By Debbie Schlussel

I have known Bill Schuette, the Republican Michigan Attorney General Candidate, since I was 15 or 16 years old.  My late father was proud to donate to his mid-Michigan Congressional campaign against the then-incumbent, anti-Israel liberal Democrat Don Albosta, and thereafter to his re-election bids and his failed U.S. Senate campaign.  In college, I was kicked out of the campus AIPAC (pro-Israel group) because I asked the group to help campaign for Schuette, who was in a tough race, but the liberals who controlled AIPAC insisted on campaign for firmly entrenched liberal Democrats.  When Bill Schuette personally contacted me, last year, to help him in his bid for Michigan Attorney General, I was delighted to offer my help.  As longtime readers know, I happily and enthusiastically posted my endorsement of Bill Schuette on this site.  That’s no longer the case, and I withdraw my support.

Bill Schuette on Duty: Bill Schuette (left), w/ Mike Bouchard (center), Shakes Hands w/ Hezbollah Agent/Jew Hater Abed Hammoud (right)

From early in his career, Bill Schuette understood the jihadist threat to America and Israel.  Sadly, now Bill Schuette is embracing the jihadists.  My father is probably turning over in his grave.

It’s sad that the man who wants to be Michigan’s top cop and is leading by leaps and bounds in the polls is meeting with those who are criminals and terrorism supporters.  Among those in attendance at the meeting were a man who committed immigration fraud, marriage fraud, and terrorism fundraising.  Several men identified by reputable Middle Eastern newspapers as American agents for Hezbollah.  And several of them openly praised Hezbollah and used anti-Semitic Nazi imagery against Jews, facts Schuette could have learned had he tried Google and done even the most basic of research.  That he did not tells me exactly the kind of Attorney General Bill Schuette will be:  a terrible one.

I nearly threw up, Sunday, when I saw a photo of Bill Schuette at a gathering of Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims in Dearbornistan, who openly embrace and support Hezbollah and HAMAS.  Schuette is shown yukking it up and happily shaking hands with Abed Hammoud, the Dearborn man who keynoted and organized most of the pro-Hezbollah rallies in the Detroit area in 2006.  Hammoud was quoted in many major media outlets praising Hezbollah as “the martyrs, the freedom fighters” and calling Israel and the Jews, “Nazis.”  Hammoud was one of a handful of American agents of Hezbollah identified by Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Seyassah as attending a Dearbornistan Hezbollah organizing meeting at Adonis restaurant.

And who else was at the private meeting is just as scary:

A newspaper article in the Arab American News notes that others in attendance at the private meeting with Bill Schuette included Hezbollah supporter Nabih Ayad, nephew of Nabih Berri, who is head of the Shi’ite Amal terrorist group that merged with Hezbollah.  Ayad has also been a speaker at the pro-Hezbollah rallies and  is frequently a lawyer for CAIR, filing stupid lawsuits over the right to wear a full face veil in court.  As I told you, he, himself, recently pleaded guilty to owing the US government over $100,000 in unpaid student loans.  Ayad has also represented several Muslim illegal aliens and terrorists, including convicted Hezbollah terrorist, Mahmoud Kourani, an illegal alien who snuck into the US through Mexico and was one of the few federal defendants to plead guilty to actual terrorist activity.

Also hanging with Bill Schuette at the meeting was Imad Hamad, the man whose FBI award was revoked because of a New York Post column I wrote.  Hamad, who committed marriage and immigration fraud and is a “former” terrorist for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), fought immigration authorities for two decades as they tried to deport him.  He was filmed on FBI surveillance video raising money and recruiting for the PFLP.  He continues to fundraise for Palestinian Islamic terrorists groups as I write this.  Hamad told Detroit’s FOX affiliate that he believes teaching three-year-old Palestinian children to become homicide bombers is “patriotic,” and he asked a former U.S. Attorney if it would be okay if he and his friends wore Hezbollah T-shirts.  He’s the subject of over a dozen ongoing terrorism and immigration fraud investigations.

The meeting was held at the openly anti-Semitic, openly pro-Hezbollah Lebanese American Heritage Club (LAHC), which helped organize Hezbollah rallies and chartered a plane to fly Muslims to an anti-Israel protest in Washington.  The LAHC was founded by convicted insurance defrauder/Hezbollah cigarette smuggler Ali Jawad, who was kicked off the John McCain campaign in 2008, after I contacted McCain campaign officials.

Someone told me that it’s not such a big deal if Bill Schuette goes to a meeting with extremist Muslims, so long as he doesn’t agree with them.  Really?  Then, I guess it’s okay if he hosts a meeting with klansman and neo-Nazis, so long as he doesn’t agree with them, right?  Sorry, but these men are the Muslim Klan, the Muslim Nazis.  There is no excuse for keeping company with them for even a moment.  That Republicans like Schuette and Rick Snyder–who will both win by huge margins–are now pandering to these extremists and jihadists is telling.  These Muslims don’t vote Republican and they won’t vote for these guys.  But their whining gets attention, unfortunate attention from those who pretend they are against this kind of thing, but will do anything to win an election, even though they will win anyway.

Bill Schuette also had a fundraiser in Dearbornistan, following the meeting with his new jihadist buddies.  His campaign finance disclosure forms for that week are not yet available, but when they are, I’ll be looking at them very closely.  I wonder which of these heinous men or others like them gave to Bill Schuette to be “on duty” (his campaign slogan) for Hezbollah supporters.

Also disturbing is who is behind the meeting.  It appears from the photo that the meeting was organized by Republican Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, a Christian Arab who has become the Michigan GOP water carrier for Muslim extremists, the same kind his grandfather left Lebanon to escape.  Hezbollah agent and anti-Semitic Arab American news publisher Osama Siblani endorsed and fundraised for Bouchard’s failed campaign for Governor.  Bouchard came in fourth (barely).  Perhaps that should have been a hint for Schuette, but, sadly, he doesn’t get it.

I contacted Bill Schuette’s campaign to inquire about this appearance.  After first expressing an interest in responding and demanding my questions in writing, Bill Schuette and his spokesman, Rusty Hills (whom I’ve also known for years), refused to comment.  Gee, I wonder why.  There is no proper response for why Bill Schuette hung out with those who praise Islamic terrorist groups which murder hundreds of Americans.  Below is my e-mail to Graham Filler of the Schuette campaign:

From: Debbie Schlussel writedebbie@gmail.com
Date: Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 1:13 PM
Subject: Questions Re- Bill Schuette’s Appearance w/ Hezbollah Muslims . . .
To: grahamfiller10@gmail.com

Graham:
Per our call earlier today, here are my questions, for a piece I am writing on Bill Schuette’s appearance at the Lebanese American Heritage Club. You can tell Rusty Hills that I had the highest respect for him but am now so disappointed in him, as he didn’t do his homework. These people don’t vote Republican and won’t make even the most negligible difference in Schuette’s overwhelming odds of being elected. This was a tactical mistake.

I have known Bill Schuette for over 2 decades and am extremely disappointed in his appearance at the Lebanese American Heritage Club (LAHC), which is an openly pro-Hezbollah organization that sponsored pro-Hezbollah rallies in 2006 and several anti-Israel rallies, including chartering a flight to send people to an anti-Israel protest in Washington.

1) Why did Bill Schuette appear at the LAHC, when it is well known that this organization sponsored pro-Hezbollah rallies at which swastikas were on signs and support for Hezbollah and HAMAS were the order of the day? A simple google or Lexis-Nexis search would have revealed this.

2) In the Arab American News, Bill Schuette is shown shaking hands with Abed Hammoud, who headlined the pro-Hezbollah rallies and openly supports both Hezbollah and HAMAS. Hammoud called Hezbollah, “the martyrs,” the freedom fighters,” at the rallies and in several media appearances, all well-documented in mainstream media sources. Does Bill Schuette regret shaking hands with this open terrorism supporter?
http://www.arabamericannews.com/news/index.php?mod=article&cat=Election&article=3544

3) If Bill Schuette didn’t know what this organization was about, why didn’t he research it before appearing? Is this indicative of the kind of Attorney General Bill Schuette will be?

2) Who arranged this appearance? Was it Mike Bouchard (because Bouchard’s support from this group was “so instrumental” in getting him the Republican nomination for Governor, this year)?

3) Those in the audience from whom Schuette took questions, included Imad Hamad and Nabih Ayad. Imad Hamad was a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist, whom the govt tried to deport for two decades. Hamad committed marriage and immigration fraud and was caught on FBI surveillance video raising money and recruiting for PFLP. He openly supports HAMAS and Hezbollah and told FOX 2 that it is “patriotic” to teach Palestinian kids to become homicide bombers. A column I wrote in the New York Post, resulted in the revocation of an FBI award set to be given to Hamad in 2003.
https://www.debbieschlussel.com/6282/schlussel-stops-fbi-award-to-terrorist-supporter-the-column-that-started-it-all/
Nabih Ayad also openly supports Hezbollah and is an attorney for CAIR, the undicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation HAMAS fundraising indictments, which led to several convictions. Ayad proudly represented Mahmoud Kourani, an illegal alien and Hezbollah terrorist, who pleaded guilty to being a Hezbollah terrorist, one of the few defendants ever to be convicted of actual Islamic terrorism charges. And Ayad recently pleaded guilty to not paying over $120,000 in defaulted, unpaid student loans that American taxpayers financed.
https://www.debbieschlussel.com/7814/when-will-nabih-ayad-pay-his-student-loans-hijab-plaintiffs-lawyer-muslim-activist-owes-u-s-117000/
Is it appropriate for the man who wants to be top cop in Michigan to hang out with and try to get the endorsement of these people?

Bill Schuette’s pandering to this openly anti-Semitic crowd is especially disgusting when you consider that he continues to run ads against his Jewish opponent for Attorney General which feature an openly anti-Semitic woman’s comments (watch the video).  Instead of pulling the ads, Schuette demanded that his Jewish opponent apologize to the anti-Semitic woman for her very blatantly anti-Jewish comments.

As I said, Schuette didn’t respond to my questions about all of this, but I and my clients have a few things planned in court to which he will be forced to respond, once he is Attorney General of Michigan.  Stay tuned.

For now, I’m so sad to say it, after all these years when I thought he was a good guy.  But it’s true:

Bill Schuette is on duty for Islamic terrorists and their Dearbornistan supporters.  He’s not on duty for you.