Crist ad links Davis to terrorists ------Bush's GOP getting UGLY

[seafan]

Crist ad links Davis to terrorists

By Brian E. Crowley
Palm Beach Post Political Editor

Sunday, November 05, 2006

MIAMI — Republican Charlie Crist has begun running a television ad linking Democrat Jim Davis to terrorists.
The ad uses images of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and opens with a male announcer asking, "Which candidate for governor met with terrorists?"

The announcer answers the question saying, "Jim Davis - had lunch with terrorist Yasser Arafat, denounced by Jewish leaders."
He goes on to say Davis "traveled to Cuba meeting with Castro's communist regime. Jim Davis, bad judgment when he does show up." An empty office chair appears on the screen.

snip

"I went to the Middle East to pressure Yasser Arafat on arms shipments and Charlie Crist was sitting in Tallahassee," Davis said. "I've been standing up for peace and security in Israel. Charlie Crist has done nothing. This is just another desperate attack by a candidate who has $40 million, including $8 million from insurance companies, who has nothing better to do than distort my record standing up for Israel."

The ad clearly is aimed at hurting Davis with Jewish voters who overwhelmingly vote Democratic. Davis previously said he went to Cuba to meet with opponents of Castro and the communist government. A Spanish-language ad criticizing his trip there has been on the air for more than a week.

Crist defended the new ad Saturday after his campaign plane landed in Fort Lauderdale.

"Voters need to know the kind of people he hangs out with," Crist said.

[MasonJar]

1. The dems need to get their own ad on NOW, showing what a liar

this low-life is. Come on, Florida, you owe us all a change so the cheating can come to an end there.

[woldnewton]

2. Sadly...

Florida is the one state where such an ad just might work, especially in the panhandle and the western coastline.

[seafan]

3. Look at this:

Thanks to poster bluedog:

Before the White House session, during the 2000 campaign, Al-Arian was even photographed with George W. Bush at a fund-raiser.




News Alert: Rove meets with alleged terrorist!

Alleged Terrorist Met With Bush Adviser (washingtonpost.com) A former university professor indicted this week as a terrorist leader attended a 2001 group meeting in the White House complex with President Bush's senior adviser, Karl Rove, administration officials said yesterday.

Sami Al-Arian, a former computer engineering professor at the University of South Florida, had been under investigation by the FBI for at least six years at the time of the June 2001 briefing for a Muslim organization. Numerous news accounts also had said federal agents suspected Al-Arian of links to terrorism.

[ornotna]

4. The key word being "alleged"

Sami Al-Arian was acquitted on terrorist charges.

http://news.tbo.com/news/MGBAT3MOWGE.html

[seafan]

5. April 14, 2006: Al-Arian entered a guilty plea in "offering goods and services" to PIJ.

The article you linked is from Dec 6, 2005.


Here is the update on this case:


Aside from the December 6, 2005 acquittal on the primary terrorism charges of conspiring to commit murder abroad, money laundering and obstruction of justice, there were multiple remaining charges against him, on which the jury deadlocked.


These deadlocked charges were considered critical to the multiple years' long investigation of this case. Secret negotiations then took place, with all parties trying to decide whether to retry Al-Arian on the deadlocked charges.


Al-Arian entered a guilty plea on April 14, 2006, in a plea deal that he "offered contributions, goods or services" to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In return for the plea deal, the prosecutors agreed to drop the remaining deadlocked charges against him and to work with his attorneys to deport him quickly:


From the St. Pete Times, April 24, 2006:

For his plea agreement hearing, Al-Arian entered the federal courtroom on the morning of April 14 in an orange prison uniform. He was handcuffed and shackled. He pleaded guilty to one count of the nine deadlocked counts remaining against him: offering "contributions, goods or services" to the PIJ.

Al-Arian told McCoun that he was only pleading guilty to one part of these three possibilities: "I'm pleading to services."

snip

McCoun pointed out that federal prosecutors had agreed with Moreno that there should be no recommendation of a fine - it could be as much as $250,000 - and that federal prosecutors also agreed with the defense that Al-Arian should be receive the low end of the sentencing guidelines - 46 months.

"Statistically, the best you can hope for is a sentence which would be 85 percent of the term of incarceration," said McCoun.
This means Al-Arian will spend a minimum of 39 months in jail. By his sentencing on May 1, he will have already spent 38 months and two weeks in jail - most of it in solitary confinement.
McCoun told Al-Arian it was not too late to decide to have a second trial on the deadlocked counts, that he could back out of the plea agreement, and get back on the trial calendar.

"On the other hand, if you're satisfied you're guilty or you believe it's in your best interest to plead guilty...let me know that," McCoun said.

"I believe it's in my best interest to enter a plea," said Al-Arian.

McCoun said U.S. District Court Judge James S. Moody had already "indicated his intention to accept the plea," which Moody did, on April 17, when he also made the content of previous secret hearings part of the public record.

Also, if you are interested, here is the pdf link to the the court case, describing Al-Arian's plea agreement.

http://www.flmd.uscourts.gov/Al-Arian/8-03-cr-00077-JSM-TBM/docs/2929176/0.pdf

[ornotna]

7. Yes, I am aware of the update

Thanks for the info and links. :hi:

[seafan]

8. You're welcome. Good luck tomorrow, everyone! Make 'em steal it.

[seafan]

6. Jewish Democrats Blast Crist Ad

From the Tampa Bay blog, http://www.tboblogs.com/index.php/news/comments/jewish-democrats-blast-crist-ad/">March on Politics:

Nov 06, 2006

A national Jewish Democratic group has called on Charlie Crist to pull an advertisement blasting Jim Davis for a 2002 meeting with Yasser Arafat. The ad, which is airing in South Florida, says Davis met “with terrorists and communists.”

But the National Jewish Democratic Council. which calls itself “the national voice of Jewish Democrats,” points out the meeting happened at a time when a number of U.S. officials met with the Palestinian leader. Among them were Republican congressmen and women and then Secretary of State Colin Powell. Powell met Arafat after Davis did.

Davis said he met with Arafat to pressure the leader about an illegal arms shipment intercepted by the Israelis.

“ If this is such an important issue for Charlie Crist and Florida Republicans, then why haven’t they called for the apologies of their fellow Republicans who also met with Arafat?” asked NJDC executive director Ira Forman in a news release.

Davis has a 100 percent pro-Israel voting record, Forman said.

“In a desperate move to save their faltering campaign, Charlie Crist and Florida Republicans are trying to politicize the U.S.-Israel relationship which has enjoyed almost 60 years of bipartisan support because of people like Jim Davis,” Forman said. “Crist and Republicans are throwing whatever they can up against the wall in hopes that something will stick. It’s absolutely disgraceful.”

Crist's desperation is incredibly ugly.