Has Philanthropist Lester Crown Been Duped By Islamists?
December 5, 2007 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Lester Crown, a Chicago based philanthropist and chairman of Material Services, a company which "engages in the mining and sale of aggregates for use in construction," appears to have been duped into working on a project for Palestinian development by the radical Islamist Talat Othman.
A press release by the American Task Force on Palestine [ATFP] announced the formation of the "Public Private Partnership to Benefit the Palestinian People," with Lester Crown as one of the co-chairs. The president of the ATFP is Ziad Asali and Talat Othman is the organization’s secretary treasurer.
The launching of the Public-Private Partnership was announced by Condoleeza Rice at the Aspen Institute on December 3, 2007.
According to the press release the PPP will focus on "sustainable development, job creation and training and youth education and leadership development."
The ATFP's involvement in the project should raise red flags as it is populated by Islamists and whose secretary treasurer, millionaire Talat Othman is the former chairman of the Islamic Free Market Institute run by Khalid Saffuri and Grover Norquist and has close ties to Saudi Arabia. 1.
Among AFTP's key players are:
Hussein Ibish - An AFTP senior fellow who believes that Washington practices terrorism and is an inveterate Israel basher.
"Ibish apologizes for many groups the U.S. government deems terrorist, starting with Osama bin...President Bush calls Hamas "one of the deadliest terrorist organizations in the world today" but...[Ibish]...touts its accomplishments "running hospitals and schools and orphanages." 2.
Rashid Khalidi - Co-founder of the AFTP and its current vice president, is a virulent critic of Israel and a supporter of Fatah terrorist, Yasser Arafat
"Khalidi's rhetorical assaults on the Jewish State are frequently indistinguishable from the conspiracy mongering practiced with such vitriol by the Arab press. Among the more disturbed of Khalidi's charges against Israel is his inflammatory claim that the Israeli army is in possession of "awful weapons of mass destruction (many supplied by the U.S.) that it has used in cities, villages and refugee camps." 3.
Khalidi has denounced Israel as an "apartheid" state.
Talat Othman is president of the founding committee of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago (CIOGC). In 2002 The CIOGC received a message of congratulations on their 10th anniversary from Rafiq Jaber the head of the Islamic Association of Palestine, the American wing of Hamas:
"Congratulations to the Council on its tenth anniversary. It is only 10 years young & getting better. May Allah (swt) guide & grant the leaders of this great organization the wisdom to build a great Muslim community, for a better America. Rafiq Jabr, President Islamic Assn of Palestine." 4.
The director of the CIOGC, Talat Sunbulli, sits on the board of the Bridgeview Mosque Foundation - a hard-line, terror friendly mosque - and has also been linked to Mohammed Salah, who was convicted of helping to finance the murder of the American teenager David Boim, shot to death by Hamas terrorists.
The court awarded the Boim family $156 million dollars in damages. The Islamic Association of Palestine a defendant in the suit was ordered to pay compensation but instead went underground and shut down its website. 5.
Talat Othman's connection to the project and his work with the CIOGC and other organizations is further proof of the ATFP's odious ties. His participation at any level will ensure that the project, regardless of it being called a "peace venture," will benefit terrorist enterprises.
It is particularly troubling to note that Othman's efforts are apparently unknowingly being aided and abetted by wealthy philanthropists in the Chicago area, people like Lester Crown and the heads of othe religious organizations who also sit on the Advisory board of Chicago's Catholic teaching institution, the Bernardin Center.
The American Task Force on Palestine and Talat Othman have documented ties to the Saudi Wahhabists and the Islamic Association of Palestine which is Hamas. We therefore urge Lester Crown to sever his relationship with this group at once and terminate his involvement in any projects which are connected to ATFP's and Othman's taint.
In a prescient article entitled "How the West Could Lose" Dr. Daniel Pipes wrote that "Should Islamists get smart and avoid mass destruction, but instead stick to the lawful-political and non- violent route it is difficult to see what will stop them."
The AFTP's piggy backing on the Palestinian Public Private Partnership is employing that very strategy.
For more documentation see: From Interfaith to Intifada- Talat Othman "The American Task Force on Palestine-the CIOCG-the IAP-Hamas and CTU's Bernardin Center.6.
Footnotes:
1. Sourcewatch, http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Talat_Othman
2. Daniel Pipes, "[Hussein Ibish:] U.S. Arabs' Firebrand," http://www.danielpipes.org/article/141
3. Discover the Networks, http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1347
4. CIOG website, http://www.ciogc.org/events/10th_anniversary/support_messages.html#Othman
5. Militant Islam Monitor, http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/341
6. Militant Islam Monitor, http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/1405
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