Many Americans know of Ilhan Omar because of her anti-Israel record and shocking anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about American Jews using their “Benjamins” to buy control of Congress. Writes Hugh Fitzgerald
Ever since her election to Congress in 2018, Ilhan Omar been conducting her very own foreign policy, not just against Israel, that in her view can do no right, and for the Palestinians, who can do no wrong, but also to help Somalia attract more investment from Turkey, to support President Erdogan’s rejection of the charge of an Armenian “genocide”; to make the case for the jihadists in Kashmir who want to force Indian troops out of the area; and, of course, to promote the agenda of CAIR, that rewards her handsomely as one of their favorite speakers. Omar apparently has no qualms about being so closely associated with CAIR, even though the group was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of the Holy Land Foundation for terrorist financing.
More on the very busy Ilhan Omar can be found in an article here: “EXPOSED: The Sick, Secret, Hateful, Anti-Semitic History of Ilhan Omar,” by Larry Ben-David, Matsav.com, October 25, 2022:
…I observe [with alarm] the activities of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), an advocate for Muslim Kashmir, outspoken opponent of India, proponent of radical Islam, enemy of Israel and unofficial ambassador for the Muslim Brotherhood and its US affiliate the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Many Americans know of Omar because of her anti-Israel record and shocking anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about American Jews using their “Benjamins” to buy control of Congress. Omar apologized for some of her racist comments, but her Democratic colleagues refused to take disciplinary measures against her, and her constituents did not reject her at the polls….
Minnesota State Senator Ilhan Omar announced her intention to run for the U.S. House of Representatives in June 2018. According to the Federal Election Commission, by August 2018, she had begun to receive campaign contributions from CAIR:
CAIR was “named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007 trial of the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) in Texas. Officials from the Holy Land Foundation were later found guilty of diverting funds to Hamas.”
During the trial, “evidence in the case put CAIR’s founder, Nihad Awad, at a Philadelphia meeting of alleged Hamas supporters that was secretly watched and recorded by the FBI,” the Associated Press reported.
CAIR had been grooming Omar for national office since 2017. She was the keynote speaker at CAIR’s Annual Banquet in Chicago that February. [At the time she was a state senator in Minneapolis]. At the 2019 Banquet, she debuted as a member of the House of Representatives. Omar is now a regular speaker at CAIR events.
How much, do you think, CAIR pays Ilhan Omar to speak at its meetings? Or does she perhaps do it for free, because she knows CAIR will pay her in other ways, as a generous contributor to her congressional campaign, or perhaps as a client of her husband’s “political consultancy and advertising” business?
In Sept. 2017, while still a state senator, Omar met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in New York. The reasons for such a high-level meeting are unclear, but it is not improbable that it was to express CAIR’s support for Erdoğan. Indeed, CAIR leaders met with Erdoğan the same day. The Turkish president was in need of such support, as he was facing criticism from the U.S. government and American Jews after he allowed Hamas—which had just been expelled from Saudi Arabia—to establish itself in Turkey.
Moreover, Omar was leading a delegation of Somalis who were apparently members of the Somali parliament. Details of the meeting were few. A Somali-English newspaper published in Minnesota, The Tusmo Times, ran an account of the meeting, but alas, the story disappeared from the internet.
Thanks to internet recovery archives and a translation, the Tusmo Times article was found. Omar told the paper that, in her one-hour meeting, she “discussed with Erdogan how to promote the 10 members of the Somali parliament and the Somali parliamentarians.” The Tusmo Times continued, “Omar also discussed with Erdogan how his government would contribute to the development of the fisheries sector in Somalia, investment and trade cooperation between Somalia and Turkey. Omar and Erdogan also discussed strengthening relations between Somalia and Turkey in the United States.”
The mind swirls. Here is Ilhan Omar, at the time still a Minnesota state senator, conducting her own foreign policy, but not to promote American interests. She was meeting with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accompanied by her ten-member Somali delegation, to promote purely Somali interests. She discussed how Erdogan could help certain Somali parliamentarians in their political careers, presumably by contributing to their campaigns both money and expertise. She also tried to persuade Erdogan to help Somali fisheries, and to increase Turkish trade with, and investment in, Somalia. What does any of that have to do with being a state senator in Minnesota? It would not be surprising to discover that she was being paid to act as a lobbyist for Somali businesses and fisheries, and for Somalia itself. The comical congressional identification for her turns out to be true: “Ilhan Omar (D-Mogadishu).”
Who was behind her request to Erdogan to promote Turkish-Somali investment and trade? Could it have been members of Ilhan Omar’s extended clan back in Somalia? How much was she paid to act as the agent of Somali interests? Many questions, and as yet few answers. And once the story of her meeting with Erdogan that appeared in the Somali-English newspaper in Minneapolis, the Tusmo Times, was remarked upon, it quickly disappeared from the Internet. Who removed it, and why?
Who was Omar representing in her meeting with Erdogan? The Minnesota voters, or a cabal of Somali politicians, and Somali business interests, who had employed her services? Wouldn’t she have been required to register with the U.S. Justice Department as a foreign agent for Somalia? Was she in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act?
In Sept. 2019, now-Rep. Omar received a $1,500 campaign contribution from the Turkish American National Steering Committee, a lobbying group with ties to Erdoğan. On Oct. 30, 2019, Omar was one of the few congresspeople to abstain on a bill that labeled the Turkish massacre of Armenians a “genocide.” A quid pro quo is unproven, but not improbable.
When Ilhan Omar abstained – one of only a handful of members of Congressmen to do so – on a bill labelling the Turkish massacre of Armenians a “genocide,” one wonders whether the government of Turkey had perhaps arranged to employ Omar’s husband’s firm to do P.R. work for it. After all, Omar is keenly aware of the role of money; it was she who famously said that pro-Israel support in Washington was “all about the Benjamins.” Her husband’s net worth has greatly increased. That increase began when her own campaign gave his E-Street Group $3 million for its “political consultancy/advertising services.” Do you think Mynett just might have been paid for services rendered a special, grossly inflated sum by Omar’s campaign? That’s one more question that needs to be answered. There are so many surrounding the louche activities of Ilhan Omar and her most recent husband, the beaming convert to Islam, Tim Mynett.
