Remember that Anti-Radical Islam DVD, Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West, you got in your Herald two weekends ago? Remember how we said it was controversial, and possibly a teensy bit Anti-Islam, as opposed to plain old anti-Radical Islam? Remember how after we suggested The Herald should have included a bit of a disclaimer, two days later they did and interviewed the director of the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations? Do you remember Miami, do you?
Because now CAIR is asking the FEC to probe itself all up into the Clarion Fund, the shady organization that paid for the distribution of that DVD in the Herald and 70-something other newspapers. CAIR's thinking is that maybe, just maybe the fund "is really a front for an Israel-based group seeking to help Sen. John McCain win the U.S. presidential election," according to a press release they just sent out.
“According to the website for the Secretary of State for New York, Clarion Fund Inc. is incorporated in New York as a Delaware based foreign not-for-profit corporation. According to the Delaware Department of Corporations, Robert (Rabbi Raphael) Shore, Rabbi Henry Harris and Rebecca Kabat incorporated Clarion Fund. All three of whom are reported to serve as employees of Aish HaTorah International, an organization apparently based in Israel. Also according to the Delaware Department of Corporations, the incorporators of the Clarion Fund used Aish HaTorah’s New York City address (150 West 46th Street, New York) to incorporate Clarion Fund in Delaware. It appears that the funding for the production, marketing and distribution of ‘Obsession’ may have originated from Israel-based Aish HaTorah International.”
So, basically we know that a foreign group may have paid for the distribution of some propaganda that drummed up national security fears at the expense of Muslims. Normally Republicans would be up in arms about "Got Dang Foreigners" involving themselves in our election process, but since this benefits them we'll bet they'll be silent (because they, meaning the people who control the party, not necessarily the voters, appear to have no morals and standards anymore, and it has never been more evident than during this election cycle, so we doubt they'll man up now). And of course most of the mainstream papers aren't going to push the issue because they were the ones who profited from all of this, but it was wrong, it was bullshit, and the FEC isn't probably going to do anything about it either. Even if CAIR's probing into the issue turns out to be a bit off (and frankly, no one seems to have any idea who the backers of the Clarion fund are, and this is the best we've seen), we're glad someone isn't letting it get swept up under the rug.
While we're at it kudos to the Palm Beach Post (who also distributed the DVD) for coming down hard on the Clarion Fund:
"The irony is that The Clarion Fund, whatever the group is and whoever runs it, is operating like the secret cells it warns about. Terrorists are cowards. In their own way, so are the people sending out this campaign ad."
