FBI Investigating SEIU Operative/Anti-War Radicals for Terrorist Ties

Via Gateway Pundit

One might think it would be big news that a Chief Steward for a Local chapter of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is being investigated by the FBI for possible connection to overseas terror networks. Apparently, though, several Chicago news outlets didn’t see a reason to add this little fact to their stories. And even if it wasn’t big news that the FBI is investigating a union member, one would think that his profession would at least make an appearance somewhere in properly formulated coverage of the story… right?

Over the weekend the FBI announced that it was investigating Joseph Iosbaker for possible connections to overseas terror groups. Iosbaker and his wife Stephanie Weiner, both anti-war activists, are suspected of activities “concerning the material support of terrorism.”

The Chicago news has been all over the demonstrations that left-wing groups have mounted in Chicago to protest the FBI’s investigation of the anti-war activists. These stories are filled with all sorts of facts, dates and names. But in a significant handful of stories one little fact seems to have escaped the notice of these hardnosed journalists. Iosbaker is an SEIU union member. And not just a rank and file member but an official.

According to the SEIU Local 73 website, Iosbaker is listed as the Local 73 Chief Steward. Iosbaker was also quite active earlier in the year protesting the closing of the Republic Windows & Doors factory that made the national news. Iosbaker was then listed as an executive board member of the SEIU.

It is interesting to note that this fact escaped most of Chicago’s TV coverage. Michelle Gallardo of ABC 7 TV seems to have forgotten to mention the union connection, CBS channel 2 also missed this fact, WGN TV channel 9 also forgot to mention the SEIU, and Channel 5 NBC also missed it, all accidentally I’m sure.

But it isn’t just TV that missed this fact. The Associated Press also seems to be blind to the fact that Iosbaker is a union operative.

My friends at the Chicago Daily Observer have helpfully offered the Old Media a spelling lesson, “SEIU, it’s spelled S-E-I-U,” they scolded.

The fact seems to be that Iosbaker is not just a little fish in the big union pond. He is at least a middle manager and local union muckity-muck. So why did so many news outlets somehow forget to mention this fact? Isn’t his status as a union operative with some station and position significant?

http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/09/chicago-news-outlets-miss-that-fbi-targeted-protester-is-chief-steward-for-seiu/

The terrorist groups Iosbaker collaborated with:

More on the anti-war terror bust: FBI Serves Terror Warrants on Anti-War Activists in Minnesota, Chicago: Material Support for Terror. The plot thickens. The anti-war raid includes Hatem Abudayyeh, executive director of the Arab American Action Network (AAAN). The AAAN was founded by Obama pal and anti-Israel professor Rashid Khalidi, former director of the PLO press agency and onetime moderator of PLO advisory committee. AAAN has received donations from the Fry Foundation, the Tides Foundation, the Polk Brothers Foundation, and the Woods Fund of Chicago (Obama sat on the board of the Woods Foundation with terrorist Bill Ayers). (hat tip Choi)

“AAAN’s hostile view of the Jewish state is further manifest in the organization’s reference to Israel’s creation in 1948 as Al Nakba (“The Catastrophe”). In collaboration with the American Friends Service Committee, AAAN recently initiated a project titled “Al Nakba: 1948 As Experienced by Chicago Palestinians.” This venture solicits photographs, letters, and verbal accounts of local Palestinians’ recollections about their sufferings immediately before, during, and after Israel’s establishment.”

“Among the current luminaries of AAAN’s staff are: (a) Vice President Ali Abunimah, who maintains the website ElectroicIntifada.com and is a Board member of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center; and (b) Executive Director Hatem Abudayyeh, who has condemned “the Israeli government and its military killing machine.”

“AAAN actively collaborates with scores of leftist organizations nationwide. Among these are the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the American Friends Service Committee, Amnesty International, the Arab American Institute, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the 8th Day Justice Center, MADRE, the Mosque Foundation, the National Lawyers Guild, Service Employees International Union, and Voices in the Wilderness.”
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/09/-fbi-raids-homes-of-anti-war-activists-and-hatem-abudayyeh-executive-director-of-the-arab-american-a.html

Oh boy, just wait til Kifah Mustapha hears about this.

FBI Investigating SEIU Operative/Anti-War Radicals for Terrorist Ties

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