Not to mention the one just busted today was in a picture with The President. M
Thanks for the correction. Too bad you didn't make it 250 posts ago.
The issue here is Grover Norquist. Don't give those in denial any extra excuses to go off-topic.
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.
People are entitled to their own opinions, but they should be at least rooted in some resemblance of fact and/or reality.
When you say that the al-Arian, who was arrested today, is a personal friend of the sitting president's, you damn well better be able to prove it.
He didn't even bother to address the questions put to him.
It's hard enough fighting the liberals without having to tread through the blatant lies posted by people are pretending to be conservatives to get attention for themselves.
Not to mention the one just busted today was a friend of The Presidents.
I'm sick to death of your LIES about Bush.
Produce evidence that they were FRIENDS. And not a campaign photo --- proof that George W. Bush and Al-Arian were FRIENDS.
Cat, in all your searching have you found ANY evidence that al-Arian is a personal friend of George W. Bush?
46 posted on 02/20/2003 10:30 PM EST by Howlin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]
You had an opportunity to correct that statement SIX HOURS ago when I first asked you about it. You chose not to.
You're a flat out liar and a fake. Whoever/whatever you are, you are no friend of conservatives OR Republicans.
Todd is the liar here.
Are you now claiming that Grover is involved with terrorists groups?
Sabor didn't lie and acuse the President .. Todd did
Not to mention the one just busted today was in a picture with The President. M
Thanks for the correction. Too bad you didn't make it 250 posts ago.
The issue here is Grover Norquist. Don't give those in denial any extra excuses to go off-topic.
Eight Charged With Ties to Terrorism
|
|
|
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - For more than seven years, a Palestinian professor in Florida has been under federal scrutiny for possible ties to terrorists.
Armed with information from wiretaps on telephones and faxes, a 1995 FBI raid of an Islamic think tank, and conferences and meetings, federal prosecutors now believe the professor and seven others had alleged ties to a terrorist group responsible for 100 deaths.
On Thursday, a 50-count indictment was unsealed against computer engineering professor Sami Al-Arian - on paid leave from the University of South Florida - and seven other alleged members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Al-Arian was identified as the group's U.S. leader. He directed the audit of all the group's money and property throughout the world from his home and workplace in Tampa, the indictment said.
And this was the story from almost two years ago. One may notice from the names and pictures it is the same Sami Al-Arian. Don't let your dislike of Tblshow color your judgement.
Editor's note: Today's column is the third of three on the World Trade Center attack. Read parts 1 and 2.
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com
Previously I've written about my Arab- and Muslim-American neighbors' efforts to block counterterrorism measures.
Of course, those efforts were before the attacks of Sept. 11. Now, Arab- and Muslim-American leaders have engaged in a united public relations campaign against terrorism. And while most Arab- and Muslim-Americans are innocent and law-abiding, it's a campaign that rings hollow, given the terrorists they have openly supported.
Among the most frightening examples of this is the brazen Al-Arian family of Tampa, Fla. Sami Al-Arian is a University of South Florida professor and his son Abdullah, a Duke student, was an intern for Democratic whip, Rep. David Bonior, a Michigan gubernatorial candidate who is very supportive of Arab-American leaders' efforts to block reasonable counterterrorism measures.
Dr. Al-Arian is the author of this speech: "We assemble today to pay respects to the march of the martyrs and to the river of blood that gushes forth and does not extinguish, from butchery to butchery, and from martyrdom to martyrdom, from Jihad to Jihad."
But, according to the July 16 Newsweek, during a campaign speech in Tampa, last year, candidate Bush singled his son, Abdullah, out in the crowd, something done for specially selected, pre-screened individuals to which a candidate wants to draw attention. Calling Abdullah, "Big Dude" – one of his trademark nicknames reserved for close advisors and White House press, Bush and wife Laura posed for pictures with the Arian family, standing right next to Dr. Al-Arian.
 Laura and George W. Bush (3rd and 4th from left) with Islamic Jihad frontman Sami Al-Arian (third from right) and family (son, Abdullah "Big Dude" Al-Arian, is on far left). |
I am not one of Tableshows ardent admirers around here, but you, Howlin, and others around here need to get beyond your dislike for the individual and get to the meat of what he is saying. If Grover Norquist is responsible for GW's links to this man and those like him, then Grover Norquist needs to go. PERIOD. I support our President. Although I am befuddled by his continual, albeit absent as of recent weeks, defense of Islam as a "Religion of Peace". Politically this has the same stink to it as the Pictures of Clinton with the dope dealers and AlGore at the Buddist Temple. And the media will really run with this during the campaign season. |
You have a way of cutting to the chase, but alas it will not be understood nor answered.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
