Struggle in the Heartland

Initially, it seemed largely a Washington phenomenon. Muslim Brotherhood fronts like the Council On American Islamic Relations (CAIR) targeting federal law enforcement training, and protesting pro-national security legislators who spoke out regarding their agenda.  Former DHS Senior Fellow, and Muslim Brotherhood supporter Mohammed Elibiary tweeted on August 13^th that, “no future presidency will reverse reforms underway,” thanks to a network of Elibiary’s “friends” in security agencies and academia.

Having reached the sense that victory in Washington was near, the focus has began to shift to spreading these gains to state and local governments. First came the successful termination of the NYPD Intelligence program, which had previously been lauded around the country for its sophistication and success. Recently CAIR and its allies have repeatedly targeted Law Enforcement training programs conducted in more rural areas. In some places efforts to stop training efforts have succeeded, while in others, local law enforcement and local government officials have stuck to their guns.

Having had less than full compliance through the tactic of mere intimidation, additional pressure is now to be applied, utilizing the power of the Federal government. As previously reported, a coalition of radical left and Muslim Brotherhood aligned groups are attempting to end the use of informants in Mosques, and demanding a complete “re-education” of Federal, State, or Local law enforcement who receive the training that these groups oppose, training which often exposes their role in the North American Muslim Brotherhood, and the threat doctrine motivating Jihadist terrorism.

In an email newsletter from the Muslim Public Affairs Council, a group with a long history of ties to the Brotherhood, MPAC applauded recent efforts by outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder to terminate national security exceptions to prohibitions against “Profiling” and applauded the new guidelines ability to keep Federal investigators out of mosques. But the goal now is to extend that prohibition to any local law enforcement officer. They’re receiving help in that quest from Democratic Senator Ben Cardin. MPAC wrote:

The new guidelines will also most likely not extend to local law enforcement agents; something Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) had been advocating for on Capitol Hill especially for those agencies that receive federal funding. Not extending the guidelines to local law enforcement would be counter to having the guidelines in the first place.

Cardin issued a press release October 3^rd, calling for the adoption of his bill, “S.1038 – End Racial Profiling Act of 2013,” which seeks to extend federal guidelines nationwide. While the press release says Cardin, along with Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, was joined by “Muslim community leaders” it declines to mention which ones. Christian church groups and African American organizations are named. So far S.1038 has received sixteen co-sponsors, all Democrats.

No one, least of all those of us seeking the application of proven and common sense counterterrorism strategies, support “profiling” based solely upon a perceived race or ethnicity. But it is the desire of groups like CAIR and MPAC to warp a desire for fairness and tolerance into insisting upon the suppression of knowable facts, prohibiting law enforcement from building profiles based on behaviors associated with the established doctrine of an enemy that seeks to terrorize us.

Aware of this break between what they see occurring with their own eyes and what the government is telling them, more Americans are expressing a lack of confidence in the ability of their leaders to address key national security issues like terrorism. In a poll taken by the Center for Security Policy, and conducted by The Polling Company/WomenTrend, 71% felt that not enough was being done to address security concerns, including terrorism. A similar amount, 74% understood Jihad (a term which has been largely excised from federal counterterrorism training), to represent a “violent holy war against unbelievers of Islam.”

This disconnect between a priority based on politically correct pieties, as expressed by the Senators, and trumpeted by MPAC, and the actual desires of the American people, shows that while many in Washington may have buckled to pressure from Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups, in the heartland of America there’s a growing realization of the threat. If there is to be a revival of realistic training and analysis, it is likely to be at the state and local level.