Tag: presidential

If George W. Bush is elected president, he will have many people to thank! One of them is Osama Siblani. During Bush’s October 5 meeting with Arab-American leaders at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn Michagan, Siblani told the Texas governor about two top concerns of Arab Americans: The use of ethnic profiling by aviation officials, which leads many Americam Arabs to be held for questioning at airports, and the use of “secret evidence” by law enforcement, which has lead to many Arab Americans to be wrongly charged as suspected terrorists, which is an insult to our constitution. Siblani says he told Bush, “This is a smear to our civil rights.” Fast forward to the second presidential debate, six days later, Jim Lehrer asked Bush and Gore about racial profiling. Both condemned it, but only Bush said we have to do something about airport profiling and the use of “secret evidence”, which he said unfairly demonized Arab Americans. The Comment received little attention in the post debate spin. But amoung Arab Americans, who never before had been singled out in a presidential debate, it was, as one political operative put it, “The shot heard round the world.” Source-Edmond Walsh, “Arabs, Poles and other key votes, from October 2000 issue, The Weekly Standard.