No candidate, of course, has control over what groups or persons decide to go public with endorsements. McCain, for example, recently received an endorsement from a jihadist blogger at an Al Qaeda linked Web site predicting that McCain's determination to fight global jihad would "exhaust" America, thus serving jihadist goals. It is also true that the Obama campaign has, for example, rejected Hamas support. But such endorsements should be weighed, and particularly when there is evidence the Obama campaign may have engaged in a quiet, if uneasy brand of "outreach" to such pro-jihad domestic groups as those listed above.
Earlier this month, several news organizations reported that Minha Husaini, the Obama campaign director of Muslim outreach, participated in a non-advertised September meeting in hotly contested Virginia with about 30 Muslim leaders. Among them were Nihad Awad of CAIR and Mahdi Bray of MAS -- both leaders of groups the government has designated as unindicted co-conspirators and Muslim Brotherhood affiliates. Also present was Johari Abdul Malik, the imam of Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque, aka "the 9/11 mosque" because two of the 9/11 hijackers worshipped there. (So did Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, an Al Qaeda member now serving a 30-year sentence for plotting to assassinate President Bush, and also Hamas chieftain and UASR founder Mousa abu Marzook.)
Another person attending the meeting was Mazen Asbahi, the former Obama director of Muslim outreach who quickly resigned in early August after news broke about his ties to unindicted co-conspirators. This was not his first post-resignation campaign-related event. At a luncheon during the Democratic National Convention, Investor's Business Daily reported Asbahi as saying that his resignation was a "strategic decision," and "that he was participating in campaign conference calls on Muslim outreach."
The Obama campaign has pleaded ignorance concerning the September meeting, with campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt telling NBC News producer Jim Popkin that campaign staffers, including Husaini, wouldn't have "attended if they were aware of the complete list of attendees." The campaign had no comment on Asbahi's presence, and, oddly, wouldn't allow reporters speak with Muslim outreach director Husaini.
What are voters to make of this? Did Obama campaign staffers abandon the event on learning who was there? The meeting went on as scheduled. Did the campaign later denounce these controversial, to say the least, groups in media statements? Apparently not. One unidentified meeting participant told Popkin that "some in the Obama group knew ahead of time that top CAIR officials would be in attendance," adding: "There was some hope it wouldn't get out" into the media.
That, of course, should never have concerned a campaign for whom media scrutiny resembles cupcake frosting. But "out" it is, thanks to a few journalists still on the job. If any questions remain, though, they are questions voters will have to answer for themselves.