[](/sites/default/files/uploads/2013/06/amir.jpg)On December 5, 2012, Amir Bedier, a Cairo accountant, was shot in the face outside the Egyptian presidential palace. His older brother, Ahmed, a Muslim activist from Florida, lauded him as a hero for risking his life to help others. Unfortunately for him, the man he was spinning as a hero is a follower of Osama bin Laden. When the information about this was exposed, within days, the two moved to delete the evidence. Yet, thanks to computer screenshots of the offenses and a need for the public to be educated on the matter, the information lives on.
Both Amir Bedier and Ahmed Bedier spent at least part of their childhoods in the United States. While their father worked on his PhD at the University of Oregon in Corvallis, the siblings stayed in the area going to local schools. Amir’s photo is shown on Corvallis’ Adams Elementary School graduating class of 1986 – 1987. Ahmed’s name is found on a web page devoted to swim team record-holders for Corvallis High School (He set his record in 1989).
The atmosphere in Corvallis, Oregon was as far from radical Islam as possible. According to Sperling’s Best Places, only .36% of the population of Corvallis practices Islam today. As Bedier brother Osama Bedier quipped about his early life in Corvallis, “I felt like the only Egyptian there.”
The lack of a significant Islamic infrastructure did not stop Ahmed and Amir Bedier from becoming radicalized in the future, however.
After a stint as Outreach Director of a radical mosque, the Islamic Society of Pinellas County, Ahmed Bedier became involved with the terror-related group CAIR.
CAIR or the Council on American-Islamic Relations was created as a division of global Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook’s American Palestine Committee. In 2007 and 2008, CAIR was named by the U.S. Justice Department as a party to the financing of millions of dollars to Hamas. CAIR had used its national website to raise funds for the Hamas charity Holy Land Foundation (HLF) and the al-Qaeda charity Global Relief Foundation (GRF). Bedier served as the Communications Director of CAIR-Florida and the Executive Director of CAIR-Tampa.
As he began his career with CAIR, Ahmed Bedier would as well become the unofficial spokesman for terrorist Sami al-Arian. Al-Arian had co-founded and was the North American leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), an organization that targets Israeli civilians with suicide and rocket attacks and has also been responsible for the deaths of Americans. After a long, drawn-out trial, al-Arian was sentenced to prison for his involvement in the terror group.
Today, Ahmed Bedier is a Florida events coordinator for Islamic Relief (IR). In May 2006, Israel labeled IR a front for Hamas, after arresting the group’s Gaza program manager, Ayaz Ali, for providing “funds and assistance to various Hamas institutions and organizations.” Ali admitted that he had cooperated with local Hamas operatives.
In 1999, Islamic Relief collected and sent more than $6 million to Chechen rebels with ties to al-Qaeda. The same year, IR received $50,000 from Human Concern International (HCI), a charity that the U.S. Department of Treasury described as a “bin Laden front.” Shortly after the September 11 attacks, IR was investigated by the Treasury Department as a “possible source of funding for al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.”
Last December, his brother Amir Bedier was shot in the face outside the executive office of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. It was an area where many clashes between police and anti-Mubarak rioters had taken place.
Ahmed Bedier, who had flown to Egypt to join in the revolution against Mubarak, created a graphic of the incident, containing a photo of a smiling Amir, an x-ray of the bullet that was lodged in his neck, and an illustration of a person depicting where the bullet entered and where it now remains.
Along with the graphic, Ahmed praised his brother, writing, “Last night my younger brother Amir was shot in the head outside the presidential palace… He went there, not to protest, but to help the injured… When we asked him who he thinks shot him, he did not blame opponents or supporters of [Mohamed] Morsi… WHEN THE MEDIA CAME TO INTERVIEW HIMTODAY AT THE HOSPITAL, because he was the only critically shot but survived, he refused to see them. Because he does not want the media to use his story to fuel more hate. Amir represents the good people of Egypt, the heroes. I’m proud of him…”
Another brother, Ashraf Bedier, posted a gruesome picture of Amir looking near-dead with blood flowing from his eye, calling him the “most peaceful person U’ll meet.”
The kind words from his brothers were put into question, when, relating to the injury, another member of the family, Reham Bedeer, sought forgiveness for Amir for something he had done and may have believed he committed an act of “evil.”
It turns out Amir Bedier – the man who Ahmed called a “hero” and Ashraf described as “peaceful” – has a lot to be forgiven for, as he has been a public supporter of al-Qaeda.
At least, he was public about it. Now, the web page where the information was located is gone.
In May 2013, Amir Bedier posted photos of Osama bin Laden and his mentor, Abdullah Azzam, on his Facebook page. He used one of the photos of bin Laden and, later, the photo of Azzam as his Facebook profile picture.
His Facebook friends included many of the members of his family as well as individuals who posted offensive pictures of Adolf Hitler and, like Amir, photos of al-Qaeda leaders.
Three days after this author put out a story regarding this information for FrontPage Magazine, titled ‘All in the Islamist-CAIR Family,’ Amir Bedier’s entire Facebook site was deleted. It now has been replaced with the following note: “Sorry, this page isn’t available. The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed.”
The precise reason why he removed his Facebook page is unknown. It may have been due to pressure from the family. Maybe it was out of concern about him being prevented from international travel. He has lived in Saint Petersburg, Florida, where his brother Ahmed makes his home. Or possibly it was for business considerations. According to Amir’s LinkedIn page, he is currently associated with two corporations located in Cairo, OEX Outsourcing Experts and CCA Firm: Consultants & Chartered Accountants. Bedier claims to be a “Partner” at both.
Amir wasn’t the only one to delete information. Ahmed Bedier deleted the graphic he created for his brother.
Regardless of why the Bedier brothers destroyed this evidence, the public has a right to know its contents. This is to protect current members of society from those who would look to do them harm, and it should serve as a wake-up call to future generations about Islamist intentions.
For the Bedier brothers, their mission to corrupt future generations has begun, as witnessed recently when Ahmed Bedier dressed his young son, Malek, in extremist Palestinian garb and protested side-by-side with him. He called it “on the job training” – working hard to see that the radical Bedier legacy lives on.
_Joe Kaufman is an expert in the fields of counter-terrorism, foreign affairs and energy independence for America. He has been featured on all major cable networks, including Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC and C-SPAN. Kaufman has served as a consultant to different government agencies, and he has been instrumental in getting U.S.-based terrorist charities shut down and terror-related individuals put behind bars. Exactly one month prior to the September 11 attacks, Kaufman predicted the attacks by stating that the 1993 World Trade Center bombing was not an aberration and that it would happen again.
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Beila Rabinowitz, director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.
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