Evidence Presented About Muslim Brotherhood in the ACU (Part 2 of 2)

On February 11, a 45-page dossier was issued to Cleta Mitchell, the top lawyer for the American Conservatives’ Union who in 2011 cleared Norquist of the allegations initially brought by former high-ranking Reagan official Frank Gaffney.  Signatories included powerful and respected officials, including former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, former CIA Director James Woolsey, former Florida Rep. Allen West, retired Army Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, and former chief assistant U.S. attorney Andrew McCarthy.

In Part 1, Frank Gaffney told PolitiChicks.tv why he was doing this and what he hoped to accomplish–but this wasn’t the first time Gaffney’s evidence has been presented to the ACU.

It began December 9, 2003, when Front Page Magazine published an article by Frank Gaffney about the ACU’s Muslim Brotherhood ties.  FPM Editor David Horowitz (who considered Norquist a friend) wrote a precursor to Gaffney’s piece: “The article you are about to read is the most disturbing that we at frontpagemag.com have ever published.” 

Up to now, the controversy over these charges has been dismissed or swept under the rug, as a clash of personalities or the product of one of those intra-bureaucratic feuds so familiar to the Washington scene. Unfortunately, this is wishful thinking. The reality is much more serious. No one reading this document to its bitter end will confuse its claims and confirming evidence with those of a political cat fight. On the basis of the evidence assembled here, it seems beyond dispute that Grover Norquist has formed alliances with prominent Islamic radicals who have ties to the Saudis and to Libya and to Palestine Islamic Jihad, and who are now under indictment by U.S. authorities. Equally troubling is that the arrests of these individuals and their exposure as agents of terrorism have not resulted in noticeable second thoughts on Grover’s part or any meaningful effort to dissociate himself from his unsavory friends.

As Frank Gaffney’s article recounts, Grover’s own Islamic Institute was initially financed by one of the most notorious of these operatives, Abdurahman Alamoudi, a supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah who told the Annual Convention of the Islamic Association of Palestine in 1996, “If we are outside this country we can say ‘Oh, Allah destroy America.’ But once we are here, our mission in this country is to change it.” Grover appointed Alamoudi’s deputy, Khaled Saffuri to head his own organization. Together they gained access to the White House for Alamoudi and Sami al-Arian and others with similar agendas who used their cachet to spread Islamist influence to the American military and the prison system and the universities and the political arena with untold consequences for the nation.

Regarding the silence of even the conservative media, Horowitz explained:

No doubt, that is partly because of Grover Norquist’s large (and therefore intimidating) presence in the Washington community. Many have been quite simply afraid to raise these issues and thus have allowed Grover to make them seem a matter of individual personality differences.

This suits his agendas well, as it does those of his Islamist allies. If matters in dispute reflect personal animosity or “racial” prejudice, as Grover insists, then the true gravity of these charges is obscured. The fact remains that while Grover has denied the charges or sought to dismiss them with such arguments on many occasions, he has never answered them. If he wishes to do so now, the pages of frontpagemag.com are open to him.

In 2011, Cleta Mitchell, the top lawyer for the American Conservatives’ Union, cleared Norquist of the allegations.  Of the ACU’s dismissal, Gaffney said:

By acting solely on the basis of Mitchell’s defamatory and superficial memorandum, and then through the deliberate leak to a Soros-funded leftwing organization, the leadership of the American Conservative Union has discredited itself and given ammunition to those who want to prevent legitimate inquiries into Islamist influences in Washington.

My personal involvement with this story began indirectly in 2011, with a CPAC panel led by Suhail Kahn.  When Florida Security Council member J. Mark Campbell asked Kahn about the existence of the Muslim Brotherhood in America, Kahn said there is no Muslim Brotherhood in America. 

In my opinion, Kahn’s denial was one of the most dangerously incorrect statements anyone in America could make—denying the very existence of the Brotherhood in America, especially at a “Conservative Conference” where the truth is supposed to prevail.  So in 2012, I attended a panel entitled “Conservative Inclusion 101” again led by Suhail Kahn.  I had the following exchange with him:

A-M:   Last year you said there’s no Muslim Brotherhood in the United States, yet the Muslim Brotherhood themselves have said that 29 Muslim American organizations are…they describe them as being ‘our organizations’ and the ‘organizations of our friends’.  These include the Islamic Society of North America, the Council on American Islamic Relations, and the North American Islamic Trust.  And four federal judges have confirmed that these organizations are fronts for the Muslim Brotherhood.  So do you stand by your statement, that there is no Muslim Brotherhood in America?

Suhail:  Ma’am what this panel is about is conservative inclusion religion…

A-M:  Should they [Muslim Brotherhood] be included in conservative politics at all?

Woman on front row:  That’s not what this is about!

Suhail:  That’s not what this panel is about so if you want to take up those questions with other people you can.  We’re here to talk about conservative message Americans so if your groups, and other Alinsky-like factions—I can see where you come from.

Woman on front row, yelling:  Please leave!”

Immediately after leaving the panel room I interviewed Atlas Shrugs editor Pamela Geller, former Congressman Fred Grandy, Frank Gaffney and Robert Muise.  (See video at the end of this article.)

Regarding the investigation into Gaffney’s initial findings, in 2012, Raymond Ibrahim said of the ACU:  “Should it fail to do so, the ACU board will simply reinforce suspicions that it has been successfully infiltrated and subjected to an influence operation by those opposed to everything for which the conservative movement stands.”

In a recent phone interview (February 12) Cleta Mitchell told Breitbart she was “incredulous” that the group had endorsed Gaffney’s allegations. “The fact that these luminaries would allow themselves to get dragged into the internal debate within conservative organizations is really odd,” she said, adding, “If they are concerned about national security, they have better things to do than write me a letter.”

As before, Mitchell claims there are personal reasons why Gaffney is “obsessed” with Norquist and Kahn.

I highly recommend you read and research all of these findings for yourself.  Here are some must-reads:

2003 article at Front Page Magazine, detailed study on the Muslim Brotherhood ties to Norquist and Kahn:  http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=15084

SuhailKahnExposed.com: http://suhailkhanexposed.com

Muslim Brotherhood in America, Part 8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhtG4k7sQbc