Dig Deeper Texas

Please, please, go read this whole article. It is worth the 5 minutes it will take.

MySA.com: Politics
Bonilla hits Rodriguez on terrorism matters

The “dangerous judgment” Bonilla attributed to Rodriguez was primarily his support for legislation that would have eliminated the use of secret evidence to deport or deny benefits to any undocumented immigrant. Bonilla’s attack put Rodriguez’s sponsorship of the legislation in a post-9-11 context, though it took place two years earlier.Conservative Republican Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia was among the bill’s co-sponsors, and Vice President Al Gore supported the legislation.

Now, I sure didn’t hear Bonilla saying that last night. I got the impression it had to be post-9/11 but I did know pretty quickly that it was certainly a skewed interpretation of a vote. Bonilla must be scared out of his wits to pull this kind of stunt.

In an Oct. 11, 2000, presidential debate with Gore, then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush seemed to support the legislation when he said, according to a New York Times transcript: There are “other forms of racial profiling that goes on in America. Arab Americans are racially profiled on what’s called secret evidence. People are stopped. And we got to do something about that.”

Of course, he was running for office at the time but interesting that Bonilla decided to leave that out too.

Bonilla, R-San Antonio, also sought to link Rodriguez to Abdurahman Alamoudi, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was sentenced to 23 years in federal prison in 2004 for illegal business transactions with Libya.

And what was supposed to tell Ciro Rodriguez in 1998 that this man would be convicted in 2004?

During a news conference Monday, retired FBI agent Al Ortiz said Rodriguez had sponsored a Capitol Hill “summit” where Alamoudi was one of the speakers. Alamoudi also contributed to Rodriguez’s campaign fund, Ortiz said.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks federal campaign contributions, Alamoudi gave Rodriguez $250 in 1998, before he came under criminal investigation. Between 1996 and 1998, he also contributed to then-Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Indiana, who went on to become co-chairman of the 9-11 Commission, and eight other congressmen, including former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, and former Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., who became Bush’s energy secretary.

Oh man, I just can’t tell you how much Bonilla’s stunt offends me. I hope the Rodriguez campaign hits them back hard.

Bonilla said Rodriguez’s acceptance of support from “known terrorists” and his support for the legislation “may be based on” the influence of a former aide named Asim Ghafoor, who later served as spokesman to two Islamic charities suspected of having ties to terrorist groups.

Ghafoor could not be reached for comment Monday. An employee at his office, the AG Consulting Group, said, “Wow, that’s crazy,” when told Ghafoor had become the subject of a political attack.

The employee, Jad Sarsourr, added, “I respect the candidate’s ambition to go at Asim like that. That’s brilliant, I think. They just need to say ‘terrorism’ — especially in a red state like Texas, that’s pretty smart.”

Then he said, “Has this guy ever heard of defamation?”

In an inch-thick packet released to the media, the biography of Ghafoor, now a Washington lawyer and political consultant, was drawn almost exclusively from DiscoverTheNetwork.org, a controversial Web site launched in 2004 that bills itself as “a guide to the political left.”

The creation of conservative activist and writer David Horowitz, the Web site draws links based on political contributions and other connections to liberal causes. Its other targets include singers Bruce Springsteen and Barbra Streisand and former network news anchors Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather.

Ghafoor’s links, according to the Web site, include “former spokesman for the terrorist-linked Global Relief Foundation,” among others.

In 2002, the Justice Department alleged links between the foundation and terrorist organizations. Ghafoor, as the foundation’s spokesman, said the group knew of no ties to al-Qaida. Three years later, a Senate panel dropped an investigation into ties between charities and terrorist organizations, saying it had learned nothing that warranted additional legislative action. Global Relief Foundation officials were never charged with a crime.

Wow, I have to say if I had any respect for Bonilla before this I certainly don’t now. Shame on him. Let’s hope the voters know a pathetic political stunt when they see one.

Filed under: Bonilla, Ciro Rodriguez, Congressional District 23, Henry Bonilla, Jack Abramoff, Runoff Election - December 12, Texas District 23, attack ads, climate of fear, dirty politics, dishonesty, double-speak, ethics, fake, mudslinging, political stunt, politics, rhetoric, run-off, runoff, scare tactics, spin, texas, texas politics