IPT News
July 31, 2008The State Department has collaborated with many radical Islamist organizations and individuals in its attempts to engage in outreach to the American Muslim community at large, Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) Executive Director Steven Emerson told a congressional panel Thursday. Many of the individuals in charge of these organizations, and the organizations themselves, have been convicted, indicted, or designated as unindicted co-conspirators in terrorism cases throughout the United States.
(For detailed examples, see Emerson’s complete written testimony here:
http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/testimony/357.pdf)Emerson appeared before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade came despite the protests of some of the same Islamist organizations. Emerson urged Congress to review the State Department’s interaction with these organizations in its attempts to reach out to the Muslim community.
Emerson outlined some of the more troubling aspects of participation with these groups: namely their ties to terrorist entities and promotion of radical Islamic ideology. A number of groups that the State Department has cooperated with have links to entities such as Al Qaeda, Hamas and Hizballah – which are designated as terrorist organizations by the United States government. The groups partnering with the State Department help to support an ideology that focuses on eliminating secular Western powers and promoting their stringent ideas of Sharia law, or law as governed by Islamic text.
In his testimony, Emerson argued that the State Department’s actions in funding these programs only serves to legitimize fundamentalist voices who wish to promote a strict interpretation of Islam. This approach helps to increase support for terrorist groups and violence, which will help to aggrandize fundamentalist theology worldwide. The focus of the State Department’s funding should promote genuinely moderate voices within the Muslim community, rather than reaching out to those who justify violence, support designated terrorist groups, and promote the funding and support of jihadist ideology globally.
……Prior to Emerson’s testimony, Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) both expressed their concerns over the State Department’s funding and support of these organizations to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. They collaborated on a letter in which they urge Secretary Rice to stop funding entities that support radical Islamic ideology. The senators’ concerns are that despite these organizations’ known connections to radical terrorism entities, the State Department has willingly participated in awarding grants of about $500,000 to the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas fundraising trial with a long history of support for Hamas itself, and other radical Islamic organizations for programs that could help to promote or fund future terrorist ideology and violence.
In their letter, the senators write that they “are sure you would agree that Americans should not have to fund their enemies in the form of misguided ‘outreach’ efforts.” These sentiments are exactly in line with the expression of tribulation that Americans should be feeling due to the United States government supported funding of radical Islamist organizations. The evidence that Emerson presented before Congress further justifies the senators’ concerns. Hopefully the combined effort of the two senators and Thursday’s testimony will motivate Secretary Rice to expound upon the policies regarding which organizations and individuals in the Muslim community the State Department selects to receive grants.
Of course, exposure means that the muslims get their turbans in a wad:
……Several of the Islamist groups who have benefited from the State Department’s short-sighted selection process have become agitated about Emerson’s testimony and evidence highlighting their extremist positions and terrorist connections. In the week leading up to his testimony, two Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups, each with a lengthy record of support for terrorist entities such as Hizballah and Hamas, issued press releases, personally attacking Emerson and Rep. Sherman, the subcommittee chairman, in an attempt to block Emerson’s testimony.
The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) issued two press releases over two days, in which the group “demands” that the Subcommittee include an expert of its liking “or cancel the panel.” The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) also issued a press release titled, “Urgent Action Alert: Demand Responsible Testimony in Fight Against Terrorism,” also demanding that unless an ISNA-approved “expert” is made to testify, then “the session be canceled.”
Oh yeah, why not permit a representative for this terrorist organization to tell their side of the story?
The trouble with the ISNA’s demand for “responsible testimony in the fight against terrorism” is their own contribution to terrorism.
ISNA, a known Muslim Brotherhood front organization, has received grants from the State Department in support of several programs that it runs in partnership with the National Peace Foundation. Furthermore, in a filing in federal court in Dallas last week, ISNA’s lawyers conceded the organization’s financial support of Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook, through its affiliate organization, the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT).
MPAC also has connections to and support for terrorist entities. The organization has repeatedly lobbied to remove Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hizballah from the U.S. list of designated terrorist groups, claiming their inclusion is merely based on “political considerations,” rather than their long, bloody and violent history of terrorist attacks against civilians. On top of this, MPAC Executive Director Salam Al-Marayati has engaged in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, infamously stating on a Los Angeles radio station in the immediate aftermath of the 9-11 terrorist attacks: “If we’re going to look at suspects, we should look to the groups that benefit the most from these kinds of incidents, and I think we should put the state of Israel on the suspect list.”
In response to the protests, Congressman Sherman issued a press release in which he stated, “This hearing will go on. We need to make sure that the State Department is not giving U.S. tax dollars to those on the other side in the war on terrorism.” He added “The Muslim Public Affairs Council should apologize for the statements of its executive director on September 11, 2001.”
MPAC, ISNA and a constellation of other radical groups and individuals have been supported by the State Department. Perhaps Thursday’s testimony will signal a turning point, seeing the State Department implement stricter guidelines to avoid past mistakes and embarrassments, which have damaged America’s national security.
Let me get this straight. CAIR, a known terrorist front, operates carte blanche within the United States. Several of their members have been convicted for ties to terrorist groups, and many are “unindicted co-conspirators”.
But they are allowed to exist within the borders of the United States with the State Department’s blessing. I am a retired Soldier, former Intelligence Analyst, and Iraq War veteran, but it doesn’t take those qualifications to realize that our own government is aiding, abetting, and financing Islamofascist groups who plot and carry out terrorist attacks against Americans and the entire Western civilization.
Everytime I read about the moronic stupidity of our government bureaucrats, I have to wonder whose side they’re on, and if they will ever pull their heads out of their asses long enough to get a clue.
Un. Fucking. Believable.