Markos Moulitsas, founder and main author of Daily Kos

Sen. Barack Obama's campaign has admitted to receiving $33,500 in illegal foreign contributions from three brothers in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, but the left-wing Daily Kos website suggests WND – whose Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein investigated the story – might have concocted a convoluted scheme to make the Illinois senator look bad.

The brothers in question – Monir, Hosan and Osama Edwan – spoke on the record about the online donations to the presidential candidate.

"It could be true that [donations] were made, but as a part of a deliberate set-up to make Obama look bad. ... Aaron Klein reports from the Israel for WND. ... Again, obviously if an actual illegal donation was actually made it should be returned, but it would be interesting to find out who really made it and why," reads an article on the Daily Kos site.

"By the way, Aaron Klein is clearly an [sic] conservative anti-Obama reporter for the ultra-right-wing WorldNetDaily," the site contends.

In response, WND editor and publisher Joseph Farah commended the Daily Kos team for "their imagination in suggesting WND actually set up the Palestinian donations to the Obama campaign."

"That's a good one! It was an elaborate sting operation by an independent news source not feeding at the Obama media trough, says Daily Kos. Talk about your twisted, convoluted conspiracy tales. … Maybe WND was also behind the forged Obama birth certificate published by Daily Kos.

"Making up these wacky stories shows the desperate lengths Daily Kos will go to deny their beloved candidate would do anything wrong," Farah added.

(Story continues below)

Obama's campaign yesterday contended it returned the $33,500 in illegal contributions from the Gazan Palestinians, but the donors told WND they have not received any money.

The Wall Street Journal reported it spoke to Obama officials who said the donations from three Palestinian brothers were received between Sept. 20 and Dec. 6 last year, and virtually all of the money was returned by Dec. 6. The campaign said, however, the refunds were not reported to the Federal Election Commission due to a technical error. The Obama camp insisted the remaining $2,500 was refunded Monday and all of the refunds will be reflected soon in an amended report. The campaign said new controls are in place to prevent any similar attempts in the future.

But WND asked two of the brothers – Monir and Hasam Edwan – to respond to the campaign's claims.

"No, we did not receive any money back from the Obama campaign at any time," said Monir Edwan.

Last week, the blog Atlas Shrugs outlined the series of donations made on Obama's official website last year by Monir Edwan and Hosam Edwan, totaling $29,521.54. The third brother, Osama, reportedly gave the campaign about $4,000.

In an online form on Obama's site, the Edwans listed their street as "Tal Esaltan," which they wrote was located in "Rafah, GA."

Rafah is not a city in Georgia. The Atlas blog immediately raised concerns that the money may have been donated from the Gaza Strip town of Rafah.

The Edwans' donations are listed in both FEC filings and other election filing sites, such as CampaignMoney and donordata.org.

Monir made 20 donations ranging from $717 to $2017.50 from October through November 2007. His donations totaled $24321.41. Hosam made seven donations ranging from $508.63 to $1725.96, totaling $5,200.13, all in October 2007.

A WND investigation tracked down the Edwans in the Tal Esaltan neighborhood of Rafah, a large refugee camp in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Speaking to WND, the two brothers praised Obama and admitted giving the money online to his campaign. They said they are not U.S. citizens or green card holders but are citizens of "Palestine."

The Edwans denied they are affiliated with Hamas.

The Edwans continue to maintain – as they told WND earlier this week – that the financial transactions made on Obama's campaign website were not actual donations but purchases of "Obama for President" T-shirts, a contention that didn't hold up during a WND interview. The transactions, however, were listed as donations in U.S. government election filings.

The donations violate election laws, including prohibitions on receiving contributions from foreigners and against accepting more than $2,300 from one individual during a single election

"My brother Hosam and I knew that Obama will be a big hit even before he became a candidate. We knew the guy would be a celebrity in Gaza so we decided to invest the amount of $29,000 to buy Obama T-shirts from his website and sell them in Gaza," Monir Edwan told WND, speaking by cell phone from Gaza.

Asked how he managed to get shipments of T-shirts into the Gaza Strip during the time Israel imposed a tight closure, Edwan maintained the packages were sent to him by the U.S. Postal Service.

Monir Edwan said he wants Obama to be president.

"Not just the people in Gaza but people from all over the world are rooting for this great man," he told WND.

 

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To interview Aaron Klein, contact M. Sliwa Public Relations by e-mail, or call 973-272-2861 or 212-202-4453.

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