January 12, 2008
For Immediate Release
Contact: Joe Kaufman (info@americansagainsthate.org)

CAIR SPEECH AT CENTCOM CANCELLED

ACTION TAKEN FOLLOWING CALL AND E-MAIL FROM
AMERICANS AGAINST HATE

(Coral Springs, FL) Yesterday, the Department of Defense: Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that its upcoming event featuring a speech by CAIR-Tampa Executive Director Ahmed Bedier was cancelled or, as CENTCOM put it, “postponed” with no future date planned. The event had originally been scheduled for Tuesday, January 15th. A CENTCOM representative stated that there was no reason given for the “postponement.”

The cancellation occurred after a phone conversation on Thursday took place between Americans Against Hate (AAH) Chairman Joe Kaufman and a CENTCOM official, who said that he would bring the matter up for discussion.

AAH had discovered that Bedier was set to speak at the government agency from a posting on the website of radio talk show host Michael Savage. According to Savage’s information, Bedier was going to speak about such controversial topics as jihad, martyrdom and dhimmitude (serving as a non-Muslim under Muslim rule), followed by a “question and answer session.”

At the behest of the official, Kaufman sent him an e-mail stating his specific concerns. The e-mail read in part, “[I]t would be wrong for CENTCOM to host Ahmed Bedier from CAIR this coming Tuesday, given CAIR’s extensive ties to terrorist organizations... Please reconsider allowing Mr. Bedier to speak to your personnel on Tuesday the 15th or anytime in the future. CENTCOM should be fighting terrorists, not embracing their friends.”

As well, in the e-mail, Kaufman made mention of the fact that CENTCOM had previously hosted Ramadan Shallah, a colleague of Sami Al-Arian and who later became the head of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Given Bedier’s own ties to Al-Arian, Kaufman asked, “Why do you want a repeat performance?”

Americans Against Hate praises CENTCOM for no longer having this event with CAIR and hopes the government agency exercises better judgment as to who it invites to speak for upcoming CENTCOM events.

Joe Kaufman is available for interview. E-mail: info@americansagainsthate.org.