In Human Events this morning, I discuss the ongoing damage that Grover Norquist is doing:
Last Tuesday on the House floor, Rep. Frank Wolf (R.-Va.) showed more courage than most of the members of his party have ever managed to summon: He called out influential Republican power broker and anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist”‹ for, among other things, his close ties to jihad terrorists and Islamic supremacists.
Many anti-jihadists have been concerned for years about Norquist’s jihad ties, and his deleterious influence on the Republican Party, but that concern ended abruptly when it turned out that Norquist was close friends with Rick Perry. People who had been on record repeatedly criticizing Norquist for being in bed with Islamic supremacists suddenly discovered that, hey, everyone does it (ignoring the fact that Norquist is closer to Perry than he is to other candidates), and what’s a few Hamas ties among friends, anyway?
But not Wolf. On the House floor, Wolf said of Norquist, “Documentation shows that he has deep ties to supporters of Hamas and other terrorist organizations that are sworn enemies of the United States and our ally Israel.” He pointed out that “around the years 2000 and 2001, Mr. Norquist’s firm represented Abdurahman Alamoudi”‹, who was convicted two years later for his role in a terrorist plot and who is presently serving a 23-year sentence in federal prison.”
Norquist, reported Wolf, “also associated with terror financier Sami Al-Arian”‹, according to Mary Jacoby”s reporting in March 2003, in the St. Petersburg Times. Al-Arian pled guilty in 2006 ‘to a charge of conspiring to provide services to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad”‹ (PIJ), a specially designated terrorist organization, in violation of U.S. law,’ and is under house arrest, according to a Department of Justice press release. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s “˜paramilitary wing””the al-Quds Brigades””has conducted numerous attacks, including large-scale suicide bombings,” according to the National Counterterrorism Center.”
These are the kinds of people for whom Norquist opened doors. Norquist, said Wolf, “served as a key facilitator between Al-Arian, Alamoudi and the White House. “¦ In June 2001, Al-Arian was among the members of the American Muslim Council invited to the White House complex. … The next month, the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom””a civil liberties group headed by Al-Arian””gave Norquist an award for his work to abolish the use of secret intelligence evidence in terrorism cases.”
Wolf also pointed out that Norquist “even used Americans for Tax Reform to circulate a petition in support of the “˜Ground Zero Mosque,’ ” which 70% of Americans oppose. “Why would Americans for Tax Reform,” Wolf asked, “circulate a petition in support of the “˜Ground Zero Mosque?” For the families of those who lost loved ones on 9/11 or during operations in the War on Terror, concerns about the ‘Ground Zero Mosque” were neither a ploy nor a distraction, as Norquist described it.”…