."
Yet in the debate this week Hillary Clinton had this to say about politicians and their associations:
It is clear that, as leaders, we have a choice who we associate with and who we apparently give some kind of seal of approval to. And I think that it wasn’t only the specific remarks but some of the relationships with Reverend Farrakhan, with giving the church bulletin over to the leader of Hamas, to put a message in.
You know, these are problems. And they raise questions in people’s minds. And, so, this is a legitimate area, as everything is, when we run for office, for people to be exploring and trying to find answers.
…
And it goes to this larger set of concerns about how we are going to run against John McCain. You know, I wish the Republicans would apologize for the disaster of the Bush-Cheney years and not run anybody, just say that it’s time for the Democrats to go back into the White House.
Unfortunately, they don’t seem to be willing to do that. So we know that they’re going to be out there, full force.
And, you know, I’ve been in this arena for a long time. I have a lot of baggage, and everybody has rummaged through it for years.
By her own standard, the Republicans are likely to come after her for her association with Mr. Alamoudi and all those people she hosted at the White House and gave them a "seal of approval". Yes, it is unfortunate. But Hillary Clinton should be prepared for the right-wing attacks. And in keeping with her campaign’s approach of early vetting, I will do what I can to make sure she is prepared for these horrible horrible attacks on her character and her associations that are certain to come.
Mash, it’s obvious I’ve become a bad influence on you. Meaning…GREAT JOB!!!
She also participated for a fundraising by LTTE a terrorist group in Asia which invented the suicide bombing and recrit child soldiers. This fund raising was at NJ for the primary. She also remarked that we cannot put LTTE as terrorist group in octobet 2007. LTTE is a terrorist group according to CIA.
Mash, thank you so much for your due diligence!! In the event of a stolen nomination, may I make this official ‘nomination’ of my own and ask Obama publicly to head up the first Independent Party of the United States. (of course, not being American might hamper me in my attempts to set up aforementioned party but hey, what will you be doing come the summer Mash??? hehe). After all, due diligence cannot BUT benefit this country. Why, the Clinton campaign must have been taken pointers from Bush and Co thinking about pre-emption. Good for them!
So does that mean you’re no longer writing for Taylor Marsh or did I ask you that already? (sorry, brain glitches have been known to happen with me..lol)
Ingrid
Robbie, since Clinton has gone Holy Joe and Zell on us, I am glad you are corrupting me 🙂
Shena, sounds like I need another RWTP post.
Ingrid, I had stopped writing there when I began focusing on Bangladesh. I had always meant to restart and Taylor has left the invitation open. I will wait for the primaries to end and see how things shake out.
very diplomatic. Considering how Robster is annoyed by her, I think she’d have to consider herself lucky if and when you do!
Ingrid
I’m more than annoyed at TM. I’m pissed off. It’s as if she and her idiot followers are doing all the research for the GOP so they don’t have to do the leg work themselves. The only thing Rove & Assoc. have to do between now and November 4th is figure out which smears are true and exploit them on Fox News.
Aiding and abetting the enemy in this case is treason. TM should be kicked out of the Democratic party for this, regardless of the end result.
Mash
I know Bush-Cheney did it to the extreme. Hillary Clinton campaign is doing it rampantly. But should we also do the same thinh what Bush-Clinton did?
The pattern we have seen is a pure scare-hate tactic. First we demonize one person or an organization or a group. We convince the world that the person or the group is the ultimate terrorist and 10 to the power 25 times worse than Bin Laden. After that we try to connect our political opponent with that living atom bomb.
I have learned and appreciated Obama more since I voted for him in my state primary. I feel that Obama is brave enough to run the campaign without resorting to this sort of typical politics. Obama’s refusal to disown Jeremiah Wright or his persistence on poor, gun and religion issue makes me believ that Obama is a kind of candidate who will rather lose the election but won’t compromise his moral high ground or his principle.
Rumi, I think guilt by association is a very dangerous game. Clinton’s been playing that game very much like the Republicans. But if she wants to play at that level, she will get some of it back very hard. In a game of negatives she will lose. Of all the candidates, she is the only one with more negatives than positives.
And as Dukakis/Kerry showed us, when your opponents is trying to knee-cap you, the smart response is not to leave your knee exposed. The smart response is to come at him/her with a bigger weapon. Yes, that brings the campaign into the gutter, but there is no way to stay above it and win an election without hitting back. Bill Clinton famously said:
Normally, this kind of slash and burn does not happen in a Democratic primary because you dont want to wound the eventual nominee so much that he can’t win in the general. But Clinton’s very goal is to take Obama down in the general so she can run in 2012. In that sense, she is running a general election campaign against him (she being the Republican).
Obama, to his credit, has not stooped to Clinton’s level. But in the trenches I dont mind showing Clinton some of her own medicine.
Here is another interesting article:
Midroc Donates $20 Million to Clinton Foundation
NEWS
14 May 2007
Posted to the web 14 May 2007
Addis Ababa
MIDROCK-Ethiopia a multi-sector business company announced on Friday it would donate 20million USD over a ten year period to Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) in Ethiopia to assist the NGO implement its country program in Ethiopia.
In a statement issued late Friday, the company said the signing for the grant agreement was made in London between Sheik Mohammed H. Al Amoudi, owner and Chairman of MIDROC, and former US President Bill Clinton, founder of the foundation.
Following the signing ceremony, Sheik Mohammed presented the former US President, a check for two million US dollars.
The statement said the CHAI program is aimed at helping the government of Ethiopia in its efforts to increase care and treatment of persons living with HI V/AIDS and to improve the medical infrastructure of the country “I see this contribution to CHAI as a part of my continuing effort to improve the welfare of the people of the country of my birth,” Sheik Mohammed was quoted as saying in the statement.,” the statement quoted Sheik Mohammed as saying.
“In particular, I wish to support the work of CHAI as a means of providing access to quality health care for the Ethiopian people” the philanthropist added.
“With this support, my Foundation will be able to help the Government of Ethiopia roll out its ambitious and visionary plan to reach more than a million people living with HIV/AIDS who are in desperate need of assistance,” said Bill Clinton.
Both parties expressed their happiness at their collaborative effort to help to meet the healthcare needs of the people of Ethiopia, according to the statement sent to The Daily Monitor Friday.
MIDROC Ethiopia was created in 1994. Al Amoudi is known for his strong commitment to Ethiopia, especially job creation and infrastructure capacity building. He is also well known as a philanthropist and has built a 140-bed health care facility and supports visual impairment, disabled, children’s health and poverty alleviation programmes, according to available information.
In the education arena, he provides overseas scholarships and is a patron of the Ethiopian arts.
Al Amoudi sponsored the CECAFA Cup, Africa’s oldest cup competition for the last three years, during which time the football tournament has been known as the Al Amoudi Senior Challenge Cup.
The largest foreign investor in both Sweden and Ethiopia, Al Amoudi holds an Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy from the Addis Ababa University and has been honored with the Swedish Royal Order of the Polar Star by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.
What’s more, Al Amoudi was jointly honored by the World Bank( in what was said the first time that the World Bank had hosted the event) and State Department for his work in supporting African development.
And this…
Tecola Hagos’s THE HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE: MELES ZENAWI AND MOHAMMAD AL-AMOUDI March, 23 2008 is a very interesting article for the following reasons and should be read by every Ethiopian.
1. If what Tecola alleges is indeed true I don’t know how Alamoudi could operate below the radar of Interpol/FBI for so long. I quote, “Money laundering by Al-Amoudi and Meles Zenawi controlled companies is a reality.”
Tecola also admitted receiving research funding from Alamoudi some years ago but considers his objections now are out of concern for our nation’s well being. I wonder what an embarrassment it would be if the list of beneficiaries of Alamoudi’s largesse could be made public; I am afraid Ethiopian intellectuals, website managers, and leaders have been silenced by Alamoudi and are looking the other way as he continues to plunder the nation’s resources on the cheap. His investments are in foreign currency earners (hotels, gold, tourism, etc.) We are also told by Tecola that Alamoudi’s mother is Eritrean. Could we extrapolate from this that some of the hard to account for returns may be finding their way to prop up the Eritrean regime? For example, who is fronting for Shag Company’s quarter of a million heads of cattle to Egypt?
2. A jump of more than four-fold in net worth in five years is indeed suspect;
3. Alamoudi’s power and reach to have many evicted off their land is simply unconscionable;
4. The social corruption promoted by Alamoudi’s behavior at Sheraton must be stopped by public protest.
5. Here is perhaps the harshest indictment of Alamoudi and I quote, “It has been reported by very many individuals that Al-Amoudi is behind the renovation or building of a number of Mosques, but I take that to be part of the subversive activity of the Saudi Government using the opportunity against an Ethiopia having fallen on hard times in the hands of a treasonous leadership, to undermine further the stability of Ethiopia by planting the seeds of religious conflicts within Ethiopia.”
If this is true, is Alamoudi’s more recent plan to “develop” Tigray (center of Christian civilization so far off limits and now being provoked under the pretenses of “democracy”) a cover for creating the environment to make the building of mosques acceptable? Let us be clear Alamoudi need not pick a shovel or finance the building of mosques; the danger is in what he symbilizes as a rich and morally corrupt individual. I hope Ethiopians have not fallen so low as to bark for the hand that fills their bellies.
6. I also found out that according to this article in AllAfrica.com [Ethiopia: Midroc Donates $20 Million to Clinton Foundation, 14 May 2007] Alamoudi does not only have connections with Clinton but “What’s more, Al Amoudi was jointly honored by the World Bank( in what was said the first time that the World Bank had hosted the event) and State Department for his work in supporting African development.”