Muslim council takes complaints to Bush (Grover Norquist Alert)

Washington Times ^ | February 21, 2003 | Ralph Z. Hallow

[Sabertooth]

The Muslim council posted this call for action on its Internet site, together with praise for Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, who has worked with Islamic groups in behalf of the Republican Party (see below - ST).

[Sabertooth]

FYI: another opportunity, with plenty of sourced information, to discuss the substance of the charges that Grover Norquist has provided radical, terroist sympathizing Islamists with access to President Bush.

[sauropod]

Screw Grover Norquist. I saw him at CPAC this year. He got all dewey eyed over the "we're all immigrants" issue.

Friggin' Neo-con.

[hellinahandcart]

Yeah, that was one panel discussion that got really testy.

[rmlew]

Gaffney is also a neocon. He simply hasn't been co-opted (and paid for) by Islamists.

[Lion's Cub]

Norquest doesn't deny it because he can't.

[flamefront]

As if thed Al Arian connection is not enough to destroy Norquist this fact should have long ago:
Norquist has affiliated himself with the radical National Committee to Protect Political Freedom (NCPPF)

I.e. the national lawyers guild, a Communist front group.

Norquist is not just a neo-con, he's a mole.

[aristeides]

Care to point out where, in Gaffney's words as quoted at the head of this thread, he said anything that anyone, lawyer or not, could construe as a charge of treason?

[Sabertooth]

More details:

In a letter sent yesterday to Mr. Gaffney, Mr. Norquist accused him of impugning the loyalty of Ali Tulbah, an American Muslim and an associate director of Cabinet affairs in the White House.

"There is no place in the conservative movement for racial prejudice, religious bigotry or ethnic hatred," Mr. Norquist wrote. "This is the second time that a Muslim working for President George W. Bush has been subjected to an attack by you because of his faith. You have made similarly dishonest allegations against [public liaison official] Suhail Khan while he worked inside the White House."
Washington Times LINK - February 6th, 2003

The AMC press release made a point of commending Ali Tulbah, an associate director of the White House's Office of Cabinet Affairs, for including their representatives (notably, executive director Eric Erfan Vickers) in the meeting. Mr. Tulbah similarly admitted another highly controversial organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), in this meeting. There appear to have been at least nine other meetings that these groups have attended with the White House and senior administration officials since September 2001, some at the invitation of a predecessor of Mr. Tulbah in the role of gatekeeper for the administration's Muslim "outreach" efforts, Suhail Khan.
Frank Gaffney Column LINK - February 11th, 2003

AMC Attends White House Briefing on Controversial INS Policy

WASHINGTON, DC, Jan. 17, 2003:
Yesterday AMC Executive Director Eric Erfan Vickers and Board Secretary Dr. Nedzib Sacirbey attended, along with other Muslim and Arab American leaders, a White House briefing on the controversial INS policy that has caused to many tremendous personal hardships, and which has created mounting consternation in the Muslim and Arab American community.

The briefing was arranged by Ali H. Tulbah, the Associate Director of Cabinet Affairs, and AMC commends him for initiating this substantive dialogue with key officials in the White House Administration.
American Muslim Council LINK

So, doesn't the American Muslim Council press release specifically confirm Gaffney's allegations about Ali H. Tulbah?

As for Suhail Khan...

One day after Bush's inauguration, (Norquist) and Saffuri arranged for Muslim leaders to meet Newt Gingrich and Congressman Tom Davis, head of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Soon Saffuri began regularly appearing at the White House, accompanying imams and heads of Islamic organizations to discuss the faith-based initiative and concerns about law enforcement persecution of Muslims. Suhail Khan, an administration adviser who helps plan Muslim outreach, once served on the Islamic Institute's board. And at one of his regular Wednesday meetings, according to two witnesses, Norquist announced that he had lobbied to get Khan his White House post.
New Republic LINK

Why are Muslim and Arab "civil rights" groups the only ones protesting new FBI rules to fight terrorism?

Why aren't mainstream Christian and Jewish groups protesting the new guidelines handed down by Attorney General John Ashcroft and his Justice Department? Or Hispanic groups?

Maybe because Muslim, mostly Arab, terrorists — including at least two 9/11 hijackers — deliberately used U.S. mosques to fundraise for and plan terrorist attacks. Maybe because they knew that, under the old rules, it had been difficult for FBI counterterrorism operatives to surveil terrorists once they stepped into the mosques. And they, the terrorists — and many Muslim allies in the U.S. — took advantage of this.

The old rules were used by a blind cleric, a professor, and even the mosque founded and headed by the father of a Bush administration official, to fund and/or plan terror, undetected.

Take the Santa Clara Masjid (Mosque). According to the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat, Osama bin Laden's deputy (or boss, depending upon the intelligence report), Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, visited the United States in early 1995 using a forged passport, and raised money for terrorist operations at various U.S. mosques, including the Santa Clara Mosque, a.k.a. Masjid Al-Noor, a.k.a. MCA (Muslim Community Association) of Santa Clara.

The late Mahboob Khan is identified by a 1999 "MCA Newsletter" as the man "whose constant efforts and guidance. . . establish[ed] the Islamic Center" of Santa Clara. A 1999 Islamic Horizons magazine obituary for Mahboob Khan quotes a former secretary general of the Islamic Society of North America as saying that Dr. Khan "was in the forefront in the struggle" of "the Santa Clara mosque." This includes the time period when Zawahiri was staying in Santa Clara and raising money at Khan's mosque.

Khan was the founder of American Muslims for Global Peace and Justice, the group spearheading the boycott of Starbucks in the United States. Incredibly, Khan's son, Suhail Khan, was the Bush White House's Muslim outreach official last year. He is also a current and founding board member of the Islamic Institute, which openly opposes the new FBI rules, lodging protests with Ashcroft.
Schlussel Column LINK - July 10th, 2002

So Suhail Khan's father helped Ayman Al Zawahiri (who helped mastermind 9/11, the Cole bombing, the American Embassy bopmbings in Kenya and Uganda, the Luxor Temple massacre of dozens of European tourists, and the assassination of Anwar Sadat), secretly raise money in the United States for terrorist enterprises while on the FBI's watch list? This is who Grover Norquist aligns himself with as a founding board member of Norquist's Islamic Institute? This is who Gover Norquist recommends for a job as the Bush Administration's Muslim outreach official?

Is it such a stretch that Suhail Khan, who sat on the board of the Norquist and Khaled Saffuri's Islamic Institute, and got his White House position as a result of the lobbying of Grover Norquist, arranged meetings for other like-minded radical Islamists with members of the Bush Administration?

[TLBSHOW]

bttt

[TLBSHOW]

Grover seems a bit naive, to me. I heard him on John Gibson's show a couple of weeks ago and he was overly defensive about his relationships with certain Muslim groups.


bttt

[hchutch]

I recall someone else pointing out Debbie Schlussel's had some credibility issues with past columns...

And the best we have is the guy's father was running the mosque - nothing about the aide in question.

It's real thin.

[F16Fighter]

The evidence suggests Norquist appears to playing the part of "useful tool" rather well.

[Sabertooth]

I recall someone else pointing out Debbie Schlussel's had some credibility issues with past columns...

And the best we have is the guy's father was running the mosque - nothing about the aide in question.

It's real thin.

"Thin?" As in "someone else pointing out Debbie Schlussel's had some credibility issue?"

If that's so, if Schlussel lacks credibility, then you shouldn't have a problem refuting her. Have at it. Address the column from which I posted the excerpt.

Further, you didn't address that the American Muslim Council's own press release precisely confirms Gaffney's exact charge against Ali Tulbah. That's not exactly "nothing about the aide in question."

With that, Gaffney's credibility is confirmed, and it's Grover Norquist and his apologists who ought to be drafting their retractions.

Additionally, I've provided copious material, on this thread, from a number of sources about Norquist's questionable dealings with Khaled Saffuri and their Islamic Institute. Suhail Khan is joined at the hip with them. He was a founding board member. Norquist got him the job with Bush.

How about addressing the substance, with substance?

[Fred Mertz]

I can't believe that I'm agreeing with sinkspur.

[hchutch]

If guilt by association and the fact that this guy was working with Norquist on something, then thin is an accurate description, and that is all I see at this point.

That's it. We don't even know what the substance of the mettings were - a far cry from some of the things we know about Clinton's infamous meetings with drug pushers and gun runners. Clinton was raising cash.

What was the substance of those meetings? Or are you just on a bash-fest against those who don't fit your idea of conservative?

[Mo1]

OK .. I'm here .. what I see are letters going back and forth accussing one another .. as I stated on the other thread .. Yes I agree, Norquist ill advised the President on certain matters .. now is there an investiation being done on Mr. Norquist? .. If so I will happy to comment on that ..

[Sabertooth]

that is all I see at this point.

Gaffney said that Ali Tulbah arranged for the American Muslim Council to attend a White Houe meeting, based on the AMC's press release thanking him for doing so. Norquist denied it, and called Gaffney a racist and a bigot for even making the suggestion.

Yet, as the link above at #28 confirms, the AMC did, indeed, thank Ali Tulbah for arranging the White House meeting, exactly has Gaffney charged.

You've asked for evidence. It was provided. You ignored it. You were reminded. You ignored it again.

There are links upon links here, sources upon sources. You've posted nothing of substance.

Gaffney made a charge, and the evidence for it was exactly where he said it was. If there's slander or libel here, it's Grover Norquist who is guilty of it.

[Sabertooth]

what I see are letters going back and forth accussing one another

Thanks for the reply. If you read a little more closely, you'll see that Gaffney's charges are supported on a number of points, and defenders of Norquist have not offered even a single source or link to the contrary.

Yes I agree, Norquist ill advised the President on certain matters .. now is there an investiation being done on Mr. Norquist? .. If so I will happy to comment on that ..

One can only hope. Would you support such an investigation? Do you feel it's warranted?

[Ligeia]

Ralph Z. Hallow, one of my favorite journalists/reporters was interviewed on Radio FR at last year's CPAC convention where he stated how much of a fan he is of FR and is a frequent lurker. For him to write this article this morning, he had to have been following our discussion last night. Pretty neat, huh?

Here I wanted Gaffney and Norquist to settle their differences in someone's comfy family room in private over a beer or two and now the feud's getting ever more publicity. I hope they resolve the matter soon. The public scrutiny is good and it's a healthy discussion to have, I only wish they'd lower the decible level a notch or two.

[hchutch]

Gaffney attacked Khan based on his father working at a mosque where Zawahiri raise dfunds under a false passport during the Clinton years.

There's NO evidence of culpability on the part of Mr. Kahn. None. Zero. Zilch. Only a connection to Grover Norquist, who go thim a job on the White House staff.

And if these folks were as bad as Gaffney claims, why did they pass Secret Service background checks? Particularly in the case of Mr. Kahn, who was WORKING in the White House every day, and presumably would get a very thorough screening?

And there also is NO evidence that the meeting the aide arranged - and what he was thanked for in the press release - had an effect on the policy the administration is pursuing. It certainly did not interfere with the investigation that's got a USF professor doing the perp walk. Gaffney may be right about that press release, but the meeting itself - there's no proof that anything adverse to the interests of this country has occured as a result.

No reports of Secret Service objections, no indications that it had any effect on policy in a manner that was favorable to the agenda of the group Gaffney criticized at CPAC. For all we know, Bush listened to their concerns and when they left, he put them in a mental circular file.

Gaffney might not be entirely baseless, but I have seen nothing to indicate this is anything more than cries of wolf and guilt by association.