Gotham/X (@itslaylas) Stuart Seldowitz
Stuart Seldowitz was an adviser in former President Barack Obama’s White House and a senior national security official who is accused of being the man in a viral video making racist comments about Muslims and Egyptians to a halal cart vendor in New York City.
https://x.com/drhossamsamy65/status/1727653582449603017?s=20
“This man wearing a green jacket was berating and harassing a halal cart vendor off 83rd and 2nd Ave in NYC. Does anyone know who this man is? Planning to report to the authorities,” an X user named Layla wrote on November 21, 2023, sending the first video, which you can watch below, viral. Be aware that the video is disturbing.
This man wearing a green jacket was berating and harassing a halal cart vendor off 83rd and 2nd Ave in NYC. Does anyone know who this man is? Planning to report to the authorities.
A second video has now emerged that captures him telling the vendor, “If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, it wasn’t enough.”
this man is continuing to berate and harass the halal cart vendor. He ends the video with “if we killed 4,000 palestinian kids? It wasn’t enough”.
A third video has also emerged.
In October 2023, BitChute CPO Amy Peikoff interviewed Stuart Seldowitz “on the Israel-Hamas conflict, we will call it a war.” In the video, she says that Seldowitz was the “deputy director senior political officer in the U.S. State Department’s office of Israel and Palestinian affairs from 1999 to 2003.”
There are “very few issues that are as politically radioactive as the Middle East is and was,” Seldowitz said in the video.
After people on X identified Seldowitz, 64, as the man in the viral video, which you can watch later in this story, Gotham Government Relations wrote on X on November 21, 2023, “Gotham Government Relations has ended all affiliation with Stuart Seldowitz, an individual who hasn’t contributed to our work in years. The video of his actions is vile, racist, and beneath the dignity of the standards we practice at our firm.”
In November 2022, Gotham wrote in a press release that Seldowitz was “former Director of the National Security Council under President Obama and former diplomat for the U.S. State Department serving during five presidencies,” describing him as “our Foreign Affairs Chair.”
According to federal records, Seldowitz is a repeated donor to President Biden. His full name is Stuart M. Seldowitz, and he is a New York resident, according to public records. He was on the guest list for Obama’s first state dinner, CBS News reported in 2009.
Gotham was responding to a post from a man who tagged the company’s X page and wrote, “I will personally take the mission to inform EACH one of your clients by phone, letter, walking or even crawling to their positions to tell them about this video if you dont FIRE this racist islamophobe Stuart.”
@MisterCalifia @PALNewYork @ABKLawNYC @SchwartzDefense Gotham Government Relations has ended all affiliation with Stuart Seldowitz, an individual who hasn’t contributed to our work in years.
The video of his actions is vile, racists, and beneath the dignity of the standards we practice at our firm.
A cache of a now-deleted biography page for him on Gotham says, “Stuart Seldowitz brings a distinguished career in federal and state government with interests in governmental, political, and business fields.” However, another bio on a different page for the company reads of Seldowitz, “In the early 2000s, he worked as Acting Director for the National Security Council South Asia Directorate under the order of the Executive Office of the President.”
Here’s what you need to know:
1. In the Viral Video at the Halal Cart, Stuart Seldowitz Is Accused of Making Comments About the Koran & Prophet Mohammed
X (@itslaylas)Stuart Seldowitz
In the video, the man now identified as Seldowitz stands at the food cart holding a cell phone. He tells the vendor, referring to the Egyptian intelligence service, “The Mukhabarat wants your picture. You know the Mukhabarat?”
“No, I don’t know. I don’t speak English,” the vendor replies.
The man identified as Seldowitz says, “The Mukhabarat in Egypt will get your parents. Does his father like his fingernails? They will take them out one by one.”
He then says, “Why should I go? Why should I go? Tell me why I should go? I am standing here. I am an American. It’s a free country. It’s not like Egypt.”
He then tells the vendor to smile and says, “Smile for me,” taking a photo with his cell phone before laughing.
“Did you rape your daughter like Mohammed did? Did you rape your daughter like Mohammed?” the man named as Seldowitz says.
“I don’t speak English,” the unidentified vendor responds.
“You don’t speak English? All right. That just shows how ignorant you are because your Mohammed was a rapist… it says in your holy book. Your prophet? You know who he was? He was a rapist,” the man named as Seldowitz says.
“I don’t speak English. No English,” says the vendor.
“You don’t speak English? What do you speak? What do you speak? Do you speak Arabic, the language of the Koran? The Holy Koran, that some people use as a toilet. What do you think of that, people who use the Koran as a toilet? Does it bother you? Does it bother you? Tell me the truth.”
“I don’t speak English.”
He continues: “You don’t speak English? That’s too bad. That’s why you’re selling food in a food cart, because you’re ignorant, but you should learn English. It will help you when they deport you back to Egypt and the Mukhabarat wants to interview you.”
A second video shows the man named as Seldowitz again approaching the cart. He puts two buttons against the man’s window.
“It’s not my fault that you pray to a criminal,” he says. The vendor responds that he is working.
He said he was working.
“I am going to put big signs here saying this guy believes in Hamas. I won’t give you a penny of my money … I don’t want to go. I have a right to stand here. You have no right to be on the sidewalk. Do you have a permit?” the man named as Seldowitz said.
The vendor said he has a license and permit.
“But you don’t have a visa. What do you have?
When the vendor tells him it’s not his business, he says, “It is my business. I actually know the guys who own all these things. You’re an American citizen? How did you become an American citizen?”
The vendor says he was “born here,” to which the man named as Seldowitz says, “You’re a terrorist. You support terrorism.”
The vendor says, “Go. I’m just working here.”
“You’re a terrible person. … I didn’t kill children. You know what, if we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough,” the man accused of being Seldowitz says.
2. The Gotham Company Bio Page Says That Stuart Seldowitz, Whose Facebook Page Shows Him Holding a Sign That Says ‘Follow Me to Israel,’ Worked With New York State to Help Attract Foreign Investment
Facebook (Stuart Seldowitz)Stuart Seldowitz
Seldowitz’s Facebook page contains only two photos: a picture of him eating ice cream and a picture of him holding a sign that says “follow me to Israel” and on which he tagged an Israeli airline.
A 2017 story in The Hill says, “Gotham Government Relations & Communications, a New York-based firm, hired former State Department official Stuart Seldowitz for its newly opened Washington office. The firm helped coordinate President Trump’s initial campaign announcement in 2015.”
A bio page that is still up on Gotham company’s Washington, D.C., website says Seldowitz has a 30-year career in government, both for the U.S. State Department and New York State.
Stuart Seldowitz brings a distinguished career in federal and state government with interests in governmental, political, and business fields. Mr. Seldowitz comes to his work at Gotham Government Relations after nearly a thirty-year career with the United States Department of State and New York State. In the early 2000s, he worked as Acting Director for the National Security Council South Asia Directorate under the order of the Executive Office of the President. His expert-level knowledge and analysis of India and South Asia were critical to the success of the National Security Council and to senior management, including the President of the United States.
The page says that Seldowitz worked on the “most difficult political, trade, and national security issues” and won awards from the State Department:
Mr. Seldowitz has worked on some of the most difficult political, trade, and national security issues facing the United States throughout his career, including relations with Afghanistan, the Middle East, Mexico, and South Africa. He has also worked extensively on issues concerning European security and nuclear arms control.
While working for the New York State government, Mr. Seldowitz designed state-level programs to help New York companies identify market opportunities, attract foreign investment to New York, and compete successfully overseas.
Mr. Seldowitz is a three-time winner of the State Department’s Superior Honor Award. He speaks fluent Spanish and is a graduate of George Washington University.
3. Stuart Seldowitz Worked for an Israeli-Businessman’s Company as a ‘Humanitarian Diplomacy Senior Consultant’
GothamStuart Seldowitz
In a July 2023 article in the Jerusalem Post, Moti Kahana, an “Israeli-American” entrepreneur who runs a company called GDC Inc., mentioned Seldowitz.
In 2014, according to the Jerusalem Post, Kahana “made headlines for the first time as he organized the rescue operation to get the last Jewish family of Aleppo out of Syria.” He also helped start the “initiative Buses of Angels, which enabled Syrian women and children to cross the border in secret to receive medical care in Israel,” the newspaper reported, adding that he helped the Kurds in their fight against ISIS by giving them “humanitarian supplies.”
Kahana told Jerusalem Post: “My company is like a war-zone Uber/UPS for people and goods,” he said. “I can be here on my farm directing an operation in the Middle East. We have 13 employees, including Stuart Seldowitz, who worked at the State Department during the Obama administration and is our humanitarian diplomacy senior consultant.”
https://x.com/EmekaGift100/status/1727668389814915483?s=20
According to a 2001 petition he filed with the Office of the Inspector General, Department of State, in 1990, “petitioner served on the United States delegation to the Nuclear and Space Talks (NST) in Geneva, Switzerland,” and Seldowitz’s “wife served as secretary to the Deputy Negotiator on the NST’s Defense and Space negotiating group. Petitioner and his wife rented a private apartment together from February 9 through May 26, 1990. Both petitioner and his wife received full per diem compensation for their living expenses in Geneva.Their landlord provided separate receipts for the full amount of the rent to both petitioner and his wife.”
The document continues: “Petitioner submitted a travel voucher for reimbursement with his rental receipt attached. He annotated the receipt, crossing out the full amount of rent and writing in half of the amount. Petitioner alleges that he was thereafter instructed by telephone not to annotate his receipts, and did not make any further notations on subsequent vouchers. Petitioner does not dispute that the full amount of rent appeared on the travel voucher that he signed.”
In 1991, “OIG investigated travel vouchers submitted by certain members of the United States delegation to the NST, including those of petitioner. Petitioner and his wife were informed that they were under investigation for submitting false claims against the United States by submitting vouchers for the full amount of their monthly rent while in Geneva,” the documents say.
“Petitioner informed OIG during that investigation that he had annotated the first receipt to reflect half of the rent amount and that he had been instructed not to annotate any further receipts. In May 1995, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia informed petitioner that it was considering bringing a civil action against him under the False Claims Act (FCA),” the documents continued. “On June 15, 1995, petitioner met with officials from the Department of State, OIG and an Assistant United States Attorney. At that meeting, petitioner was shown unannotated receipts from his first voucher. After retaining counsel, petitioner entered into a settlement of his false claims charges in the amount of $15,000.”
The documents say, “Petitioner subsequently requested from the National Finance Center a copy of his first travel voucher. On October 5, 1995, he received the voucher, with annotated receipts attached to it. Upon receiving the voucher, petitioner ‘became aware that the U.S. Attorney’s Office had possession of incorrect records.'”
4. Stuart Seldowitz Was Fired From His Role as an Editorial Board Member for Bloomberg’s Opinion Page, Where He Wrote an Editorial That ‘Advocated a Tougher Line on Pakistan Than the Obama Administration Was Pursuing’
Facebook (Stuart Seldowitz)Stuart Seldowitz
For eight months in 2011, he was an editor at Bloomberg News, his LinkedIn page says. A 2011 Bloomberg article says he was named to the Bloomberg View editorial board for the company’s new opinion venture.
According to New York Magazine, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg hired “Jamie Rubin, a former State Department spokesperson, to run the View alongside the New York Times’ former deputy opinion editor David Shipley.”
In June 2011, “Rubin pushed to publish an editorial by Stuart Seldowitz, a former State Department official who had been Rubin’s sole hire, that advocated a tougher line on Pakistan than the Obama administration was pursuing. The article sparked a battle between Rubin and his allies and the journalists, who felt it was too aggressive,” the magazine reported, adding that, although the editorial was published, Seldowitz and Rubin, who is married to journalist Christiane Amanpour, were then fired.
A LinkedIn page says Seldowitz has worked as a “Financial Representative at New York Life.” He has worked as a life insurance agent in New York City.
The page says he was also “International Strategy Advisor” for Empire State Development in 2012-2013. “Worked on behalf of New York State government as a consultant/contractor to develop a comprehensive strategy to boost exports by New York State companies. Created a $2.2 million dollar state program that will help NY’s small and medium sized companies decide whether they want to export, identify market opportunities, and compete successfully overseas,” the page says.
The page says he was “Acting Director” of the National Security Council South Asia Directorate for two years in the “Executive Office of the President.” He described his role as having “Advised White House policy makers on U.S. policy towards India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.”
A former national security official wrote on Seldowitz’s LinkedIn page before the controversy, “Stuart is a valuable addition to any workgroup. He is not afraid to speak his mind; every good leader knows it is important to have at least one person in their organization with that quality. He brings years of diverse experience, deep knowledge, and a willingness to help mentor the next generation.”
5. In a 1997 Forum, Stuart Seldowitz Spoke About U.S. Efforts to Put Diplomatic Pressure on Serbia & Its Former President Slobodan Milošević
There is a video of Seldowitz on C-Span. It reads, “Stuart Seldowitz is a Senior Adviser for the Dayton Peace Accords Project with one video in the C-SPAN Video Library; the first appearance was a 1997 Forum.”
In the video, Seldowitz says that any ambition Milosevic has “will not be possible until he complies with a number of conditions, one of which is cooperation with the war crimes tribunal.”
He said that sanctions against Serbia were removed “however the administration has maintained what we call the outer wall of sanctions.”
Serbia wouldn’t be allowed to rejoin the international community or “to receive financing from international finance institutions” until it complies with conditions which include cooperation with Dayton, democratization at home, and so on, Seldowitz said.
“We have constantly reminded him of this at every meeting we have,” he said of Milosevic. “If we don’t take military action that doesn’t mean that we not concentrating on the issue and that we aren’t doing anything. We are applying a massive amount of diplomatic pressure.” The U.S. government had applied pressured for the return of Bosnia-Croat war criminals, he said.
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