Social Conservatives Cheer Islamic ‘Ex-Terrorist’ Huckster At Values Voter Summit

[trailmonkee]

Last edited Fri Sep 14, 2012, 09:28 PM - Edit history (2)

Source: TPM



In a surreal performance, Kamal Saleem took the stage at the conservative Value Voters Summit Friday in Washington and described a life working as a jihadist for a who’s who of Muslim dictators on a mission to destroy America, Israel, and anyone else he disagreed with.

The crowd, virtually entirely right wing and Christian, went wild with applause.

Saleem has been a regular in evangelical circles for the last several years telling his story about how he was a violent terrorist who renounced his wicked ways for Christ.

“How do you change a terrorist? Introduce him to Jesus!” he said in a theatrical Friday speech delivered with a thick, unplaceable accent.

-snip-

“I started working for whoever paid the best to advance Islamism.” he said, pacing back and forth onstage. “Saddam Hussein pays better money than anybody else. He was very generous.”

If Saleem’s story sounds unbelievable it’s because there’s little sign any of it ever happened. News investigations into his past haven’t turned up any corroborating evidence of his terrorist resume, but they’ve found plenty of former colleagues and acquaintances who doubt the veracity of Saleem’s autobiographical details.

For one, Mother Jones reports Saleem, real name Khodor Shami, spent over a decade before his “ex-terrorist” act as a staffer at Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network and James Dobson’s Focus on the Family. And despite Saleem’s claims that the FBI relies on him for insight into jihadist thinking, they claim they’ve never heard of him. A 2008 expose by CNN’s Anderson Cooper found similar holes in his story, which paralleled other equally dubious figures making their living off the “ex-terrorist” talk circuit.

But the crowd ate it up at the Value Voters Summit, which featured such speakers as Paul Ryan and a video message from Mitt Romney, as Saleem warned about a government plot to make synagogues and churches illegal.



Read more: http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/09/social-conservatives-cheer-islamic-ex-terrorist-huckster-at-values-voter-summit.php?ref=fpnewsfeed

---

When they are presented with an opportunity to validate their hatred, Religious Fundies will believe friggin' anything.....

[SoapBox]

1. It's another, in a long string of...WTFs?

These people are SICK.

And my neck...the whiplash.

[HankyDub]

17. In other news, Paul Ryan "pals around" with "avowed" terrorists

That is all.

[roscoeroscoe]

28. yes indeed

you'd have to be crazy enough to believe the earth is 6,000... never mind.

just plain yikes...

[daybranch]

30. maybe working

for Pat Robertson would qualify him as a kind of religious terrorist, just sayin---

[kestrel91316]

2. Huckster, indeed. Another bald-faced RW LIAR.

[CJCRANE]

3. Scamming "Values Voters" is the last vestige of the American Dream...

Kamal Saleem came to America from Lebanon and now makes a living telling gullible conservatives what they want to hear...

Dinesh D'Souza came to America from India and now makes a living telling gullible conservatives what they want to hear...

Orly Taitz came to America from Moldavia and used to make a living telling gullible conservatives what they want to hear (haven't heard from her for a while since Trump took over her Birther talking points).

Rupert Murdoch came to America from Australia (via England) and now makes a living telling gullible conservatives what they want to hear...

[trailmonkee]

10. I think we have federal reserves of snake oil... an almost bottomless supply in this country

[Volaris]

43. P T Barnum let us in on the secret though (much to his credit)...

Unless you are pro actively NOT being a Dumb Sucker, guess what?
That's the great lesson from America's last, and arguably, most accomplished peddler of 100% pure, Grade AAA, All-American, Homegrown, Farm-raised (and wild-caught!), SnakeOil(TM)

[SoapBox]

4. SO Mittens and his cronies are really, REALLY "pal'n around, with an honest to goodness TERRORIST!"

He is!

And they are!

Is there going to be the same moral outrage?

[Heather MC]

19. Don't forget the fund raiser with the convicted drug dealer last month

[Berlin Expat]

5. This clown

is a pathological liar. And the fact the fools at the Values Voters summit ate it up illustrates all too well their feeble mental capacities.

Oh yeah: making churches and synagogues illegal? My God, this man is a raving lunatic. Someone needs to make a phone call to the Enchanted Kingdom, so the nice men in white can come and fit him for a sweater with arms that tie in the back and take him away.

[sarcasmo]

6. This is no different than the church healer fake healing, they are beyond sad.

[defacto7]

26. That's right. I took one look at him and it brought back memories

as a child, of faith healing pentecostal meetings where certain people were planted in the audience to "get a healing". I was no dumb kid... these guys always were shallow as hell and they reeked of lying for the lord.

Later, I remember these guys who would preach at our church and talk about oh how bad they were and what terrible things they had done. Everyone just loves a saved sociopath. My dad would lean over to me and say, "anybody who spends more time talking about how bad they were than how good they are is pulling you tail."

No doubt, It's the old Charismatic trick, the old "lie for the lord" routine.

"What harm would it do, if a man told a good strong lie for the sake of the good and for the Christian church … a lie out of necessity, a useful lie, a helpful lie, such lies would not be against God, he would accept them."

Martin Luther

[WooWooWoo]

7. wow, conservatives really do live in their own warped bubble, don't they

it doesn't even matter if what they're hearing is - forget about slightly exaggerated or false - but completely fucking made up out of thin air.

[SoapBox]

8. And another thing...

Somewhat on this topic...and it makes me SO mad.

On The Ed Show now, they are showing clips of President Obama and Secretary Clinton, and their remembrance of those that died in Libya.

All while the Extremists and Terrorists at this Clown Festival are vomiting their garbage and hate.

I'm disgusted, again.

[trailmonkee]

9. wow, I don't think I have ever seen things this contrasted....

[ck4829]

11. And we greet the collapse of western civilization with cheering

This guy is a charlatan, at least Walid Shoebat and Ergun Caner TRY to be convincing. 'Saleem' leaps into fantasies and through contradiction after contradiction, and people applaud him. It would be funny if these guys didn't have the GOP on speed dial.

[rbrnmw]

12. These people are deranged

beyond deranged they are dangerous Value Voters my ass these fucking freaks have no values this is a game to them When are the sane Americans going to put a stop to this madness? This isn't a fucking football game assholes it's real life

[fascisthunter]

13. psychos

... most people in the World are really decent, understanding folks.... it's only a psychotic minority we need to keep our eyes on.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

14. As a former FBI, CIA, NSA, MOSSAD, MI5 6 and 7 (very few people even know

Last edited Sat Sep 15, 2012, 11:58 AM - Edit history (1)

about that one) and ISI agent I can vouch for this man. I won't even go into my ties to the Foreign Legion, The Shriners, The Butchers, The Bakers and The Candle Stick Makers (trust me you don't want to piss those people off).

[trailmonkee]

22. MI8 here... deal with it

funny post

[SoapBox]

24. Man from U.N.C.L.E.

[pinboy3niner]

25. CONTROL Agent here...um wait a sec...

Excuse me, I have to take this...

[defacto7]

34. You could make a good buck...

with that routine in some fundi Christian circuit! Think of all the applause too! Just add a couple of "I've been saved" statements and shed a tear at least once but no more than 1.5 times per meeting and WOW! It's the Big Time Christian Circus!

I'm sure at one point you could graduate to slaying in the spirit but that's kind of an advanced technique.

[EC]

15. So how does he convert Muslims to Christ?

Does he TALK to them or go to war with them. Isn't talking diplomacy of sorts? The same thing they accuse Obama of doing?

[Bjorn Against]

16. So he spent the last decade working with people like James Dobson and Pat Robertson

Sounds like a terrorist to me.

[nolabear]

18. And why is he not being picked up this minute?

Oh, I see. Because it never happened. There's an "ex-terrorist" circuit? I swear, I'm losing count of the crazies.

[Indpndnt]

27. Uh-huh. Apparently, if you let Jesus into your life, all your past terrorism goes **POOF!**

He's like Shout stain remover for acts of terror. They don't shout it out, they pray it out! Oh, and the FBI, CIA, and everyone else is just fine with that.

These creatures are all insane. Somebody arrest the beast. He claims to be a terrorist! Take him at his word! Let his new friends bail him out and defend him. That'll look ever so innocent and reasonable to the rest of the country.

[defacto7]

35. Oh, but not when there's still money to be made!

[Indpndnt]

39. Then I want all of HIS tax returns, too! In every name he's ever used in the US.

[Botany]

20. Ah yes!

[Overseas]

21. Oh Jeez. Just as our Secretary of State is trying to foster dialogue on religious tolerance,

these irresponsible idiots sound off.

How very sad for our country. How can they call themselves Values Voters when they are so unpatriotic as to stir up hatred at a delicate time like this?

They do not value patriotism or tolerance, it seems.

[patrice]

23. 1 job they created. This guy gets paid, probably pretty well, to go around and lie. They know it.

He knows it. We know it.

[Turbineguy]

29. Straight from the school of

"Never give a sucker an even break."

[nobodyspecial]

31. Here's a very revealing statement:

“I started **working for whoever paid the best** to advance Islamism.”

Not that I believe he was ever really a terrorist, but I do believe he founded the money train. He agrees to be their pet monkey that they can traipse around and he gets a very comfortable life and rock star treatment. I know if I didn't have any morals, I would scam these people. Too bad this atheist has higher standards of right and wrong that many of these people.

[trailmonkee]

32. i saw that too...

He is basically saying his new handlers are the same as sadaam

[HooptieWagon]

41. Except they pay better.

[defacto7]

36. "this atheist has higher standards of right and wrong that many of these people."

Isn't that the truth for most non-religionists! I find atheists to be more honest and moral and usually take the high ground. That's why we ARE atheists. Myth just doesn't work if it's taken as reality, and if it's taken as reality you either have to be a slave to fear, a denialist, a liar or any of the above.

I'd rather face facts any day than be pacified or controlled by the likes of this guy and his ilk.

[olegramps]

33. The war against hatred, ignorance, demagoguery, false witness, and racism is eternal.

It is a constant battle that must be perpetually waged against demigods who prey on peoples' ignorance and prejudices. Each generation faces the same threats which if not combated have throughout history kindled outbursts that resulted in massive injustices. The history of demigods who have stirred up the masses date from the earliest of times, long before from those who persecuted Socrates to modern charlatans such as Hitler and his ilk who have employed the same tactics. It unfortunate that we are experiencing justification of these tactics by those who claim to be wholesome godfearing Christians who yet are determined to defeat Obama at any cost.

I find it depressing to see people whose minds have been so clouded with hatred that they are willing to believe the most absurd accusations without a shred of evidence. But, what It is especially disheartening is when those in leadership positions are so dedicated to their cause that they not only fail to speak out against the most out outrages lies, but in their silence provide validity to the demagoguery of charlatans.

[defacto7]

37. hear, hear!

One of the traits of the Christian fundamental hierarchy is to play dumb if it sounds like a pitch; they don't check his credentials or look to see if it's sociopathic. If it works for God then it must be OK... Hear no evil, Speak no evil, See no evil.

It has worked for centuries. It doesn't work like that anymore thanks to modern communication. But as long as people continue to be sheep, they will continue to be manipulated.

[trailmonkee]

38. I have a theory... they have always been there, but now, we can see them....

....which means they cannot hide any more, and all of the haters are now scrambling to justify their hate. That's why it seems like there are more than ever, because they are mostly stripped away and in plain view. It is nearly impossible to hide these days with the information that is out there and how quickly it spreads. Movements that would normally take decades to mature, now happen in weeks... Which is a good thing, because I see the american public starting to rise up against the haters.

[defacto7]

40. You got it!

[olegramps]

44. I sincerely hope that your analysis proves to be correct.

[trailmonkee]

45. i sincerely believe we are an evolving species... as bad as it seems at times...

We are at least heading in the right direction imo...

[cstanleytech]

42. So, they believe this guy was a terrorists without proof, just his word yet they dont believe Obama

is an american citizen regardless of the number of times he has offered proof? I would call them insane nutjobs but at this point that would be an insult to insane nutjobs.