Former California Rep. Pete McCloskey, running against Rep. Richard Pombo in Tuesday's GOP primary in an effort to regain a seat in Congress, is returning a $2,100 campaign donation he received from a man tied to al-Qaeda.
The money was from M. Yaqub Mirza, a Pakistan native living in Virginia, who has been investigated by the Justice Department for allegedly helping to finance al-Qaeda and Islamic Jihad. Mirza's offices were raided by federal authorities in March 2002.
McCloskey has courted support from the Muslim community, and also has criticized Israeli foreign policy and was a personal friend of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. McCloskey is also chairman of the Council on the National Interest, a group dedicated to combating what it calls the "Israel lobby" in Washington (he should get together with Walt & Mearsheimer). In 2000, McCloskey gave a featured address to the Holocaust denial group Institute for Historical Review. In his speech, McCloskey lashed out at Jews for allegedly controlling the media and funding his defeat when he challenged Pete Wilson for U.S. Senate:
"In the 1982 primary election race I lost the Republican party nomination for the U.S. Senate to Pete Wilson. He went up to the San Fernando Valley and made a promise to the Jewish leaders of that powerful Jewish area that if elected to the Senate he would favor Israel's annexation of the West Bank and Gaza. That story was reported, but then absolutely hushed up. You've never heard the story since. The Jewish community has the power to suppress, either by advertising or control of the media, news reports that are hostile to Israel, and they have the ability to discredit anyone who speaks out. And that's their purpose."
A review of state and federal campaign finance records shows Mirza has contributed at least $17,500 to political groups over the past 20 years. He gave $1,400 to Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis in 1987 and $1,600 to the Republican National Senatorial Committee from 2001 to 2002. Virginia Democratic Rep. Jim Moran - who blamed Jews for the war in Iraq - received $3,950 over the years, and, most notoriously, Georgia Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney got $500 on Sept. 11, 2001.
Perhaps the biggest outrage of all doesn't even come from the principles of the story, but from the AP. In their story about the campaign donation, they characterize McCloskey as a "moderate former House member."
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