Virginia Delegates Demand Information on Omeish Appointment
Three Republican delegates from Viriginia are demanding information on how Governor Timothy Kaine could have missed all the radical Islamic roots and connections of the Muslim American Society, and hired their leader for an immigration commission: Details sought on immigration panel selections.
Three Republican delegates have filed a request with the governor under the state’s open records law for information on how he chose members of the Virginia Commission on Immigration.
Dels. Todd Gilbert, R-Woodstock, Clifford L. “Clay” Athey Jr., R-Front Royal, and Bob Marshall, R-Manassas, wrote to Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine on Friday, filing a Virginia Freedom of Information Act request asking for “copies of all letters, e-mails, phone messages” and other documents given to Kaine’s office “to recommend candidates for appointment to the Commission on Immigration, regardless of whether they were finally appointed or not.”
The delegates are questioning the process in the wake of Dr. Esam Omeish’s short-lived appointment to the commission, formed to study the effects of illegal immigration on the commonwealth.
Omeish, the president of the Muslim American Society and chief of surgery at INOVA Alexandria hospital, was appointed by Kaine. Gilbert asked Kaine to reconsider the appointment after learning of alleged connections between the society and the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian group that gave rise to Hamas.
Administration officials initially dismissed Gilbert’s letter.
Kaine press secretary Kevin Hall said Gilbert’s concerns were “innuendo, moving dangerously close to slander,” and challenged Gilbert to offer proof.
Omeish resigned less than a day later, after Kaine viewed online videos in which the appointee accused Israel of genocide against Palestinians and exhorted Muslims to “the jihad way.”
As of Friday, the governor’s office hadn’t moved to retract Hall’s statement.
“I intend to defend my honor over the coming weeks and months by fully disclosing all the ties between this administration, radical Islam and the open border lobby in Richmond,” Gilbert wrote in an e-mail to reporters.