Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), the new chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, doesn’t appear to be interested in making Al Gore’s sale of CURRENT TV to Al Jazeera a priority. Accuracy in Media’s Cliff Kincaid was told as much in no uncertain terms from an aid to McCaul.
Via AIM:
Despite this looming threat and questions about the legality of the purchase, conservative members of Congress are silent. In the House, supposedly under Republican control, an aide to Rep. Michael McCaul, newly appointed chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, says he does not want the “agenda” of the committee driven by the hundreds of Americans calling his office at 202-226-8417 and requesting an investigation of Al Jazeera’s terrorist ties.
A little bit later, Kincaid writes:
A hearing into this deal would make things difficult for McCaul and other Republicans who want to pursue a bipartisan agenda and do not want to irritate Obama and the Democrats. The co-owners of Current TV, Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, are prominent Democrats, and another investor in the company, Richard Blum, is the husband of Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein. Selling their Current TV to Al Jazeera is somewhat comparable to turning over American broadcast facilities during World War II to Tokyo Rose and Axis Sally, the propagandists for the German and Japanese enemies. They were prosecuted and convicted for treason for broadcasting their propaganda against America from overseas.
Plus, hearings will surely annoy Republican Senator John McCain, who joined Hillary Clinton in praising Al Jazeera in 2011.
But investigating Al Jazeera is the right thing to do and a necessary component of homeland security. After all, members of Congress do swear an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…”
The letter sent to McCaul was co-signed by Walid.
That the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee won’t pursue this sale is beyond disturbing.