Sen. Dick Durbin |
A Palestinian activist tied to a Hamas front group helped shape the Senate hearing under way today to spotlight alleged "anti-Muslim bigotry" in America, WND has learned.
In fact, the radical activist is a top aide to the senator chairing the hearing, Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois.
Durbin aide Reema B. Dodin – who's in regular contact with the terror-tied Council on American-Islamic Relations – is a Palestinian-rights activist who organized anti-Israel rallies as a campus radical at the University of California at Berkeley.
Commenting on the 9/11 attacks as a leader of the radical Muslim Students Association – which was founded by Muslim Brotherhood members – Dodin explained away the suicide attacks as a tragic but inevitable response to U.S. support for Israel, which she says is "angering" Muslims the world over.
"No one wants to stop and think that these young men, in the prime of their lives, choose to do this to themselves. Why?" she asked in an interview with a campus magazine. "Because now you have three generations of Palestinians born under occupation."
"Maybe if you start to look at Palestinians as human beings," she added, "you will stop the suicide bombers."
Dodin, 30, went on to justify violent jihad.
"Islam does teach that you must defend yourself," she said. "You cannot lie down and allow yourself, your home, your property, your family, and your people to be consistently oppressed."
At the same time, she condemned U.S. strikes against the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan, complaining that the military was "just going to hit innocent civilians," according to the explosive book "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America."
Terror expert Steve Emerson suggested Dodin, who he says sends out emails reflecting the Egypt-based "Muslim Brotherhood's views in the U.S.," is acting as an agent of influence for the Brotherhood's operations inside America and should be fired from her congressional post.
"This is a woman who should not be working as a staff member," he said in an interview yesterday with SecureFreedom radio in Washington.
"Certainly her activism on the staff while she's working for Sen. Durbin is tolerated by him," Emerson added. "And if it isn't tolerated by him, she should be fired."
Dodin in 2001 was among more than 100 protesters calling for the University of California to divest from Israel, according to the "Berkeley Daily Planet." Thirty-two of the demonstrators were arrested when they stormed the largest lecture hall on campus.
Today, Durbin's senior legislative aide points to the election of two Muslim congressmen – Democrats Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Andre Carson of Indiana – as proof Muslims can penetrate "the system" and bring about change from within.
"Muslim Mafia" cited Dodin as one of several radical "Muslim moles" CAIR and other Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas fronts have cultivated inside the offices of key Democrat leaders. Four Republican members of Congress in 2009 demanded the Justice Department investigate the influence operations of CAIR on the Hill, based on documents and other findings in the book.
Dodin caucuses with Washington-based CAIR when its leaders host breakfasts or attend Friday juma prayers on Capitol Hill, according to the bestselling book, co-authored by investigative journalist Paul Sperry and former federal agent P. David Gaubatz. Her name is also prominent in the digital rolodex of CAIR's legislative director, internal records cited by the book show. She's listed under "Hill Staff."
Her boss Durbin, in turn, has actively supported CAIR – including recently helping the group raise money in Chicago – despite its documented ties to terrorists.
"It's consistent with his whole entire policy of the last seven years of protecting radical Islamic groups," Emerson charged.
The Justice Department says CAIR is a terrorist front group for Hamas and its parent the Muslim Brotherhood. CAIR in 2007 was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a criminal scheme to funnel millions of dollars to Hamas suicide bombers and their families, prompting the FBI to cut off all outreach to the group.
"We do not have a relationship with CAIR. There are individuals in CAIR with whom we had issues with and continue to have issues with," FBI Director Robert Mueller testified last month, specifically citing "concerns with regard to the national leadership."
A federal grand jury in Washington is actively investigating CAIR and its co-founders – including its current executive directors – and their ties to Hamas, which is a federally designated terrorist group that has murdered countless Israelis and at least 17 Americans, while injuring more than 100 U.S. citizens.
Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, heads the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on human rights. Hill sources say Dodin, a lawyer who works as his counsel, recommended the top witness for today's hearing – fellow San Francisco-area Muslim activist Farhana Khera.
Khera's group, Muslim Advocates, has sued the Justice Department to disclose classified details about the FBI's undercover operations program to disrupt terrorist activities inside radical mosques in America. Her group also advises Muslim witnesses and suspects not to talk to the FBI.
Dodin is related to radical Palestinian activist and Hamas supporter Bajis Dodin, who has taught at universities in Cairo, Egypt.
"What Israel has done and [is] doing against the civilians in Lebanon and Palestine are horrible crimes against humanity. These crimes are as bad as those of Adolf Hitler," Bajis Dodin said. "If we are to have peace and justice on this earth, then Israeli leaders and generals must be arrested and face justice."
The Dodin family lives in the Palestinian territories.
"My family is under occupation, and they are resisting occupation," Bajis Dodin said. "Their lives are hell."
After Israel retaliating against Hezbollah terrorists for firing rockets across the Lebanese border last decade, Bajis Dodin warned: "This is going to boomerang on Israel."