**SHOEBAT EXCLUSIVE**

In 2012, Denis McDonough, the man who would later be promoted to Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama was photographed in Doha, Qatar shaking hands and consorting with a known terrorist. The man McDonough was seen pressing flesh with is Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah, a deputy to Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Al-Qaradawi was banned from the U.S. in 1999 and now lives in Qatar.

Denis McDonough greets Sheikh Abdallah bin Bayyah in Doha, Qatar in 2012.

McDonough and Bayyah with ISNA President Mohammed Magid in between.

McDonough and Bayyah with Rashad Hussain on far right.

(photos via Flickr)

The occasion of the meeting between Bayyah and McDonough was that both men were featured speakers at the 2012 U.S.-Islamic World Forum (US-IWF), held annually in Doha, Qatar. Yes, McDonough and the Deputy of an virulently anti-Semitic terrorist shared a stage. It is an event co-sponsored by the Brookings Institute and the nation of Qatar. At the time the above photos were taken, bin Bayyah was the Deputy Head of the Union of Muslim Scholars, with al-Qaradawi as the Head. Bayyah’s bio also listed him as being a member of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

One of the primary objectives of the OIC is to suppress and ultimately eliminate any speech or expression critical of Islam. Where it can’t be outright criminalized, as Hillary Clinton said at one of the group’s “Istanbul Process” meetings, then we need…

“…to use some old-fashioned techniques of peer pressure and shaming, so that people don’t feel that they have the support to do what we abhor.”

As Obama’s envoy to the OIC, Rashad Hussain has more than once echoed this sentiment. Bin Bayyah’s membership in OIC places all of these individuals at the center of a shared agenda. That agenda was engaged in the days after the Benghazi attack when a video was blamed, less than four months after the aforementioned meeting attended by McDonough and bin Bayyah.

In June of 2013, bin Bayyah was at the center of controversy when he visited the White House. How could the deputy of a Muslim Brotherhood terrorist banned from the U.S. not only find his way into America but into the White House? In this photo, bin Bayyah is seated at a table with several others, including Rashad Hussain:

Abdullah Bin Bayyah at the White House with Hussain (second from right).

A few months later, bin Bayyah formally resigned his position as al-Qaradawi’s deputy. Bin Bayyah was the center of attention again, thanks to the U.S. State Department, which tweeted a link to bin Bayyah’s website, at which he condemned the actions of Boko Haram, relative to the #BringBackOurGirls campaign that was conspicuously launched as the House Select Committee on Benghazi was announced.

As the timeline published by Shoebat.com illustrates, the #BringBackOurGirls campaign was clearly launched to distract attention away from Benghazi. The decision to link to bin Bayyah’s website was presented by the State Department as a mistake but it too was likely another log on the distraction fire.

Then, last week, Barack Obama himself touted bin Bayyah while speaking at the United Nations. Doing so likely took a little attention off the fight with ISIS.

Muslim Brotherhood Spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi (L) and his Deputy Abdallah bin Bayyah (R)

You can watch video of McDonough’s speech below (before he speaks, you can see bin Bayyah in the front row of the audience). To read more about the US-IWF event, visit Shoebat.com: