Farrakhan’s behavior is beyond ‘shameful’

In recent weeks, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has been touring the capitals of several of the nations most hostile to the United States: Libya, Iran and Iraq. In the course of meetings with the likes of Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, Iranian President Rafsanjani and Saddam Hussein, Farrakhan has personally identified with, expressed support for and/or offered to serve the radical anti-American agenda of his hosts. Reported highlights of this appalling performance include the following:

Libya

• According to JANA, the official mouthpiece of the Libyan government, during the course of Farrakhan’s visit, Gadhafi pledged $1 billion as part of a joint effort to "mobilize the oppressed minorities to play a significant role in American political life." (1)
• JANA also reported that Gadhafi said "American blacks could set up their own state within the United States with the largest black army in the world."
• Gadhafi added "Our confrontation with America used to be like confronting a fortress from outside. Today, we have found a loophole to enter the fortress and to confront it from within."
• JANA reported that Farrakhan replied "I have met my brother, Colonel Moammar Gadhafi, for the sake of unifying Arabs, Muslims, blacks and oppressed communities in America to play a strong, significant role not only in the American elections, but in American foreign policy."
• After visiting the ruins of one of Gadhafi’s residences that was destroyed in the 1986 U.S. air raid on Tripoli (conducted in retaliation for a Libyan terrorist attack against American personnel in Germany), Farrakhan wrote in the visitors’ book: "I implore God to punish our enemies hundreds of times, just as they did to us and against you."

Iran

• According to Agence France Presse, "Farrakhan paid tribute [in Tehran]…to Iran on the anniversary of its 1979 Islamic revolution as a crowd of tens of thousands chanted ‘Death to America.’" (2)
• After laying a wreath on the tomb of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Farrakhan declared: "I personally love Imam Khomeini"; "Iran is now in the vanguard of the Islamic revolution sweeping the earth"; "the Islamic revolution represents a perfect model of a system of government based on the holy Koran;" and "we will use American Muslim unity as a lever of pressure against the arrogant policies of the United States."
• Farrakhan’s comments moved Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani to observe that the former was "expressing the love of 30 million U.S. blacks for the Islamic revolution. Our revolution enjoys the support of the oppressed throughout the world, notably in the United States."
• The Washington Post noted that "Among the reports to reach Washington, a story in an Iranian newspaper quoted Farrakhan as saying in Tehran: ‘You can quote me: God will destroy America at the hands of the Muslims.’"

Iraq

• According to Reuters, "before meeting with Saddam Hussein [today], Farrakhan was taken on a tour of a hospital in Baghdad and al-Amiriya shelter in which hundreds of civilians were killed in a U.S. raid during the 1991 Gulf War…’And I must say, if I were made of stone, seeing what I saw today would bring tears to my eyes.’"
• He also "described Washington’s persistence to keep the sanctions on Iraq intact as ‘a very wicked policy that must be stopped immediately.’"

Nick Burns, Unplugged

So outrageous has Louis Farrakhan’s conduct been over the past few weeks that even the Clinton Administration State Department felt constrained to condemn it. As spokesman Nick Burns put it yesterday:

"I think it’s shameful that an American citizen, much less a major religious leader in the United States, would cavort with dictators like Gadhafi and the Iranian leadership. I think it’s shameful that he would stand in Tehran and declare that his fellow countrymen live in a country which is the Great Satan, when those people who stood with him in Tehran took American diplomats hostage…It’s wrong for another American to go and to cavort with dictators who have inflicted terrorism (3) upon the United States." (4)

While the State Department characterization of Louis Farrakhan’s behavior is clearly accurate as far as it goes, it neither does justice to the man nor establishes a determination on the part of the Clinton Administration to bring him to justice for actions apparently in violation of U.S. law. According to a preliminary review of relevant law conducted by the Congressional Research Service on behalf of Rep. Peter King (R-NY), Farrakhan may have violated five U.S. laws. These include: the Foreign Agents Registration Act, Libyan sanctions regulations, restrictions on campaign contributions by foreign nationals and passport travel restrictions.

Incredible as it may seem, the apparent absence of any laws on the books that would make it a crime simply to organize essentially a Libyan Fifth Column for the purposes of accomplishing America’s violent dismembering may mean that — like Al Capone — Louis Farrakhan could only be prosecuted for more prosaic violations. Even so, as Rep. King, who has described Farrakhan’s actions as "treacherous and cowardly," declared yesterday:

"It is time to pierce the double standard that has for too long protected Farrakhan and his followers and end the special treatment they have received from certain agencies in [the Clinton] Administration. Any American citizen who consorts with the sworn enemies of the United States and seeks their financial backing must be held fully accountable for their actions.

"Very simply, there is no way that I will allow Farrakhan to skirt the law and continue to seek the financial backing of terrorist regimes to advance his racist political agenda. I am committed to ensuring that the laws on the books against this type of treachery are fully enforced."

The Bottom Line

Unfortunately, the Farrakhan road-show comes at a moment when U.S. foreign policy interests are being subordinated across-the-board to President Clinton’s reelection bid. Consequently, it seems unlikely that his Administration would be willing to emulate Rep. King’s "profile in courage"; after all, doing so would entail actually prosecuting the organizer of the "Million Man March" and risk alienating a critical Democratic constituency. (It is hard to believe that a David Duke or an Aryan Nation leader would be accorded the same treatment were they to have sought foreign support for their hateful separatist agendas.)

Farrakhan’s activities in Libya, Iran and Iraq are a chilling indication of his deep-seated loathing of this country and his determination to make common cause with its enemies. At a minimum, President Clinton must order intensified FBI surveillance of the Nation of Islam in order to minimize the threat it might come to pose to public safety and the national security. The Administration must also permanently end contractual dealings between federal agencies like the Department of Housing and Urban Development that serve both to enrich and legitimate the organization. For its part, Congress must hold hearings that examine the need for new legal protections against the sort of "loophole" Gadhafi claims to have found in Farrakhan.

If Mr. Clinton and the Congress are unable — or unwilling — at the very least to take such steps in response to Louis Farrakhan’s ominous and highly provocative actions, it will be worse than "shameful." It will be correctly seen as scandalous and a serious political liability to Americans who, without regard for race or religious belief, find Farrakhan’s behavior overseas inimical to vital U.S. interests and tantamount to treason.

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(1) This is not the first time Gadhafi has provided funding for the Nation of Islam. According to nationally syndicated columnist Cal Thomas, "Mr. Gadhafi ‘loaned’ Mr. Farrakhan $5 million for various business projects associated with the Nation of Islam. The same year, Mr. Gadhafi told Nation of Islam followers by satellite that he wanted to help American blacks overthrow oppression through armed struggle."

(2) If the same standard is applied as was used a few months ago to hold Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu responsible for an anti-Rabin placard he had not seen at a large political rally, then Farrakhan is certainly guilty by association with enemies of the United States for having done nothing to disavow the incendiary urgings of the Iranian mob.

(3) Interestingly, Mr. Burns stated that "Gadhafi bombed Pan Am 103 and is responsible for the death of 269 people." While assuredly true, such a statement makes a mockery of the international campaign mounted by the Bush and Clinton administrations to secure the extradition from Libya of two Gadhafi operatives fingered with having perpetrated this heinous act, but leaving their boss unindicted.

(4) It is regrettable that the indignation which Mr. Burns expressed on this score has been undercut by his own boss, Secretary of State Warren Christopher, and other senior U.S. officials who have recently been cavorting with state sponsors of terrorism against Americans from Serbia to Syria, from Northern Ireland to North Korea.