US postpones award for Egyptian woman over tweets

[alp227]

Last edited Fri Mar 8, 2013, 01:35 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: AP

The Obama administration is postponing an award for an Egyptian activist who rallied worldwide attention against forced "virginity tests" on female protesters because of anti-American and anti-Semitic comments discovered on her Twitter account.

The State Department announced earlier this week that Samira Ibrahim would be among 10 recipients of the International Women of Courage award presented by Secretary of State John Kerry and first lady Michelle Obama on Friday.

But State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Thursday the U.S. would hold off on awarding Ibrahim while officials investigate the tweets, which include support for attacks against U.S. diplomatic installations and praise for a terrorist assault against Israeli citizens in Bulgaria.

Ibrahim, who has already arrived in the U.S, says her account was hacked, though the comments stretch back several months.

Read more: http://seattletimes.com/html/politics/2020505938_apususegyptactivist.html

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The State Dept no longer lists her in the awards winners list. According to Israeli Ynet news (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4353673,00.html), Samuel Tadros exposed those tweets in a WeeklyStandard.com article.

[TwilightGardener]

1. I would like to offer my services to the White House as Secretary of Vetting.

Gay-bashing preachers, Egyptian activists who hate Jews and America, anti-American Korean singers...I know how to use the Google to find this stuff out. Apparently no one else in the administration does.

[Alamuti Lotus]

2. So sad, she's not suitable to be exploited as propaganda anymore??

she really should've made sure that her thoughts were approved by the US State Department before daring to express them.

[geek tragedy]

3. Only Der Sturmer or Inspire Magazine would have approved of her comments.

She probably would have worn a suicide vest to the ceremony.

On July 18 of last year, after five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver were killed a suicide bombing attack, Ibrahim jubilantly tweeted: "An explosion on a bus carrying Israelis in Burgas airport in Bulgaria on the Black Sea. Today is a very sweet day with a lot of very sweet news."

Do you approve of her views?

Ibrahim frequently uses Twitter to air her anti-Semitic views. Last August 4, commenting on demonstrations in Saudi Arabia, she described the ruling Al Saud family as "dirtier than the Jews." Seventeen days later she tweeted in reference to Adolf Hitler: "I have discovered with the passage of days, that no act contrary to morality, no crime against society, takes place, except with the Jews having a hand in it. Hitler."

Ibrahim holds other repellent views as well. As a mob was attacking the United States embassy in Cairo on the eleventh anniversary of 9/11, pulling down the American flag and raising the flag of Al Qaeda, Ibrahim wrote on twitter: "Today is the anniversary of 9/11. May every year come with America burning."

Yeah, poor innocent victim of the cynical state department.

[Alamuti Lotus]

7. I am greatly amused by the entire episode..

Her points of view are largely irrelevant to me, though at a glance I can easily discern a few points where I diverge greatly from her. Though on the whole, I am still more offended at the wider practice of putting a few of the natives on some propaganda pedestal because the self-important conquerors see a few of their own supposed values at work. Somehow, that routine is still more patronizing and arrogant than whatever bile she could crank out.

Does nobody at the State Department receiving training in research and vetting anymore? That stuff could've been found after a 3sec google search--even the boneheads in the I/P dungeon here are capable of that (such passes for "research" quite frequently), what's the government's excuse?

[geek tragedy]

9. "Conquerors?" Egypt isn't even an ally, more like a

bribe taker. But, honest of you to admit that you find State dept honors ceremonies more offensive than the tenets of Nazism regarding Jews.

[RZM]

15. Well said n/t

[RZM]

17. Is it really that bad?

The State Department gives awards sometimes. Often these people are quite deserving of international attention.

As was pointed out already, high-fiving Hitler is definitely worse than the State Department giving some award. Too bad you won't admit that.

[geek tragedy]

4. Send her bigoted ass back to Egypt and revoke her visa. nt

[ButterflyBlood]

5. After reading the tweets: Blech

Someone at the State Department needs a good talking to though for not having vetted this any further.

[alp227]

6. So the State Dept should've looked thru her ENTIRE twitter feed as the Weekly Standard writer did?

Even those tweets dating back months and months ago?

Do employers seeking prospective hires even do that?

[geek tragedy]

8. It was Egyptian bloggers who pointed it out.

They notified the Holocaust museum, etc.

[alp227]

10. I see now. Another story with the moral:

Don't post anything online if you don't want it associated with you forever.

[Behind the Aegis]

11. "Do employers seeking prospective hires even do that?"

How Your Social Media Profile Could Make Or Break Your Next Job Opportunity

Recruiting, Reinvented: How Companies Are Using Social Media In The Hiring Process

Social Media, Passwords, and the Hiring Process: Privacy and Other Legal Rights

[bitchkitty]

12. Oops!

Someone will get fired. Someone should be...

[Tx4obama]

13. Kick n/t

[Archae]

14. She's actually proud of her tweets.

Last edited Fri Mar 8, 2013, 03:15 PM - Edit history (1)

And she lied about her account being hacked.


Lee Smith reports that Samira Ibrahim, the Egyptian woman whose anti-American and antisemitic tweets have forced the State Department to defer granting her the International Woman of Courage Award -- an award Michelle Obama and John Kerry were scheduled to present to her on Friday -- now seems to admit that she was the author of the tweets in question. She previously claimed that her account was hacked:

...Ibrahim herself has spoken, writing in Arabic on her Twitter page. Egyptian democracy activist Mina Rezkalla provides the translation: "I refuse to apologize to the Zionist lobby in America regarding my previous anti-Zionist statements under pressure from American government therefore they withdrew the award."

Just to refresh your memories, the "anti-Zionist" tweets in question included a celebration of murder: ""An explosion on a bus carrying Israelis in Burgas airport in Bulgaria on the Black Sea. Today is a very sweet day with a lot of very sweet news." In another tweet, she described the leaders of Saudi Arabia as "dirtier than the Jews." (This counts as a twofer, I suppose, because it's hard to imagine America's Saudi allies being very happy about this one.) Then there was this tweet, praising the handiwork of al Qaeda: "Today is the anniversary of 9/11. May every year come with America burning."

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/03/samira-ibrahim-refuses-to-apologize-for-her-tweets/273835/

[alp227]

16. So much good info here...tarnished by your word choice in subject line

Please edit. I don't want to see this message hidden!