Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh to stand trial on Nov. 4

Rasmea Odeh, (aka Rasmea Yousef) a member of the PFLP terrorist group complicit in the death of 2 young men is the latest cause célèbre for the anti-Israel cru. A federal judge has scheduled a November 4 trial for the Palestinian community activist, who allegedly concealed her involvement in the terrorist attack when she applied to become a US citizen.

This week, a variety of anti-Israel groups sent out an email blast urging people to:

Call the prosecutors September 2 from 9:00am-5:00pm EDT and tell them: Drop the charges now!

Call Jonathan Tukel at 313-226-9749 (Chief of National Security Unit, U.S. Attorney's office, Eastern District of Michigan) and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Barbara McQuade at 313-226-9100 or 313-226-9501 (voicemail).

When you call, say: "Hello, my name is ________, and I am calling from _________ to demand that U.S. Attorney McQuade drop the charges against Rasmea Odeh."

If you are in the Detroit area, please consider joining the US Palestinian Community Network to fill the courthouse. Rasmea's supporters will be gathering at 2:00pm EDT September 2 at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan (231 W. Lafayette Blvd). The hearing begins at 3:00pm EDT.

Rasmea Odeh has used at least nine aliases since leaving Israel. Now known as Rasmea Yousef, she is the associate director of Chicago's Arab American Action Network. Israel sentenced Odeh to life in prison because of her involvement in a series of terror attacks. She was released after serving only 10 years of her sentence in a prisoner exchange. Odeh immigrated to the United States from Jordan in 1995.

She has never expressed any regret regarding her involvement in the Jerusalem grocery store bombing that took the lives of Eddie Joffe, 21, and his best friend, Leon Kanner.

Via the National Review:

In a 2004 documentary called Women in Struggle, Rasmieh Odeh and a woman named Ayesha Odeh speak openly about their terroristic activities in Israel and appear to lack any regret about the crimes they committed.

Ayesha says that "Rasmieh Odeh was more involved than I was [in the grocery-store bombing]. . . . I only got involved during the preparation of explosives. We wanted to place two bombs to blow up consecutively. I suggested to have the second bomb go off five or six minutes after the first bomb so that those who get killed in it would be members of the army and secret service, but it did not explode. They defused it 20 seconds before it exploded." Rasmieh Odeh describes how time in an Israeli prison deepened her "hatred against those who were responsible. Why? I am not responsible, the occupation is."

According to a FBI press release issued last year

Special agents arrested Rasmieh Yousef Odeh, 66, at a Chicago-area residence after the unsealing of an indictment filed in federal court in Detroit. The indictment charges procurement of citizenship unlawfully. The indictment alleges that Odeh was convicted in Israel for her role in the 1969 bombings of a supermarket and the British Consulate in Jerusalem, which were carried out on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated terrorist organization.

According to the indictment, Odeh and others placed multiple bombs at the British Consulate and in a supermarket. One of the bombs placed at the supermarket detonated, killing two and injuring others. A bomb placed at the Consulate caused structural damage to the facility. Odeh was sentenced by Israeli military authorities to life imprisonment but was released after 10 years as part of a prisoner exchange, and she then returned to the West Bank.

The indictment alleges that in 1995, she immigrated to the United States and naturalized as a citizen in 2004. In her immigration documents filed in the United States, the indictment alleges, Odeh omitted her arrest, conviction, and imprisonment overseas, which were material facts for the United States government in determining whether to grant her citizenship.

“The United States will never be a safe haven for individuals seeking to distance themselves from their pasts,” said William Hayes, acting special agent in charge for HSI Detroit. “When individuals lie on immigration documents, the system is severely undermined and the security of our nation is put at risk.”
 


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