The American Pundit

UPDATE: And sure enough, The Hatchet (GWU’s newspaper) headlines this as breaking news:

A group of seven GW students sent an e-mail to The Hatchet late Tuesday night admitting to hanging hundreds of controversial posters around campus early Monday morning.

The students – Adam Kokesh, freshman Yong Kwon, senior Brian Tierny, freshman Ned Goodwin, Maxine Nwigwe, Lara Masri and Amal Rammah – said their motives were misinterpreted. Students for Conservativo-Facism Awareness hung the posters in opposition to Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, an event being held beginning Oct. 22.

Kokesh, a graduate student and Iraq War veteran, gained celebrity over the past year because of his vocal opposition to the war. Nwigwe and Rammah are also graduate students.

“It is to our great dismay that the student body and the media missed the clear, if subtle, message of our flier: the hyperbolic nature of the flier was aimed at exposing Islamophobic racism,” the e-mail said.

By impersonating the YAF, smearing them by placing posters saying that they hate Muslims, then allowing them to take the heat for a while until you feel it fit to admit to your “satire”? Lovely.

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Despicable. Posters were recently put up around George Washington University, claiming to be put up by the Young America’s Foundation – a Conservative group. The fliers read “Hate Muslims? So Do We!!”. Not only does YAF completely and thoroughly deny they placed them around campus, the posters themselves gave clues that it was a smear. YAF writes:

Leftist administrators at The George Washington University are on a rampage against a conservative group on campus for anti-Muslim fliers posted that the group had nothing to do with. Young America’s Foundation chapter at GWU did not disseminate fliers that read “Hate Muslims? So Do We!!” even though the flier purported to have the group’s moniker at the bottom. The flier went on to advertise an actual event on radical Islam that the group is sponsoring the end of October.

It’s obvious to anyone with a moment’s reflection that such fliers were created to fake an incident of hate where none exists, rather than contribute to a robust discussion regarding the threat of radical Islam. The bottom of the flier, for instance, spitefully reads “Brought to you by Students for Conservativo-Fascism Awareness.” And as if that weren’t enough to tip off University officials that the flier was created with malicious intent, the very last line stating “PS Seriously, do a google video search for ‘The Power of Nightmares’ ” should have ended any doubts. If you’re unaware, “The Power of Nightmares” argues that the threat of radical Islam worldwide is in fact a myth perpetrated by politicians in America who have been hoodwinked by neoconservatives.

GWU officials have glossed over the fact that someone on campus misrepresented a school-sanctioned club. Instead, the school is cuddling up with the local Islamic groups to denounce the drummed up incident of hate and force the Young America’s Foundation chapter to sign a statement condemning hate speech. Bridgette Behling, the assistant director of the Student Activities Center at GWU, wrote an email to one of the conservative students urging them to disavow hate speech that may originate from any future Foundation events: “due to the inflammatory nature of today’s events [falsified posters], as a good faith effort on behalf of YAF, it is important that YAF drafts a statement which states that you will not allow hate speech to be a part of any of YAF’s events, literature, written or verbal communication planned for Islamofacism Week. This statement should also include your plan for preventing these things from happening as well as the consequences for these things happening. It is important that we have this document should any further incidents occur as we move forward.”

The elements on the poster – the smearing of Conservatives and message on terrorism contradictory to the group’s philosophy – should’ve given the university a clue. However, even if they didn’t see that, they probably should’ve learned from an admission from the student who actually did put them up:

The student Ahmed Abdel Wahab was interviewed on Fox 5 this am, explaining the poster as ‘satire.’

That was reported on Fox 5 in Washington, D.C.. Or how about this reported in the university’s own student paper?

Lara Nasri, a graduate student and a member of the Campus Anti-War Network, said the video listed on the poster, “The Power of Nightmares,” was a documentary questioning the West’s fear of terrorist networks. “It was completely satirical and overblown,” Nasri said. “It was the antithesis of racism.”

It seems that this is a convenient excuse for the university to silence real Conservative speech. Use the posters, already debunked as not having been posted by YAF, ignore the fact it has been debunked and continue pressing it as having been real hate speech.