Local Arab Leader Stripped Of FBI Award

Detroit News ^ | Oct. 8, 2003

[Alouette]

Controversy Apparently Involves Upcoming Deportation Proceeding

POSTED: 1:42 p.m. EDT October 8, 2003 UPDATED: 1:53 p.m. EDT October 8, 2003

A local Arab-American leader who was scheduled to receive a national award from the FBI was suddenly stripped of the honor, according to Local 4 reports. Video

Arab Leader Shocked Over Apparent Award Controversy

Imad Hamad, of Dearborn, who is the director of the Midwest region of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, was scheduled to receive the 2003 Director's Award for exceptional public service.

Hamad says he was called last week by Detroit FBI Director Willie Hulon, who said a flight attendant who died on one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, would instead be the honoree at the awards ceremony.

Hamad says there was no conflict over the change in recipients for the award, but a statement released by Cassandra Chandler, the FBI's assistant director of public affairs, says otherwise, Local 4 reported.

The following is the statement released by Chandler on Tuesday:

Mr. Imad Hamad, director of the Midwest Region of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and a community leader in Detroit, Mich., was a nominee selected for the 2003 Director's Award for exceptional public service. It has recently come to our attention that evidence referencing Mr. Hamad has been filed in connection with an upcoming deportation proceeding against associates of his. Accordingly, this award has been withdrawn."

Hamad referred to the statement as puzzling, Local 4 reported. He told Local 4 that he would be shocked if that was the reason behind the FBI's change in plans.

Hamad told Local 4 that in his line of work -- being the director of a local civil-rights organization -- he has had several associates who may or may not have been subject to deportation.

The national and local offices of the FBI were not available for comment on the apparent award controversy.

[Alouette]

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[per loin]

Kinda like the National Bankers Association refusing Willie Sutton the "Frequent Customer Award".

[livius]

Well, it's not much, but at least it's something.

If you look back at the list of our Muslim "friends," you will notice that almost all of them have received community service awards from everyone ranging from the local ecumenical group to the White House.

Glad the FBI at least looked into this one first! And I thought their choice of an alternate was a good one.

[Incorrigible]

Debbie Schlussel

debbie@politicalusa.com

She's been all over this one.

[Alouette]

She's Ann Coulter's "mini-me"!

[NCjim]

Wow!

[tubavil]

Another innocent muslim suffers from backlash...(BARF)

From Pipes' recent weblog:

FBI Director Mueller Makes the Same Old Mistake. I criticized Robert Mueller in May 2002 for meeting with the American Muslim Council and having his spokesman announce that the FBI regards the AMC as "the most mainstream Muslim group in the United States." Now Debbie Schlussel reveals in today's New York Post that Imad Hamad, director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Michigan, is slated to receive the FBI's Exceptional Public Service Award, making him only one of two non-FBI civilians to be so honored this year. The irony of this choice is bitter indeed, for as Schlussel richly documents, "Hamad supports terrorism and was himself a suspected terrorist" (suspected that is, before arriving in the United States, of having been a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine). When-oh-when will the FBI understand that its role is only to protect us from terrorists, not to fête their apologists? (September 18, 2003) Permalink

[yonif]

ZOA Urges FBI to Cancel Award to Official of Pro-Terrorist Group 9-25 2003

[XHogPilot]

Ping

Local Arab Leader Stripped Of FBI Award

[Pan_Yans Wife]

ping

[nuconvert]

Imad Hamad, the Midwest Regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC). The ADC has praised Hezbollah --which massacred 241 Americans in a 1983 car-bomb attack in Lebanon-- as "a Lebanese resistance organization engaged in the legitimate defense of Lebanese land...[t]his hardly qualifies as terrorism." "I think that Hezbollah fought a very good war against the Israelis, a guerrilla war..." (Rivera Live, CNBC, June 5, 2000)"
"Immigration and Naturalization Service fought for more than 20 years to have Hamad deported from the U.S. to his native Lebanon,"

(Thanks for the link, Yonif.)

What the....?
"Been trying to deport him for 20 years...."
Who the heck is supposed to check before giving out these awards, anyway?
This guy must have stacks of papers and files on him 6 ft high, sitting at the FBI.
Sheeesh!!!
I'm glad SOMEONE caught it in time.

[nuconvert]

thanks

[Tijeras_Slim]

If the FBI has the time to give out awards, I guess they've got the terror thing all wrapped up. That's a relief.

[Alouette]

Here is the article by Debbie Schklussel that did it:

Madeline Sweeney might be turning over in her grave.

On October 9th, the courageous flight attendant murdered aboard Flight 11, which hit the World Trade Center’s North Tower on 9/11, will be honored posthumously by FBI Director Robert Mueller.

Unfortunately, she is being honored along with a man who supports terrorism and was himself a suspected terrorist.

When Sweeney’s husband, Michael, accepts her award for Exceptional Public Service at a ceremony at FBI Headquarters in Washington, Imad Hamad will be bestowed with the same honor – the only other non-FBI civilian to be so honored in America, this year.

Given Hamad’s record, it is outrageous the FBI would honor him for anything. And it is an abomination of Sweeney’s heroism in the face of sudden death by terrorists. (Information she gave on a phone call to the ground helped the FBI piece together evidence and reconstruct the hijackings.)

Born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, Hamad was a suspected member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Communist faction of Palestinian terrorism responsible for countless homicide bombings and the October 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi.

The INS was so opposed to Hamad’s presence in the United States that it fought to deport him for over two decades. But, under political pressure from Michigan politicians, like Senator Carl Levin and Rep. David Bonior, the immigration judge chose to disregard classified evidence, and he is now a U.S. citizen. (Hamad’s lawyer, Noel Saleh, proudly proclaimed that he—Saleh—financially supported Hezbollah.)

Since then, as Midwest Regional Director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), Hamad has been busy promoting the terrorist cause—doing interviews throughout the Detroit media supporting Hezbollah, Hamas, and Islamic hate.

In a 2002 broadcast on Detroit’s FOX affiliate, Imad Hamad supported a Palestinian Authority TV "Sesame Street"-style program that urges Palestinian children to kill Jews and Christians and urges them to become homicide bombers. In it, a boy sings, "When I wander into Jerusalem, I will become a suicide bomber." Another song: "How pleasant is the smell of martyrs . . . the land enriched by the blood, the blood pouring out of a fresh body." Hamad called the program "patriotic."

In a March 1999 Detroit News interview, Hamad defended the same program and Palestinian textbooks that portray Westerners, Christians, and Jews as the enemies of Islam and the Arab World.

Hamad has opposed virtually every arrest, indictment and conviction of Islamic terrorists.

When men were arrested (and later convicted) for smuggling arms to Hezbollah over Detroit’s Ambassador Bridge, Hamad wished for "better U.S. relations with Hezbollah," the terrorist group which murdered over 300 American Marines and civilians. "People here are morally supportive" of Hezbollah, he said. When Customs raided several Islamic businesses and arrested owners for laundering over $50 million per year to Yemen in violation of the Patriot Act, Hamad protested. When four Detroit Al-Quaida sleeper cell suspects were charged (three were convicted) of plotting to blow up landmarks and tourist attractions, Hamad protested that, too.

Then there’s the 2002 National Palestinian Student Conference on the Palestine Solidarity Movement, whose ostensible purpose was to promote divestment from Israel. "Annihilate the Jews" was chanted in Arabic at the University of Michigan conference, which featured indicted alleged Islamic Jihad frontman Sami Al-Arian as its keynote speaker, along with other anti-Western, anti-Semitic speakers, some with terrorist ties. Hamad’s Michigan ADC sponsored and endorsed the conference, which was organized by ADC-University of Michigan chief Fadi Kiblawi. Under Hamad’s "leadership," Kiblawi authored an article stating he wished to "strap a bomb to one’s chest and kill" Jews.

At Michigan ADC’s April 25th awards banquet, Hamad gave its "Attorney of the Year" award to Nabih Ayad, an attorney for several accused terrorists and over 130 illegal Middle Eastern immigrants who paid off an INS employee to become instant greencard holders. Hamad and Ayad sued to keep them from being deported. Ayad’s clients, include Omar Abdel Fatah Al-Shishani—accused of attempting to launder $12 million in phony bank checks to fund Al-Quaida—who recently pled guilty to a lesser charge and is awaiting sentencing. Hamad defended him, too.

Hamad has been busy globetrotting to promote the Islamist cause. In January, he led a delegation to terrorist sponsor state Syria, where Syrian officials discussed American disinformation campaigns targeting Arabs and Muslims and hailed Hamad for "enlightening the US public opinion about the reality of the situation in the Middle East." In May, he visited Lebanese Parliament President and former Shi’ite Amal Militia chief Nabih Berry, leading a delegation which included several men who head Detroit Islamic charities that are suspected Hamas and Al-Quaida fronts.

Hamad’s latest effort is opposing Michigan Senate Resolution 77, which denounces Palestinian terrorism and supports Israel in fighting against it.

Hamad was nominated for the award by Detroit FBI Special Agent in Charge Willie Hulon because he organized BRIDGES, a group of Arabs who meet with Hulon and other Detroit federal agents once a month to protest arrests of suspected terrorists, and because he enlisted Hulon to partner with ADC for its unique brand of sensitivity training for Detroit area high schoolers. Since Hamad has opposed the FBI and other government efforts to thwart terrorism every step of the way and given his views, the FBI award is like an award to Fritz Kuhn and his Nazi-sympathizing German American Bund during World War II.

That would be bad enough.

But Robert Mueller is equating Hamad with a heroic murdered flight attendant who acted bravely in the face of terrorists.

You’d think the FBI would have more respect for the dead.

Debbie Schlussel is a political commentator and attorney.

[TADSLOS]

Glad to see it awarded posthumously to someone far more deserving, but more concerned why the FBI had this guy as a recipient in the first place.

[MinuteGal]

The FBI should not be involved in distributing awards, period. It may have been ok in the Dillinger and Capone eras, but today, selecting recipients is fraught with political peril. The practice should be discontinued.

Leni