US media is reporting that a witness before a Senate panel has accused two Muslim Congressmen of having spoken at an event organized by the Muslim Brotherhood. According to the Huffington Post article, such accusations are “usually found among fringe groups online”:
June 28, 2016 In explosive testimony Tuesday, a witness before a Senate panel about Islamic terrorism accused the two Muslim members of Congress of having attended an event organized by the Muslim Brotherhood.
The charge was leveled by Chris Gaubatz, a ‘national security consultant’ who has moonlighted as an undercover agitator of Muslim groups that he accuses of being terrorist outfits, and it was directed at Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and André Carson (D-Ind.). At the heart of his accusation is the attendance by those two members at a 2008 convention hosted by the Islamic Society of North America — a Muslim umbrella group, which Gaubatz claims is a front for the Muslim Brotherhood.
‘I attended a convention in Columbus, Ohio, in 2008, organized by Muslim Brotherhood group, ISNA, and both the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Prisons had recruitment and outreach booths,’ Gaubatz said in his testimony. ‘Both Congressman Keith Ellison, MN, and Andre Carson, IN, spoke at the Muslim Brotherhood event.’
Allegations that Ellison and Carson are secret Muslim agents with extremist leanings are usually found among fringe groups online, often discussed in dire tones on poorly designed websites. Rarely, if ever, do such sentiments get read into congressional testimony, with the imprimatur that offers.
Responsibility for this rare instance lies with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who oversaw the hearing as chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts and whose staff likely saw the testimonies of the witnesses.
Read the rest here.
The GMBDW notes the reference to “poorly designed websites”, perhaps a new low in attempting to discredit information, but more important is the subtext of the Huffington Post article which clearly carries the implication that allegations against the Congressmen are a product of some sort of “conspiracy thinking.” The merits of the hearing and its witnesses aside, what appears to have been forgotten is that it was Congressman Ellison himself who expressed the most heinous of conspiracy theories when he once compared the 911 attacks against the US to the 1933 destruction by fire of the Reichstag, the German parliament, likely burned down by the Nazis in order to justify Hitler’s later seizure of emergency powers. As we reported in July 2007, Ellison made the following remarks generally not reported in the US media but which were reported in a British newspaper and which also can heard on a video of the event where they were made:
It’s almost like the Reichstag fire, kind of reminds me of that,’ Mr Ellison said. ‘After the Reichstag was burned, they blamed the Communists for it, and it put the leader [Hitler] of that country in a position where he could basically have authority to do whatever he wanted.’ To applause from his audience of 300 members of Atheists for Human Rights, Mr Ellison said he would not accuse the Bush administration of planning 9/11 because ‘you know, that’s how they put you in the nut-ball box – dismiss you’. …After his speech was reported, Mr Ellison said he accepted that Osama bin Laden was responsible for 9/11.
As far as Congressman Ellison’s ties to the Global Muslim Brotherhood, the GMBDW has reported numerous examples of such ties which go far beyond the single attendance at the 2008 ISNA convention mentioned above and which can be found in the following posts. Highlights include:
- In October 2007, we reported that Ellison gave the keynote speech at an award dinner where the late Dr. Jamal Barzinji, then Vice-President of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) and one the most important founders of the US Muslim Brotherhood,, was awarded the “Faith in Action Award” by the International Center for Religion & Diplomacy (ICRD).
- In November 2007, we reported that Ellison was one of two keynote speakers at the13th annual banquet of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an important part of the US Muslim Brotherhood that emerged from the US Hamas support infrastructure.
- In December 2008, we reported that Ellison went on a pilgrimage to Mecca that was paid for by the Muslim American Society (MAS), a part of the US Muslim Brotherhood closet to the Egyptian organization.
- In April 2009, we reported that Ellison attended a conference that bought leaders of the US Muslim Brotherhood together with members of the US government, far-left/antiwar political figures, and foreign activists.
- In July 2011, we reported that Ellison was one of the speakers at the 48th annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).
- In September 2012, we reported that Ellison was scheduled to attend the 49th annual ISNA convention along with Global Muslim Brotherhood leaders Tariq Ramadan and Rachid Ghannouchi.
- In November 2012 we reported that Ellison had been a featured speakers at an event held by the Muslim American Citizens Coalition and Public Affairs Council (MACCPAC), another of the myriad US Muslim Brotherhood front groups.
- In February 2016, we reported that Ellison attended the inaugural conference for the “Muslim Councils in the West”, organized by a US Muslim Brotherhood coalition and that was also attended by a wide variety of European Muslim Brotherhood leaders as well as by a prominent US academic supporter of the Global Muslim Brotherhood.
GMBDW reporting on Congressman Carson has included the following relationships with the US Muslim Brotherhood:
- In June 2009, we reported that Congressmen Carson and Keith Ellison, were guest speakers at a social event sponsored by the now defunct Congressional Muslim Staffers Association (CSMA), sponsored by Carson. We subsequently reported on the relationship between the US Muslim Brotherhood and the CMSA.
- In September 2009, we reported that Carson was to be a featured speaker at the annual convention of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), a part of the US Muslim Brotherhood.
- In May 2012, we reported that Carson was to be a guest speaker at the annual convention of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), a part of the US Muslim Brotherhood and considered to be closely tied to the Jamaat-e-Islami organization of Southeast Asia, itself allied with the Global Muslim Brotherhood
- In November 2012, we reported that Nancy Pelosi was the main feature at a fundraising event that included the US Muslim Brotherhood organizations whose leaders sat at the same table with Pelosi. Congressman Carson was one of the sponsors of the event.
- In January 2013, we reported that Carson was in attendance at an ISNA event hosting the newly elected President of Somalia. The meeting also included included Rashad Hussain, the US Envoy to the OIC, and a representative of ICNA.
- In May 2014, Carson was an invited speaker for the annual joint convention of ISNA and the MAS. That conference also featured Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Tariq Ramadan.
- In October 2014, we discussed an article an article which looked at campaign contributions to Congressman Carson by US Muslim Brotherhood organizations.