Israel Matzav: Obama-Clinton State Department backs moron who blamed Israel for 9/11

Friday, October 05, 2012

Obama-Clinton State Department backs moron who blamed Israel for 9/11

On Wednesday, I reported that Muslim Political Affairs Council President Salam al-Maryati was one of the delegates to a recent human rights conference. Al-Maryati has accused Israel of being behind the 9/11 attacks.

On Thursday, the Obama-Clinton State Department - the one that has the closest cooperation with Israel evah - called al-Maryati 'valued and highly credible.' Give me a break....

The State Department stood by al-Marayati Thursday, telling the Free Beacon that the Israel critic is “valued and highly credible.”

“Mr. al-Marayati has been involved in U.S. government initiatives for almost 10 years and has been a valued and highly credible interlocutor on issues affecting Muslim communities,” a spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the OSCE told the Free Beacon in a statement. “He was invited to participate in this year’s HDIM as a reflection of the wide diversity of backgrounds of the American people.”

Officials in the State Department and U.S Helsinki Commission selected al-Marayati after “consultations,” the OSCE official said. The Helsinki Commission is a federal body that was established to liaise with the OSCE.

“The United States invites public members to join the U.S. delegation and make presentations to the OSCE’s annual Human Dimension Implementation Meetings (HDIM) in Warsaw after consultations within the Department and with the U.S. Helsinki Commission,” according to the spokesman.

The inclusion of citizens like al-Marayati is normal, the spokesman said.

“Including public members as part of our delegation to the HDIM has been a consistent practice since early on in the Helsinki Process,” said the OSCE official.

News of al-Maratati’s participation in the confab came as a shock to pro-Israel advocates.
“It is inexplicable that a person who blamed Israel for the 9/11 attacks and advocated for terrorist organizations, including Hamas and Hezbollah—which has killed more Americans than any terrorist group in the world except al Qaeda—was chosen to represent the United States,” Josh Block, a former Clinton administration official who now serves as CEO of The Israel Project, told the Free Beacon Wednesday.

...

The U.S. embassies in Poland and Brussels both praised al-Marayati’s participation.
“Much can be done to fight hatred without restricting speech, or prohibiting the ‘defamation of religion’,” the U.S. Embassy in Brussels tweeted Wednesday, including a link to the speech al-Marayati delivered to delegates.

The U.S. embassy in Poland issued a similar statement Wednesday.

“The United States is proud to have Mr. Salam al-Marayati of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, Professor Ethel Brooks of Rutgers University, and Ms. Nida Gelazis of the Woodrow Wilson Institute serving as public members in the USG delegation to HDIM,” the embassy said in a statement. “Their expertise will be invaluable in addressing these topics at the meeting.”