THE REST OF THE STORY

Recently, news has surfaced that foreign-born and non-citizen muslims are contributing money to try to influence America's next election. Florida businessman Harry Sargeant III, chief executive for I.O.T.C. has "bundled" at least $50,000.00 for the election from a variety of foreign-born sources. These sources include: Ibrahim Marabeh (a store manager for RITE-AID) and his wife; Nadia and Shawn Abdalla (owners of Twilight Hookah Lounge famous for it SEX ON THE BEACH tobacco blend) who are not even registered voters and Sargeant has also received contributions for his candidate from a California Taco Bell shift supervisor among many others. All of them with muslim backgrounds and many from relatively low wage jobs. All who claim that a mysterious & forgotten "friend" asked them to contribute the money.

How does he get donations from such esteemed sources?

"I have a lot of Arab business partners. I do a lot of business in the Middle East. I've got a lot of friends," Sargeant told the [Washington] Post. "I ask my friends to support candidates that I think are worthy of supporting. They usually come through for me." These friends include his business partner, a citizen of Jordan and brother-in-law to the King of Jordan. And this is where it really gets interesting.

IOTC stands for INTERNATIONAL OIL TRADING COMPANY and it has over a billion dollars in contracts with the US Defense Department to supply fuel to Iraq. The website ProPublica reports:

"The company, which had not done any government work before it first won that contract in 2004, signed a two-year extension worth $913 million in 2007. But there have been difficulties. The contract requires that the fuel be brought through Jordan to Iraq -- meaning only the company with a "letter of authorization" from the Jordanian government could have stood a chance. ..., IOTC managed that feat by striking a deal with the king of Jordan's brother-in-law. Even though other companies bid on the contract, and IOTC was not the lowest bidder, IOTC was the only one with authorization and so won the contract. (The brother-in-law is suing IOTC, claiming he was cut out of the spoils. He wants $13 million for his trouble.)"

Congress has opened up an investigation into the activities of IOTC to see if there was issues with the setup for the contract and if the government is being overcharged for the fuel. Sargeant insists that the contract is "in the best interest of the military and the U.S. taxpayers." That remains to be seen. But there is no doubt that many of the political contributions he "bundled" are illegal under US laws that prevent foreigners from contributing to campaigns. In fact over $50,000 have been returned from the campaign to charity.

So my question is: where is the outcry agains these muslims who are breaking the law? Is the reason that there is so little media attention on this because we have decided that we love muslims or is it because the candidate who received the money was SEN. JOHN MCCAIN? ( I can just imagine the blogs if Sen. Obama had received money from any illegal sources, much less Muslims.)

Now in fairness, we should point out that it is impossible for any candidate to keep track of all of his donations and sources. It should also be stated again that McCain did return the money. Normally, I would say that this should be the end of it. But there is still one little bit of info that people should know: Harry Sargeant III, CEO of IOTC (currently under investigation) is also the Finance Chair for the Florida State Republican Party and Co-Chair of the McCain Victory Campaign. This wasn't just any Joe Shmoe from off the street bundling money....it was a trusted member of TEAM MCCAIN. And now you know the rest of the story.