When MPAC’s Edina Lekovic and I were on the O’Reilly Factor last fall, the segment ended with her making several false and outrageous claims about me, but perhaps because I didn’t get a chance to respond to them on the air and the falsehoods stood for the viewing audience, she didn’t feel any need to respond to my repeated requests for a retraction. But when Steve Emerson caught her out a few days ago on CNBC’s Kudlow, exposing her as the editor of a Muslim student paper in the 1990s that praised Osama bin Laden as a great mujahid, she responded swiftly in a letter to Emerson filled with the insults, slurs, distortions, and victim-playing that will be familiar to longtime readers of this site as often coming from Islamic spokesmen. From the Counterterrorism Blog, with thanks to LGF:
Mr. Emerson’s witch hunt this time centered around a July 1999 issue of Al-Talib magazine, to which he referred in the interview and later on his website. And this time, his witch hunting stumbled on a printing mistake which I had no part in, but which he has exploited to serve his agenda. For reasons unknown to me, given that I had already graduated at that time, my name is listed in the staff box as a managing editor of that issue. I had graduated and had no participation in campus life by that time. I had no role in the publication of that issue of the magazine and I had no part in the writing of the article to which he refers.
I am shocked and saddened that my name has been falsely attached by Mr. Emerson to sentiments that I in no way support, and that are antithetical to the work I do day in and day out in the service of my community and my country.
My time as a student journalist at UCLA was indeed memorable to me, but has been misrepresented and distorted by Mr. Emerson. I was the editor in chief of the Daily Bruin, which won several prominent journalism awards for news reporting and overall excellence under my leadership. I wonder how in his relentless digging expedition Mr. Emerson neglected to note my award-winning work.
Check the facts — I wasn’t a student when this issue was published. I had no role in its publication, and I abhor the sentiments expressed in the article to which Mr. Emerson refers. Mr. Emerson’s style of shock, smear and distortion have proven once again that the value and validity of the information he claims to offer to the American public is little more National Enquirer-style reporting.
But, as is the case so often with superficially fact-based presentations made by Islamic apologists, this one turned out to be completely inaccurate. Emerson blows her away with the facts:
So let’s examine Ms. Lekovic’s role with al-Talib. From October 1997 to May 2002, in addition to the July 1999 “The Spirit of Jihad” issue, there are at least 11 other issues of the newspaper which list Ms. Lekovic as either “managing editor,” “copy editor,” “assistant editor” “writer,” or give her “special thanks.” A curiously high amount for someone who initially claimed she never worked for the newspaper or now says she only “briefly worked” for it.
[…]
As you can see, well after Ms. Lekovic graduated in 1999, and well after the article she claims to “abhor” was published in July of that same year, Lekovic was still contributing to al-Talib.
And while Ms. Lekovic is suddenly and curiously coy about her stint at al-Talib, such was not always the case. Just a few short months after 9/11, a December 2001 MPAC event program (See Page 6), titled, “The Rising Voice of Moderate Muslims,” included a bio for Ms. Lekovic, which proudly stated, “While at UCLA, Ms. Lekovic also was the managing editor of Al-Talib (The Student), a nationwide Muslim student publication.”
If Ms. Lekovic was embarrassed by her association with al-Talib — which had referred to Osama bin Laden as a “great Mujahid” and “freedom fighter” almost a year after he ordered the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa resulting in more than 200 deaths and over 5,000 injuries while her name was on the masthead as a “managing editor” – it certainly was not evidenced in MPAC”s December 2001 event program, ironically for an event supposedly dealing with “Moderate Muslims.” Clearly, in certain venues, including MPAC-sponsored conferences, being the “managing editor” of al-Talib is considered a source of pride. Why else include it in her bio?
Read it all.