The US State Department has announced that US OIC Envoy Rashad Hussain has been appointed as United States Special Envoy and Coordinator for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications. According to the announcement:
February 18, 2015 We are pleased to announce the appointment of Rashad Hussain as United States Special Envoy and Coordinator for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications. Special Envoy Hussain will lead a staff drawn from a number of U.S. departments and agencies to expand international engagement and partnerships to counter violent extremism and to develop strategic counterterrorism communications around the world. As part of this role, Special Envoy Hussain will also serve as Coordinator of the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications, which was established at the direction of the President and former Secretary of State Clinton in 2010 and codified by President Obama’s Executive Order 13584 to coordinate, orient, and inform government-wide strategic communications focused on violent extremists and terrorist organizations. “
Read the rest here.
For a short time, Rashad Hussain was embroiled in controversy after the GMBDW was the first media source to report in 2010 on both his associations with the US Muslim Brotherhood and remarks that he had made in 2004 about the prosecution of convicted terrorist Sami Al-Arian that were later deleted from the publication that reported them. Mr. Hussain at first denied remembering that he had made the remarks calling the prosecution “politically motivated persecution” but later, after an audio tape surfaced documenting the remarks, he acknowledged the comments but said that they had been “ill advised.” Mr. Hussain also admitted that he had complained to the publication about being misrepresented after the remarks were first reported but that the publication had deleted them on their own volition. The remarks did not appear to have been deleted until after Mr. Hussain had been appointed White House Counsel. (for an analysis of these events, go here).
Since that time, Mr. Hussain’s interaction with the Global Muslim Brotherhood has continued including:
- Meeting with an associate of Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi in Mauritania.
- Appearing at events sponsored by the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID), including an event where Tunisian Muslim Brotherhood leader Rachid Ghannouchi also attended.
- Speaking together with representatives of the US. Muslim Brotherhood at a UK event hosted by Lord Nazir Ahmed, a UK Lord and supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood in the UK who resigned from the Labour Party over his his antisemitic comments.
