Posted on 02/25/2003 3:32:45 PM PST by Sabertooth
Go to HughHewitt.com for station info.
Spoke at the end about the situation with Norquist. Norquist has thus far not backed down. Gaffney was speaking from upstairs at some reception, and said that Norquist was downstairs, though he hadn't run into him yet. Said it remained to be seen how Norquist would conduct himself.
Gaffney discussed how Norquist, and other people at his behest, had brought many radical Islamists who are supporters of terror, into contact with candidate Bush and the Bush White House. Also, that in doing so, Norquist had done both the President and genuinely moderate Muslims a great disservice, because the radicals were able to assume legitimacy and clout they didn't deserve.
Gaffney took pains to say that he was sure that President Bush was unaware of the nature of some of the people with whom he'd been brought into contact (by implication, he meant prior to the contact, as with Al Arian), but that Bush (meaning his Administration) needed now to go about identifying more moderate factions, and avoid the radicals.
Is it possible that this has been done already?
I know you've done more research on this than possibly anyone else on the board, but the "radical contacts" I've seen referenced were all back in 2001 I think?
No, they've been getting ito the White House all along, right up until the present time. Here is some background, and a few examples...
Unholy Alliance
By J. Michael Waller
FrontPageMagazine.com | February 20, 2003
The convergence of the radical Left and radical Islam continues. Former icons of social tolerance and sexual liberation are making common cause with the most intolerant and sexist social forces on earth. Left-wing American defenders of Slobodan Milosevic, on trial for his ethnic cleansing campaign to exterminate Muslims from the former Yugoslavia, now welcome U.S. Muslim groups as building blocks in their coalitions. Trendy supporters of revolutionary cop-killers like Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu-Jamal link their heroes’ murderous causes (while proclaiming Peltier and Mumia’s innocence) to those of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the various Islamic Jihad terrorist groups.
On February 15 and 16, they joined forces in the streets of hundreds of cities and towns around the world – literally from Boston to Baghdad – in coordinated protests unseen in size and scope since the Soviet Union ran the nuclear freeze movement two decades ago. Remnants of the old Communist Party USA like Leslie Cagan coordinated protests on one end through her United for Peace and Justice entity; the fanatically pro-North Korean Workers World Party (WWP), via its International Action Center (IAC) and International ANSWER front groups, organized on the other, pausing to wish a happy birthday to Kim Jong-il, who turned 61 over the weekend. Kim’s party paper, Rodong Sinmun, exhorted followers to “burn with hatred and hostility in their hearts” toward the United States.
Some of the nation’s most prominent Muslim groups, or more correctly, a collection of small but vocal groups that claim to speak for American Muslims, joined the protests.
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), at the state level, endorsed the U.S.-out-of-Iraq demonstrations coast to coast. In Chicago, CAIR endorsed the protests, calling itself “one of the initial endorsers and organizers” for the event. CAIR formally joined the ANSWER coalition in Los Angeles.
Nationally, the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) joined the ANSWER coalition, urging the “community” to take to the streets against President Bush’s efforts to disarm Saddam Hussein and liberate the Iraqi people. In a weird February 11 statement, it asked “Americans” to “defend White House employees” – a reference to a low-ranking White House staffer whom critics say has a pattern of clearing pro-terrorist Muslim American activists into meetings with President Bush and other senior officials.
The American Muslim Council (AMC) didn’t make a public show over the February 15 weekend, but it did join the ANSWER coalition’s January 18 protests that marked the 12th anniversary of the Persian Gulf War, or what AMC referred to as the “war against the people of Iraq.” While the AMC joined others, particularly semi-official voices in the Saudi press, calling on Saddam Hussein to resign, it also embraced ANSWER. On January 15 it circulated an ANSWER flyer on its listserv, exhorting followers via e-mail to march on the White House. AMC national board treasurer Ali Khan led a caravan of Indiana and Chicago activists to the demonstration in Washington.
AMC, like other U.S. Muslim groups that have long coveted legitimacy in official Washington, likes to play things both ways. Click to its website, www.amconline.org, and a ghostly image of Malcolm X flashes for a fraction of a second before a very mainstream-looking, red, white and blue homepage appears. That’s just a symptom of how the AMC operates. Since September 11, 2001, AMC has demanded – and received – the highest-level acceptance in the U.S. government. FBI Director Robert Mueller even spoke at the AMC’s national convention last June 28, with an FBI spokesman calling the AMC “the most mainstream Muslim group in the country.”
The FBI media unit, when pressed, could produce nothing to substantiate the claim, but a visibly uncomfortable Mueller addressed the conference anyway. That appearance, with the FBI publicity unit’s imprimatur, gave the AMC more credibility than ever – even though that very month the organization was haranguing the Bureau for its investigation of domestic Muslim groups.
The AMC calls itself an “active member” of the National Committee to Protect Political Freedom (NCPPF), a William Kunstlerite group founded in the 1960s to provide legal support to terrorists and those who raise money and provide material support for them. Its causes have ranged from members of the Weather Underground to the Maoist Shining Path of Peru, to Abdul Rahman, the Egyptian “Blind Sheik” responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York. NCPPF’s executive director is Kit Gage works full-time as head of the old Stalinist National Lawyers Guild (NLG). Its president is Sami Al-Arian, the University of South Florida professor who reportedly was a founding leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
AMC founder Abdurahman Alamoudi is by his own admission an enthusiastic supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah – the latter being responsible for the 1980s killing of 241 U.S. Marines in the Beirut barracks bombing, and for the car bombing of the American Embassy in Lebanon. Alamoudi recruited young and attractive Muslim political activists and helped them set up spinoff groups to influence mainstream political parties. He provided seed money for one of those groups, the Islamic Institute, which is chaired by his former protégé, Khaled Saffuri.
The AMC likes to say now that the controversial Alamoudi is no longer with the organization and that it condemns all forms of terrorism. But Alamoudi isn’t alone. AMC’s former executive board president, Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, was twice on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. Under his old name in the 1960s as H. Rap. Brown, he threatened to assassinate Lady Bird Johnson when she was First Lady of the U.S. He’s now a lifer in a Georgia prison for the 2000 murder of Fulton County Sheriff’s Deputy Ricky Kinchen.
AMC’s new leadership is no less extreme. In the week before the FBI director’s speech to the organization, various television talk show hosts including Alan Keyes, then of MSNBC, and Bill O’Reilly of Fox News, tried to get the AMC executive director, Eric Ervan Vickers, to denounce Hamas, Hezbollah, and al Qaeda by name. While denouncing acts of terrorism, Vickers avoided denouncing the terrorist groups themselves.
On June 19, 2002, Linda Vester of Fox News asked Vickers, “Do you condemn al Qaeda by name and condemn Hamas by name?” According to the transcript, Vickers would not. Fox News anchor Brit Hume commented, “All right, so, there you go. And she pressed him further, but that’s as far as she ever got with that.”
Journalist Fred Barnes, on a panel with Hume, illustrated the hypocrisy: “These groups are outraged about what the victims are doing here in the United States. Their big effort is to oppose reasonable steps to protect the United States from further attacks. That's where they aim their fire, not at these terrorists who are doing this in the name of their very own religion.”
The night before Mueller addressed the AMC, guest host Mike Barnicle on CNBC's Hardball asked Vickers to condemn Hamas and Hezbollah. Vickers would not. Barnicle followed, "How about al-Qaeda?" According to the transcript, Vickers' only response was, "They are involved in a resistance movement."
Morton Kondracke commented on Fox, “If that guy truly reflects American Muslims -- and he is the executive director of this large organization -- then God help us. We've got -- that guy sounds like the fifth column, frankly.”
It certainly sounds that way. Across the board, the AMC and other leading Muslim advocacy groups are “against us” in the war on terrorism. Responding to President George W. Bush’s State of the Union Speech on January 29, 2003, Vickers stated, “in invoking God to be with American soldiers in our apparently imminent war with Iraq, what the president did not say is that he is calling on God to kill innocent Iraqi children.”
The next day he called on the “U.N. to conduct an inquiry into the “political repression of Muslim and Arab and Asian Americans by the United States government,” and led a protest against a new FBI policy to count mosques. In a note to imams across the country, Vickers wrote, “AMC calls upon you to demonstrate mass criticism and activism against the new FBI policy, which directs FBI field offices nationwide to conduct an inventory of mosques and Muslims as part of their charge to develop demographic profiles of their regions to combat possible terrorism.”
Meanwhile, the AMC and others, by virtue of their shrillness and persistence, continue to enjoy protected status from the federal government. One of the reasons, senior officials say, is that no truly mainstream national Muslim political group exists for the administration to engage. Until such an organization is created and supported, the vocal and well-funded jihadists will maintain their chokehold on the voice of American Muslims, in concert with the most extreme leadership of the “anti-war” Left – and with Uncle Sam’s Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. This, just when President Bush needs American Muslims to support him openly in the war against terrorism.
J. Michael Waller is vice president of the Center for Security Policy in Washington.
LINK
International Security | Response to Terrorism
28 November 2001
President Bush Meets With Pakistani Americans
Discusses debt relief, Kashmir, and detention of al-NajjarPresident Bush met with a group of Pakistani Americans at the White House November 28 to discuss their concerns related to Pakistan and other issues.
A media release issued by the American Muslim Council (AMC) described the meeting as warm and positive and said the president showed understanding of Pakistani Americans' main concerns.
"President Bush was appreciative of the efforts General Pervez Musharraf is making to combat terrorism in that part of the world, and he also seems to understand centrality of the two issues facing Pakistan: huge debt, and the Kashmir dispute," said Dr. Amanullah Khan, AMC Vice Chairman.
President Bush also promised to look into the recent arrest of Palestinian academic Dr. Mazen Al-Najjar in Florida.
Following is the text of the American Muslim Council media release:
Pakistani Americans Term Meeting With President Bush as Warm, Positive
Washington, DC, November 29, 2001: A group of Pakistani Americans was invited to meet with President George Bush at the White House yesterday. Among the invitees were the heads of various Pakistani American organizations, including the vice chairman of the American Muslim Council, Dr. Amanullah Khan, and a member of the AMC Advisory Board, Dr. Khalid Qazi.
Participants of the meeting were appreciative of President Bush's candid thoughts on issues pertaining to the subcontinent. Talking to the AMC Media Department, the participants said the President sounded encouraging over suggestions for debt retirement for Pakistan and giving the Administration's urgent attention to the Kashmir dispute.
"President Bush was appreciative of the efforts General Pervez Musharraf is making to combat terrorism in that part of the world, and he also seems to understand centrality of the two issues facing Pakistan: huge debt, and the Kashmir dispute, " said the AMC Vice Chairman.
One of the participants, Dr. Raana Akbar, President-elect of the Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America (APPNA), raised the issue of Dr. Mazen Al-Najjar with the President. According to Dr. Akbar, the President took notes and promised to do something about it.
The meeting, which was originally scheduled for 15 minutes only, lasted for more than 45 minutes. About 17 people from around the United States attended the meeting.
President Hosts Iftaar Dinner
Remarks by the President at Iftaar Dinner
State Dining Room
6:05 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Good evening. Thank you all for coming. I'm honored to welcome such a distinguished group of ambassadors and American citizens to the White House to help usher in the holy month of Ramadan.
Islam is a religion that brings hope and comfort to more than a billion people around the world. It has made brothers and sisters of every race. It has given birth to a rich culture of learning and literature and science. Tonight we honor the traditions of a great faith by hosting this Iftaar at the White House.
I'm honored that our great Secretary of State is with us today. Mr. Secretary, thank you for being here. I appreciate Your Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates, for coming. I want to thank members of my administration who are here -- in particular, Dr. Elias Zerhouni, who's the Director of the National Institute of Health. I want to thank all the ambassadors who are here -- it's good to see you all again. And the other representatives from the Organization of Islamic Conference. I appreciate so very much my fellow Americans here, many from the Muslim community.
Ramadan is a special time of prayer and fasting, contemplation of God's greatness, and service to those in need. According to Muslim teachings, this season commemorates the revelation of God's word in the holy Koran to the prophet Muhammad. Today this word inspires faithful Muslims to lead lives of honesty and integrity and compassion.
In hosting tonight's Iftaar, I send a message to all the nations represented by their ambassadors here tonight: America treasures your friendship. America honors your faith.
We see in Islam a religion that traces its origins back to God's call on Abraham. We share your belief in God's justice, and your insistence on man's moral responsibility. We thank the many Muslim nations who stand with us against terror. Nations that are often victims of terror, themselves.
Tonight's Iftaar also sends a message to all Americans: our nation is waging a war on a radical network of terrorists, not on a religion and not on a civilization. If we wage this war to defend our principles, we must live up to those principles, ourselves. And one of the deepest commitments of America is tolerance. No one should be treated unkindly because of the color of their skin or the content of their creed. No one should be unfairly judged by appearance or ethnic background, or religious faith. We must uphold these values of progress and pluralism and tolerance.
George Washington said that America gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance. This was our policy at our nation's founding; this is our policy today. America rejects all forms of religious intolerance. America grieves with all the victims of religious bigotry. And America opposes all who commit evil in God's name.
Ramadan and the upcoming holiday seasons are a good time to remember the ties of friendship and respect that bind us together. Learning from each other we can build bridges of mutual trust and understanding. Working together we can create a better future for people of all faiths.
I thank you for coming to the White House this evening. I wish you all a blessed Ramadan. God bless. (Applause.)
END 6:09 P.M. EST
ATTENDEES AT THE PRESIDENT'S White House IFTAAR DINNER
AMBASSADORS OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE ISLAMIC CONFERENCE
His Excellency Dr. Farid Abboud, Ambassador of Lebanon
His Excellency Baktybek Abdrissaev, Ambassador of the Kyrgyz Republic
The Honorable Mahmoud Aboud, Charge d'Affaires ad interim, Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoros
The Honorable Augustine Agada, Charge d'Affaires ad interim of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
His Excellency Syed Hasan Ahmad, Ambassador of the People's Republic of Bangladesh
His Excellency Bader Omar Al Dafa, Ambassador of the State of Qatar
His Excellency Alasri Saeed Al Dhahri, Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates
His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahayan, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, United Arab Emirates
His Excellency Mohamed Ali Al Khusaiby, Ambassador of the Sultanate of Oman
His Excellency Abdulwahab A. Al-Hajjri, Ambassador of the Republic of Yemen
His Excellency Rashid Alimov, Ambassador of the Republic of Tajikistan
His Excellency Khalifa Ali Al-Khalifa, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Bahrain
His Excellency Sheikh Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Ambassador of the State of Kuwait
His Excellency Dr. Rostom Al-Zoubi, Ambassador of the Syrian Arab Republic
His Excellency Hatem Atallah, Ambassador of Tunisia
His Excellency Amadou Lamine Ba, Appointed Ambassador of the Republic of Senegal
His Excellency Rafiou Alpha Oumar Barry, Ambassador of the Republic of Guinea
Mr. Emad Madani (Guest of His Royal Highness Prince Bandar bin Sultan), Charge d'Affaires ad interim of Saudi Arabia
His Excellency Soemadi D. M. Brotodiningrat, Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia
The Honorable Hassan Conteh, Charge d'Affaires ad interim of Sierra Leone
Mr. Henrique Da Silva, Charge d'Affaires ad interim of the Republic of Guinea Bissau
His Excellency Cheick Oumar Diarrah, Ambassador of the Republic of Mali
Mr. Guy Marcel Eboumy, Counselor, Embassy of the Gabonese Republic
The Honorable Raymond Epote, Charge d'Affaires ad interim of the Republic of Cameroon
His Excellency M. Nabil Fahmy, Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt
His Excellency Sheikh Abdul Khalid Ghazzali, Ambassador of Malaysia
The Honorable Mohammed Ghozlani, Charge d'Affaires ad interim of the Kingdom of Morocco
His Excellency Dr. Odeen Ishmael, Ambassador of the Republic of Guyana
His Excellency Idriss Jazairy, Ambassador of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria
His Excellency Karim Kawar, Ambassador of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
His Excellency Shavkat Shodiyevich Khamrakulov, Ambassador of the Republic of Uzbekistan
His Excellency Pascal D. Kokora, Ambassador of the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire
His Excellency Sakthip Krairiksh, Ambassador of Thailand
His Excellency (Dr Mohamed Latheef, Ambassador of the Republic of Maldives
His Excellency Dr. Osman Faruk Logoglu, Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey
Mr. Counselor Elmar Mamedyarov, Charge d'Affaires ad interim of the Republic of Azerbaijan
His Excellency Cyrille Oguin, Ambassador of the Republic of Benin
His Excellency Roble Olhaye, Ambassador of the Republic of Djibouti
His Excellency Meret Bairamovich Orazov, Ambassador of Turkmenistan
His Excellency Mohamedou Ould Michel, Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania
His Excellency Armando Alexandre Panguene, Ambassador of the Republic of Mozambique
His Excellency Pengiran Anak Dato Puteh, Ambassador of the State of Brunei Darussalam
His Excellency Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, Ambassador of Pakistan
His Excellency Kanat B. Saudabayev, Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan
His Excellency Essa Bokar Sey, Ambassador of the Gambia
His Excellency Ishaq Shahryar, Ambassador of Afghanistan
His Excellency Hassaballah Ahmat Soubiane, Ambassador of the Republic of Chad
Her Excellency Edith Grace Ssempala, Ambassador of the Republic of Uganda
His Excellency Dr. Fatos Tarifa, Ambassador of the Republic of Albania
His Excellency Emmanuel Touaboy, Ambassador of Central African Republic
AMERICAN MUSLIM LEADERS
Mr. Khaled Saffuri, Islamic Institute
Dr. Ziad Asali, American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
Dr. Yahya Basha, American Muslim Council
Shaykh Hicham Muhammad Kabbani, Islamic Supreme Council of America
Dr. Sayyid Syeed, Secretary General, Islamic Society of North America
Dr. Akbar Ahmed, American University
Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl, UCLA School of Law
Imam Hassan Qazwini, Islamic Center of America
Mr. Hanif Akhtar, Pakistani Business Association
Dr. Raana Akbar, Association Pakistani Physicians of North America
Dr. Nisar Chaudry, Pakistani American Congress
Imam W. Deen Mohammed, The Mosque Cares
Mr. Qaseem Uqdah, American Muslim Armed Forces Council
Imam Mohamed Magid Ali, All Dulles Area Muslim Society
Mrs. Seeme Hasan, Hasan Family Foundation
Mrs. Guler Koknar, Assembly of Turkish American Assoc
Dr. Shamim Ibrahim, NISWA
Dr. Azizah Al-Hibri, President, Karamah
Ms. Shareefa Alkhateeb, North American Council for Muslim Women
Mr. Ali Jawad, Armada Oil and Gas
Mr. Farooq Kathwari, Ethan Allen
Dr. Amanullah Khan, Cancer Center Associates
Dr. Laith Kubba, National Endowment for Democracy
Mr. Mohammad Fadel, National Association of Muslim Lawyers
DanielPipes.org
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.
LINK
I have no idea who most of these people are, but note the names of Khaled Saffuri of the Islamic Institute and Dr. Yahya Basha of the American Muslim Council at the White House in November of 2002, and the invitation of the AMC to the White House just last month.
More on Dr. Yahya Basha's affiliations...
In its statement, the AMPCC wrote: "We denounce the anti-Muslim McCarthyism now being used by the New Jersey Jewish News and the Anti-Defamation League in their apparent attempt to politically marginalize the Muslim community in New Jersey by equating legitimate opposition to Israeli brutality with anti-Semitism. In this and similar Islamophobic smear campaigns, ethnic and religious stereotypes, distorted information, partial citations, and complete fabrications are used as tactics of intimidation. Mr. Schundler deserves to be congratulated for his courageous stance in the face of such defamation.
"We believe this attempt at political exclusion is being prompted in part by the pro-Israel lobby's alarm at the increased presence of American Muslims in this country's political process. The ADL must end its campaign of vilification and apologize to the Muslim community in New Jersey."
The attack on Schundler and on the AMA is similar to one that came during last year's New York Senate race between Rick Lazio and Hillary Clinton. A Washington Post writer called those attacks "political pornography." Lazio lost the election to Clinton.
There are an estimated seven million Muslims in American and some 1.2 billion worldwide. Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in this country.
* The AMPCC is made up of:
America Muslim Alliance (AMA),
Dr. Agha Saeed,
510-872-8013
American Muslim Council (AMC),
Dr. Yahya Basha,
248-613-5963
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR),
Ibrahim Hooper,
202-488-8787
Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC),
Salam Al-Maryati,
213-383-3443
LINKCAIR, MPAC, and the AMC are all ANSWER groups that have expressed sympathies for Terrorism. The American Muslim Alliance is the group whose $50,000 contribution to Hillary Clinton's Senatorial Campaign raised eyebrows because of their pro-terrorist leanings.
Dr. Basha has opposed anti-terror legislation, and in 2001 called the release of Mazen Al-Najjar, Sami Al Arian's brother-in-law and co-conspirator, a coup for the Arab community in the US (link).
Here's another AMC tidbit, involving Dr. Basha:
AMC applauds Representative Bonior on his tireless dedication and effort in the case of Dr. Al-Najjar and others who have been victims of this heinous policy. Dr. Yahya Basha, AMC President, accompanied Mr. Bonior on a visit to Dr. Al-Najjar on February 22,1999 making him the first policy maker to meet with the secret evidence victim. He teamed up with Representative Tom Campbell (R-CA) to introduce and diligently fight to pass H.R. 2121, the Secret Evidence Repeal Act of 1999 and subsequently launched a campaign against the use of secret evidence.
The fruition of the campaign for Dr. Al-Najjar's release came as a result of the dedication of Dr. Sami Al-Arian, of the Tampa Bay Coalition for Peace and Justice and Mazen's brother-in-law; The National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom (NCPPF); and his legal team led Prof. David Cole of Georgetown University, Nancy Chang of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Joe Hohenstein of the Nationalities Service Center, and Martin Schwartz of Tampa who have worked so diligently for his release.
"Thank God Almighty! Mazen is free at last!" said Aly Abuzaakouk, AMC Executive Director. "We thank the members of our community for their relentless grassroots efforts against secret evidence. It is now time to work on freeing the remainder of the victims being held under its premise and toward ensuring that the Secret Evidence Repeal Act is passed immediately in the 107th Congress. President Elect Bush has spoken out against the practice and we must work to ensure that he keeps his promise to sign the bill."
LINKInteresting that it was Bonior and Campbell who were most active in repealing the secret evidence provisions of the 1996 anti-terrorism act. Abdullah Al Arian is an intern in Bonior's office, and also the son of an alleged fund-raiser for terrorism, Sami Al Arian. Suhail Khan was on Tom Campbell's congressional staff, and is the son of Muslim cleric Mahboob Khan, at whose California mosque Ayman Al Zawahiri raised funds for Al Qaeda in 1995.
And Suhail Khan later became a founding board member of Grover Norquist's Islamic Institute, and went on to become the White House aide in charge of Muslim Outreach under President Bush, at the recommendaiton of Grover Norquist.
In February of 2003, the doors to our political institutions still remain open to radical Islamists who've expressed sympathy and support for terrorism.
I don't understand the connection between free enterprise and radical Islam.
I don't know who they are either, but it appears that most of them are ambassadors to the U.S. from Muslim countries. I suppose since they are here representing their countries, (which implies that we at least presume to friendly relations with their countries) inviting them over to dinner once in a while is a nice goodwill gesture.
The last part was what I wanted to know: whether these people were still getting in or not. It appears that some of them are. Another question, if you don't mind: are there any "more mainstream" Muslim organizations in the United States, or are they ALL rather radical?
Here's a paragraph that caught me at the beginning and made it difficult for me to digest the rest:
Left-wing American defenders of Slobodan Milosevic, on trial for his ethnic cleansing campaign to exterminate Muslims from the former Yugoslavia, now welcome U.S. Muslim groups as building blocks in their coalitions.
Why would U.S. Muslim groups want to defend Slobodan Milosevic? And if *I* think that Milosevic is being unfairly prosecuted, and that we were on the wrong in that conflict, am I left-wing?
Surely not. I've seen some of the self proclaimed 'best minds on FR' insist that this was all a smear on Bush, and that Gaffney (and posters here) were trying to say Bush was intentionally in league with terrorists.
Gaffney must be mistaken about his own motives :)
Let me put it this way... I don't know that Bill Clinton was a communist agent, and I don't know that it mattered.
Fortunately, Norquist isn't in a position to do the damage Clinton did, whatever his motivations. No excuse, though.
Gaffney must be mistaken about his own motives :)
The best dupe is a total dupe.
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