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FBI Probing Anti-Bush Teddy Bear
The Smoking Gun ^ | June 22, 2004 | staff

Posted on 06/22/2004 10:05:44 AM PDT by Nachum

JUNE 22--The FBI has subpoenaed records related to the online sales of a teddy bear carrying the message "Bush Kills Arabs Dead," apparently as part of a probe into who delivered one of the plush toys to the Michigan home of a federal magistrate, The Smoking Gun has learned.

But, TSG has discovered, the Detroit U.S. Attorney's grand jury investigation will find that the teddy bear, pictured at right, wasn't some sort of a terror threat, but rather a gag gift purchased by a friend of Mona Majzoub, the federal magistrate. Last July, a court panel selected Majzoub, a 55-year-old Arab American lawyer from Detroit, to fill an open magistrate's slot.

The teddy tale began in late January, when two Michigan men spotted the stuffed bear for sale in an online store connected to georgewbush.org, a parody site critical of the president and his administration. One of the men, Michael J. Brady, is a 59-year-old lawyer who chairs the Michigan bar's criminal law committee. The other web surfer, George Gish, is a retired court administrator and friend of Majzoub's. In a TSG interview, Brady said that Gish, 64, thought the bear would make a perfect gift for his friend Mazjoub, who Gish wanted to needle for her support of Bush and the Iraq war.

Brady, who ordered the bear and had the item sent to Gish's Southfield home, said he believed his friend "took it to her house and left it on her porch." Brady noted that he did not know whether Gish told Majzoub he was responsible for the gift, adding that his friend believed Majzoub would immediately realize who was responsible for the prank.

That may have been a miscalculation on the part of Gish, pictured left, who could not be reached for comment.

Because on May 24, a federal grand jury subpoena was issued to the California company that maintained the online store offering the 11-inch teddy bear. The subpoena sought a list of customers (and their addresses) who purchased the $15.99 item, known as product #8632701. In a June 7 response sent to FBI agent Angela Ryan, the company, CafePress.com, reported selling only one of the teddy bears during the period specified in the subpoena (October 2003 to February 2004). A CafePress invoice provided to the FBI records the sale of the item to Brady and the delivery of the teddy bear to Gish.

The firm provides print on demand services to thousands of web sites and small companies that want to offer personalized merchandise, but do not want to deal with the hassle of storage and order fulfillment, according to Maneesh Jain, CafePress's co-founder. Jain told TSG that FBI agents did not describe the nature of the bureau probe, just that they were looking into a "teddy bear transaction."

Citing grand jury secrecy rules, prosecutor Sheldon Light, whose name appears on the subpoena and who heads the U.S. attorney's general crimes unit, declined comment on a "pending investigation." Ryan did not return a phone message left at the Detroit FBI office.

While advertised as a "great companion for those cold winter mornings," the "Bush Kills Arabs Dead" teddy bear was delivered to Majzoub at a time when such items--and their pointed messages--could easily be misconstrued by investigators monitoring threats of all kinds.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: antibush; fbi; probing; teddybear

1 posted on 06/22/2004 10:05:46 AM PDT by Nachum
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To: Nachum

Your hard-earned tax dollars at work. Get a job for life in the FBI. Checking on toy teddy bears is so much easier than inflitrating muslim groups, even though it's also less effective. Let's have some results, boys.


2 posted on 06/22/2004 10:13:11 AM PDT by henderson field
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To: Nachum
The FBI has subpoenaed records related to the online sales of a teddy bear carrying the message "Bush Kills Arabs Dead,"

That is SO cute! I want one. Wait, this is a pro-Bush ploy, right?

3 posted on 06/22/2004 10:13:58 AM PDT by Captain Rabbit (Kuck Ferry. Kuck Fofi.)
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To: Nachum

Moral of the story?

Sometimes you get the bear, sometimes the bear gets you.


4 posted on 06/22/2004 10:16:45 AM PDT by Badeye ("The day you stop learning, is the day you begin dying")
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To: Badeye

Gosh, I always hear it was, " Some Days you eat the bear, and others the bear eats you".


5 posted on 06/22/2004 10:20:31 AM PDT by Nachum
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To: Captain Rabbit
LOL

Here is the culprit (from Drudge):

Sure looks like a photo shop on the wording. Probably done just for clarity of message.

6 posted on 06/22/2004 10:24:05 AM PDT by Michael.SF. ('President Reagan has died, but don't lower the flag until we have too'.....DNC)
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To: Nachum

"Gosh, I always hear it was, " Some Days you eat the bear, and others the bear eats you"."

Either version seems appropriate.....(grin)


7 posted on 06/22/2004 10:24:09 AM PDT by Badeye ("The day you stop learning, is the day you begin dying")
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To: Michael.SF.

hmm seems pro-bush to me.


8 posted on 06/22/2004 10:49:14 AM PDT by kingofrock
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To: Michael.SF.

Looks like the bears we used to sell at Kinkos. You could get anything you wanted printed on it's little shirt.


9 posted on 06/22/2004 10:52:51 AM PDT by wingnutx (tanstaafl)
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To: Nachum

I saw the picture on Drudge and my first thought was that it wasn't anti-Bush. I want one.


10 posted on 06/22/2004 11:04:55 AM PDT by rabidralph (My pit bull drives an SUV.)
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To: Michael.SF.
I'm sure the geniuses at the FBI think that fluffy little bear might commit a hate crime.

They'll haul the little bear in, give him some reeducation, and then use him to infiltrate skinheads in Idaho.

11 posted on 06/22/2004 11:05:39 AM PDT by Reactionary
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To: Nachum
When plush toys go bad....


12 posted on 06/22/2004 11:08:44 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim (John Kerry - Not the Swiftest Boat in the Delta.)
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To: Nachum
Hey! This is an outrage! Teddy Bears support Bush.


13 posted on 06/22/2004 11:15:42 AM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Wouldn't you know it? I just ran out of bubblegum)
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To: Tijeras_Slim

isnt great when orwellian political correctness gets the leftists in trouble too.


14 posted on 06/22/2004 11:27:33 AM PDT by SGTARKyTEK
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To: Nachum

the headline just sounds perverse.


15 posted on 06/22/2004 11:58:45 AM PDT by King Prout (the difference between "trained intellect" and "indoctrinated intellectual" is an Abyssal gulf)
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