Napolitano and Muslim Brotherhood Affiliates Met Secretly

Napolitano and Muslim Brotherhood Affiliates Met Secretly

By Jim Kouri

A Washington, DC-based legal group uncovered documents from the Department of Homeland Security that detail a two-day meeting on January 27 and 28, 2010, between DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and Arab, Muslim, Sikh, and South Asian "community leaders."

Last year, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet and her senior staff secretly met with a select group of Muslim, Arab, and Sikh organizations. Among the mix were three organizations directly associated with an outlawed terrorist entity -- the Muslim Brotherhood, who are involved in the current uprising in Egypt.

Walid Phares, director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, criticized the partnership concept: "Through the so-called 'partnership' between the Jihadi-sympathizer networks and U.S. bureaucracies, the U.S. government is invaded by militant groups."

Just recently, a Washington, DC-based legal group uncovered documents from the Department of Homeland Security that detail a two-day meeting on January 27 and 28, 2010, between DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and Arab, Muslim, Sikh, and South Asian "community leaders."

Judicial Watch reports they obtained documents that include a list of participating individuals and organizations in Napolitano's meeting with individuals with controversial radical ties, including:

* Imad Hamad, Midwest Regional Director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. According to investigative reporter Debbie Schlussel, Hamad is connected to the Marxist-Leninist terrorist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and has financially supported the Islamist terrorist group Hezbollah. In a television interview in 2002 on Fox's Detroit affiliate, Hamad supported a Palestine Authority TV program that urged children to become suicide bombers, calling the program "patriotic."

* Salam Al-Marayati, Founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC): According to press reports, Al-Mayarati has long been criticized for his extremist views and statements. In 1999 former House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-MO) withdrew his nomination of Al-Mayarati to the National Commission on Terrorism because of Al-Mayarati's extremist politics. Al-Marayati once said, "When Patrick Henry said, 'Give me liberty or give me death,' that statement epitomized Jihad [Islamic holy war]."

One of the organizations that attended the meeting was the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which was created by members of the Muslim Brotherhood. ISNA was named in 2007 by the U.S. Department of Justice as an unindicted co-conspirator in a federal terror trial. The group was identified as a major financier of overseas Islamic terrorist organizations, particularly Hamas.

The Muslim Brotherhood is the ideological foundation for today's terrorist organizations in the Islamic world. Founded in 1928, it is the oldest Islamic fundamentalist political group in modern times. Originally called the Society of the Muslim Brothers, today it is a big supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah and considered the inspirational "father" of al-Qaeda.

In addition to the attendee list and biographies, the documents also included internal DHS email correspondence, talking points for Secretary Napolitano and a meeting agenda. Among the highlights:

* A Thursday, February 4, 2010, email from David O'Leary, DHS Office of Legislative Affairs, to David Gersten, Acting Deputy Officer for Programs and Compliance, DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties: "Gordon Lederman of Sen. Lieberman's Staff called me asking about the 2-day HSAC meeting last week with American Muslim and Arab groups. He was called by a reporter who told him MPAC (Muslim Public Affairs Council), ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) and Muslim American Society "rejected the ideas" of soliciting their help with countering violent extremism and were "angry and indignant."

* A Friday, January 29, 2010, email from Muslim Advocates Executive Director Khera Farhana to Arif Alikhan, DHS Assistant Secretary for Policy Development: "The commitments Secretary Napolitano made to these community leaders include . . . Regular quarterly meetings with the Secretary . . . An honest and full discussion of legitimate grievances from members of these communities about DHS policies that are ineffective and have a deleterious, humiliating impact on Muslim, Arab, Sikh, and South Asian American communities."

* An internal DHS "talking points" document entitled "Community Stakeholder Meeting" that states: "Communicate that DHS understands the need for enhanced partnership with the Muslim, Sikh, South Asian and Arab groups, including those present at the meeting . . . You should note the importance of sharing information from a policy perspective and on threats to specific Muslim, Arab, South Asian, and Sikh communities."

"I fail to see how consorting with radicals helps the DHS protect the United States," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

"The Obama administration is bending over backward to cater to radical Muslim organizations in the name of political correctness. This is a dangerous political game that could put American citizens at risk. Some of these meeting participants have no business helping Janet Napolitano establish our homeland security policies," said terrorism expert and Fox News contributor Walid Phares.

Phares warned last year that this policy embraced by the Obama administration "is how American national security policy has been influenced" by Muslim groups, who are duping administration officials.

The program requires bringing in Muslim groups as "partners" in a two-way information sharing program.