Israel Matzav: Huma Abedin and the Muslim Brotherhood: Just one of seven

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Huma Abedin and the Muslim Brotherhood: Just one of seven

Huma Abedin may not be the only Muslim Brotherhood member to have attained a high position in the US government. She's just the most visible one. But there's no denying her Brotherhood connections, writes Frank Gaffney, despite the Obama administration's efforts to do just that.

Then, former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy, former Muslim Brother Walid Shoebat and other researchers established a direct tie between Huma Abedin and a Muslim Brotherhood front, the Institute for Muslim Minority Affairs (IMMA). IMMA was established essentially as anAbedin family business by Abdullah Omar Naseef, an officially designated al Qaeda financier.

Shortly after IMMA was founded under his chairmanship, Naseef became the secretary-general of the Muslim World League (MWL), which Mr. McCarthy described in an Aug. 8 speech in Washington sponsored by the Center for Security Policy as "the Saudi-financed global propagation enterprise by which the Muslim Brotherhood's virulently anti-Western brand of Islamist ideology is seeded throughout the world, very much including in the United States."

It happens that Huma Abedin was listed for 12 years on the masthead of the IMMA's journal as an associate editor. For at least seven of those years, Omar Naseef was also listed as a member of the editorial advisory board.

In his remarks last week, Mr. McCarthy, a former chief assistant U.S. attorney, directly spoke to charges that Huma Abedin was being unfairly challenged by virtue of these various ties to the Muslim Brotherhood: "'Guilt by association' has nothing to do with fitness for high public office. High public office is a privilege, not a right. Access to classified information is a privilege, not a right. You need not have done anything wrong to be deemed unfit for these privileges."

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Not only does Ms. Abedin's relationship to the Muslim Brotherhood and involvement in policies favorable to its interests warrant close official scrutiny, there are at least six other individuals with Brotherhood ties whose involvement in Obama administration "Muslim outreach" or related policymaking also deserve investigation by the inspectors general and by Congress:

Rashad Hussain, special envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation

Dalia Mogahed, an adviser to President Obama

Mohamed Elibiary, a member of the Homeland Security Department's advisory council

Mohamed Magid, a member of the Homeland Security Department's Countering Violent Extremism Working Group

Louay Safi, until recently the credentialing authority for Muslim chaplains in the U.S. military and now a leader of the Brotherhood-dominated Syrian National Council

Kifah Mustapha, a Hamas fundraiser and graduate of the FBI's "Citizens Academy"