Earlier this week I posted an email from a concerned reader who asked to remain anonymous. She asked if we could confirm a controversial statement that was being attributed to U.S. president Barack Obama as part of his speech during the Ramadan dinner at the White House.

Of particular concern to my loyal reader was the passage that read — and I quote:

I have instructed my state department to give the Imam of this 911 Mosque, free travel in a U.S. Gov’t. Jet, paid for by the American Taxpayers, all over the Middle East.

It turns out that the email was a hoax; as those words were not uttered by Obama during the Ramadan dinner. But the above quoted passage is true; Obama has instructed the U.S. State Department to fly the Imam of the proposed NY Mosque to the Middle East – on your dime!

According to the Washington Post, the state department — which answers to Obama — is sponsoring a tour of the Middle East for Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the man behind the Park51 Muslim community center and mosque proposed on a site near New York’s Ground Zero.

Rauf will leave New York and travel to Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, a State Department official tells The Cable. The cost of the trip is $16,000.

Anyone who believes the cost is only $16,000 is naive and clueless. It costs more than $16,000 just to fuel the plane!

According to online reports, the Imam has denied a request to meet with NY Governor Patterson to consider moving the location of the Mosque to land provided by NYC.

Instead, the mosque will stay put near Ground Zero — AND the Imam plans to accept donations for the Mosque from Saudi Arabia and Iraq! Note that the 9/11 attacks were fully funded by terrorist organizations in Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

But wait, it gets better: according to the Post, the State Department “has no knowledge or control of the specifics of what Rauf will talk about as he tours the region..”

Then why are we paying to fly him over there?

Does any of this smack of complicity to you guys? The State Department has tiptoed around the specifics of Rauf and the trip to the Middle East. As the Post states: “ostensibly to avoid wading into the controversy over the community center,” which Obama fully endorsed at the Ramadan dinner.

Source: WP

Photo: Newsweek