Homeland Security refuses to discuss continued employment of Islamic supporter of genocide
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Tuesday bit back against lawmakers who questioned a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) decision to keep a Muslim who openly supports genocide employed.
During 2016 and 2017 Nejwa Ali served as a spokeswoman for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which created a “Palestinian Delegation to the US.” President Donald Trump banned the group, but she was able to find a position with the DHS in 2019 as an adjudication officer for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). It has been Ali’s job to determine whether asylum seekers should be granted entry to the United States.
Following the October 7th attack in Israel, Ali expressed support on social media for the Islamic attackers, writing, “I abso-f—ing-lutely celebrate [Palestinian hang-gliders], a–hole, f— you!” Her social media page, in which she describes herself as “American born” but “Palestinian @ heart”, contains several remarks about Jews such as: “F— Israel and any Jew that supports Israel.”
After the Daily Wire reported Ali’s posts, DHS spokesman Matthew Bourke confirmed she was placed on administrative leave. But the Biden administration has so far refused to terminate the former PLO operative despite several requests from lawmakers.
During a Senate committee hearing Tuesday, Mayorkas engaged in a heated exchange with Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) over Ali’s continued employment.
“What’s going on here?” asked Hawley. “Is this typical of people who work at DHS? This is an asylum and immigration officer who is posting these frankly pro-genocidal slogans and images on the day Israelis are being slaughtered in their beds. What have you done about this?”
“Four things I’d like to say to you, number one, your question, to suggest that that is emblematic of the men and women of DHS is despicable,” Mayorkas angrily responded.
“I’m sorry — this person works for DHS. Have you fired her?” Hawley interjected.
When Mayorkas still did not answer, Hawley asked again:
“Don’t come to this hearing room when Israel has been invaded and Jewish students are barricaded in libraries in this country and cannot be escorted out because they are threatened for their lives, you have employees who are celebrating genocide and you are saying its despicable for me to answer the question? Has she been fired?”
Hawley had to ask the question a fourth time before Mayorkas finally answered that Ali has only “been placed on administrative leave.”
“So she’s not been fired. Why has she not been fired?” Hawley pressed. Mayorkas tried to pass the blame to President Trump, during whose administration Ali was hired, and then said “he cannot speak to an ongoing personnel matter.”
The exchange continued and Mayorkas tried to deflect the line of questioning by invoking his Holocaust survivor parent, suggesting this lent him the credentials to decide whether someone presents a threat to the Jewish people.
Notably, Hawley did not confront Mayorkas about the fact that Ali has ties to a genocidal Islamic group.
Ali is only one US official among several who have ties to such groups and who remain employed by the Biden administration.
The Department of Defense (DoD), for example, is refusing to terminate Yousra Fazili, a senior Pentagon official with strong ties to the Qatari regime which openly funds the Muslim Brotherhood and its subsidiary, Hamas. Qatar, which provides safe haven to Hamas leaders like Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashaal, also sponsors the pro-Hamas news outlet Al Jazeera. Following the October 7th attack in which Hamas operatives massacred 1,400 Israelis and kidnapped 220+ as hostages, Qatar said it “holds Israel solely responsible.”
Qatar’s ruling Al-Thani family includes Meshal Bin Hamad Al-Thani, who since 2017 also serves as Qatar’s Ambassador to the US. After Al-Thani’s appointment it was revealed that Qatar was planning a covert influence operation which involved damaging the reputations of government officials who oppose Qatar.
During that time, Al-Thani’s strategic advisor was Yousra Fazili. For over three years, Fazili served Al-Thani by arranging “strategic partnerships.” Shortly after Joe Biden took office, Fazili was suddenly appointed special assistant to the assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical, and biological defense programs at the Pentagon.
Since then Fazili has been promoted twice and now serves as the Pentagon’s chief financial officer and chief of staff to the under secretary of defense for comptroller.
This caught the attention of US Congressman Jack Bergman (R-MI), who raised the alarm about Fazili. In an August letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Bergman requested details about how the Pentagon vetted Fazili and what safeguards, if any, are in place to ensure she does not influence policy related to the Persian Gulf.
Bergman was brushed off with a brief response from Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs Rheanne Wirkkala, who simply told the congressman that Fazili had been vetted “in accordance with all appropriate laws and policies.”
Following this month’s Hamas massacre, Bergman sent a second letter but received no response from Wirkkala at all.
Wirkkala has also defended the Pentagon’s decision to employ Assistant Secretary for Special Operations Chief of Staff Ariane Tabatabai, who will keep her top security clearance despite being outed as an operative of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Emails obtained by Semafor in September show that Tabatabai was part of an Iranian influence operation called the Iranian Experts Initiative (IEI). The IEI’s objective was to recruit overseas academics and researchers to help shift policy towards Iran, particularly regarding its nuclear proliferation — an objective considered to have been successful.
Tabatabai was a core member of the IEI, which was overseen by Iran’s Foreign Ministry. She was reportedly in direct contact with senior Iranian officials such as then-Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and a top Foreign Ministry official named Mostafa Zahrani, from whom she requested permission to attend international conferences.
After joining the IEI, Tabatabai began writing articles for mainstream media outlets such as the Atlantic, Washington Post, and New York Times in which she promoted a nuclear deal with Iran. She claimed that Iran was seeking nuclear capabilities not to build nuclear weapons but for “production of radioisotopes for medical purposes” and for “desalination, an energy-intensive process.”
In addition to writing articles, Tabatabai also went on the lecture circuit at various globalist think tanks such as billionaire George Soros’ Center for American Progress and the Council on Foreign Relations, where she advocated for a nuclear deal with Iran.
Tabatabai also served as a key aide to former Biden administration Special Envoy to Iran Robert Malley, who was suspended in June for “mishandling classified documents.”
When US Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) pressed the Pentagon for an explanation on why Tabatabai is retaining her post and her top security clearance, she received a similar brush-off from Wirkkala, who herself is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
“We have confirmed that Ms. Tabatabai’s employment and clearance processes were carried out in accordance with all appropriate laws and policies,” Wirkkala wrote Sen. Ernst in an October 12th letter.
