US media has reported that controversial journalist Glenn Greenwald will be the keynote speaker for a dinner event put on this week by the Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). According to a Daily Caller report:
Council on American Islamic Relations
November 4, 2013 Journalist Glenn Greenwald, who lives in Brazil and has spoken of the ‘risk’ he would face if he entered the United States, is scheduled to speak here later this month to a controversial Muslim group.
The Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations says that Greenwald will be the keynote speaker at its November 16 ‘Faith in Freedom’ dinner in Anaheim, California.
The banquet is the first scheduled appearance in the United States for Greenwald, who lives in Brazil, since he used information provided by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden to disclose NSA electronic surveillance programs in a series of articles for the U.K.-based Guardian newspaper.
One Republican congressman has already called for the prosecution of Greenwald.
Rep. Pete King (R-NY) told Fox News host Megyn Kelly this June that, ‘In this case, when you have someone who discloses secrets like this and threatens to release more, yes, there has to be legal action taken against him.’
Perhaps with King’s words in mind, Greenwald told a left-wing website this August that he recognized the legal perils of entering the United States but ‘I won’t be kept out of my country for doing journalism.’
Greenwald did say he would consult lawyers before entering the United States. ‘I am working with lawyers,’ he told truth-out.org. ‘I absolutely intend that I will go back to my country when I choose.’
Greenwald’s domestic partner was detained in the United Kingdom in August under the UK’s strict anti-terrorism statute, but was released without charges after nine hours.
Glenn Greenwald is an American journalist, political commentator, lawyer, columnist, blogger, and author. He was a columnist for Guardian US from August 2012 to October 2013 and is known for his strident criticisms of US governmental policies and actions.
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) describes itself as “a grassroots civil rights and advocacy group and as “America’s largest Islamic civil liberties group.” CAIR was founded in 1994 by three officers of the Islamic Association of Palestine, part of the U.S. Hamas infrastructure at that time. Documents discovered in the course of the the terrorism trial of the Holy Land Foundation confirmed that the founders and current leaders of CAIR were part of the Palestine Committee of the Muslim Brotherhood and that CAIR itself is part of the US. Muslim Brotherhood. In 2008, the then Deputy leader of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood acknowledged a relationship between the Egyptian Brotherhood and CAIR. In 2009, a US federal judge ruled “The Government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA and NAIT with HLF, the Islamic Association for Palestine (“IAP”), and with Hamas.” CAIR and its leaders have had a long history of defending individuals accused of terrorism by the US. government, often labeling such prosecutions a “war on Islam”, and have also been associated with Islamic fundamentalism and antisemitism. The organization is led by Nihad Awad, its longstanding Executive Director and one of the three original founders.
