CAIR Testimony Reinforces Fringe Ideology

IPT News
May 14, 2013

 

Inspector General Probing FBI/CAIR Interactions

Screen-shot-2012-06-12-at-12_57_13-PM-e1339520428720by IPT News 

FBI to Honor CAIR-Linked Group

By Lloyd Billingsley

Next April in Washington, FBI director Robert Mueller will give the agency’s community service award to Farrukh Saeed, chairman of SALAM, the Sacramento Area League of Associated Muslims. “SALAM’s openness and commitment to the community as a whole, regardless of faith, makes them a shining example of community leadership,” said FBI special agent Herb Brown at the local ceremony.

“I think if anyone at SALAM knew anything about (potential) terrorism,” Brown added, “they would come to us at the FBI.” That certainty is not shared by locals familiar with SALAM, which openly hosts events with the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Local CAIR boss Rashid Ahmad recently downplayed the Benghazi attacks and wants to deprive American filmmakers of their freedom of speech.

The CAIR connection did not emerge in news reports about the FBI award, though Steve Magagnini of the Sacramento Bee brought in the case of Hamid Hayat, noting that it had made the SALAM people uncomfortable. “There was no evidence other than his own words that Hayat actually underwent terrorist training,” Magagnini added, implying that Hayat, now serving a 24-year sentence, could be innocent.

Onislam.net, in a story out of Cairo, said the FBI award was “a change of tactics towards the US Muslim community. . . after complains (sic) of secret surveillance and trapping Muslim worshippers.” In reality, the award was business as usual. In 2009 the FBI gave its community award to SALAM’s imam, Mohamed Abdul-Azeez, “for his efforts to teach both Muslims and non-Muslims about the Islamic faith.”

Drew Parenti, FBI special agent in Sacramento at the time, said that “Sacramento is truly blessed to have a leader with the vision, energy and compassion demonstrated by Mr. Azeez.”  For the overwhelming majority of Muslims, Parenti said, “there’s the same exact sense of shared American values that everybody else has.”

Abdul-Azeez was once the subject of a lengthy profile in the Sacramento News and Review, a supposedly tough-minded “alternative” weekly. “He doesn’t have those crazy eyes like Arabs do in Western political cartoons,” said writer Bob Schmidt. “His hair is close-cropped, his mustache and goatee are neatly shaved and his build is burly, thanks to regular free-weight training. No, this ain’t your father’s ‘Death to America’-spewing jihadist—in more ways than simply his age, appearance and body type.” Abdul-Azeez took full advantage of the puff-piece approach.

“I’m very much not hostile to the United States,” he said. “I’m here because I chose to be here. I’m staying here because I choose to stay here. This is my country now.” But America has a “stereotyping” problem.

Read more at Front Page

FBI, DOJ SUED FOR INFO ON MUELLER’S SECRET MEETING WITH RADICAL ISLAMIC ORGANIZATIONS

by TOM FITTON

Political correctness puts our national security at risk. Case in point: The FBI’s persistent kowtowing to radical Muslims in its approach to terrorism investigations.

I’ve written previously about the FBI’s Muslim sensitivity training programs.WorldNetDaily has done some outstanding reporting on workshops run by the FBI that “educate” agents about Muslim customs and beliefs in an attempt to help them to “break down barriers” and foster “mutual understanding.”

Well, now it appears the FBI has taken another giant step down a very dangerous path with FBI Director Robert Mueller’s secret meeting with radical Islamic organizations and allowing them effectively to “edit” the FBI’s training manuals.

Last week we filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seeking access to records detailing a February 8, 2012, meeting between FBI Director Robert Mueller and Muslim organizations. Judicial Watch is also investigating the FBI’s subsequent controversial decision to purge the agency’s training curricula of material deemed “offensive” to Muslims.

On March 7, 2012, Judicial Watch submitted FOIA requests to the FBI and the DOJ seeking access to records regarding the meeting. We’re after “any and all records setting criteria or guidelines for FBI curricula on Islam or records identifying potentially offensive material within the FBI curricula on Islam,” and any directives to withdraw FBI presentations and curricula on Islam.

We’ve also asked for records of communications between the Office of the Attorney General and several entities, including the Obama White House, the Executive Office of the President, and Muslim organizations, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic Society of North America, and the Council for American-Islamic Relations regarding the FBI’s curricula on Islam.

The FBI acknowledged receipt of our FOIA request on March 20, 2012, and was required to respond by May 1, 2012. The DOJ acknowledged receiving Judicial Watch’s FOIA request on March 14, 2012, and was required to respond by April 11, 2012. But so far, after months, we’ve received nothing from either agency.

According to the press, Mueller reportedly met secretly on February 8, 2012, at FBI headquarters with a coalition of Islamist organizations, some with radical ties to terrorist organizations.

For example, per The Washington Examiner, one group that reportedly met with Mueller – the Islamic Society of North America – “was tied to the terror groups Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in federal court documents.” The government named the Islamic Society of North America as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorist financing lawsuit, along with the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the North American Islamic Trust.

Read more at Breitbart

Tom Fitton is president of Judicial Watch and author of The Corruption Chronicles, on sale now.

Judicial Watch Sues FBI, Justice Department for Records Detailing FBI Director Mueller’s Secret Meeting with Radical Islamic Organizations

Judicial Watch Also Probes FBI Decision to Purge Training Curricula of Material Deemed ‘Offensive’ to Muslims

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and fights government corruption, announced today that it has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit (Judicial Watch v. Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:12-cv-01183)) against the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seeking access to records detailing a February 2012 meeting between FBI Director Robert Mueller and Muslim organizations. Judicial Watch is also investigating the FBI’s subsequent controversial decision to purge the agency’s training curricula of material deemed “offensive” to Muslims.

On March 7, 2012, Judicial Watch submitted FOIA requests to the FBI and the DOJ seeking access to records concerning or relating to a February 8, 2012, meeting between FBI Director Robert Mueller and various Islamic organizations.

Judicial Watch seeks “any and all records setting criteria or guidelines for FBI curricula on Islam or records identifying potentially offensive material within the FBI curricula on Islam,” as well as any directives to withdraw FBI presentations and curricula on Islam. Judicial Watch also seeks records of communications between the Office of the Attorney General and several entities, including the Obama White House, the Executive Office of the President, and Muslim organizations, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic Society of North America, and the Council for American-Islamic Relations regarding the FBI’s curricula on Islam.

The FBI acknowledged receipt of Judicial Watch’s FOIA request on March 20, 2012, and was required to respond by May 1, 2012.  The DOJ acknowledged receiving Judicial Watch’s FOIA request on March 14, 2012, and was required to respond by April 11, 2012. To date, neither agency has responded to Judicial Watch’s request in accordance with FOIA law.

FBI Director Robert Mueller reportedly met secretly on February 8, 2012, at FBI headquarters with a coalition of Islamist organizations, some with radical ties to terrorist organizations. For example, per The Washington Examiner, one group that reportedly met with Mueller – the Islamic Society of North America – “was tied to the terror groups Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in federal court documents.” The government named the Islamic Society of North America as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorist financing lawsuit, along with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and the North American Islamic Trust.

During the February 8 meeting, Mueller reportedly assured the Islamic groups in attendance that the agency had ordered the removal of presentations and curricula on Islam from FBI offices around the country that were deemed “offensive.” As reported by NPR, overall, “The FBI has completed a review of offensive training material and has purged 876 pages and 392 presentations, according to a briefing provided to lawmakers.”

The material purge was reportedly initiated in response to a letter of complaint sent by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL). However, other members of Congress, including Rep. Allen West (R-FL), object to allowing radical Muslim organizations the opportunity to dictate U.S. counterterrorism policy and want the material to be reinserted into the documents: “Now you have an environment of political correctness which precludes these agents from doing their proper job and due diligence to go after the perceived threat,” Congressman West said.

“There is no question that the country is less safe when we allow radical Muslim organizations to tell the FBI how to train its agents and do its job,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The FBI’s purge of so called offensive material is political correctness run amok and it puts the nation at risk. The Obama administration owes the American people a full accounting of how and why his terrible decision was made.”

Report: FBI Did Not Investigate Fort Hood Shooter Due to Political Correctness Despite Clear Warning Signs

By

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI was too concerned about political correctness and did not launch an investigation into a man who was later charged with killing 13 people in the 2009 attack in Fort Hood, Texas, despite significant warning signs that he was an Islamic extremist bent on killing civilians, according to a lawmaker briefed on a new report about the terrorist attack.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

In emails to a known terrorist, Army Maj. Nidal Hasan expressed his support for suicide bombings and killing civilians, while the terrorist, Anwar al-Awlaki, encouraged Hasan to stay in touch, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, told The Associated Press Wednesday after he was briefed on the findings of a new review of the attack.

The review was done by former FBI Director William Webster and was more than two years in the making. FBI Director Robert Mueller asked that Webster conduct an independent review, and the bureau is expected to release an unclassified version this week.

Much was already known about the series of oversights and missteps the government made leading to the terror attack at the Fort Hood Army post. Soon after the attack, it was revealed that members of two FBI anti-terrorism task forces saw emails between the Army psychiatrist and al-Awlaki beginning in December 2008. Those task forces reviewed the communications and decided they were in keeping with Hasan’s research at the time, and as a result, no formal investigation of Hasan was opened. Hasan was writing a research paper about the effects of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But McCaul said Webster’s report offers some new details that show the FBI was concerned about investigating an American Muslim in the military, and that is why an investigation was not pursued.

The FBI in San Diego had been investigating al-Awlaki, a former San Diego resident, for his possible connections to the 9/11 hijackers. When agents saw emails between Hasan and al-Awlaki, they asked the FBI‘s Washington office to talk to Hasan’s bosses, according to a government official briefed on the findings who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the Webster report. But the Washington agents thought that interviewing American Muslims who visit extremist websites was a sensitive issue and did not reach out to Hasan’s bosses at the Defense Department, the official said.

“It shows you the length of the political correctness stuff going on,” McCaul said after he was briefed on the findings of the independent review Wednesday.

Read more at The Blaze

Release Fort Hood intelligence report

Statesman:

An independent review of the FBI’s intelligence actions before the Nov. 5, 2009, shootings at Fort Hood is finished. We join Texas Sen. John Cornyn in calling on the agency to release an unclassified version of the report.

Friday, in a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller, Cornyn pressed for the report’s release, calling it a “matter of tremendous public importance.”

As the Texas Republican correctly put it in his letter to Mueller, “The American people and specifically the Fort Hood community in Texas have the right to know.”

It’s clear there were intelligence failures leading up to the Fort Hood shootings, though exactly what those failures were or whether they mean the shootings could have been prevented is unknown.

News reports say the review by William Webster, a former FBI and CIA director and former federal judge, includes 18 recommendations the agency should take to sharpen future investigations and improve the sharing of information.

Questions linger about how the FBI handled information it had gathered on Maj. Nidal Hasan, an Army psychiatrist.

There also may have been misunderstandings between the FBI and a Pentagon investigator that prevented a deeper, harder look into Hasan’s activities and mental state ahead of the shootings.

Hasan is accused of opening fire with two handguns on soldiers and civilians at a medical processing center at Fort Hood. The soldiers were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan.

The shooting left 13 people dead and more than 30 wounded.

Witnesses say that Hasan said “Allahu akbar” as he began shooting. The Arabic phrase means “God is great” and is associated with Middle Eastern terrorists.

Hasan’s court-martial is scheduled to start Aug. 20 at Fort Hood. He could face the death penalty if found guilty by a jury of Army officers.

There reportedly were warning signs in the couple of years before the shootings, signalling that Hasan’s emotional state was possibly destabilizing and that he was possibly becoming radicalized.

Webster’s report is thought to focus on the FBI’s handling of numerous emails Hasan exchanged with Anwar al Awlaki, the American radical imam who was killed last year in Yemen by a U.S. drone strike. Awlaki’s communications were under FBI surveillance.

The report will be closely read to see whether the FBI has fully learned one of the key lessons of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The FBI was criticized for failing to share information with the CIA and other intelligence agencies that might have thwarted at least some of the 9/11 hijackers. Reforms were enacted to remove some of the barriers that inhibited the FBI and CIA from working together.

Failure to coordinate information apparently endures, however.

Read more

Allen West: Muslim Brotherhood & Other Extremist Groups Are Influencing U.S. Strategy

via The Blaze:

Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) is never afraid to take a stand on the issues he holds dear, which is why the conservative politician is taking aim at the FBI for removing nearly 900 pages of allegedly-offensive training materials. According to West, this action, which was taken after Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) complained about some of the materials’ contents, is a form of “cultural suicide.”

Durbin, who wrote a letter to FBI director Robert Mueller about the situation, complained that the controversial documentation could lead Muslims and others to be targeted based on their religion. “There is a real risk that agents will be operating on false assumptions about Arab-Americans and American Muslims,” Durbin maintained.

West, though, said that the removal is evidence that extremist Muslim groups are holding sway over U.S. strategy. He discussed the issue of “tolerance” and its relation to the situation in an interview with Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” on Monday morning.

“We have to understand that when tolerance becomes a one-way street it leads to cultural suicide,” he said. “We should not allow the Muslim Brotherhood or associated groups to be influencing our national strategy.”

West’s main concern is that the U.S. seems to be watering down its definition of who America’s enemies are. In an attempt to decrease how intensely officials offend extremists, the politician claims that leaders are potentially endangering the nation.

“If we continue to be recalcitrant in identifying who the enemy is and want to be less offensive to them, then we’re going to put ourselves in a bad situation,” West proclaimed. “Now you have an environment of political correctness which precludes these agents from doing their proper job and due diligence to go after the perceived threat.”

The subject of radical influences on the U.S. government has been gaining prominence in recent years. On Wednesday, GBTV will air a live documentary event called, “Rumors of War III.” The program will tackle many of the same themes West addressed in his interview on Fox News this morning, as the film tackles extremist groups’ infiltration of the United States.

Following the documentary, Glenn Beck will sit down with guests from the movie who will weigh in on the threats posed by the Muslim Brotherhood, among other groups. GlennBeck.com has more:

The guests joining Glenn include Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin (Former Undersecretary of Defense Intelligence), Andrew McCarthy (Author of The Grand Jihad and former federal prosecutor), Diana West (Author of The Death of the Grown-Up and conservative columnist) and Buck Sexton (The Blaze National Security Editor).

Help us STOP proposed changes to FBI counterterrorism training materials!!!

 ACT! for America:

URGENT action needed! Add your name to open letter to Congress TODAY!!!


According to a recent CQ article (see below, highlights added), FBI leadership is moving forward with a plan that could purge from its counterterrorism training materials “references to Muslims…that it deemed offensive.” As we all know, groups like CAIR want EVERY reference to radical Islam removed because they deem ANY terrorism reference to Islam “offensive.”

We have learned that this potential capitulation by the FBI leadership to politically-correct special interest pressure has some Members of Congress concerned—and they should be.

So are we. And so should you.

With annual congressional hearings addressing the FBI just around the corner, we need to take action NOW to make sure the appropriate congressional committees are aware that there is opposition to these proposed changes from the folks back home. As you know, it’s almost impossible to get Congress to take action on something unless they feel some “heat” from their constituents.

This is why it’s critical we make our voices heard on this important issue NOW! And it’s essential that we speak out loud and strong!

The first step in addressing this issue is an open letter to the chairmen of the appropriate House and Senate committees. Some of these committees are scheduled to hold hearings on the FBI very soon. THEY NEED TO HEAR FROM TENS OF THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS that making changes to counterterrorism training manuals without any congressional input, to appease political correctness, is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE, because doing so WILL MAKE US LESS SAFE!!!!

Please add your name to this open letter and forward it to everyone you know. Please don’t delay. We only have a few weeks to mobilize opposition to these foolish, ill-advised proposed changes before the U.S. Congress discusses issues related to the FBI. We need to be sure that when they do, our federal legislators have the benefit of knowing that many Americans are opposed to these changes.

The Obama administration has already purged all references to radical Islam and jihad from its national strategic threat assessments. We can’t let this happen at the FBI as well. FBI agents in the field need to have training materials that accurately define the threat—for their safety and for ours.

We CAN stop these changes from happening, IF WE ACT.

So please, take action TODAY. It will only take a few moments of your time, but it will have a tremendous impact. Add your name to our open letter to congressional committee chairmen and forward this message to everyone you know!


Afternoon Take: FBI to Change Counterterrorism Training Policies

By Chad Brand, CQ Staff

The FBI is reportedly amending its training materials to eliminate references to Muslims and Arab-Americas that it deemed offensive, a change at least one high-ranking Democratic senator has championed.

The bureau recently notified Congress that it removed the references it deemed offensive, along with language saying that agents had the ability to suspend the law and impinge on the freedoms of others in the course of investigations, the New York Times reported. The story noted that Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., wrote to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, earlier this week about the training material.

Durbin’s letter raised concerns that an internal review of its training materials by the bureau uncovered evidence of instructions for agents to make assumptions about Islam, Muslims and Arab Americans based on crude stereotypes, including language such as “Islam is a highly violent religion,” and “mainstream American Muslims are likely to be terrorist sympathizers.”

Durbin asked the FBI make the training materials public and hold accountable the individuals responsible for the language deemed offensive.

Rep. Trent Franks, one of a group of House Republicans that has questioned whether the Obama administration’s review of its counterterrorism training policies put politics over security, said he was unhappy with what he called the FBI’s lack of communication with Congress about its training manual reviews. The Arizona Republican said he wants details about who advised the FBI during the process.

“The FBI must not permit outside parties to censor the true or critical material from FBI training curricula just because someone feels it to be politically incorrect,” he told CQ. “We want to know who these outside reviewing parties are, what their affiliations are, and whether they are being permitted in some instances to overrule the judgment of seasoned FBI trainers.”

ACT for America
P.O. Box 12765
Pensacola, FL 32591
www.actforamerica.org

ISNA & Nat. Orgs. Meet with FBI Dir. to Discuss Biased FBI Training Materials

Continuing CATASTROPHIC FAILURE of our govrnment to recognize the enemy threat doctrine of the Muslim Brotherhood!

From ISNA.net: h/t Bo Perrin

(Feb 14, 2012)  In a continuing effort to address concerns related to inflammatory training material, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently met with community and interfaith organizations to provide an update on steps taken by the agency to rectify the matter.  On Wednesday, February 8, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the Arab American Institute (AAI), Interfaith Alliance, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), Muflehun, the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF), and the Shoulder-to-Shoulder campaign had an opportunity to discuss the matter with the Public Affairs Office of the FBI. Director Robert Mueller joined the meeting to discuss these matters with the representatives from the organizations. 

The conversation with Director Mueller centered on material used by the agency that depicts falsehoods and negative connotations of the Muslim American community.  The use of the material was first uncovered by Wired Magazine in an article published on September 14, 2011.  Director Mueller informed the participants that the FBI took the review of the training material very seriously,  and he pursued the matter with urgency to  ensure that this does not occur again in the future. 

ISNA President Imam Magid stated, “The discovery of FBI training materials that discriminated against Muslims did damage to the trust that was built between dedicated FBI officials and American Muslim community.  We welcome and appreciate Director Mueller’s commitment to take positive steps toward eradicating such materials and rebuilding trust and an open dialogue.”

The Director also informed participants that to date, nearly all related FBI training materials, including more than 160,000 pages of documents, were reviewed by subject matter experts multiple times.  Consequently, more than 700 documents and 300 presentations  of material have been deemed unusable by the Bureau and pulled from the training curriculum.  Material was pulled from the curriculum if even one component was deemed to 1) include factual errors, 2)  be in  poor taste, 3) be stereotypical, or 4) lack precision.

The meeting also provided an opportunity to share with Director Mueller other matters of concern to community members.  Issues related to privacy, including the surveillance of mosques, were discussed.  It was clear to all meeting participants that the issue of trust between community members and the FBI needs to be taken seriously by all of our nation’s decision-makers. It was also evident that the Bureau must strengthen its efforts to build  trust. The Director has testified before Congress about the invaluable contribution that the Muslim community makes to our nation’s security, noting a recent bomb plot in Tampa, FL that was foiled thanks to a joint effort by the FBI and the local Muslim community.

The changes proposed by the FBI to the training modules are a welcomed first step in ensuring that such a mistake does not occur again in the future.  The group asked the FBI Director to issue a formal statement on this matter acknowledging the negative impact of these training materials on the Muslim community.  Representatives from the community and interfaith organizations also stressed the importance of transparency by the Bureau in dealing with these matters, and suggested that a committee of community leaders and experts be assembled to review training material issued by the FBI.  Meeting participants requested that the training process be open and transparent moving forward, and requested future meetings with Director Mueller to continue the conversation.