THE JONES MESS: DID THE PRESIDENT KNOW? SHOULD HE HAVE KNOWN?

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WHO BROUGHT DOWN VAN JONES?

Aaron Klein, WND reporter, available for interviews
email: press@wnd.com

WASHINGTON – The Jerusalem-based reporter who first exposed "Green Jobs Czar" Van Jones and relentlessly pursued the story of an extremist in the White House for five months is available for media interviews.

Jones quit late Saturday night, an ideal time to minimize news attention – the middle of a long holiday weekend

In April, Aaron Klein, Jerusalem bureau chief for WND.com, broke the first major story on Jones who was identified as a self-described radical communist and "rowdy black nationalist" who said his environmental activism was actually a means to fight for racial and class "justice."

Succeeding revelations by WND included:

* Jones previously served on the board of an environmental activist group at which a founder of the Weather Underground terrorist organization is a top director.
* Jones was co-founder of a black activist organization that has led a campaign prompting major advertisers to withdraw from Glenn Beck's top-rated Fox News Channel program. The revelation followed Beck's reports on WND's story about Jones' communist background.
* That Jones and other White House appointees may have been screened by an ACORN associate.
* One day after the 9/11 attacks, Jones led a vigil that expressed solidarity with Arab and Muslim Americans as well as what he called the victims of "U.S. imperialism" around the world.
* Just days before his White House appointment, Jones used a forum at a major youth convention to push for a radical agenda that included spreading the wealth and "changing the whole system."
* Jones' Maoist manifesto while leading the group Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement, or STORM, was scrubbed from the Internet after being revealed by WND.
* Jones was the main speaker at an anti-war rally that urged "resistance" against the U.S. government – a demonstration sponsored by an organization associated with the Revolutionary Communist Party.
* In a 2005 conference, Jones characterized the U.S. as an "apartheid regime" that civil rights workers helped turn into a "struggling, fledgling democracy."
* Jones signed a petition calling for nationwide "resistance" against police, accusing them of using the 9/11 attacks to carry out policies of torture.

While talk radio and cable television picked up WND's reporting and increased the pressure on the administration to cut Jones loose, there was no significant coverage of the scandal by the major U.S. news media until September.

"It wasn't necessary for the New York Times to cover this story for a top administration official to be ousted," explained Joseph Farah, editor and chief executive officer of WND.com. "The Jones story is bigger than a mere political development. It's also a giant media story – illustrating just how profoundly our media landscape has changed as a result of the Internet. Once there was a blue dress. Now it's a red czar."

On Friday, Rep. Mike Pence, R-IN, chairman of the House Republican Conference, called on Jones to quit or be fired.

"His extremist views and coarse rhetoric have no place in this administration or the public debate," Pence said.

Jones has tried to deflect the rising chorus of criticism: "In recent days some in the news media have reported on past statements I made before I joined the administration – some of which were made years ago. If I have offended anyone with statements I made in the past, I apologize."

It was his second apology of the week. On Wednesday, Jones apologized for labeling Republicans with a vulgarism in a February speech, saying that his comments were "clearly inappropriate."

Here is a partial listing of Aaron Klein's reporting on Van Jones:

Van Jones: 'Resist' against police

'Political realignment' through social networking

Obama czar: U.S. was 'apartheid regime'

White House czar urged 'resistance' against U.S.

Czar's 'communist manifesto' scrubbed from Net

Obama 'czar': 'Spread the wealth! Change the whole system'

Obama 'czar' on 9/11: Blame 'U.S. imperialism'!

White House stonewalls on 'radical' adviser

Beck fights back with report on White House 'radical'

War erupts over Glenn Beck TV show

Obama's 'green jobs czar' worked with terror founder

Obama's environmental czar started group targeting Beck

Will a 'red' help blacks go green?

Aaron Klein, WND reporter, and Joseph Farah, WND editor and chief executive officer, available for interviews
email: press@wnd.com