What If James O'Keefe Were Named Ali Muhammed?

OK. Let's begin with the scenario:

Let's imagine that four Palestinian-American men had decided to investigate why a U.S. Senator was not answering calls from constituents about why their Senator had made a negative comment about the Goldstone Report. They then decided to mask their identity falsely, to gain access to the senator's office and communication equipment. Once someone in the office or communications system inside a Federal building smelled something amiss, would the story have played out next the way the O'Keefe farce has?

Of course not. We would not be seeing young Ali Muhammed able to write this or get it splashed all over the internet and other media:

The government has now confirmed what has always been clear: No one tried to wiretap or bug Senator Landrieu’s office. Nor did we try to cut or shut down her phone lines. Reports to this effect over the past 48 hours are inaccurate and false.

As an investigative journalist, my goal is to expose the way our congress and senate refuse to support human rights for Palestinians, as I did last year when our investigations revealed the ties between many U.S. congressional staffers and training for their jobs they have received from people connected to the country of Israel. For decades, investigative journalists have used a variety of tactics to try to dig out and reveal the truth.

I learned from a number of sources that many of Senator Landrieu’s constituents were having trouble getting through to her office to tell her that they didn’t want her taking tens of thousands of federal dollars in exchange for her vote on billions of dollars for arms for the Israeli government. When asked about this, Senator Landrieu’s explanation was that, “Our lines have been jammed for weeks.”

I decided to investigate why a representative of the people would be out of touch with her constituents for “weeks” because her phones were broken. In investigating this matter, we decided to visit Senator Landrieu’s district office – the people’s office – to ask the staff if their phones were working.

On reflection, I could have used a different approach to this investigation, particularly given the sensitivities that people understandably have about security in a federal building, and my being a Palestinian-American. The sole intent of our investigation was to determine whether or not Senator Landrieu was purposely trying to avoid constituents who were calling to register their views to her as their Senator. We video taped the entire visit, the government has those tapes, and I’m eager for them to be released because they refute the false claims being repeated by much of the mainstream media.

It has been amazing to witness the journalistic malpractice committed by many of the organizations covering this story.

My view is that had O'Keefe been a Palestinian-American or Arab-American, he would not have been remanded to the custody of his parents' basement. He would be somewhere distinctly different. GOP congressmen and FAUX News would be screaming at the President for not torturing the shit out of him.

Here's some food for thought:

Part one:


Part two:


Link to Part three.

Part four:


Part five: