Brian Hecht of the Investigative Project notes an important detail in a statement from the Washington Post’s ombudsman, in her defense of their decision to run a Hamas editorial: Hamas’ Mystery Media Representative in the US.

The Post’s Ombudsman, Deborah Howell, shed some light on the process of how op-eds penned by high-ranking Hamas operatives end up on the editorial pages of major American newspapers. Commenting on the confusion between the Post and the Times over the publishing of two competing Yousef pieces, Howell reported:

(Washington Post Editorial Page Editor Fred) Hiatt said, “Our piece came to us through a representative of Mr. Yousef [in the United States] with whom we’d dealt before. He assured us afterward that he did not realize a separate piece was in the works.” (New York Times op-ed Editor David) Shipley’s source was in London and assured him of the same thing. (emphasis added)

It is hardly surprising that Yousef, or Marzook for that matter, would have a representative in America. Both Hamas leaders spent a significant amount of time living in the United States, developing an extensive infrastructure of front groups for the terrorist organization.

It is notable that, from the Post’s perspective, the controversy was not the publishing of propaganda from a designated foreign terrorist organization, but rather that its major competitor had published a similar op-ed from the same author that very day.

And with the revelation that Hamas apparently has an agent in the US who gets their hate rhetoric published in US papers, here’s a very good question (similar to the question I asked Tuesday about the Hamas op-ed in the LA Times):

The recent spate of op-eds by Hamas leaders in American newspapers, though, presents two potential questions for federal prosecutors and the family members of the victims of Hamas terrorism: just who exactly is Ahmed Yousef’s representative in the United States? And do Marzook and Haniyeh have U.S.-based representatives facilitating the publication of their op-eds?