Posted on 01/19/2005 5:21:28 AM PST by SJackson
Pres. Bush fails to renominate Pipes to Institute of Peace
By E.J. Kessler Haaretz 19 January 2005
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/528405.html
In an apparent victory for radical Muslims and the left wing of the American foreign policy establishment, President Bush has failed to take any action to renominate Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes to the board of the United States Institute of Peace.
Bush appointed Pipes, a conservative Middle East analyst and syndicated columnist who has drawn the ire of some Muslims, to the publicly funded institution on August 23, 2003, after a Senate hearing on the matter ended without the presence of a quorum necessary for a confirmation vote. The controversial recess appointment ended in early December with the closing of the previous Congress. The institute has removed Pipes's name from the list of board of directors posted on its Web site.
Pipes told the Forward that he has not asked to be renominated by the president and that he had not queried the White House about its intentions.
"My time there is finished," he said of the institute.
The White House had nothing to add on the matter.
"When there's an announcement, we'll go ahead and make one," spokeswoman Maria Tamburri said.
Pipes said that he "tried to be helpful to the USIP," but he acknowledged that "at certain times I was frustrated."
The nomination of Pipes, who has made a career out of identifying and denouncing what he sees as radical Muslim penetration of American institutions, was opposed by senators Edward Kennedy, Tom Harkin and Christopher Dodd, all Democrats; Arab and Muslim groups, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee; and Middle East analysts Judith Kipper of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and William Quandt of the University of Virginia.
Many conservative-leaning newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and The New York Sun, supported it. Several Jewish communal agencies, including the American Jewish Committee and the Zionist Organization of America, supported Pipes.
David Harris, executive director of AJCommittee, said he still holds out hope that Bush will renominate Pipes. "We're looking into it," Harris said. "We're eager to see him remain."
Pipes did not have a peaceful tenure at the institute, which was created by Congress "to support the development, transmission, and use of knowledge to promote peace and curb violent international conflict," according to USIP's mission statement.
Last March Pipes clashed with the organization, lambasting it in his column for hosting a conference with a group, the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, that Pipes charged employs personnel who are Muslim "radicals."
The institute's director of congressional and public affairs, Kay King, responded to the criticism in a letter that Pipes posted to his Web site, danielpipes.org.
"The Institute was aware of and took seriously the accusations made against CSID and some of the speakers at the event," King wrote. "These allegations were investigated carefully with credible private individuals and U.S. government agencies and found to be without merit. The public criticism of CSID and the speakers was found to be based on quotes taken out of context, guilt by association, errors of fact, and innuendo."
King told the Forward that the institute "has no role to play in the nominating or confirmation process" and "no insight into what the White House is planning."
Pipes, a Harvard-educated historian who has published four books on militant Islam, is director of the Middle East Forum, a nonprofit institute he founded in 1994. The Middle East Forum sponsors Campus Watch, a project critiquing alleged pro-Arab bias in academic Middle East studies.
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Daniel Pipes corrects 'Bush Fails to Renominate Pipes to Institute of Peace"
Daniel Pipes corrects 'Bush Fails to Renominate Pipes to Institute of Peace" www.danielpipes.org/blog/166 Reappointment to the U.S. Institute of Peace? The Forward carries a decidedly strange piece about me today, "Bush Fails to Renominate Pipes to Institute of Peace." The writer, E.J. Kessler, labors under the illusion that someone recess appointed by the president is then normally re-appointed to that same position; and she finds something interesting in the fact that I was not reappointed. But this is hardly the case at all; so far as I know, not a single member of the USIP board has ever been renominated to the board. She is, in other words, making an issue out of what is simply standard practice.
Further, she quotes me saying, "My time there is finished," but fails to add that I expressed no interest to the Bush administration in being reappointed. I tried to be helpful at U.S. Institute of Peace but it is no secret that I had my frustrations there.
Finally, Kessler missed another detail: had I been Senate confirmed, my full appointment, as announced by the White House, would have gone to Jan. 19, 2005. In contrast, the recess appointment I actually had ended on Jan. 3, 2005, the day that the new session of Congress began. By my count, that's a total of 16 days difference, hardly enough to warrant Kessler's heaving and puffing. (January 14, 2005)
These guys really are not on the side of America, are they?
It's unfortunate, but if Daniel Pipes was unable to play the political game, then he probably didn't fit the profile of the Bush Administration's anti-leak value system. I think it's a shame that, apparently, he's going to be off the committee.
In a world where the country whose dictator is responsible for murdering a 747-full of human beings, is named the leader of the UN Human Rights Commission, frustration might be too mild a word...
ping
Sorry to hear this about Pipes. Anyone who is opposed by the opponents listed in the article is definitely someone who is solid, right-on, and a real American. I hope Pipes will continue to educate and warn us, we need more like him.
"Sorry to hear this about Pipes"
Sorry to hear this about Bush, I'm sure it doesn't mean anything.
Hooper, and the other Saudi CAIR shills, rubbing their hands most gleefully....
imo
Bump! Kennedy makes no sense, especially after the way his brother Bob, was assassinated by Sirhan-Sirhan.
You have to ask...??? (I know, it was a rhetorical question.)
Yes. There should be a rhetorical tag. :)
bttt
These guys really are not on the side of America, are they?
I really don't think it's fair to jump to that conclusion. You should ascertain the Pope's religion and check the woods for bear shit first.
LOL.
He asked not to. Daniel Pipes found government bureaucracy is almost immovable. He exerts more influence outside of Washington than he did in a Beltway position.
Daniel Pipes corrects 'Bush Fails to Renominate Pipes to Institute of Peace" www.danielpipes.org/blog/166 Reappointment to the U.S. Institute of Peace? The Forward carries a decidedly strange piece about me today, "Bush Fails to Renominate Pipes to Institute of Peace." The writer, E.J. Kessler, labors under the illusion that someone recess appointed by the president is then normally re-appointed to that same position; and she finds something interesting in the fact that I was not reappointed. But this is hardly the case at all; so far as I know, not a single member of the USIP board has ever been renominated to the board. She is, in other words, making an issue out of what is simply standard practice.In other words, this is virtually always a one-time, one year appointed. Much ado about nothing.
-Eric
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