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Home > CAIR Tries to Stop Counter-Terror Training Sessions
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CAIR Tries to Stop Counter-Terror Training Sessions
The Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is furious that law enforcement received training last Friday from three established counter-terrorism experts who vocally criticize CAIR and its parent organization, the Muslim Brotherhood.
The training focused on the connections between Iran, Hezbollah and the drug cartels and was not about Islam or Muslims in general. It was hosted by the Oklahoma legislature’s Counterterrorism Caucus. CAIR, who tried to stop the training program, claimed that the experts chosen had no credibility and are “an anti-Muslim.”
The three experts who presented the training were: Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy in 1987 under the Reagan Administration. Lt. Gen. (Ret.) William G. “Jerry” Boykin, Deputy Under-Secretary of Defense for Intelligence from 2002 to 2007 under the Bush Administration. Clare Lopez, a former CIA operations officer who was named a member of the Congressional Task Force on National and Homeland Security in 2012.
All three of these experts have biographies that eminently qualify them to present this material. Their credentials cannot be questioned. Yet, CAIR’s Oklahoma chapter is adamant that they lack credibility; an accusation that is a pristine example of hypocrisy.
Let’s not forget that CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorism-financing trial in U.S. history. The U.S. government listed it as an “entity” of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee, a secret body whose purpose is to support Hamas. In 2009, a federal judge upheld CAIR’s designation as an unindicted co-conspirator in the terror-financing operation due to “ample” evidence provided by the U.S. government.
In 2007, federal prosecutors stated in a court filing, “From its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists … the conspirators agreed to use deception to conceal from the American public their connections to terrorists.”
The FBI says it no longer uses CAIR as an outreach partner in order to “ensure that the FBI is not supporting individuals who support extremist or terrorist ideologies.”
CAIR-OK’s executive director, Adam Soltani, watched the training from the House gallery. Soltani, who led the fight against the training program by the above experts, was previously the assistant director of outreach for the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City and the coordinator of youth development programs for the Islamic Society of Edmond. The Islamic Society of Edmond’s land is owned by the North American Islamic Trust, another U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity that was labeled an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land trial.
CAIR-OK’s 7th annual fundraising banquet featured Imam Johari Abdul-Malik as its keynote speaker. He is the outreach director for the radical Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Virginia that has extensive ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
In 2001, Abdul-Malik approved of attacks on Israeli infrastructure. On January 26, Dar al-Hijrah’s Imam Shaker Elsayed preached in support of violent jihad at a high school. He is also an open supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Yet, Abdul-Malik was the top speaker chosen by Soltani’s CAIR-OK organization for its annual fundraising banquet.
At first glance, it may be surprising to learn that the Oklahoma chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union sided with CAIR on the training issue. ACLU-OK chapter leader Ryain Kiesel criticized the experts as “conspiracy theorists and political opportunists” and said the training “pose
a serious risk of prejudice to Oklahoma’s Muslim community.”
However, upon a closer look, given that the ACLU has developed a close relationship with CAIR and its allies, it is not surprising at all.
Under pressure to replace the experts, Rep. John Bennett, chairman of the Counterterrorism Caucus in Oklahoma, refused to budge, saying, “We have no indications there is going to be anything anti-Muslim based on anything other than what CAIR said.”
Not a single media report (that I’m aware of) included the above facts about CAIR. Only the criticisms of the three counter-terrorism experts were included in the coverage.
Yet again, CAIR has proven to be a master of media manipulation.
Ryan Mauro is the ClarionProject.org’s National Security Analyst, a fellow with the Clarion Project and is frequently interviewed on top-tier TV stations as an expert on counterterrorism and Islamic extremism.
CAIR
Council on American Islamic Relations
Hezbollah
Muslim Brotherhood
Copyright © 2013 Clarion Project, Inc. All rights reserved.
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