Updated: CA-Sen: Tom Campbell FINALLY Apologizes for Associating with Convicted Islamic Terrorist Supporter Sami Al-Arian

The Carly Fiorina campaign says NOT SO FAST Tom…….. From the press release:

Last Friday Tom Campbell declared his interest in stopping what he called the “silent slander.” Unfortunately for him this week the sound of the truth has proved deafening.
 
Today, his tactic seemed to be to apologize for not getting his facts straight about statements and actions he took as a candidate
for U.S. Senate in 2000 and as Professor. But even in the midst of his apology he failed to get his facts straight—yet again.

For those of you who were not there, Tom said that he would not have written his letter in support of Al-Arian had he known that Al-Arian had made the statement “death to Israel.” The thing is that in the letter itself, Tom Campbell in 2002 specifically and explicitly states that he read the  transcript of the O’Reilly interview that caused the whole dust up for Al-Arian in the first place.
 
You can read the transcript of the interview Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly conducted with Sami Al-Arian on September 26, 2001, and which Campbell said in 2002 that he had read, here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,61096,00.html
 
 And here is a link to download the Campbell letter:  http://www.investigativeproject.org/1834/the-letter-dogging-tom-campbell
 
Campbell also claims that he didn’t know about the ties that another one of his 2000 donors, Alamoudi, had to terrorist groups. But the public record that was available at the time tells a different story.
 
On October 28, 2000, before Election Day, Mr. Alamoudi participated in a rally at Lafayette Park in Washington, DC where he
riled up their support for Hamas and Hezbollah – two organizations not exactly known for their peaceful and non-violent approach to advancing their goals. Here is a link to the clip of the rally. It is worth the watch:http://www.investigativeproject.org/218/rally-at-lafayette-park-alamoudi
<http://www.investigativeproject.org/218/rally-at-lafayette-park-alamoudi>

Just a few days later, on November 4, 2000, at the end of Campbell’s second bid for the U.S. Senate against Dianne Feinstein he told the San Jose Mercury News that he was “comfortable” with Mr. Alamoudi’s position on terror and violence. (Barry Witt,
“Campbell Defends Muslim Groups Organizations Have Right To Make Political Donations, Candidate Says,” San Jose Mercury
News, 11/4/00)

At the same time, Hillary Clinton and George Bush returned donations made by Alamoudi and his associates and disavowed his comments. This was well publicized and Tom Campbell was directly asked about these donations in the 2000 campaign precisely because these other politicians had the wisdom to return Alamoudi donations.

Things got even more interesting when a question from the press came about what his failure to thoroughly research the record before accepting money from, and writing letters on behalf of terrorist sympathizers says to voters about how he will take action as a U.S. Senator. Tom’s answer: “The errors that I made were as a professor and as a candidate in the last weekend of the last campaign. None of these errors related to anything in my official capacity as a United States congressman. None at all.”

Let me get this straight – what you do when you are not in elective office does not matter when you are running for U.S. Senate? Great, we’ll take that to mean that Tom and his campaign staff retract every statement they have made about Carly’s record when she was not serving in elected office…in other words, every attack they have ever made.Live by the rules, die by the rules, Tom.

Former California Congressman Tom Campbell who has accepted campaign contributions from prominent Muslim activist Sami al-Arian who is alleged to have formed with others a terrorist support network across the United States and who pled guilty to conspiring to help associates of the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad

Well, Tom Campbell finally makes the connection that, just maybe, association with Sami al-Arian may not be such a great idea and that maybe he should say he is sorry.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tom Campbell apologized Friday for defending a professor at the University of South Florida in 2002 who had called for the “death” of Israel and promoted “jihad.”

At a press conference held at the start of California Republican Party convention in Santa Clara, Campbell said he had made an error in protesting the suspension of Sami Al-Arian to the university’s president.

“That was an error and I deeply regret it,” Campbell said. “I saw only the material relevant to the question of whether he was misrepresenting himself as speaking on behalf of that university. I did not see other things he had said but I could have and should have and I regret the error.”

Campbell said he had also erred in not returning donations from Al-Arian.

Well, too little said and way too late, Tom.

This apology is not going to fly – you already flunked the Sami al-Arian test. You wrote the letter and you took al-Arian’s money (although at first you denied that, too).

Previous:

CA-Sen: Tom Campbell FLUNKS the Sami Al-Arian Test

CA-Sen: What Does Tom Campbell Have to Say About Sami Al-Arian?

CA-Sen: Tom Campbell Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from American Muslim Alliance One Month After 9/11

CA-Sen: Tom Campbell FINALLY Admits Receiving Terrorist-Linked Sami Al-Arian’s Donation

Updated: CA-Sen: Tom Campbell and the Growing Storm Over His Anti-Israel Record

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