ptown_trojans_1;1229918 wrote:I missed the memo where they had control over the Middle East. Care to name where? If you say Egypt, the SCAF is still in control.

This is such an idiotic statement by Bachman and the other worthless Congressman that made such baseless accusations. These are the types of attacks that need to stop, have no analytical basis and distract from the important issues.
I knew Bachman was an idiot,now this just solidifies it. What a waste of a Congress seat.

Guideline B:
Foreign Influence 6. The Concern. Foreign contacts and interests may be a security concern if the individual has divided loyalties or foreign financial interests, may be manipulated or induced to help a foreign person, group, organization, or government in a way that is not in U.S. interests, or is vulnerable to pressure or coercioon by any foreign interest. Adjudication under this Guideline can and should consider the identity of the foreign country in which the foreign contact or financial interest is located, including, but not limited to, such considerations as whether the foreign country is known to target United States citizens to obtain protected information and/or is associated with a risk of terrorism.


7. Conditions that could raise a security concern and may be disqualifying include: [INDENT]
(a) contact with a foreign family member, business or professional associate, friend, or other person who is a citizen of or resident in a foreign country if that contact creates a heightened risk of foreign exploitation, inducement, manipulation, pressure, or coercion;

(b) connections to a foreign person, group, government, or country that create a potential conflict of interest between the individual's obligation to protect sensitive information or technology and the individual's desire to help a foreign person, group, or country by providing that information;

(c) counterintelligence information, that may be classified, indicates that the individual's access to protected information may involve unacceptable risk to national security;

(d) sharing living quarters with a person or persons, regardless of citizenship status, if that relationship creates a heightened risk of foreign inducement, manipulation, pressure, or coercion;

(e) a substantial business, financial, or property interest in a foreign country, or in any foreign-owned or foreign-operated business, which could subject the individual to heightened risk of foreign influence or exploitation;

(f) failure to report, when required, association with a foreign national;

(g) unauthorized association with a suspected or known agent, associate, or employee of a foreign intelligence service;

(h) indications that representatives or nationals from a foreign country are acting to increase the vulnerability of the individual to possible future exploitation, inducement, manipulation, pressure, or coercion;
(i) conduct, especially while traveling outside the U.S., which may make the individual vulnerable to exploitation, pressure, or coercion by a foreign person, group, government, or country.
[/INDENT]

Since Mrs. Clinton has been secretary of state, with Ms. Abedin as one of her top advisers, the State Department has strongly supported abandoning the federal government’s prior policy against dealing with the Muslim Brotherhood. State, furthermore, has embraced a number of Muslim Brotherhood positions that undermine both American constitutional rights and our alliance with Israel. To name just a few manifestations of this policy sea change:-The State Department has an emissary in Egypt who trains operatives of the Brotherhood and other Islamist organizations in democracy procedures.

-The State Department announced that the Obama administration would be “satisfied” with the election of a Muslim Brotherhood–dominated government in Egypt.

-Secretary Clinton personally intervened to reverse a Bush-administration ruling that barred Tariq Ramadan, grandson of the Brotherhood’s founder and son of one of its most influential early leaders, from entering the United States.
-The State Department has collaborated with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a bloc of governments heavily influenced by the Brotherhood, in seeking to restrict American free-speech rights in deference to sharia proscriptions against negative criticism of Islam.

-The State Department has excluded Israel, the world’s leading target of terrorism, from its “Global Counterterrorism Forum,” a group that brings the United States together with several Islamist governments, prominently including its co-chair, Turkey — which now finances Hamas and avidly supports the flotillas that seek to break Israel’s blockade of Hamas. At the forum’s kickoff, Secretary Clinton decried various terrorist attacks and groups; but she did not mention Hamas or attacks against Israel — in transparent deference to the Islamist governments, which echo the Brotherhood’s position that Hamas is not a terrorist organization and that attacks against Israel are not terrorism.

-The State Department and the Obama administration waived congressional restrictions in order to transfer $1.5 billion dollars in aid to Egypt after the Muslim Brotherhood’s victory in the parliamentary elections.

-The State Department and the Obama administration waived congressional restrictions in order to transfer millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinian territories notwithstanding that Gaza is ruled by the terrorist organization Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestinian branch.

-The State Department and the administration recently hosted a contingent from Egypt’s newly elected parliament that included not only Muslim Brotherhood members but a member of the Islamic Group (Gama’at al Islamia), which is formally designated as a foreign terrorist organization — so that providing it with material support is a serious federal crime. The State Department has refused to provide Americans with information about the process by which it issued a visa to a member of a designated terrorist organization, about how the members of the Egyptian delegation were selected, or about what security procedures were followed before the delegation was allowed to enter our country.

-On a just-completed trip to Egypt, Secretary Clinton pressured General Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the military junta currently governing the country, to surrender power to the newly elected parliament, which is dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, and the newly elected president, Mohamed Morsi, who is a top Brotherhood official. She also visited with Morsi; immediately after his victory, Morsi proclaimed that his top priorities included pressuring the United States to release the Blind Sheikh. Quite apart from the Brotherhood’s self-proclaimed “grand jihad” to destroy the United States, which the Justice Department proved in federal court during the 2007–8 Holy Land Foundation prosecution, the Brotherhood’s supreme guide, Mohammed Badie, publicly called for jihad against the United States in an October 2010 speech. After it became clear the Brotherhood would win the parliamentary election, Badie said the victory was a stepping stone to “the establishment of a just Islamic caliphate.”

This is not an exhaustive account of Obama-administration coziness with the Muslim Brotherhood. It is just some of the lowlights.

Senator McCain is an incorrigible vacillator. It is to be expected that he has “evolved” from last year’s claimed opposition to the Brotherhood to a new position, more aligned with that of his friend Secretary Clinton and the Obama administration. Some of us, however, really are “unalterably opposed” to the Muslim Brotherhood. The five House conservatives are asking questions to which the State Department’s own guidelines, to say nothing of common sense, demand answers. Answers not just about Huma Abedin but, far more significantly, about the government’s policy toward virulently anti-American Islamists. Americans deserve nothing less — even if the usual GOP spaghetti spines would prefer to give them nothing, period.

Con_Alma;1232586 wrote:That's a bit of an exaggeration for effect wouldn't you say?

stlouiedipalma;1232506 wrote:Well, I think we have a supporter right here on the OC. Knew it wouldn't take long for the right-wing sympathizers to come out. Bachmann's comments are just like catnip for the extreme right.

jhay78;1232832 wrote:Bachmann's comments are perfectly sane and logical, at least for someone who reads and comprehends the State Department's own guidelines.

Maybe you embrace one or more of the alternative theories:

1) those really aren't the State Department guidelines- a right-wing talkshow host made them up
2) those are the State Dept. guidelines, but we don't care
3) Huma Abedin doesn't really have family members associated with groups sentimental to the Muslim Brotherhood
4) she does have family members who fit that category, but we don't care because the Muslim Brotherhood ain't all that bad.
5) The recent State Dept. policies seen as favorable to the Muslim Brotherhood didn't really occur.

Did I forget anything?

Clearly, these significant Muslim Brotherhood connections are of scant interest to Speaker Boehner, who has decided the problem is not the Brotherhood connections but the people who are shedding light on the Brotherhood connections. Nevertheless, since Boehner purports to be all about cracking down on wasteful government spending, at least when he’s not signing off on deals to extend President Obama’s credit card by another trillion or three, I thought I might ask whether the State Department’s Fulbright Scholar Program aroused his curiosity ever so slightly. Fulbright, by its own account, is “the government’s flagship program in international educational exchange,” promoting “mutual understanding” between the U.S. and other countries. In the 2010–2011 academic year — the year of the Union for Good’s “Freedom Flotilla,” if you need a time marker — one Fulbright scholarship was awarded to a lucky chemistry student from Qatar. Her name is Siham al-Qaradawi, and she just happens to be the daughter of Sheikh Qaradawi.

Now, besides despising America and having lots of global academic connections (at least in countries where he’s not banned), the sheikh happens to be a very wealthy man — the sharia-advisory business can be very profitable. And while the sheikh’s daughter is said to be an exceptional chemist, the world is full of exceptional chemists. How is it that Qaradawi’s daughter gets the State Department prize? I’m just wondering, and wondering if Speaker Boehner is wondering.

I Wear Pants;1233610 wrote:“Go to hell, Senator, it’s time for you to take your final dirt nap,” - Tea Party leader (in Arizona I believe) to John Mccain on this situation.

This is getting pretty ridiculous.

jhay78;1233904 wrote:Link would be nice.

I get the impression that McCain went with a skewed media report of what Bachmann and the others said, and didn't read her original letter, Keith Ellison's response, Bachmann's retort, or the State Deptartment's own guidelines. This is why people are fed up with him (and no, I don't defend those comments above). More vitriol and disgust toward Michele Bachmann than at the State Dept issuing a visa to a known member of a terrorist group.

Bigdogg;1233913 wrote:Love me some National Review On Line, very creditable news source:rolleyes: Did they really say "Glen Beck reported?"

pmoney25;1233977 wrote:Michelle bachmann is an embarrassment to conservatives and the fact she is on the intelligence committee is comical to say the least.

queencitybuckeye;1233938 wrote:That someone who regularly cites a blog with writing that would have gotten them thrown off a decent high school newspaper would dare to worry about the sources of others is hilarious.

jhay78;1234105 wrote:What's embarrassing is that she might be the only one on the committee who knows the State Dept guidelines.

pmoney25;1233977 wrote:Michelle bachmann is an embarrassment to conservatives and the fact she is on the intelligence committee is comical to say the least.

QuakerOats;1234677 wrote:Except ........................................................... she's right, again.

QuakerOats;1234745 wrote:I am proud to have her on our side ....... sharp lady.

You can keep pelosi, and wasserman-schulz on your side.

I Wear Pants;1233610 wrote:“Go to hell, Senator, it’s time for you to take your final dirt nap,” - Tea Party leader (in Arizona I believe) to John Mccain on this situation.

This is getting pretty ridiculous.

stlouiedipalma;1235005 wrote:It's quite a day when we get two Bachmann apologists coming out of the closet.

stlouiedipalma;1235005 wrote:It's quite a day when we get two Bachmann apologists coming out of the closet.

[h=2]Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is receiving support for her recent statements on the Muslim Brotherhood from an interesting source: Eric Allen Bell, a former supporter of an Islamic mosque who did a 180 degree turn after research convinced him that reality of Islam is quite different than it’s portrayed by the left.[/h]In an interview, Bell called Bachmann “unbelievably courageous” and said he believes that “the Islamization of the West is the defining issue of our time.”

Eric Allen Bell is one of today’s most outspoken voices on the dangers posed by Islam’s war on the West, but the Los Angeles based filmmaker actually began his journey planning to expose "Islamaphobia." Bell used to be a hero of the left, garnering praise from Michael Moore and DailyKos for his film project that set out to show that opposition to a proposed Mega-Mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee was coming from conservative crackpots.

A funny thing happened as Bell worked on the film; he ran into the truth about Islam. The truth wasn’t pretty, nor did it jibe with the narrative that the left spins about Islam as a "religion of peace."
When Bell began to discuss the truth about Islam’s dangers, the funding for his film dried up and his former friends on the left began their attacks--a process familiar to anyone who has seen what happens when the left’s narrative is challenged.

Now, Bell has written a number of pieces for Frontpage, the website founded by former leftist radical turned conservtive David Horowitz, that tells what he’s learned about Islam, its "soft jihad" against the West, and the support that it has from the left.

In this excerpt from my recent interview with Bell, he discusses one of the reasons the Muslim Brotherhood is dangerous and how he feels about Rep. Bachmann’s recent remarks that earned her scorn from the mainstream media and even 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

Bell said:
[INDENT]There are numerous Muslim Brotherhood front groups that have found there way into our society, our culture, our legal system, politics, media, academia. And what’s concerning about that during the "Holy Land" trial that was the largest bust by the FBI of an Islamic charity funneling money to Islamic terrorism--by the way, in Islam terrorism is a a form of charity--during that bust it was exposed that the Muslim Brotherhood had all these front groups and had in their charter, a memo that said their objective was that they were sowing "civilization jiihad," and the point of civilization jihad was that it was a soft jihad, a non-violent jihad and the objective was the destroy the West from the inside by its own evil hand.

When you use words like "infilitration," that probably sounds paranoid to the general public but if anyone does the actual research, that’s exactly what’s happening--especially under this administration. For Bachmann to have done the research and just tell it like it is, knowing the political cost, is unbelievably courageous and I wish more leaders would support her in doing this and get behind this because the Islamization of the West is the defining issue of our time and if we don’t wake up to do something about it now, it’ll be too late.
[/INDENT]