Dem With TERROR Ties Wins NJ Primaries

A New Jersey Democrat with documented ties to the “Blind Sheikh” behind the 1993 World Trade Center terror network is now one step from Congress, and a victim’s son is asking how a system that was supposed to learn from 9/11 let this happen again.

Story Snapshot

A 1993 World Trade Center victim’s son is condemning Democratic nominee Adam Hamawy’s past ties to terrorist cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman.^[1]
Records and reporting say Hamawy met Abdel-Rahman, traveled with him, and later testified as a defense witness at his terrorism trial.^[1]^[5]
Hamawy’s campaign calls the coverage “guilt-by-association,” noting he was never charged with any terrorism-related crime.^[1]^[2]
The clash exposes a deeper crisis of trust, as Americans on left and right see elites lowering the bar on national security while demanding blind faith from voters.

The Fox News interview that reignited a 1990s terror connection

Michael Macko, whose father died in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, told Fox News he was “disappointed” that Adam Hisham Hamawy, a Democrat running in New Jersey’s 12th District, had won his primary despite past ties to cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman.^[1]^[3] Abdel-Rahman, known as the “Blind Sheikh,” was later convicted in federal court for plotting “urban terrorism” against the United States and inciting jihad that included the 1993 attack.^[1]^[5] Macko framed Hamawy’s victory, so close to Ground Zero, as “very shocking” and personally painful.^[1]

Fox’s report recapped that Hamawy met Abdel-Rahman at a New Jersey middle school forum in 1991 and later appeared as a defense witness at the sheikh’s trial.^[1] According to Macko’s recounting of court testimony, Hamawy acknowledged that Abdel-Rahman was preaching jihad against America at the same time his followers were plotting the bombing that killed Macko’s father and five others.^[1] Macko argued that this was not a distant or accidental contact, but a relationship that overlapped directly with the planning window of the attack from 1991 to 1993.^[1]

What the public record shows about Hamawy’s ties to the “Blind Sheikh”

Reporting from Fox News, Politico, and Jewish Insider paints a rough timeline of Hamawy’s connection to Abdel-Rahman, though key primary records like full trial transcripts remain sealed or hard to obtain.^[1]^[4]^[5] Fox says testimony and court records show Hamawy accompanied the sheikh to mosques around the country and acted as his interpreter, including visits to a Jersey City mosque later described in court documents as a “jihad office.”^[1] A Fox video report adds that he transmitted a fax for Abdel-Rahman in 1993, the year of the bombing.^[5]

Jewish Insider reports that after traveling with Abdel-Rahman, Hamawy went on to work in Bosnia with the Benevolence International Foundation, an organization later shut down by the government as an al-Qaeda front, although there is no allegation he engaged in terrorist activity himself.^[4] Politico’s New Jersey Playbook similarly notes his role as a defense witness in the “Landmarks” terrorism trial and his subsequent humanitarian and medical career, including service as a trauma surgeon.^[2]^[5] Across these accounts, no outlet reports that he was ever charged with terrorism or named as a co-conspirator.^[1]^[2]^[4]

How Hamawy and his defenders frame the story

Hamawy’s campaign has responded by calling the renewed scrutiny “guilt-by-association” and emphasizing that he condemns Abdel-Rahman’s “violent rhetoric and actions, and all violence, hatred, and terrorism.”^[1] His allies underscore that he was a young man at the time, that he later served as a United States Army surgeon, and that no law enforcement agency has accused him of wrongdoing related to the bombing or to al-Qaeda.^[2] That defense reflects a broader unease among many Americans about retroactively criminalizing association rather than relying on evidence of intent and action.

Republicans call for investigation into NJ Dem nominee Adam Hamawy over past ties to "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdel-Rahman, convicted in 1993 WTC bombing. Hamawy testified for defense at trial, never charged with… #Politics #NewJersey #NJPolitics #Election2024 https://t.co/EIjTnBiLFx

— @GlobalRightWatch (@AutonomusRepost) June 4, 2026

Critics counter that this explanation sidesteps the specifics: travel with a radical cleric, translation of his speeches, and transmission of at least one fax during the exact period his followers were plotting mass murder.^[1]^[5] They argue that even if these actions were not criminal, voters deserve a full accounting backed by primary documents, not vague reassurances from campaign consultants.^[1]^[4] The lack of easily accessible trial transcripts means the public is being asked either to trust partisan media framing or to trust a political campaign—two institutions that already suffer from cratered credibility.

Why this controversy resonates with frustrated voters

This fight over Adam Hamawy is not just about one New Jersey district; it sits at the intersection of national security fears, media spin, and elite self-protection. Conservatives who watched Washington fumble intelligence before 9/11 see a familiar pattern: downplay Islamist extremism, label concerns “xenophobic,” and hope voters do not read the fine print.^[1]^[5] Liberals wary of “forever wars” see another risk: that association stories can be weaponized to silence dissenters and justify surveillance and censorship.^[2]^[4]

Both sides notice something else: a political class that rarely provides full transparency. Congress can access sealed records, subpoena witnesses, and demand declassification, yet so far the pressure is landing mainly in television segments, not in formal investigations.^[1]^[5] That fuels the sense that, whether it is terrorism, immigration, or Wall Street, serious questions only get asked when they can be turned into campaign commercials. The deeper worry is that if elites shrug off credible concerns about who is allowed into government, the same arrogance will apply when they are making decisions about your money, your speech, and your safety.