Adam Hamawy, a controversial candidate who previously volunteered for an al-Qaeda-linked group, won the Democratic primary to unseat Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Hamawy, who had the backing of the so-called “Squad,” became a lightning rod for criticism in the election campaign due to his intense criticism of Israel and his volunteer work at the International Benevolence Foundation in Bosnia, according to the report. New York Post:
An Iraq War veteran, Hamawy has made national headlines for saving the life of Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) after a helicopter crash, as well as for his volunteer work in the Gaza Strip.
However, Hamawy’s 1994 internship at the International Benevolence Foundation in Bosnia and his association with the infamous “Blind Sheikh” have also come under scrutiny.
The 9/11 Commission Report described the now-defunct International Benevolent Foundation’s operation in Bosnia as part of an “impressive array of offices [that] covertly provided financial and other support for terrorist activities” of Osama bin Laden in the 1990s.
A 2003 court filing also alleged that Al Qaeda used Benevolence International as a front “to establish a base of operations in Europe against Al Qaeda’s true enemy, the United States.”
Hamawy has never been accused or accused of working on behalf of Islamic terrorism. A spokesperson for his campaign dismissed investigations into his time with the group as “absurd” and “bigoted.”
According Jewish InsiderThe records also show that in 1994, “the counselor and second deputy ambassador of the Bosnian mission in New York was a New Jersey native named Saffet Catovic.”
“In December 2001, when the first federal raids occurred on Benevolence International’s offices outside Chicago, Catovic was widely cited as a spokesman for the foundation,” he added.
