Brazil Май 7, 2008
Разместил theslavessnake в : Uncategorized , trackbackHow Not to Disprove Your Support for Hezbollah & Other Mistakes by Ali Jawad
By Debbie Schlussel
I’ve been writing in major newspapers for over two decades. And in that time and the several years that I’ve maintained this site, I’ve never once been sued for defamation. That’s because I check and double- and triple-check everything I wrote that I independently report. I’m an attorney, and I know what defamation is. I don’t engage in it. And my credibility is important. If I don’t have solid proof and reliable sources to back up my information, I don’t run it.
Over the last 24 hours-plus, I’ve been inundated by inquiries from reporters and readers regarding my column on Ali Jawad, the Hezbollah agent and federally convicted insurance defrauder who was dumped by the John McCain campaign almost two weeks ago.
It’s the usual M.O. from the extremist Islamic community, and I was prepared.
hezbollah agents osama siblani and ali jawad whine & obfuscate ad absurdum
In 2003, when–in response to a New York Post column I wrote–the FBI revoked a planned national award to “former” Islamic terrorist Imad Hamad, a man who engaged in marriage fraud to stay in the U.S., Hamad and his friend Osama Silbani had a whining press conference. They threatened to sue me–even though they knew they had no grounds, nor plans to actually follow through on what was an empty threat.
Yesterday, Ali Jawad and his close friend, Osama Siblani, Editor and Publisher of the Arab American News held a press conference to claim that everything I’ve written about Jawad is “untrue” and “rumor and innuendo” and that he doesn’t support Hezbollah. But Jawad would not specifically denounce or condemn Hezbollah at his press conference. And having Siblani–who repeatedly, openly praises Hezbollah in mainstream media sources–as the host of the event, doesn’t exactly help Jawad’s case. It just bolsters the very strong and iron-clad case I’ve made.
Here are some of Osama Siblani’s comments on Hezbollah and HAMAS, which he’s repeated on Detroit radio station WJR and on National Public Radio, as well as at multiple Hezbollah rallies at which he’s been a featured speaker:
when asked if hezbollah is a terrorist group, siblani replies, “no, they are not terrorists. absolutely not. no. they are freedom fighters.”
And what about Hamas? “Freedom fighters as well,” Siblani said.
Moreover, Siblani attended a Dearborn meeting described in Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Seyassah as a meeting of American Hezbollah operatives.
That Siblani hosted and conducted the press conference for Ali Jawad, who is now, suddenly, trying to distance himself from Hezbollah–the group he previously praised–should tell you something.
At yesterday’s press conference, neither Jawad nor Siblani would respond to any of the specific charges I’ve made about Jawad. That’s because everything I’ve written about Jawad is absolutely solid, and he knows it. He can’t refute it, so that’s why he issued a general, false “It’s not true” claim.
I didn’t make up the 2002 Detroit News article, in which Jawad praised Hezbollah and said it wasn’t a terrorist group. Funny now how he’s trying to pretend he didn’t say those things. Interesting that he didn’t protest this quote attributed to him, when the story ran back in 2002. That’s because he said it–that he supports Hezbollah–and he meant it.
And I didn’t make up his federal conviction for insurance fraud and the fact that he and his company, Armada Oil Company had to pay over $250,000 in fines and restitution for it. That’s not “rumor and innuendo,” nor is it “untrue,” as Jawad claimed at yesterday’s dysfunctional, yet predictable whine-fest.
Also not a rumor is the fact that his co-convict in USA v. Makki et al, Michael Mustapha Makki, is from the Hezbollah Makki family, many of whose members were convicted of smuggling cigarettes for Hezbollah–the same cigarettes he is accused of selling in his gas stations. Makki went to prison for his part in Jawad’s insurance fraud scheme. Why him and not Jawad? Draw your own conclusions.
Nor did I make up his two 2003 trips to Lebanon to meet up with his Hezbollah official buddies. I didn’t make up the fact that in 2003, Jawad accompanied indicted Hezbollah financier and fugitive Talal Chahine to Lebanon and that they visited Hezbollah strongholds. H
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