Oklahomans Who Love America – and Freedom – Support Their Lawmakers Who Do the Same

On Thursday 27 October 2016, in a room packed with hundreds of freedom loving Americans, Oklahoma State Representative John Bennett received the Center for Security Policy’s Defender of Freedom Award.   Presented in recognition of exemplary service by a public servant at the state level in support of America’s national security, the Defender of Freedom Award is earned by those few state policymakers who not only recognize that our nation faces grave threats but courageously step into the breech against them.

A veteran U.S. Marine with more than 21 years of honorable service, extensive training in human intelligence, counterintelligence, and counterterrorism, and extensive combat experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, Representative Bennett founded and chairs the Oklahoma House of Representatives’ Counterterrorism Caucus.   This Caucus has provides public policymakers at the state level a platform through which to investigate and counter national security threats.

Naysayers and apologists for America’s international jihadist adversaries, including domestic organizations with their own historical ties to terror finance, attempt to claim that national security is a “federal concern” and “a waste of time for state officials.”

Yet, according to the Majority Staff of the House Homeland Security Committee, since September 11, 2001, there have been at least 166 homegrown jihadist plots in the United States. Since 2009 jihadi terrorists have killed 90 people inside the United States and in the first 8 months of 2016, 26 jihadis have been arrested in 13 states for terrorist plots, overseas terror-related travel, lying to authorities, and weapons violations. Meanwhile, FBI Director James Comey estimated in May 2016 that around 80 percent of the Bureau’s more than 1,000 active homegrown terror investigations are linked to ISIS. Attacks directed or inspired by ISIS represent “the greatest threat to the physical safety of Americans today,” he added in July 2016.

With a grasp of these sobering facts, the Oklahoma Counterterrorism Caucus and the House Judiciary and Civil Procedure Committee have taken the initiative to address the threat to the physical safety of Oklahomans by sponsoring an “Interim Study” on “the current threat posed by radical Islam and the effect that Sharia Law, the Muslim Brotherhood and jihadist indoctrination have in the radicalization process in Oklahoma and America.”

As part of this effort, foremost expert witnesses from around the country testified on Tuesday 25 October 2016 via skype and in person. The experts included a former assistant Secretary of Defense, a former FBI Counterterrorism agent, and a U.S. Army field grade officer who formerly briefed the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Pentagon on these threats.

Other witnesses had first-hand, eyewitness experience inside terrorist organizations. One of them, Kamal Saleem, was sent by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) to infiltrate America, recruit terrorists, and set up sleeper cells to await the command to attack. Another, Chris Gaubatz, infiltrated the National Headquarters of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and was able acquire documents which were later used in legal proceedings against CAIR (an organization that the Holy Land Foundation trial evidence revealed was created by the US Palestine Committee which is Hamas in the U.S.). Perhaps the most compelling testimony, however, came from a government Confidential Informant. The Confidential Informant, a former Muslim, went undercover in the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City, the mosque attended by Alton Nolan who beheaded Colleen Hufford at Vaughn Foods, in Moore, in 2014. According to the confidential informant, (who was also featured last year on Fox News’ “The Kelly File”) the Imam at the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City (ISGOC) taught his followers to tell the public that Islam was a “religion of peace”, but behind closed doors, he taught his followers that Sharia Law was a higher authority than the Constitution, they were at war with America, and one day the Caliphate would rule America.  [ISGOC is owned by the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) and is a subsidiary of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the “nucleus” of the Muslim Brotherhood’s movement which funds Hamas – as per evidence from the Holy Land Foundation trial.]

Worth Watching – Fox News’ “The Kelly File” exclusive from 25 June 2015

Despite overwhelming evidence of the jihadi nature of the Moore Oklahoma beheading, Federal authorities reportedly deemed the case as one of “workplace violence” just as they did with Major Nidal Hassan’s jihadi attack aboard Fort Hood, Texas. These same federal authorities have still yet to determine a “motive” for the jihadi terrorist Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez who killed four Marines and a sailor aboard the U.S. Naval and Marine Reserve Center in Chattanooga last July.

With the politicization of America’s federal intelligence and law enforcement communities and the Obama administration’s unwillingness to investigate the linkage between sharia doctrine and jihadi violence, state-level policymakers and law enforcement – who take seriously their oaths of office and their duty to protect their own communities – are left with no other choice but to do the investigating themselves. That’s exactly what Representative Bennett has done with his interim study.

Surprisingly, for fulfilling their duties by revealing these clear and present dangers to America and Oklahoma, freedom loving Americans such as Representative Bennett and the expert witnesses from last Tuesday’s hearing face, at best, ridicule by the mainstream media and, at worst – in the case of the Confidential Informant – threats to their lives and safety.

Among the ungrateful are The Oklahoman Editorial Board who recently claimed that “the main purpose of the Islam study conducted by the House Judiciary and Civil Procedure Committee seems to have been to label various Oklahoma Muslims as terrorists without actually providing evidence of any specific act or link to terrorism.” Editorial columnist Mike Jones of Tulsa World even went so far as to state that Bennett has “fabricated” this issue of terrorism and radicalization in Oklahoma, and someone should “get the hook” and “yank the performer (Bennett) from the stage by the neck.”

But Oklahomans do not have to take the word of doubtful journalists, naysayers or jihadi apologists that the nearly 3-hour hearing provided “no evidence.” They can examine the audio of the testimony in its entirety , or clips from expert witnesses John Guandolo or Chris Gaubatz and draw their own conclusions.  Freedom loving Oklahomans should spend just a few minutes watching this testimony (something clearly too laborious for the aforementioned journalists) to appreciate how Bennett has literally stuck out his own neck on their behalf – something he’s done both overseas and here at home.

Thankfully, last Thursday night, as Representative Bennett received the Defender of Freedom Award, it was clear the people of Oklahoma support and appreciate the Counterterrorism Caucus and its founder, despite overwhelming efforts to keep them misinformed about their work. This was made clear by the hundreds of supporters who showed up for the presentation of the award, lending their hearts, spirits, and vocal support to the cause of Freedom. Need evidence? Just listen to them sing the National Anthem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeQE62cObng&feature=youtu.be

Worth Watching – The National Anthem – performed by hundreds of Oklahomans at Bennett’s Award Ceremony