The Huma Abedin controversy may not be playing out much in the liberal or conservative media but make no mistake; it’s playing out inside the beltway.

John Boehner opened his mail to see a letter addressed to him by – among others – National Review’s Andrew McCarthy, Ret. General Gerry Boykin, and former Director of Central Intelligence James Woolsey. While it doesn’t identify Huma Abedin specifically, let there be no room for doubt; some influential people are holding the Speaker accountable.

The letter, posted by Dave Weigel over at Slate, is below:

Hon. John Boehner
Speaker of the House
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Mr. Speaker:

We are writing to express our strong support for congressional efforts to illuminate and address the danger posed by influence operations mounted by the Muslim Brotherhood against government agencies. Our backgrounds in intelligence and law enforcement, as well as the statutory oath we have all taken to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, prompt us to urge you to ensure that thorough investigations are conducted into this threat.

The 2008 Holy Land Foundation trial – the Justice Department’s most significant terrorism financing case to date – demonstrated that the Brotherhood’s stated mission in North America is one aimed at “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within…by their hands [meaning ours] and those of the believers….” This agenda, which long pre-dates its explicit articulation in the 1991 Brotherhood memo that was so central to the Holy Land Foundation prosecution (in which several Brotherhood operatives were convicted of routing millions of dollars to Hamas), has been reaffirmed more recently by the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie. For example, Badie declared war on the United States in a September 2010 sermon, saying: “The improvement and change that the [Muslim] nation seeks can only be attained through jihad and sacrifice, and by raising a jihadi generation that pursues death just as its enemies pursue life….[The United States] is experiencing the beginning of its end and is heading toward its demise.”

Thanks to the evidence presented in the Holy Land Foundation case, we are, moreover, on notice that the Muslim Brotherhood pursues its goals, where necessary, through “civilization jihad” in North America. This form of pre-violent holy war involves the use of agents of influence and others who seek to penetrate and subvert our civil society and government through various stealthy techniques.

Unfortunately, there is now considerable reason to believe that the federal government has been subjected to such techniques. A succession of initiatives appear to be bringing U.S. policy into broad – and dangerous – alignment with the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood and its fellow Islamists. These include:

• assisting the Brotherhood’s rise to power in Egypt;
• co-sponsorship of a UN Human Rights Council resolution intended by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to restrict freedom of expression;
• the release of $1.5 billion in an unconditional, lump-sum grant to the Egyptian government shortly after the election of a Brotherhood-dominated parliament and right before the election as president of a top Muslim Brotherhood official;
• excluding Israel from a multilateral forum on terrorism, apparently indulging the Islamist contention that attacks on Israel are not terrorist atrocities but legitimate “resistance”; and
• the granting of a visa to Hani Nour Eldin, a member of the Designated Terrorist Organization Gama’at al-Islamia – the Islamic Group, for the purpose of discussing the release of that organization’s leader, convicted jihadist cleric Omar Abdul Rahman (the “Blind Sheikh”).

There can be no doubt that the Muslim Brotherhood is benefiting from such problematic actions at the expense of our national and homeland security and other interests. It stands to reason that the Brotherhood’s operatives would seek to have these and similar initiatives adopted by the U.S. government. If our country and its people are to be spared potentially grave harm, it is essential that we establish the nature, extent and impact of any such influence operations aimed – to borrow the Brotherhood’s own words – at destroying us from within, by our own hands.

We urge you to acquaint yourself with the background and status of the Muslim Brotherhood’s civilization jihad in America. Should you do so, we are confident you will agree with us that the requests for formal inspector general investigations into this matter by Reps. Michele Bachmann, Louie Gohmert, Trent Franks, Lynn Westmoreland and Tom Rooney are both warranted and needed. Accordingly, we recommend that you task the various House committees of jurisdiction with both supporting the IG investigations already requested by your five colleagues, and conducting their own inquiries into this pressing matter.

Sincerely,

Andrew C. McCarthy
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney
Department of Defense

Joseph E. Schmitz
Former Inspector General

Lieutenant General William G. Boykin
Former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence

R. James Woolsey
Former Director of Central Intelligence

Lieutenant General Harry E. Soyster
Former Director, Defense Intelligence Agency

cc: Hon. Eric Cantor
Hon. Kevin McCarthy
Hon. Jeb Hensarling
Hon. Tom Price
Hon. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
Hon. Howard “Buck” McKeon
Hon. Peter King
Hon. Lamar Smith
Hon. Mike Rogers

Perhaps Keith Ellison can lecture these individuals on religious tolerance and make this all go away.

Then again, probably not. He’s too busy pounding sand.