Mosque promoter on taxpayer paid junket

Feisal Rauf, the main proponent of building a mosque at Ground Zero, is currently on a three-nation outreach trip to the Middle East. The State Department has sent him abroad at a cost to us of roughly $16,000. He starts his tour in Bahrain and ends it in the United Arab Emirates. He is expected to discuss Muslim life in America and promote religious tolerance.

But I would ask why the State Department (and the Bush administration who sent this man abroad in 2007) would use him to represent America's interests when he has declared that the US was an "accessory" in the events of 9-11, and has stated that the US "has more blood on its hands than Al-queda, and has stated that Bin Laden was "created in the USA," among other outlandish statements.

The State Department says he was instructed not to raise funds for the New York mosque while representing America, but what's to prevent him from having back room conversations with anyone he wants? Back room conversations happen in Washington all the time. Back room deals are made in Washington regularly. Unless his conversations are being monitored by the State Department who knows what he is doing?

I do not trust anyone who has such a tainted view of America as to suggest we were in any way complicit in 9-11 and that we have more blood on our hands than Al-Queda and Bin Laden was made in America.

We need a complete change in Washington.

Vote the fools out! Voting is a privilege, it's a right, and it's your duty!