Would you take money from this guy?
Who is Yaqub Mirza? Well, for starters, from 1984 through 2002 he was chief executive of the SAAR Foundation. According to Wikipedia, SAAR is "the flagship corporation representing of charities, think tanks, and business entities named after its founder, Saudi patriarch Sulaiman Abdul Aziz Al Rajhi." Also according to Wikipedia:
As part of Operation Green Quest, on March 20, 2002 federal agents raided 14 interlocking business entities in Herndon, VA associated with the SAAR Foundation looking for ties to the Al Taqwa Bank and the Muslim Brotherhood. No arrests were made and no organizations were shut down, but over 500 boxes of files and computer files were confiscated, filling seven trucks.
Meanwhile, in March 2002, the Wall Street Journal reported:
Steven Emerson, founder of the Investigative Project, an antiterrorism watchdog in Washington, said officials are trying to determine if Saar was used to build a terrorist-funding network in the U.S. "There's a suspicion that this group was involved in money laundering for al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist groups," he said. A person familiar with the government inquiry said the links are under investigation.
Note that it was only "suspicion" of involvementin money laundering "for al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist groups," not proven. Still, it's potentially worrisome, which probably why we have seen a number of political candidates returning contributions from Mr. Mirza. For instance, there's this (from a June 1, 2006 AP article):
Congressional candidate Pete McCloskey, running against Rep. Richard Pombo of Tracy in Tuesday's GOP primary, is returning a $2,100 campaign donation he received from a man tied to al-Qaeda.The money was from M. Yaqub Mirza, a Pakistan native living in Virginia, who has been investigated by the Justice Department for allegedly helping to finance al-Qaeda and Islamic Jihad. Mirza's offices were raided by federal authorities in March 2002.
And there's this:
According to FEC records, the campaign of 7th District Democratic candidate Andre Carson recently returned a $1,000 contribution the candidate received at a D.C. fundraiser recently hosted by CAIR, a controversial Islamic civil rights organization. Carson's campaign refunded a contribution from M. YaQub Mirza on February 20, 2008. Mirza was at the center of a federal terrorist investigation back in 2002.
Finally, there's this (from a Knight Ridder story from June 2006):
A review of state and federal campaign finance records shows Mirza has contributed at least $17,500 to political groups over the past 20 years.He gave $1,400 to Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis in 1987 and $1,600 to the Republican National Senatorial Committee from 2001 to 2002. Virginia Democratic Rep. Jim Moran received $3,950 over the years, and, most notoriously, Georgia Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney got $500 on Sept. 11, 2001. This last contribution made national news.
Moran returned Mirza's contributions after the March 2002 raid, saying he'd rather be "safe than sorry." McKinney kept the cash.
Mirza stopped writing political checks shortly after the raid; his last contribution was a $750 check to the Republican National Committee in July 2002, according to public records. He restarted his activity this February with a $2,100 contribution to Democratic challenger Tim Mahoney of Florida.
The bottom line question, then, is: if you were a politician, would you take money from Yaqub Mirza?
Or would you do as Jim Moran, Andre Carson and Pete McCloskey did, return the money and be "safe [rather] than sorry."
Well, apparently there are still politicians out there who are happy to take Mirza's money. For instance, according to the FEC, Mirza gave $2,300 to Jim Gilmore in May 11, 2007 and $1,000 to Gerry Connolly in January 12, 2008. In the end, the question is whether Gilmore and Connolly will keep this money or return it as Jim Moran, Andre Carson and Pete McCloskey did. We'll see.
P.S. According to VPAP, Mirza also gave to Ken Cuccinelli and Tom Rust.
Like millions of other people, he was investigated by the heavy hand of the Bush administration during the days of Bush's more extreme abuses of power. Maybe targeted just for being a Muslim involved with charity work. Since no charges resulted, I fail to see why I should view this man's circumstances as being any different from that of a dark-skinned man with a foreign name getting pulled out of line in the airport to have his bag searched.
You're better than this.
I presume you also missed that Jim Moran, Andre Carson and Pete McCloskey all returned contributions from Mr. Mirza because of the concerns raised by the federal government. So, you've singlehandedly determined that there's nothing to worry about? Seems like you're in a small minority on that one.
http://www.fair.org/index.php?...
And look - Emerson isn't even making the accusation himself in that quote. He's just saying that "there's a suspicion." Well, yeah. Of course there was a suspicion - that's why federal agents raided businesses associated with his charity in 2002. Then 6 years went by with no charges or arrests. Apparently the suspicion was unfounded or else something more would have happened by now.
If a stoned hippie juggler on the street said to you that he suspected me of being responsible for the cancellation of 'Arrested Development,' then I suppose you could then write that "there's a suspicion that Jackson Landers was responsible for the cancellation of Arrested Development." It wouldn't make it true, useful or fair. But it's about what we have here.
Sure, it's fun to attack Jim Gilmore and Gerry Connolly. But you know, here's a real human being who hasn't even been charged with a crime, appears to be innocent of any wrongdoing and you're waving his name and his picture around with the tacit suggestion that he's some kind of terrorist. I know that you have nothing against Muslims, but what this does in effect is use his scary brown face and foreignese name to leverage anti-Muslim attitudes against Gilmore and Connelly. It's a Clinton-type tactic and it's the wrong thing to do.
It appears to be a rather clumsy attack on Lowell's political enemies. On the other hand, since I despise Gilmore and Connolly as much as Lowell does, have at it.
No one thinks for a minute that you're a bigot, Lowell. You're just usually a little bit more subtile than this in sliming the bad guys.
;-}
So there won't be any mistake, we're sending the money back," McCloskey said Thursday. "We don't want even any appearance of impropriety."McCloskey, 78, has raised a total of $437,491 as of May 17, according to campaign finance reports. Mirza's $2,100 contribution is the maximum amount that can be given by an individual.
McCloskey said his past efforts to speak out for Muslim causes and work with Muslim leaders have garnered him support from the community.
"I've met hundreds of people and I've spoken all over the country on Palestinian and Muslim issues," he said. "I have no recollection of Mr. Mirza and I have no idea why he would contribute $2,100."At one point, McCloskey served as the chairman for the Council for the National Interest, an organization which he said argues for a Palestinian state.
In sum, "Pete" McCloskey is about as pro-Arab and pro-Muslim as you can be, yet even he returned a contribution from Yaqub Mirza. Perhaps you know something Pete McCloskey doesn't know?
You really want to hold him out as anything other than another Republican douchebag?
"There's a suspicion that this group was involved in money laundering for al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist groups."I presume you also missed that Jim Moran, Andre Carson and Pete McCloskey all returned contributions from Mr. Mirza because of the concerns raised by the federal government.
That's it? That's what makes this so nefarious? "Suspicion" of money laundering? Other people returning his donations? That's as empty as implying something evil from Obama's middle name.
Disappointing.
Two, she is the strongest progressive in the field, but that alone does not make her a good candidate.
Leslie would probably vote the exact way I want her to upwards of 95% of the time. But as anyone who has been involved with the party since the 90s would know (as I assume you do too), she has an obnoxious habit of pissing in the proverbial punch bowl. Moreover, while she would be a good fit for the 8th district, she doesn't fit the 11th as well. Fimian will have a fighting chance against her, less so against Connolly. And if there is a GOP tide any time soon, you can count on her being at the top of the target list.
So, that explains your hostility to this diary, which mentions (very briefly, at the end) that Gerry Connolly is one candidate who has received money from Mr. Mirza.
Sorry, Lowell, that dog won't hunt. I don't really have any feelings toward Connolly one way or another, and more importantly, I vote in the 8th district, not the 11th, so my opinions on the race are limited to that of an observer. My "hostility" toward this diary is limited to the absurd implication that because there is "suspicion" against a brown guy, it is therefore wrong to accept donations from him.
Furthermore, given Jim Moran's coziness with the likes of Abdurahman Alamoudi, and his dabbling in outright anti-Semitism, he has as much moral authority here as George Bush does in discussing peace efforts. Pete McCloskey? He gave the keynote address at the biannual convention for the world's foremost Holocaust denial organization, concluding his remarks with "the Jewish community is dedicated to preserve [sic] th[e] state [of Israel], and to destroy those who speak against it. Good luck!"
I'm not taking any moral cues from these two.
By the way, now you're bashing Jim Moran for "coziness with the likes of Abdurahman Alamoudi?" What's THAT all about? Also, I'm Jewish, and I do NOT consider Jim Moran to be an anti-Semite.
Whether or not he's an anti-Semite is something reasonable people can disagree on, I'm not convinced he is myself. But between black kids daring to admire his car, and Jews being to blame for the Iraq war, he's not someone I look to for guidance on tolerance either. He votes the right way, so he's tolerable in the absence of a credible primary challenge. And McCloskey? He's completely out to lunch.
The point is that neither of these people are even slightly relevant to deciding if Yaqub Mirza's money is tainted. Mere suspicion doesn't rise to terrorist monies. And I have no doubt in my mind that we would never have seen this diary had Mirza donated to Byrne.
We whine because we care.
Because it seems a lot more like "Scary Arab Gave Money to Connolly!" And anyone who reads this site regularly knows that is not your style.
The burden for vetting such contributors rests and will continue to rest with the candidate. The referenced post-9/11 investigations were not conducted by Republican operatives but by disinterested FBI Agents. From even a bare-bones political (let alone national security) perspective any candidate would be a fool to allow even the remotest appearance of a connection to terrorism or to those who support such.
No candidate should be sloppy regarding potential associations to terrorism. There will be no sympathy for the less than vigilant candidate whose opponent jumps all over him or her in the general election over such avoidable sloppiness.
For those with an opposing viewpoint and who take refuge in the fact that some of the post 9/11 investigations remain unresolved, I'd like to resurrect a well known principle: The absence of evidence is not the same thing as the evidence of absence (of terrorist connections). Again, let the buyer (the candidate) beware (of any questionable contributions). The responsibility for vetting any and all of his/her contributions rests with that candidate.
Keep up the good work and don't shy away from this issue should it become similarly relevant in the future.
http://www.opensecrets.org/ind...
http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-b...
I wonder if Sam Rasoul will also follow Jim Moran's lead and return Mirza's $2,000 donation?