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Congresswoman Denies Passing Sensitive Information To Iran


Democratic Representatives Ilhan Omar (R) and Rashida Tlaib speak about President Trump's Twitter attacks against them at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, July 15, 2019
Democratic Representatives Ilhan Omar (R) and Rashida Tlaib speak about President Trump's Twitter attacks against them at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, July 15, 2019

Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar has denied being a Qatari asset and passing sensitive information through intermediaries to Iran, her office told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

According to the Israeli newspaper a court in Florida was told by a witness that the Somali-born congresswoman had been recruited by a foreign government, received funding from a foreign government, and passed sensitive information through intermediaries to Iran.

The testimony came during the trial of Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad al-Thani, the brother of the former emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani who is accused of ordering his American bodyguard to murder two people, and of holding an American citizen hostage.

Congresswoman Omar claimed that she is the victim of Saudi propaganda after being accused of being a "Qatari asset" by the Kuwaiti-born Canadian businessman Alan Bander in the testimony given to the Florida court. Bander claimed that Qatari officials told him Omar was their asset and could not have been elected without their financial support.

"Since the day I won my first primary election against a 44yr incumbent in 2016, misinformation and conspiracy theories have become part of my daily existence. The stories keep getting outlandishly absurd, and this latest one is no exception," Omar tweeted yesterday.

"Saudi Arabian trolls and mouthpieces have targeted Omar with misinformation and conspiracy theories," a spokesperson for the Congresswoman wrote in a statement in response to the inquiry of The Jerusalem Post.

In her written response to The Jerusalem Post Omar's spokesperson also said that Omar will continue to "speak out against human rights violations around the world", whether it is war crimes in Yemen or the caging of children at U.S. borders regardless of who commits them.

The 37-year-old congresswoman from Minnesota who was elected to the congress in 2019 is a frequent critic of Israel.

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