Bush and the "big dude"

I'm not sure what to make of this, exactly. Arising as a campaign issue in the Senate campaign in Florida is Mel Martinez allowing President Bush to be photgraphed with a now suspected terrorist during his 2000 campaign. Even odder, the President invited the guy to the White House in 2001.

The photograph of Sami al Arian and his family standing with George and Laura Bush was snapped at the Plant City strawberry festival as candidate Bush campaigned for the Muslim vote in Florida. Arian was later invited to the White House in 2001.

But while the snapshot's authenticity has yet to be challenged, the way in which Castor's campaign is using it is questionable -- as is the role that Arian played in Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and in the 2000 presidential race and beyond.

(snip)

Daniel Pipes, a conservative Republican Middle East analyst, said Monday that the meeting ''clearly was a big mistake. There were those of us back then screaming it was a big mistake. Now the chickens are coming home to roost,'' he said of the Arian backlash led by Castor. ``This is a serious problem for the Republican Party.''

According to a Newsweek story, the Secret Service had flagged Arian as a potential terrorist before the event. But he was let in to the meeting with Bush strategist Karl Rove so the White House could avoid public embarrassment.

Some Bush critics, such as author Craig Unger, suspect that Arian had close ties to the White House. After all, Arian, in referring to the Florida vote margin that put Bush in the White House, said: ``We certainly delivered him many more than 537 votes . . . I think I personally played a big role in electing Bush.''

I'd never heard this before. I'll do some more reading and let you know.

*UPDATE* I guess this has been out for a while. Here's a summary from David Frum at the NRO:

Al-Arian, of course, is the professor at the University of South Florida who was yesterday charged with financially masterminding Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian terror group responsible for dozens of murders. He's now probably best known for his television confrontation with Bill O'Reilly - which ended with O'Reilly telling al-Arian that if he (O'Reilly) were the CIA, he'd follow al-Arian everywhere he (al-Arian) went.

Well it looks as if the FBI has been following O'Reilly's advice.

For at least a decade, the FBI kept al-Arian under surveillance, and thanks to the Bush administration's Patriot Act, the information it obtained is now at last admissable in court. According to press reports, intercepts and other information reveal al-Arian inciting others to kill and then gloating over his successes.

(snip)

Here now is where the story gets painful for us Bush Republicans. Not only were the al-Arians not avoided by the Bush White House - they were actively courted. Candidate Bush allowed himself to be photographed with the al-Arian family while campaigning in Florida. Candidate Bush denounced the immigration laws that detained - and ultimately deported - Mazen al-Najjar. In May 2001, Sami al-Arian was invited into the White House complex for a political briefing for Muslim-American leaders. The next month his son, Abdullah, who was then an intern in the office of Congressman David Bonior, joined a delegation of Muslim leaders at a meeting with John DiIulio, head of the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives. After the group entered the complex, a red flag belatedly popped up over the al-Arian name, and the Secret Service ordered him out of the complex. The entire delegation marched out with young al-Arian - and soon afterward, President Bush personally apologized to the young man and ordered the deputy director of the Secret Service to apologize as well.

He spent some time meeting with Karl Rove, as well:

Sami Al-Arian, indicted this week as a terrorist leader, attended a 2001 group meeting in the White House complex with President Bush's senior adviser, Karl Rove, administration officials said Friday.

Is this a big deal? Apparently it was at some point. I'm not sure what it would mean in light of today's campaign, however. I guess we'll see if it makes it out there.