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Cotton tells FBI to investigate conference speaker who called for halting F-35 production

The federal government should “take any necessary actions to mitigate the threat” posed by Aisha Nizar’s call to disrupt the American F-35 supply chain, the senator said.

F-35A Lightning II
An F-35A Lightning II aircraft at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., Feb. 13, 2023. Credit: Airman 1st Class Zachary Foster/USAF via Wikimedia Commons.

Fallout continued from a terror-supporting conference in Detroit last weekend, as Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) stated that he’s urging an FBI investigation into one of the speakers.

Cotton, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote on Wednesday to FBI Director Kash Patel, urging him to investigate Aisha Nizar, an organizer of the Palestinian Youth Movement.

During the People’s Conference for Palestine, Nizar encouraged attendees to take aim at America’s F-35 fighter jet supply chain.

“If one specific node of the F-35 supply chain is intervened in, it has a huge impact,” Nizar said. “We need to be surgical. We need to be strategic, and we need to be bold in our actions. Because there are many different points of these supply chains of death that we can intervene in.”

Cotton wrote that “Nizar’s statements constitute direct incitement of violence against U.S. national security interests by advocating for actions against the men and women who build the F-35 and seeking to imperil the delivery of one of the nation’s most strategic assets.”

He urged Patel to “take any necessary actions to mitigate the threat” and noted that he had raised prior concerns about the Palestinian Youth Movement, including its “antisemitic activities” and “likely illegal receipt of tax-exempt donations.”

Mike Wagenheim is a Washington-based correspondent for JNS, primarily covering the U.S. State Department and Congress. He is the senior U.S. correspondent at the Israel-based i24NEWS TV network.
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