Posted on 02/20/2003 4:19:54 PM PST by TLBSHOW
Conservatives Fight Over Islam
Wes Vernon, NewsMax.com
Thursday, Feb. 20, 2003
WASHINGTON – A fierce, nearly three-week running battle of accusations and counter-accusations between two conservative icons has brought to the front burner a long-festering debate among President Bush’s supporters on how far the White House should go in seeking Islamic support.
Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy and a former assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration, has accused two White House officials – Ali Talbah and his predecessor Sukhail Khan – of putting President Bush in the company of “people who have made no secret of their sympathy for terrorists, provided them financial support, excused their murderous attacks and/or sought to impede the prosecution of the war against them.” Gaffney reiterated these charges in his Washington Times column Tuesday.
Gaffney’s initial comment in this flap came at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference on Jan. 31.
His remarks sparked a stinging rebuttal from Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform and one-time confidant of Newt Gingrich when the latter was speaker of the House.
“There is no place in the conservative movement for racial prejudice, religious bigotry or ethnic hatred,” Norquist told Gaffney in a Feb. 5 letter. He went on to accuse his fellow conservative of attacking each of the two White House officials because of their Muslim faith.
Norquist then banished Gaffney from further attendance at his influential coalition meetings that he holds every Wednesday, pending an accepted apology to Tulbah and Sukhail. He added, “It is important that we, as conservatives, stand up against bigotry, racism, and religious hatred whenever it raises its ugly head.”
Gaffney replied with a three-and-a-half page single-spaced letter to Norquist that offered no apology. Gaffney not only refused to apologize but also cited chapter and verse of quotes from radical Islamic fundamentalists (Wahhabists) who had been received cordially at the White House.
He also stressed that he had taken pains to “express distinction between such Islamists, and what is, I believe, the majority of Muslims in this country whom the former [Wahhabists] are determined to recruit, intimidate, and dominate through a variety of techniques.”
The CSP boss took Norquist to task for his involvement with Islamic Institute, through which, Gaffney argued, Norquist and his associates had been instrumental in “promoting and facilitating Wahabbis’ access to the executive and legislative branches of government” and thereby “could prove politically damaging and strategically detrimental to our cause and the well-being of our country.”
Norquist says Islamic Institute “was formed to promote within the Muslim world the fact that the Koran and Islam are perfectly consistent with a free and open society.”
In an interview with NewsMax.com, Norquist said he wrote his letter because the two young White House Muslims whom Gaffney criticized were merely underlings carrying out decisions made by more senior White House officials.
“He decided to single out the kid who was a Muslim in both cases, even though the people making decisions are Presbyterians and Catholics, not Muslims,” the ATR president said.
In his latest column, Gaffney reports that one Muslim representative in a group visiting the Oval Office just days after 9/11, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, had said two days before the attack: “This country is facing a terrible fate. This country stands condemned.”
Why FBI Couldn’t Find Him
When FBI agents visited Yusuf’s home, they were stunned to learn from his wife that he was unavailable because he was with the president.
However, Norquist, while “not vouching for anyone,” said the Muslims who had access to the president passed muster with the Secret Service and the FBI or they wouldn’t have been there.
“If they were a security risk, not if they said something stupid, if they were a security risk or a problem ... the Secret Service would pull them out,” he said.
Gaffney describes as “bizarre” FBI Director Robert Mueller’s decision to speak to the American Muslim Council last year despite that group’s “long record of activities hostile to the Bush administration’s prosecution of the war on terror.”
Walking the sometimes unclear lines between peace-loving Muslim Americans and those who pose a threat is a dilemma symbolized by the bitter dispute between Gaffney and Norquist, two well-known conservatives in the Bush constituency.
9/11. Sami Al Arian has been around and operating for many years, and his actions have been no secret to the FBI. He's got very good political connections, most notably to David Bonior via his son Abdullah. The entire left-wing academia/media establishment have been very vocal and very effective in defending him.
Think about him in a similar way to the Sinn Fein, the supposed "political, non-violent" wing of the IRA. He's a front man who raises funds and schmoozes with the pols to give the "fighters" some room to work. Fortunately, 9/11 stripped him of much of his political cover, and gave the FBI the push it needed to shut him down. And it's high time.
I have to admit I was surprised by that myself - I knew he was a player, but I didn't know he was that much of a high roller.
You best go read up on it. Eight indictments, including a professor from Florida who TLBSHOW and Fred Mertz are trying to paint as a friend of President Bush. Neither will acknowledge that it was his administration's DOJ that put together the indictments.
I'm looking at this and don't like the way it came out at all. I'm glad that the FBI has finally gotten this guy, but am enraged that it took 9/11 to make it possible. Way too high a price to pay to lock him up. I apologize to anyone who may have taken offense.
There were EIGHT indictments today that pertain to this particular investigation.
Your characterization of the professor as close to Republicans is completely unfounded and ignores the reality of this administration's DOJ putting the indictments together.
PS: I got your ping to that thread too. I did check it out and was going to go thru all the links later.
From what I understand many had a good idea but they couldn't nail him for whatever reason .. after 9/11 and the patriot act, it seems they could get more on him which is what lead to the indictments
O'Reilly even mentioned tonight that the Professor was very smooth and that if you didn't know his background and followed him, one would never tell what he was up to
I certainly hope they do. I don't know enough to decide about Gaffney and Norquist - all I've seen so far indicates that these two are having a little p!ssing match about something that may not even be related to what they're claiming it's all about. All I've heard about it comes from the two of them (hardly uninterested parties) and a Newsmax story (a source which is rapidly losing credibility with me). Until I see or hear something more substantial, I'm reserving judgement.
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