CHICAGO - According to a report by the Associated Press published last Friday, Rasmieh Yousef Odeh – an associate director at the Arab American Action Network (AAAN) — was convicted in a terrorist attack decades ago in Israel and lied on an immigration application to become an American citizen.
Odeh served ten years in an Israeli prison after she participated in bombings that killed two people in 1969. Charged with immigration fraud, Odeh is slated to be deported from the United States and could spend ten more years in prison if convicted.
The Daily Caller goes into detail on the AAAN and its Chicago and Obama ties:
AAAN has long been tied to President Obama. In 2001 and 2002, the Woods Fund of Chicago, with Obama on its board, made grants totaling $75,000 to the AAAN—about a fifth of AAAN’s overall budget. Obama served in that role alongside Bill Ayers and received $6,000 a year from 1999-2002.
AAAN’s founder Rashid Khalidi and his wife Mona hosted Obama in their home on at least one occasion. Obama praised Khalidi’s insights, which had been “consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases.” Khalidi returned the compliment, telling a mostly Arab audience, that Obama is “the only candidate who has expressed sympathy for the Palestinian cause.”
AAAN former vice president Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada once told left-wing interviewer Amy Goodman in 2008: “I knew Barack Obama for many years as my state senator — when he used to attend events in the Palestinian community in Chicago all the time. I remember personally introducing him onstage in 1999, when we had a major community fundraiser for the community center in Deheisha refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. And that’s just one example of how Barack Obama used to be very comfortable speaking up for and being associated with Palestinian rights and opposing the Israeli occupation.”
