By Ben Barrack
U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann and seven other congressmen have formally introduced a bill that would designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and impose sanctions on its supporters in the U.S. Though the chances of the bill passing with a Democrat majority in the Senate and Barack Obama as President are next to zero, it will force members in each House of Congress to pick a side on a matter of tremendous historical significance.
Bachmann: Wants Muslim Brotherhood designated as terrorist organization.
The willingness of House Leadership (hello Speaker John Boehner) to bring the “Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2014” to the floor will also reveal leadership’s position on the matter.
Bachmann knows what it’s like to be on the right side of history by putting her Republican colleagues and other prominent figures on the wrong side of it. She did just that in 2012 after she and four other Congressmen sent five letters to five separate Inspectors General about Muslim Brotherhood infiltration. Not only did more of her Republican colleagues rebuke her than side with her (8 to 1) but the silence from those who did neither, was deafening.
House Speaker John Boehner publicly defended Abedin in 2012.
As Shoebat.com reported, not only was the 90-day response deadline in each letter ignored but on the 90th day, the Benghazi attacks occurred.
Any honest attempt by the House Select Committee on Benghazi to get to the bottom of what happened there must include the issue of Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the U.S. Government. Potentially troublesome is that Boehner – the man responsible for forming the Select Committee – was one of Bachmann’s colleagues who abandoned her and sided with Huma Abedin, a close adviser to then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who has irrefutable familial ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, as Shoebat.com reported in 2011.
One of the Congressmen who joined Bachmann as a signatory to those five letters last year was Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), who sits on the Benghazi Select Committee. Rep. Pete Roskam (R-IL) is one of the Congressmen who co-sponsored Bachmann’s recent bill. He too sits on the Select Committee on Benghazi. The other cosponsors are Reps. Trent Franks (R-AZ), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Kevin Brady (R-TX), Steve Southerland (R-FL), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), and Doug LaMalfa (R-CA).
Reps. Lynn Westmoreland (far right) and Pete Roskam (second from left) both understand MB infiltration and Benghazi.
As for Bachmann’s new bill, even though its focus is on foreign Muslim Brotherhood entities, it provides for making things extremely tough for front groups in the U.S. In talking about Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna, the bill reads in part:
In Muslim Brotherhood organizations and chapters throughout the world, including in the United States, al-Banna’s originating philosophy continues to be taught.
Longstanding members of Congress (like Boehner, who has been a member of the house since 1991) who refuse to admit the truth are not ignorant and this matter is not new to them. Check out this quote from Richard Clarke included in Bachmann’s bill, from 2003:
“The issue of terrorist financing in the United States is a fundamental example of the shared infrastructure levered by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Qida, all of which enjoy a significant degree of cooperation and coordination within our borders. The common link here is the extremist Muslim Brotherhood—all of these organizations are descendants of the membership and ideology of the Muslim Brothers.” – Richard Clarke in 2003 Congressional testimony
The problem for Boehner and why the House Select Committee must be monitored with constant vigilance is that he has a history of standing by and allowing Muslim Brotherhood infiltration on his watch, as Shoebat.com has demonstrated.
Roskam (L) and Westmoreland (R) both on Benghazi Select Committee.
Another portion of the bill reads…
The President shall subject to all available sanctions any person in the United States or subject to the jurisdiction of the United States who knowingly provides material support or resources to the Muslim Brotherhood or its affiliates, associated groups, or agents.
This particular excerpt is relevant in that it also shines a spotlight on Muslim Brotherhood front groups in the U.S. who hold tax exempt status; there are many as Shoebat.com has chronicled at great length.
In fact, Lois Lerner’s signature is at the bottom of CAIR’s 501(c)(3) approval letter, as reported by Shoebat.com.
Roskam should take additional interest in all of this because he also sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, which is investigating the IRS scandal. A colleague of his who sits on that committee is Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), who once said the claims that Malik Obama (the President’s brother) is connected to Sudan and terrorism are “spot on”. Lerner’s signature is also at the bottom of the letter granting Malik’s Foundation 501(c)(3) status.
Since Kelly has refused to pursue the Malik Obama angle to the IRS scandal – which includes Malik’s connections to… the Muslim Brotherhood, perhaps he can join Roskam in cosponsoring Bachmann’s bill.
Rep. Mike Kelly: Sits on House Ways and Means with Roskam.
The notion that Barack Obama would sign a piece of legislation into law even assuming such bill would ever make it to his desk is laughable.
However, that’s not the point. The point is that Bachmann and her cosponsors – which outnumber the colleagues who joined her in signing those 2012 letters – are putting forward legislation that is ahead of its time and make no mistake; its time is coming.
Think Tank Pseudo-Intellectualism
At the end of an article about Bachmann’s bill by Adam Kredo at Washington Free Beacon, he quotes Muslim Brotherhood ‘expert’ Eric Trager of the Washington Institute. Trager is clearly wrong and reflects the pseudo-intellectual Washington-based dysfunctional thinking:
“American terrorist designations should be applied narrowly, or else they will lose their credibility. While the bill correctly highlights the Brotherhood’s deep hostility towards the United States and its violent ideological underpinnings, the evidence suggesting that it’s currently engaged in organized terrorism is flimsy.”
What Trager is clearly unwilling to concede is that in order for America to survive, it needs a dramatic paradigm shift. Bachmann is providing the blueprint for that shift with this legislation.
Eric Trager
Even assuming Trager’s premise is correct – that it would be difficult to identify stealth Muslim Brotherhood groups in the U.S. – it’s quite easy to identify dozens of them. In essence, Trager – whether intentionally or not – is running interference for Muslim Brotherhood front groups with that kind of logic.
Then again, if you want high-minded thinking that is far superior to what the American people can comprehend, you’ve got to go inside the beltway, a place that’s full of it.
Perhaps Trager’s next quote supersedes the previous one in its convoluted pseudo-intellectualism:
“…given the significant blow that the Brotherhood has experienced in the past thirteen months since [former President] Morsi’s fall, the Brotherhood is no longer a strategic threat, and focusing on it will distract policymakers attention from the far more significant threats that have emerged in Syria and Iraq, where actual jihadis now control territory.”
Really?! Evidence is OVERWHELMING that the infiltration of the U.S. Government by Muslim Brotherhood agents has played a significant role in the formation and implementation of policies that have led to the mess in Syria and Iraq. Until these infiltrators are identified as such, the ‘policymakers’ will continue to be compromised.
In fact, Trager’s logic is so convoluted that it warrants this Archie Bunker clip:
The relevance of how each member of Congress reacts to this bill may not be known immediately but it one day will.
As was the case in 2012, those who sided with Abedin and against Bachmann are being proven wrong (or exposed as Brotherhood agents themselves) on a daily basis. This bill affords such lawmakers the opportunity to either right themselves in the pages of history or double down.