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Obama administration refuses to tell Congress why it purged references to “Islamic terrorism” from public documents

Jun 29, 2016 11:20 am By Robert Spencer

“Muslim advocacy groups forced the FBI to purge some 876 documents from its training materials because they were deemed ‘offensive’ in March 2012, Cruz explained.” This actually goes back farther than that. On October 19, 2011, Farhana Khera of Muslim Advocates delivered a letter to John Brennan, who was then the assistant to the president on National Security for Homeland Security and Counter Terrorism.

The letter was signed by the leaders of virtually all significant Islamic groups in the United States: 57 Muslim, Arab, and South Asian organizations, many with ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Muslim American Society (MAS), the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Islamic Relief USA, and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC).

The letter denounced what it characterized as U.S. government agencies’ “use of biased, false and highly offensive training materials about Muslims and Islam.” It emphasized that this was an issue of the utmost importance:

The seriousness of this issue cannot be overstated, and we request that the White House immediately create an interagency task force to address this problem, with a fair and transparent mechanism for input from the Muslim, Arab, and South Asian communities, including civil rights lawyers, religious leaders, and law enforcement experts.

The task force was needed because:

[W]hile recent news reports have highlighted the FBI’s use of biased experts and training materials, we have learned that this problem extends far beyond the FBI and has infected other government agencies, including the U.S. Attorney’s Anti-Terrorism Advisory Councils, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Army. Furthermore, by the FBI’s own admission, the use of bigoted and distorted materials in its trainings has not been an isolated occurrence. Since last year, reports have surfaced that the FBI, and other federal agencies, are using or supporting the use of biased trainers and materials in presentations to law enforcement officials.

Khera also complained about my work: that my books could be found in “the FBI’s library at the FBI training academy in Quantico, Virginia”; that a reading list accompanying a slide presentation by the FBI’s Law Enforcement Communications Unit recommended my book The Truth About Muhammad; that in July 2010 I “presented a two-hour seminar on ‘the belief system of Islamic jihadists’ to the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) in Tidewater, Virginia”; and that I also “presented a similar lecture to the U.S. Attorney’s Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council, which is co-hosted by the FBI’s Norfolk Field Office.”

These were supposed to be terrible materials because I was supposedly bigoted and hateful. However, many of the examples Khera adduced of “bigoted and distorted materials” involved statements that were simply accurate. The only distortion was Khera’s representation of them.

For instance, Khera stated:

A 2006 FBI intelligence report stating that individuals who convert to Islam are on the path to becoming “Homegrown Islamic Extremists,” if they exhibit any of the following behavior:

“Wearing traditional Muslim attire”

“Growing facial hair”

“Frequent attendance at a mosque or a prayer group”

“Travel to a Muslim country”

“Increased activity in a pro-Muslim social group or political cause”

Well, the FBI intelligence report Khera purported to be describing didn’t actually say that. Rather, it included these behaviors among a list of fourteen indicators that could “identify an individual going through the radicalization process.” Other indicators included:

“Travel without obvious source of funds”

“Suspicious purchases of bomb making paraphernalia or weapons”

“Large transfer of funds, from or to overseas”

“Formation of operational cells”

Khera had selectively quoted the list to give the impression that the FBI was teaching that devout observance of Islam led inevitably and in every case to “extremism.”

Despite the factual accuracy of the material about which they were complaining, the Muslim groups signing the letter demanded that the task force, among other actions:

“Purge all federal government training materials of biased materials.”

“Implement a mandatory re-training program for FBI agents, U.S. Army officers, and all federal, state and local law enforcement who have been subjected to biased training.”

They wished to ensure that all law enforcement officials ever learn about Islam and jihad would be what the signatories wanted them to learn — and Brennan was amenable to that. He took Khera’s complaints as his marching orders.

In a November 3, 2011, letter to Khera that — significantly — was written on White House stationery, Brennan made no attempt to defend counter-terror materials and procedures. He instead accepted Khera’s criticisms without a murmur of protest and assured her of his readiness to comply:

Please allow me to share with you the specific steps we are taking to ensure that federal officials and state, local and tribal partners receive accurate, evidence-based information in these crucial areas.

Brennan assured Khera that all her demands would be met:

Your letter requests that “the White House immediately create an interagency task force to address this problem,” and we agree that this is necessary.

He then detailed other specific actions being undertaken, including “collecting all training materials that contain cultural or religious content, including information related to Islam or Muslims.” In reality, this material wouldn’t just be “collected”; it would be purged of anything that Farhana Khera and others like her found offensive. Honest, accurate discussion of how Islamic jihadists use Islamic teachings to justify violence would no longer be allowed.

The alacrity with which Brennan complied was unfortunate on many levels. Numerous books and presentations that gave a perfectly accurate view of Islam and jihad were purged. Brennan was complying with demands from quarters that could hardly be considered authentically moderate.

Four-and-a-half years later, this entrenched policy of the U.S. government ensured that people such as Omar Mateen simply cannot be identified as risks. The administration is bound, as a matter of policy, to ignore what in saner times would be taken as warning signs. And Attorney General Loretta Lynch speaks at Muslim Advocates events. That explains a great deal.

obama-finger-

“Obama Admin Refuses to Inform Congress of ‘Islamic Terrorism’ in U.S.,” by Adam Kredo, Daily Caller, June 28, 2016:

Senior Obama administration officials refused to appear before Congress on Tuesday to explain the recent decision to purge all references to “Islamic terrorism” and radicalism from public documents, according to disclosures made Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

Top officials from the Justice Department and FBI declined to appear on Capitol Hill to answer questions from lawmakers about domestic terror attacks and an administration policy of scrubbing references to Islamic terrorism and similar terms from government materials, lawmakers said.

The policy has thwarted attempts by federal authorities to stop an increasing series of terror attacks from taking place on United States soil, according to Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), chair of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on oversight.

In the past year the Obama administration has twice ordered that mentions of the terror group ISIS and “Islamic terrorism” be purged “from highly significant public records,” Cruz said.

One such effort took place in the aftermath of the recent terrorist shooting in Orlando in which the administration censored 911 transcripts of calls made by the shooter.

These efforts came amid other campaigns by the Department of Homeland Security to force its personnel to remove references to “jihad,” “sharia,” and other similar terms from material focused on methods to counter violent extremism, Cruz said.

“I would like nothing more than to speak with a government official about these bizarre decisions and omissions, especially in light of the most recent terrorist attack in Orlando by a radicalized man who had been interviewed three times by the FBI,” Cruz said.

“Indeed, this subcommittee invited two such witnesses: John P. Carlin, an assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, and Michael B. Steinbach, the executive assistant director for the FBI’s National Security Branch,” he said. “Both have refused to appear.”

Cruz blamed the administration’s policy for contributing to recent terror attacks in Orlando, San Bernardino, and Boston.

There has been a “consistent effort by this administration to scrub any reference to radical Islamic terrorism, to pretend the threat does not exist, and tragically as a consequence of that, over and over again, we have instances where the administration has ample evidence of radical Islamic terrorists,” Cruz said.

“The consequence of a willful blindness, of a policy that is a matter of administration policy, refusal to acknowledge the threat, means over and over again this administration has allowed the threats to go forward,” he added.

The administration “had declined to appear and explain” this policy and rationale behind it despite multiple requests from Congress.

“Are government officials prohibited from debating anything about Islam?” Cruz asked. “We would like to hear an explanation for that.”

The efforts to avoid using these terms have been longstanding in the Obama administration.

Muslim advocacy groups forced the FBI to purge some 876 documents from its training materials because they were deemed “offensive” in March 2012, Cruz explained.

“One article was purged because it was ‘highly inflammatory’ and ‘inaccurately argues the Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization,’” he added….

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Filed Under: Barack Obama, FBI, Featured, willful ignorance Tagged With: Department of Justice, Ted Cruz


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Comments

  1. Don McKellar says

    Jun 29, 2016 at 11:35 am

    Obama YET AGAIN acting as if he is above the law, above being held responsible by the American people, and protecting and advancing Islam using all the powers of his office to do so — and exceeding those powers as much as he can get away with it.

    President Trump needs to put him in an orange jumpsuit and cuffs and on a plane to Gitmo as one of his first acts as president. And there Obama will stay until the elected officials of the American people can get to the bottom of what exactly has been going on and how deep the corruption and illegal treasonous activity goes.

    • Mark Swan says

      Jun 29, 2016 at 6:21 pm

      When Mr. trump gets elected, we can see congress subpoena and get documents that can bring about
      more than raised eyebrows.

  2. Michael Laudahn says

    Jun 29, 2016 at 11:44 am

    The article goes on like this (excerpt):

    ‘In lieu of the Obama administration officials, the subcommittee heard from a range of outside terrorism experts and the government whistleblower who disclosed attempts by the Obama administration to purge many names from the U.S. terror watch list.’

    I asume this video

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyiiWxWqHU0

    refers to this part of the session.

    I learned from a commenter there that the gentleman to the right (viewer’s perspective) of the interviewee is the SPLC CEO. Watch him wriggling on his chair.

    • eduardo odraude says

      Jun 29, 2016 at 12:23 pm

      In that video Philip Haney is testifying. He was an officer with the Department of Homeland Security. He studied Islam for 20 years and speaks Arabic. He has an important book:

      https://www.amazon.com/See-Something-Say-Nothing-Governments/dp/1944229205/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1467216867&sr=8-1&keywords=phil+haney

  3. jihad3tracker says

    Jun 29, 2016 at 11:45 am

    If you live in Florida — and therefore are a constituent of Senator Cruz, please take a few minutes to send his office an email of appreciation for brining this up, calling attention to it. You could even give the link to Robert Spencer’s deeper context — written above.

    OR IF YOU HAVE FAMILY OR FRIENDS IN FLORIDA, ASK THEM TO GET IN TOUCH WITH MR. CRUZ.

    Also, now that the Senate is not in session (over the Independence Day weekend) you can also pass along your favorite counter-jihad websites in that email.

    There might be some extra time for him and ALL OF YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENATIVES FROM WHATEVER STATE YOU LIVE IN to visit those resources of Truth.

    Mine, in addition to Jihad Watch, of course: http://www.inquiryintoislam.com / http://www.politicalislam.com / http://www.answeringmuslims.com / http://www.citizenwarrior.com / http://www.thereligionofpeace.com.

    • Hope says

      Jun 29, 2016 at 6:16 pm

      jihad3tracker, I think Ted Cruz is a Senator from Texas.

  4. biff says

    Jun 29, 2016 at 11:46 am

    Hiding references to Islamic Terror does many important things.

    Helps deceive large number of Americans with the continuing narrative that “Islam is Peace”.

    Makes Sunni Muslims in Saudi Arabia that are propping up the Democrats happy.

    Fits the bizarre claim that acknowledging murders creates more murders.

    The Democrats are in a propaganda war against the citizens of USA.

    Democrats are the trojan horse of the USA.

    The most important thing is to keep the cash flowing from Saudi Arabia to Clinton and all her cronies.

    Obama and

  5. Norger says

    Jun 29, 2016 at 11:57 am

    MSM, why are you not reporting or commenting on this?

    • Trico says

      Jun 29, 2016 at 2:40 pm

      “MSM, why are you not reporting or commenting on this?”
      It’s difficult to speak when you’re muzzled.
      Since they are also handcuffed they can’t even speak Italian.
      –
      Q. What is it called when an Italian has one arm shorter than the other?
      –
      A. Speech Impediment
      –

  6. Richard says

    Jun 29, 2016 at 12:05 pm

    “Attorney General Loretta Lynch speaks at Muslim Advocates events.”

    Does she also speak at Christian Advocates events? How about Jewish, Hindu or Buddhist Advocates events? It’s interesting that the most heavily politicized religion on Earth is never acknowledged as such by our own political leadership.

  7. Peter the Hermit says

    Jun 29, 2016 at 12:09 pm

    I would love to see Obama and Hillary and maybe Loretta Lynch and a few other Obama henchmen confined to a prison cell and not released until they had read every one of Robert Spencer’s books and passed an exam on their contents. Or memorized every word of Stephen Coughlin’s book, Catastrophic Failure: Blindfolding America in the Face of Jihad.

    • Trico says

      Jun 29, 2016 at 3:30 pm

      The Antidote to Barack Obama is Vladimir Putin
      –
      “Russia explodes Mosque: but it’s not what you think.
      –
      Home made explosives were found in a Mosque that was actually a Terrorist Recruitment & Training Facility. (Surprise, Surprise).
      –
      The Amateur made explosives were determined to be too dangerous to move so were detonated.
      –
      I’m not 100% sure but a rumor I am starting is: Barack Obama said, insha’Allah, he will rebuild the Mosque bigger and better than ever and the American Taxpayers were more than happy to foot the bill.
      –
      Gleaned from the 4:30 minute video:
      50 were arrested but not all may be Terrorists, just dupes invited to the illegal mosque under a false pretense. Only later is it revealed what’s really up and by then you’ve been brainwashed & indoctrinated.
      –
      A 3 Stage Recruitment Process;
      –
      1. Informer finds a single man and passes him on to
      2Motivator whose job is to brainwash the recruit who is then passed on to
      3.Recruiter who verbally seduces the Recruit into becoming a Jihadist.
      –

  8. Angemon says

    Jun 29, 2016 at 12:13 pm

    Senior Obama administration officials refused to appear before Congress on Tuesday to explain the recent decision to purge all references to “Islamic terrorism” and radicalism from public documents, according to disclosures made Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

    Arrogant bastards are forgetting they work for the people, they don’t lord over it.

    • biff says

      Jun 29, 2016 at 12:34 pm

      That’s old style thinking.

      Progressives have become top down statism.

      You are told what to think and you better like it.

      Obama and Hillary need to be tried and convicted of sedition for pretending Islamic terror does not exist and then importing millions of them.

      That’s a clear strategy to destabilize and destroy the country.

  9. Dexter L. Wilson says

    Jun 29, 2016 at 12:30 pm

    Time to call a spade and spade and that is not in reference to Afro-Americans. Call the media liars, narrow minded, liberal idiots who cannot tell the truth because of they were brainwashed by their liberal professors. Remember when Jesus went into the desert to be test and the Devil said he had control of all these kingdoms? My point, where to liberals gravitate to, seats of goverment, such as metro cities, state capitals, and the Capital of governments.

  10. pennant8 says

    Jun 29, 2016 at 1:14 pm

    Bottom line. When Brennan and others were approached by Muslim Brotherhood operatives demanding the purging of various document they had two choices. They could yield to their demands or they could show them the door. They chose to yield to the demands, they never choose to show the MB the door.

  11. traci94 says

    Jun 29, 2016 at 3:14 pm

    How can people just “refuse” to testify before Congress? Is that option open to me if I were called before Congress or Robert Spencer or whoever? Heck no. I am soooo sick of people in this administration being “above the law.”

  12. somehistory says

    Jun 29, 2016 at 3:21 pm

    The answer is to be found in o’s speech in Egypt, when he had insisted that his brothers in the mb sit on the front row and told the entire world that it is his *job to protect islam.* He said he ‘considered it his responsibility to counter negative stereotypes of islam wherever.’

    He has also said that *islam is not the problem.*

  13. mag says

    Jun 29, 2016 at 4:20 pm

    Can’t understand any country importing islam when Spain was so happy they could finally get rid of it. Does’t anyone know about Lepanto?! Now Europe has happily extended its docks for islam when in past everyone was on their knees praying for Spanish admiral Don Juan of Austria to miraculously destroy the moros. From a kids point of view when I learned this, I’d known what to do. Simple logic. Get on our knees again and do it all over again!

  14. Georg says

    Jun 29, 2016 at 6:17 pm

    If only Farhana Khera was 1/100 as concerned with Islamic State and jihadism as she is with defending Islam.

  15. Hope says

    Jun 29, 2016 at 7:19 pm

    Obama, Hillary, and the administration have blood on their hands – Benghazi, San Bernardino, Orlando, and more. They simply do not care. And, apparently they don’t have to care because they have learned along the way that they can get away with murder. Senator Cruz and a few others have tried to hold them accountable, but to no avail. The vile Barack Obama should have been impeached and jailed for treason by now. I hope he rots in hell for all eternity for his crimes committed against America.

  16. Martinga says

    Jun 29, 2016 at 9:30 pm

    We all know why the Whitehouse is scrubbing islamic terrorism references from public documents…they are taking direct orders from their islamic commander in chief himself. Luckily, all of his ilgotten efforts can be erased with the strike of a pen in the first days of a Trump presidency.

  17. خَليفة says

    Jun 30, 2016 at 3:22 am

    THERE IS NO “statue of limitation” for treason. Some future president could always seek to indict the lot of them.

    • underbed cat says

      Jun 30, 2016 at 7:34 am

      I often wondered what Percy meant when he was interviewed about meeting Obama and quickly said he “took the oath”,( he was contacted by Mansour) he was being contacted to write a letter to Harvard for Obama. The source roots were started many years ago…and the organizations and members spread into offices of power, long term planning to find someone skilled to try for the office of the president. So by the time a letter was needed to purge the information, everything was in place. Very ingenious.

      I watched C-Span and thank Senator Cruz for his leadership.(also Phil Haney, Chris Gaubatz,Andrew Mc Carthy…and questioning Khera…..watching her try to find a answer was very revealing.

  18. Rich says

    Jun 30, 2016 at 3:09 pm

    And there’s Obama in the picture with his middle finger up again. Meanwhile, Bill Clinton meets Loretta Lynch privately to talk about grandchildren. Did he ask her to make sure Hillary isn’t indicted? No, of course not. I’m sure Bill has his middle finger up also.

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