Rep. Jim McDermott Praises Communist Activist

Cross posted from KeyWiki blog

The line between the Democrats and the Communist Party USA grows blurrier by the day.

At an April 24 , function in Seattle, David Loud, aide to Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA.) read a letter from McDermott, hailing local activist Will Parry as a leader of the fight for comprehensive, universal health care reform. “We are indebted to you for your years of service,” McDermott wrote.

Parry, who was celebrating his 90th birthday, is a prominent local activist and a life long member of the Communist Party USA.

Jeff Johnson, assistant to the president of the Washington State Labor Council and a Party friend, spoke of Parry’s affiliation with the Communist Party of Washington State, the communist controlled Pension Union and the Washington Commonwealth Federation that “became so strong they elected a Communist, Hugh DeLacy to the legislature” on the Democrat ticket in 1944.

Another Party friend Bill Farris, president of AWPPW Local 817 at the corrugated box plant where Parry worked for many years, said, “He’s an advocate for people who needed help, an advocate for the union. I’ve lost count of the number of picket lines I’ve walked with Will.”

McDermott, a member of the far left Congressional Progressive Caucus, has little apparent aversion to anti American organizations or regimes.

From June 30 to July 3 2007, McDermott was in Havana, Cuba on a “fact-finding trip. The cost of the trip, $1903.80 was paid by the leftist, Center for Democracy in the Americas.

In 2002 McDermott and two other Democratic Congressmen David Bonior (D -MI.) and Mike Thompson (D-CA.) traveled to Iraq on a fact-finding mission. It was later revealed that Iraqi intelligence had funded the trip through a Michigan based Muslim group headed by Muthanna Al-Hanooti.

Iraqi intelligence agents had reportedly had confidence that Al-Hanooti would be able to persuade Congress to lift economic sanctions against Iraq. A federal indictment unsealed in mach 2008 accuses him of using his work with the Michigan-based Life for Relief and Development, formerly known as the International Relief Association, Inc., to become an Iraqi agent.

According to the indictment, Al-Hanooti drafted a plan to undermine the sanctions for the Iraqis, listing members of Congress who would support the move. He then led tours to Iraq, indirectly funded by the Iraqi government, with congressional leaders including McDermott, Bonior and Thompson.

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LIFE issued a statement in advance of a 2002 trip, saying it was designed to help the representatives ””gain a better understanding of the humanitarian plight faced by innocent Iraqi civilians still suffering from the destruction caused by the 1991 Gulf War and the continuation of the 12-year embargo.”” Photos of the junket in question were included in a 2003 newsletter published by an organization called[Focus on American & Arab Interests & Relations of which Al-Hanooti was President.

According to the indictment, an intermediary for the Iraqis gave Al-Hanooti $24,000 in September 2002 to cover trip expenses, the indictment alleges. The next month, Al-Hanooti received $10,000 more. The indictment also claims he also was given the right to buy 2 million barrels of oil under Iraq’s Oil for Food program.

FBI agents interviewed Al-Hanooti in 2007. He denied knowingly meeting with any Iraqi intelligence officials and denied being offered the oil contract. That led to three counts in the indictment of providing false statements to federal agents.

Rep. McDermott’s role in the affair earned him the nick-name “Baghdad Jim”.

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7 thoughts on “Rep. Jim McDermott Praises Communist Activist

  1. Beginning this year we are voting out all progressives in both parties. We have been working hard to vent candidates that believe in a smaller federal government and strong belief in our constitution. We understand what we have in the 111th congress and the white house and that is going to change. We are taking our Republic back. The progressives have finally woke the sleeping giant…we are coming.

  2. Thanks people. We have the same problems in Seattle, Canada and NZ. "Progessive" philosophies are holding back real progress in every western country.

    Enough is a bloody 'nuff, I say.

  3. It's actually "Baghdad Jim".

    As a resident of the Seattle area, we have had to live too long with this incompetent leftist. The people of this city are brainwashed by Progressives. You cannot have a conversation with then, and you sure as hell cannot make them see the light.

    Pray for Seattle that they will wake up.

  4. Just wanted to say this is an amazing thing you are doing. Like you, I am fascinated with American Politics and desperately hope for a restoration of that great country, as my country (Canada) follows closely whatever the USA does. Thank god we finally have a conservative prime minister up here though, just need to get Harper a majority next election. I don't agree with some of his more center leaning policies but hey he's better than the liberals.

  5. Wow – thank you for your work and this outstanding blog! It helps so much that more than one voice is trying to scream out the corruption, even if that voice is half-way around the world!
    Blessings,
    Lori in Texas

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