{"id":601,"date":"2026-05-27T20:11:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T20:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=601"},"modified":"2026-05-27T20:11:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T20:11:17","slug":"top-nj-congressional-hopeful-volunteered-with-al-qaeda-linked-group-in-1990s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=601","title":{"rendered":"Top NJ congressional hopeful volunteered with al-Qaeda-linked group in 1990s"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014 A top New Jersey Democrat seeking to succeed retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman once volunteered in Bosnia with a Chicago-based nonprofit whose offices were raided by the government in 2002 after it was determined to be a front for al-Qaeda.<\/p>\n

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Adam Hamawy, an Egyptian-born former\u00a0combat surgeon who served in the Iraq War, had touted his time interning in 1994 for the since-defunct \u201cBenevolence International Foundation\u201d years later in a local New Jersey paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worked in Sarajevo for 10 days and then the rest in Zenica, a large regional center in central Bosnia,\u201d Hamawy told the Newark Star-Ledger in a 1996 interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went out to hospitals around the area and in the mountains to check what supplies they needed and we tried to deliver them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0 later described the foundation\u2019s operation in Bosnia as part of an \u201cimpressive array of offices [that] covertly provided financial and other support for terrorist activities\u201d that Osama bin Laden leaned on in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Government agents uncovered weapons, letters from al-Qaeda leaders, a photo of bin Laden, documents about the terror group\u2019s operations, and more during the raid on the Bosnian offices.<\/p>\n

that the foundation was used by the terror group as a front \u201cto establish a base for operations in Europe against al Qaeda\u2019s true enemy, the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jewish Insider first uncovered Hamawy\u2019s past work with the foundation. Hamawy was never charged or faced any accusations of involvement with Islamic terrorism. <\/p>\n

Hamawy now appears to be a frontrunner in the crowded Democratic primary in New Jersey\u2019s 12th Congressional District ahead of next month\u2019s election. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt must be the final days of the election, because the attacks are getting more desperate than ever,\u201d a spokesperson for Hamawy told The Post about the revelations. <\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Adam Hamawy, as a young medical student and member of the US military, volunteered to provide medical assistance to victims of the Bosnian genocide, per the suggestion the Bosnian mission made to him\u00a0on how to help via a United Nations-approved route,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe idea that this absurd claim could be seriously entertained about the work of a veteran who served our country for twenty years, was awarded the Global War on Terrorism medal for his service in Iraq, and climbed the rubble at Ground Zero searching for survivors on 9\/11 would be laughable if it weren\u2019t so gross and bigoted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the campaign, Hamawy has faced scrutiny over his ties to late al-Qaeda mastermind Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, also known as \u201cThe Blind Sheikh.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abdel-Rahman died in 2017.<\/p>\n

The late Islamist drew national attention in the 1990s amid a terror crackdown after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. <\/p>\n

Abdel-Rahman was later convicted in the mid-1990s for pushing for a \u201cwar of urban terrorism\u201d against the US, particularly in New York. He was one of several high-profile convictions after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.<\/p>\n

Hamawy\u2019s history with Abdel-Rahman had been known during the campaign. He first met him in 1991 while in medical school, per a . The two embarked on a 13-hour road trip to Detroit for a conference. <\/p>\n

During that conference about the Muslim economy, Abdel-Rahman mused about \u201cconquering the land of the infidels,\u201d per the transcript. Hamawy acknowledged hearing him say that at the conference, but contended that the prosecution was \u201ckind of taking it out of context,\u201d according to the court transcript.<\/p>\n

He also worked as a translator for Abdel-Rahman.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

During Abdel-Rahman\u2019s terror trial, his defense tapped Hamawy to dispute a government informant\u2019s accusations that \u201cThe Blind Sheikh\u201d urged them to murder then-Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak. <\/p>\n

Hamawy has been endorsed by lefty Dems, including \u201cSquad\u201d Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), as well as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) <\/p>\n

Hamawy drew national headlines for his volunteer work in the beleaguered Gaza Strip, during which his team was once briefly stranded after the closing of the Rafah border crossing. <\/p>\n

Sen. Tammy Duckwork (D-Ill.) has credited him with saving her life after she was injured in Iraq when her helicopter was downed.<\/p>\n

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A top New Jersey Democrat seeking to succeed retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman once volunteered in Bosnia with a Chicago-based nonprofit whose offices were raided by the government in 2002 after it was determined to be a front for al-Qaeda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nTop NJ congressional hopeful volunteered with al-Qaeda-linked group in 1990s - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=601\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Top NJ congressional hopeful volunteered with al-Qaeda-linked group in 1990s - Metro Transit Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A top New Jersey Democrat seeking to succeed retiring Rep. 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