More
HenchPAC NewsNEW YORK (AP) - Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday she would return $50,000 raised for her Senate campaign by an Arab-American organization.
''All $50,000, every penny of it, is going back,'' Clinton said.
Clinton said she had no idea the American Muslim Alliance was behind the fund-raiser held June 13 in a Boston hotel. Her campaign thought the event was organized by a Boston businessman, Shahid Ahmed Khan. No phone number could be found for Khan.
''I resent deeply this organization acting as though it hosted this event,'' she said. ''It was not the case.''
Texas Gov. George W. Bush's presidential campaign has been endorsed by a coalition that includes the American Muslim Alliance.
There was no answer at the American Muslim Alliance's headquarters in Fremont, Calif. The group's national president, Agha Saeed, has said Palestinians should pursue their own state in the West Bank and Gaza first through peaceful means. But he told the Daily News - which first reported links between the Muslim group and the Clinton fund-raiser - that United Nations resolutions ''say specifically they have the right to resist by armed force.''
Clinton said: ''I strongly disagree with the positions taken by this group.''
The American Muslim Alliance web site features a photograph of Clinton at the fund-raiser holding a plaque inscribed with the organization's name.
Clinton said she receives thousands of plaques and routinely hands them to aides without examining them.
Asked if she had been ''set up'' - in other words, if the organization intentionally concealed its sponsorship of the event - she said: ''I don't know.''
But she added: ''Somebody was trying to take advantage of me. ... We have 13 days left in this election. Fasten your seat belts. You have no idea what's going to be thrown at me.''
Clinton's Republican Senate opponent Rep. Rick Lazio called the money raised for Clinton ''blood money.''
Jewish support is crucial for Clinton in her race against Lazio, and she has repeatedly voiced support for Israel during the current Mideast crisis. Jews comprise 12 percent of New York voters. Polls show Clinton leading Lazio 2-1 among Jews, with a slim lead over Lazio among all voters.
Ed Bruley, a campaign spokesman for Rep. David Bonior, D-Mich., the House minority whip, defended the American Muslim Alliance as ''a mainstream group.'' He said many of its members are professionals who have never advocated violence: ''These are respected people.''
One of Clinton's donors, Abdurahman Alamoudi, who gave the first lady $1,000, is quoted in the Daily News as voicing support for Hamas, which has taken responsibility for suicide bombings in Israel. Alamoudi, an official of the American Muslim Council in Washington, was out of the country and could not be reached by phone, the group said.
Alamoudi also gave Bush $1,000. Ray Sullivan, a Bush spokesman, said the contribution would be returned.
Members of the council have also visited the White House to celebrate Muslim holidays, a practice Clinton defended as part of the Clinton administration's effort to ''open lines of communication and build bridges with Muslim-Americans and Muslim leaders from all over the world.''
HENCH adds: Hillary: "Damnit, who's the F***ing Jew Bastard that spilled the beans and forced me to give that $50k back? I want that motherf***er DEAD!"
More
HenchPAC News
[ Home ] [ News ] [ Products ]
To leave HENCH a message,
comment, or link: