Evan D. McCormick, the Henry M. Jackson National Security Fellow at the Center for Security Policy, writes in Front Page that “when federal authorities arrested a Muslim military chaplain nearly one month ago at Guantanamo bay on suspicions of espionage, the danger of our radical Islamist enemies infiltrating the American infrastructure at dangerous levels came into the daylight.
“Federal agents confirmed the bad news with the arrest of Abdurahman Alamoudi, the founder of the military’s Muslim Chaplaincy program and an American-Muslim leader well connected to the White House. On October 23, Alamoudi was indicted on charges that include financial dealings with al-Qaeda and Hamas, passport fraud, illegal procurement of citizenship, and engaging in prohibited activities with state sponsor of terrorism, Libya–a relationship that dates back nearly eight years.
“Within days of the arrest, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism held a hearing in which expert witnesses testified that the Graduate School of Islamic Social Sciences (GSISS), an unofficial but primary training body for Muslim chaplains, is part of a network of Saudi-financed entities that are currently under investigation by US authorities for links with terrorist groups.
“But just when it seemed that the US Military had no sensible choice but to immediately overhaul the way it brings Muslim chaplains into its ranks, prominent DOD officials chose instead to ignore the problem. When pressed by members of the Subcommittee about the process of approving groups that certify and endorse chaplains, Defense Deputy Under Secretary Charles Abell stated that the DOD only requires that the endorsing agencies maintain tax-exempt status with the IRS.
“This hands-off policy has led the Pentagon to overlook the fact that the groups it deals with in placing Muslim chaplains are vocally radical and linked with several ongoing Federal terror investigations.
“This is just the latest example in a troubling history of official ignorance about the fact that extremists are exploiting the chaplaincy program as a platform for subversion of US forces. In order to end this vulnerability to our enemies in the War on Terror, officials must face the problem and act immediately.”
The article contains numerous valuable details about the extent to which Islamic radicals have penetrated into the chaplaincy.