[Bob J]

We cannot win the war on terrorism without the help of the moderate Muslim community. I applaud Norquist's efforts attempts to bring what he thought to be moderate elements into a dialogue with Bush. The fact that a few of them have not turned out to be what people thought they were is unfortunate, but then again, no one knew the extent to which the Saudi's had placed operatives in US Muslim organizations.

There appears to have been no security losses over these incidents. As Nick Danger pointed out, they instead directed a spotlight on them and the government has been able to ferret out and prosecute them. Kicking Norquist to the curb over it is unfair and unproductive.

There are those who believe that no Muslim can be trusted and that our only solution is to kill them all and let God sort them out. This viewpoint is shortsighted and will only result in failure, not to mention the acrid genocidal aroma. I've seen this same attitude expressed on other other threads that are race based, immigration for instance.

Allowing these attitudes to fester will result in the marginalization of Free Republic and a failure in achieving it's goals.

[hchutch]

You also make excellent points on this regard.

However, I fear that the ideological purists are going to try to find a way to spoil it for everyone else.

[Valentine_W]

"We cannot win the war on terrorism without the help of the moderate Muslim community. I applaud Norquist's efforts attempts to bring what he thought to be moderate elements into a dialogue with Bush. The fact that a few of them have not turned out to be what people thought they were is unfortunate, but then again, no one knew the extent to which the Saudi's had placed operatives in US Muslim organizations."

I agree with you--in order to win the War on Terror we do need to keep good contact with the few moderate Islamic governments that we do have good relations with. However, I typically think of this as being the role of the State Department or the Executive. I wish we had a T.E. Lawrence around right now, but Norquist clearly isn't it.

[Taxman]

This whole affair is sort of reminiscent of the infiltration of the US government by the Communist forces of evil before, during and after WW II, is it not?

HST, if there is a "moderate Muslim community," who are they, where are they and what are they doing to help us preserve the United States of America?

Furthermore, has Grover denounced the "moderate Muslims" who have been shown to not be quite so moderate?

Has he returned to these "moderate Muslims" all of the money they paid him to gain influence in the Bush administration?

Enquiring minds want to know.

[Trollstomper]

You write: ".
The fact that a few of them have not turned out to be what people thought they were is unfortunate, but then again, no one knew the extent to which the Saudi's had placed operatives in US Muslim organizations. "

None Grover brought into the campaign are or have ever been accused of being moderate. Anytime in the decade since the Internet has made search engines available, or even just their websites, one could have determined who these individuals were and what they stood for (that is fairly clear in Gaffney's article). People wrote books about them in fact! Ditto the Saudi influence efforts, there have been books like the American House of Saud and The Arabists and years of public records from the Sauds themselves. Some people just wake up slow and late.

People who can't figure these things out are not supposed to be treated like greased wunderkinds and made ad hoc advisors to the President and his retainer-in-chief Mr. Rove. When they are, these "unfortunate" things happen. Got it? It's time to 'get it', not make excuses for it. If Grover doesn't stop or the WH doesn't cut him out of this portfolio, then the curb is the only option.

Gaffney and most all national security types with any serious role fully believe that we need moderate Muslims, and to shore them up against salafist takeovers from LA to the UK and from the Balkans to the Central Asian republics and from Kashmir to Minandao and Eritrea.

Problem is, that is exactly what Grover's Muslims stand athwart. They literally have held press conferences to defend the Turabi regime in Sudan, to give dinner awards to wahhabis who try to kill the King of Jordan; Grover's factotem, Saffuri, shared an office at the AMC, under Alamoudi (who is a member of the Muslim Brotherood,among other things),with the now extradited representative of the Algerian terrorist FIS. The list of such activities of virutally all the group Norquist brought in starting in Austin is numbing and you could easily find this material on the groups' own websites, in the Kyl hearings (see gaffney's website) , or in any of several recent books on the Islamists in America, etc.

[A Navy Vet]

"We cannot win the war on terrorism without the help of the moderate Muslim community."

Wrong. If you bothered to read the Qur'an and the Hadith you would understand that Islam theocracy comes before all else in their lives, even with the so-called moderates.

We are findly weekly that those we considered "moderates" are actually promoting fanaticism. It's being proven in worldwide Mosques; it's being proven in Islamic teachings; it's being proven by the number of Islamic criminals we are currently trying our courts; it's being proven by the infiltration in our Armed Services; it's being proven by their own written doctrines, etc. Islam is simply facism in another form. Read up, Bob. Islam (and not just Wahibbism)is in a facist war against Western civilization. Norquist is an enabler...intentionally or not.

That said, I do appreciate the foreign policy of the Bush administration to encourage and "force" democracy in the Islamic culture. Bush and Co. realized from 9/11 that force and re-education is our chance to change things in the Islamic world.

BTW, at the very least, Islam is mysoginistic and treat their women like chattel...which I abhor. I don't trust a Muslim and far as I could...