Kuhner: The Islamist in the White House

The Islamist in the White House

Times247

by: Jeffrey T. Kuhner

Thursday, July 26, 2012

The Muslim Brotherhood is on the rise. The Islamist group is spreading across the Middle East. The question is whether it has infiltrated the Obama administration, especially the State Department. Led by Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, a band of House Republican conservatives is investigating the reach of the Muslim Brotherhood. For this, they are being vilified not just by the liberal media, but by the GOP establishment. Our ruling class refuses to confront the reality of radical Islam.

In particular, Washington’s elites are circling the wagons around Huma Abedin, a top adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Ms. Abedin is a classic Beltway insider. For years, she has served as a close aide to Ms. Clinton. Ms. Abedin is also married to disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner, New York Democrat. She is widely known on Capitol Hill — including among Republicans. She is a life-long liberal apparatchik, an ambitious political climber who has done favors for both parties. This is why when Ms. Bachmann — along with four other members of Congress — wrote a letter to the State Department’s Office of Inspector General asking if a proper background check was conducted prior to Ms. Abedin’s appointment, the stalwart conservative was excoriated. Liberals are calling Ms. Bachmann “Joseph McCarthy with lipstick.” House Speaker John Boehner and Sen. John McCain have denounced her as “irresponsible” and “reckless.”

Ms. Bachmann’s alleged crime? In her letter, she asked whether Foggy Bottom investigated Ms. Abedin’s family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. That’s right. The secretary of state’s closest adviser has extensive, well-documented familial connections to an anti-American, anti-Semitic terrorist group. Ms. Abedin’s late father was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, her mother belonged to the Muslim Sisterhood, and her brother is part of a Muslim organization with strong links to the terror group. In short, Ms. Abedin comes from a virulently pro-Islamist family. It is only common sense and basic patriotism to examine if she poses a national security threat.

Moreover, Ms. Bachmann has never — not once — accused Ms. Abedin of being a secret member of the Muslim Brotherhood or demanded that her high-level security clearance be revoked. The Minnesota Republican has only raised a simple question: Did the State Department’s OIG look into Ms. Abedin’s sordid family background and what were the conclusions? Why has Ms. Abedin been given top security clearance dealing with sensitive, classified information regarding the Muslim Brotherhood? She is in a position to have access to key documents that could be shared with America’s mortal enemies. Senior government officials are regularly denied security clearances for numerous reasons — family connections being one of them. It poses a conflict of interest. For asking these questions, Ms. Bachmann is being admonished by the GOP. Messrs. Boehner and McCain should be ashamed of themselves.

The Huma Abedin case is eerily similar to a previous, infamous scandal involving a senior foreign policy adviser: Alger Hiss. As Jeffrey Lord in the American Spectator rightly points out, Hiss was a successful New Deal lawyer who rose through the State Department’s ranks. A prominent liberal, Hiss was a widely respected pillar of the foreign policy establishment. He was also a traitor and a secret agent of the Soviet Union. In 1944, he was a key adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Yalta Conference. It was at Yalta where FDR sold out Eastern Europe to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. Hiss was eventually exposed as a Soviet spy — with the help of Richard Nixon, then a California congressman. Mr. Lord argues that Nixon endured unparalleled vitriol from liberal Democrats and Beltway Republicans. The establishment GOP was blind to the seminal issue of communists infiltrating the American government.

Today, in a similar manner, our elites are appeasing Islamic radicals. Several years ago, the Muslim Brotherhood was designated a terrorist organization. There has been, however, a policy sea change under the Obama administration. Led by the State Department, it has actively aided and abetted the Brotherhood’s ascendency to power. President Obama withdrew support for a longtime U.S. ally, former Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak. The Muslim Brotherhood has been the big winner. Egypt’s new president, Mohammed Morsi, is a former Brotherhood member. At an election rally earlier this year, Mr. Morsi addressed tens of thousands of Brotherhood supporters who chanted that a “million martyrs will descend upon Jerusalem.” The Brotherhood’s goal is to forge an Islamist Egypt. It seeks to cleanse the country of its Coptic Christians. It also calls for the destruction of Israel. The Sinai region has become a jihadist haven.

Moreover, the Obama administration is intervening in Syria’s civil war. Ms. Clinton has called for Syrian dictator Bashar Assad to step down. The CIA is secretly arming and funding the anti-Assad rebels. Mr. Assad presides over an odious, brutal regime. Yet, what threatens to replace him will be even worse. The opposition is dominated by jihadists and the Muslim Brotherhood. The rebels want to erect a Sunni Muslim theocracy. Their aim is to exterminate the Alawite Shiite minority and expel Syria’s Christians. Mr. Assad’s downfall would mark another major victory for the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Arab Spring is thus becoming the Islamist Winter. Instead of denouncing this dangerous trend, the administration has welcomed it. Mr. Morsi has even been invited to visit Mr. Obama in the White House this fall. Think about it: An avowed anti-American Jew-hater, who calls for a global Islamic caliphate, will be given the red carpet treatment.

Hence, the Muslim Brotherhood has gone from pariah to close Obama ally. It has been sanitized and rehabilitated. Ms. Bachmann is right to ask: What role — if any — has Ms. Abedin played in this sordid betrayal of America’s interests? The GOP, the press and every patriot should stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the brave Ms. Bachmann and demand answers.

Jeffrey T. Kuhner is a columnist at The Washington Times and president of the Edmund Burke Institute.

SOURCE: http://times247.com/articles/25the-islamist-in-the-white-house6.