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Cornell blasts ‘shoddy’ video showing dean open to helping ISIS, Hamas

A video released last night by James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas has drawn a sharp rebuke from Cornell University’s administration for creating a misleading picture of a conversation with a dean on how a student can help ISIS and Hamas.

The Cornell Review posted the video last night before replacing it with a statement from President David Skorton, saying “the notion that Cornell would allow ISIS training sessions on our campus is ludicrous and absolutely offensive.”

It continues in part:

Skortonstatement.CornellReview

In the video, it’s not clear that Assistant Dean of Students Joseph Scaffido realizes what the undercover student is talking about when he asks about sending care packages to “the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria” for “freedom fighters.”

Scaffido responds: “There’s a lot of our student organizations that do things like that all over the world.”

The dean doesn’t seem confused at all, though, when the student asks if it would be a “problem” for a student club to support Hamas:

The university is not going to look at different groups and say you’re not allowed to support that group… I think the university wants the entire community to understand what’s going on in all parts of the world.

He calls Cornell’s home of Ithaca “a great place” and “very liberal” before saying that the student’s group could bring in a “freedom fighter” to speak, by requesting “four or five thousand dollars” in student funds.

The student never seems to define what he means by “freedom fighter.” When he asks whether such a person could do a “training camp” on campus, Scaffido analogizes that to “bringing in a coach” to train a sports team.

Is Scaffido just clueless about what “Islamic State” means?

Watch the video and judge for yourself.

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IMAGE: Project Veritas YouTube screenshot

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About the Author
Associate Editor
Greg Piper served as associate editor of The College Fix from 2014 to 2021.