Intro to ‘Was Obama’s White House Politicizing Intelligence To
Influence The 2016 Elections’
Blog Editor John R. Houk
By Fred Fleitz
Posted 4/6/17
The Dems and the Leftist Mainstream Media (MSM) have been
hell-bent to disqualify President Trump since election day 2016. All
disqualification agendas seem to gravitate around President Trump colluded with
Russia to win over Crooked Hillary.
It is my belief the “collusion” accusation is horse pucky,
but Russian attempts to manipulate the American voter is very possible. AND if POSSIBLE
turns into reality, Russia needs to suffer any kind consequences the Trump
Administration is willing to inflict. By inflict I mean at least with a Cold
War-style agitation to see how far the Russians are willing to confront the
still most powerful nation in the world which of course is the United States of
America.
That being said, the continuous disparaging of President
Trump should be examined by the Trump Administration Department of Justice for
crimes by Dems, the Left MSM, current government civil servant lifers loyal
to BHO AND former Obama Administration Officials INCLUDING the treasonous
former President Barack Hussein Obama.
The
truth is that all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies did not conclude that Russia
tried to interfere in the election or help Trump win. Not even close.
Although
there are strong indications the Obama administration abused intelligence
collection by U.S. agencies to gather information on the Trump campaign to leak
to the news media, it also appeared to abuse another U.S. intelligence mission:
intelligence analysis.
Congressional
Democrats and the mainstream media consider it gospel truth that all 17 U.S.
intelligence agencies unanimously concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016
presidential election to help Donald Trump win. But should we treat this
assessment as true in light of major errors in U.S. intelligence analysis in
the past and its politicization? Is something gospel truth just because U.S.
intelligence agencies say it is?
The
truth is that all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies did not conclude
that Russia tried to interfere in the election or help Trump win. Not even
close.
What Intelligence Has Really Confirmed About Russia
U.S.
intelligence agencies issued two assessments on Russian interference in the
2016 presidential election. The first was an October 7 statement by the Office
of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) that said WikiLeaks disclosures of Democratic emails during the
election were “consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed
efforts” but did not say there was any evidence of Russian involvement.
Moreover,
although this statement said the U.S. intelligence community held this
position, the memo was issued by only two agencies, and was called a “Joint DHS
and ODNI Election Security Statement.” Hillary Clinton seized on this statement
in the last presidential debate on October 19 by inaccurately claiming “We have
17, 17 intelligence agencies, civilian and military who have all concluded that
these espionage attacks, these cyber attacks, come from the highest levels of
the Kremlin.”
The
fact that this memo was not an intelligence community document issued by all
agencies with equities in this issue was very unusual. It also was suspicious
that an unclassified intelligence analysis so advantageous to one presidential
candidate was issued just before the election and only two weeks before the
last presidential debate. In my view, this looked like looked like a clumsy
attempt by the Obama White House to issue an intelligence assessment to boost
Clinton’s presidential campaign and hurt the Trump campaign.
The
second intelligence assessment on this question, issued on January 6, 2017, I
believe represents a serious instance of a presidential administration
manipulating U.S. intelligence analysis to issue a politicized analysis to
sabotage an incoming president from a different political party. The January 6
analysis found that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election and
hurt Hillary’s candidacy to promote Trump. The assessment said this
interference came at the direction of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
What About All the Missing Intelligence Agencies?
Like
the October memo, congressional Democrats and the news media have said this was
the unanimous conclusion of all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies. But also like
the October memo, this was not the case. The January 6 assessment was an
“Intelligence Community Assessment.” Such analyses are usually issued and
cleared by most if not all U.S. intelligence agencies and have a statement on
the first page that usually reads “this is an IC-coordinated assessment.”
The
January 6 Intelligence Community Assessment lacked such a statement because it
reflected the views of only three U.S. intelligence agencies: Central
Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and National Security
Agency. The CIA and FBI concluded with high confidence that Russia intervened
in the election to help Trump win. NSA concluded this with moderate confidence.
Why
did other U.S. intelligence agencies with major equities in this issue not
participate in the January 6 assessment? Why were the Office of the Director of
National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security part of the
October assessment but not the January one? Where were the Defense Intelligence
Agency, the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and the
military intelligence agencies?
The
January assessment also was very unusual because it was such a conclusive
analysis of a very controversial subject with no dissenting views. Based my CIA
experience, this is unprecedented and makes me wonder whether intelligence
agencies that may have dissented were deliberately excluded.
There
also is the question as to whether this assessment was written to conform to a
predetermined conclusion by the Obama White House to undermine the Trump
administration. The U.S. intelligence community has played political games like
this before with interagency assessments to promote political agendas. One of
the most notorious examples of this was the controversial 2007 National
Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s nuclear program that was intended to undermine
President Bush’s Iran policy.
There Are Indications Intelligence Has Been
Politicized
CIA
Director John Brennan’s role in approving this assessment raises serious
questions about whether it was manipulated for political reasons. Brennan has
been heavily criticized for politicizing intelligence for the Obama
administration. This includes the role he played in the 2012 CIA talking points
on the Benghazi terrorist attacks. He also has been openly and extremely
hostile toward Trump before and after the election.
Given
FBI Director James Comey’s statements at a recent House Intelligence Committee
hearing that the conclusion in the January 6 assessment that Russia intervened
in the election to help Trump was based on logic and not
evidence, it is hard to believe this was not a pre-cooked conclusion driven by
the highly partisan Brennan.
I
strongly believe that if there were any evidence that Russia intervened in the
election to help Trump win, or that Russia and the Trump campaign collaborated
to affect the outcome of the election, this intelligence would have been leaked
by Obama holdovers in government and the so-called “Deep State” to The
New York Times long ago. The fact that Comey could not point to such
evidence and this information has not been leaked suggests there is no such
evidence because this didn’t happen.
The
current congressional investigations of possible Russian interference in the
election and the Obama administration’s misuse of U.S. intelligence collection
to surveil the Trump campaign must also include whether intelligence analysis
was politicized to damage Trump’s candidacy and presidency. These
investigations must look at how the above analyses were drafted, who drafted
them, and why some agencies did not participate. The committees also need to
uncover any evidence of the White House trying to influence the outcome of
these assessments or excluding certain agencies from participating.
It
is time to call out Democrats and reporters who portray the idea that Russia
intervened in the election to help Trump win as established truth because it is
the unanimous assessment of all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies. I expect the
congressional investigations will conclude this claim is false and actually
represented a deliberate effort to manipulate intelligence analysis to
undermine the Trump presidency.
________________
Fred
Fleitz is senior vice president for policy and programs with the Center for
Security Policy. He worked in national-security positions for 25 years with the
CIA, the State Department, and the House Intelligence Committee. Follow him on
Twitter @fredfleitz.
Americans that have not been brainwashed by eight years of
the Obama Administration in collusion with the Leftist MSM, should not be
surprised at the Dems and media excoriating President Trump’s protection of
American from Islamic terrorism.
Obama and the Southern Poverty Law Center
(More specifics on the SPLC from theSocial Contract Press) were
fairly successful in purging Law Enforcement of knowledgeable Counter Terrorism
experts. Then proceeded to label Conservative organizations, Traditional Values
Christian organizations and Counterjihad organizations as bigoted, hate-inspiring,
and Islamophobic American right wing terrorists.
Check this out:
Unreal… Obama’s DHS Continues to Target
Conservatives & Liberty Lovers As Terrorists (Video)
It’s an Obama bizarro world…
The Obama administration holds peace talks with Taliban killers but treats
patriotic Americans as terrorists.
Go figure.
The Department of Homeland Security
is continuing to target patriotic Americans
and conservatives who “believe that one’s personal and/or national ‘way of
life’ is under attack” as terrorists. They even have this listed in
their latest report.
[Not part of Gateway Pundit
article but important] Posted by usACTIONnews
Published
on Jul 9, 2012
"Groups
that believe that one's personal and/or national 'way of life' is under attack
and is either already lost or that the threat is imminent." describes
potential terrorists? WTH? DHS is using left wing hate groups and even Islamic
groups with ties to terrorism as consultants to determine who are threats.
From a Jan, 2011 article "How Dept. of Homeland Security identifies 'right
wing extremists':
The radical leftist group Southern Poverty Law Center has partnered with the
Department of Homeland Security in a 'Working Group' called Countering violent
Extremism to paint conservatives as hate groups and extremists.
...
Former Attorney General Edwin Meese says it is "despicable" for the
Southern Poverty Law Center to classify the Family Research Council and a dozen
other top conservative organizations as "hate groups" similar to the
Ku Klux Klan.
The SPLC has a history of targeting conservatives and conservative groups as
racist, homophobic, or extremist if they disagree with the radical left
positions of the SPLC on any number of issues. An article at Discover the
Networks.org says "What makes the Southern Poverty Law Center particularly
odious is its habit of taking legitimate conservatives and jumbling them with
genuine hate groups (the Klan, Aryan Nation, skinheads, etc.), to make it
appear that there's a logical relationship between say opposing affirmative
action and lynching, or demands for an end to government services for illegal
aliens and attacks on dark-skinned immigrants. The late novelist/philosopher Ayn
Rand called this "the broad-brush smear.""
.....
The SPLC has joined the Department of Homeland Security in a 'Working Group'
called Countering violent Extremism. John Cohen, President and CEO of SPLC is
listed as a member and Laurie Wood, Analyst, Southern Poverty Law
Center/Instructor, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center is listed as an
'expert in subject matter'. The members of the group also include three from
Muslim organizations but we don't see any conservatives. (see the list at the
end of the report)
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) which has been determined by
the courts to be a terrorist support group proudly points out on their Facebook
page that its Michigan members 'participated a Countering Violent Extremism
(CVE) Working Group meeting with law enforcement officials and community
advocates in Dearborn, Mich.'[ibid].
So we have the Southern Poverty Law Center, also known as The Church of Morris
Dees, which calls groups and individuals like the Family Research Council, Eagle
Forum, the Heritage Foundation, Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs, Rep. Michele Bachmann
(R-MN), Rep. Steve King (R-IA), and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) 'right wing
extremists' and the Council on American-Islamic Relations which the FBI has
proven to be linked to a terrorist organization teaming up with the US
Department of Homeland Security to determine what groups in America should be
categorized as 'extremist' and potentially violent.
Now you can see why the DHS came out with its Rightwing Extremism report in April
of 2009 that warned of potential violence by people against illegal immigration
and gun control, and returning military veterans. Now that's change.
If you want to see the idiotic SPLC list of legitimate Counterjihadists labelled as dangerous right wing hatemongers, you can go to this one of many titles (this one 10/25/16): “A Journalist’s Manual: Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists”.
Here is an excerpt pointing
to the Obama purge of anything Islamic from training manuals and official
reports:
…
In
another example of the administration's ability to make key words
disappear, a 2013 Judicial Watch report revealed that the FBI scrubbed its law enforcement
training material of any language that might be deemed "offensive" to
Muslims. Per those guidelines, hundreds of references to "Muslim,"
"Islam" or "jihad" were removed from the 2004 9/11
commission report.
The
witnesses provided more evidence to corroborate these findings. Mr. Philip Haney,
a retired Customs and Border Protection Officer for the Department of Homeland
Security, revealed that the CIA has scrubbed more than 800 law enforcement
records that were almost all connected to the Muslim brotherhood.
The
first “great purge,” he said, was in 2009. Yet, in 2012 they didn’t just modify
the records, they eliminated them out of the system, which, he noted, bypasses
security protocol in Homeland Security. …READ ENTIRETY (Cruz
Hearing Exposes the Obama Admin’s History of Purging References to Islamic Terror;
By Cortney O'Brien; Townhall; 6/29/16 9:15 AM)
So, why the heck am I
rehashing Obama’s treacherous history after a majority of States elected Trump
over Crooked Hillary? BECAUSE America’s Left is doing everything from lying,
Fake News, civil disturbances, and questionable legal procedures to prevent
President Trump from following through on his campaign promises.
I was alerted by email via
Counterjihadist writer Paul Sutliff, that the Donald is going undo Obama’s Countering
Violent Extremism (CVE) agenda which focused on White Supremacists. Please
recall from above, that the Obama Administration lumped Conservatives,
Christian Values and Counterjihadists with right wing extremists.
The new agenda focus will be
Islamic terrorism. Paul Sutliff’s email alerts the reader he has been writing
about the CVE agenda for some time:
SO imagine my excitement with that news! All I can say now is thank you Mr. President. You have earned my prayers and respect.
Get informed on Obama’s CVE in
Paul’s articles linked above. For your convenience, I am cross posting the
Tepes-Sutliff interview from The Rebel linked above.
This is the second part of
the interview with Paul Sutliff. Paul explains the US Government's use of the
office of Countering Violent Extremism to assist the Muslim Brotherhood, and of
all things, fund mosques.
Among the litany of Obama
administration disasters, the rapid collapse of his "Countering Violent
Extremism" (CVE) agenda is among the most consequential.
But groups in line to receive federal CVE grants announced just days before the end of the Obama era are now whining as the Trump administration seeks to put an end to the CVE scam.
Driven directly from the White House, the Obama administration’s CVE agenda was a replacement following a purge of counter-terrorism training across the federal government during 2011-2012 in response to a targeted series of reports by far-Left bloggers and reporters claiming widespread bias and “Islamophobia.”
Many of those claims were
later debunked, but with the damage done the administration's purge pressed
ahead as it implemented CVE at the demand of Islamic groups, some of whom were
directly involved in the formation of the administration's CVE policies.
But as it became apparent
that terror recruitment was escalating rapidly at nearly the same time that CVE
was being imposed on agencies and departments across the board, the
inability of CVE to actually countering any "extremists" was exposed.
The same Islamic groups that urged the imposition of CVE then turned against
the efforts when they realized that CVE was still primarily directed at the
growing threat of Islamic recruitment, and not towards stigmatizing the
administration's perceived domestic political enemies.
By January 2015, Politico was
already declaring that CVE was a complete flop:
No
answer for homegrown terrorism? Obama’s plan to combat radicalization is a
flop, critics say.
No
answer for homegrown terrorism?
Obama’s plan to combat radicalism is a flop
critics say.
politico.com
The
CVE pilot programs in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and Boston were already so
unsuccessful that the media had to announce they were off to a "slow
start" a year ago:
The
failures of the program were so pronounced that NPR conceded the point,
claiming that even if the CVE programs were not effective they still somehow
helped the communities.
As I noted in an assessment of Obama’s CVE policies here at PJ Media last year, and in a separate monograph, measuring Obama’s policies by his own stated White House goals, the CVE program was proven to be a complete failure in the very three areas it was intended to support: community engagement, training, and counter-propaganda.
It's
no surprise then that one of the first moves by the Trump
administration will be to shut down the failed CVE program, as reported by
Reuters:
Exclusive: Trump to focus counter-extremism program
solely on Islam - sourceshttps://t.co/9wHw9pKAn6
7:11 PM - 1 Feb 2017
That
decision in turn set off a wave of complaints by groups that were hoping to
receive federal CVE grants that were rushed out by the Obama
administration in its last few days in office:
One of the first groups that
took to the media was the Twin Cities-based Ka Joog (which in
Somali means "stay away"). Ka Joog had already been one of the groups
to receive $300,000 in federal money and another $250,000
appropriated by the state of Minnesota, and was in line to
receive another $500,000 federal grant from Homeland Security.
Ka Joog has been one of the
premier programs that CVE defenders have pointed to in calling for additional
funding for the CVE program.
And yet in one of the group's
most visible failures, the
nephew of the organization's executive director was recruited by the Islamic
State and eventually tried and convicted in federal court.
Another Twin Cities groups,
Heartland Democracy, was scheduled to receive $165,000.
That group had been among the
first to participate in a pet "deradicalization" project by the chief
federal judge in Minnesota who tried many of the Islamic State recruiting
cases.
But court documents exposed
that Heartland Democracy had no experience in "jihadi rehab,"
and its curriculum was described as "more high school civics course than
religious deprogramming."
The Daily Beast reported on
the regimen established for their first "deradicalization" client:
He
and a Somali-American mentor began to work through an extensive reading
list, which included Richard Wright’s Native Son, a novel about
growing up poor and black in the 1930s, and an article by Native American
author Sherman Alexie about how poetry freed him from the “reservation” of his
mind.
McKinley
would not say how often Yusuf met his mentor.
“We
met with him regularly, I don’t know the number of times a week,” she said.
When pressed on whether they met weekly, biweekly, or at a different pace,
McKinley would not clarify. “We met with him regularly.”
Court
documents also reference Yusuf meeting with religious leaders, but McKinley
wasn't sure about that.
“I
don’t know if he’s met with any religious leaders,” she said in response to a
question about meeting with imams. “I mean, he’s an adult, he can get any
visitor he wants.”
That first client was
sent back to jail after a search of his room at a halfway house found
a box cutter.
The Obama administration's
CVE programs have a lengthy history of failure:
·As
I reported here at PJ Mediajust
a few days ago, an Associated Press investigationinto
the Pentagon's $500 million WebOps program to counter Islamic
State propaganda found widespread incompetence and corruption.
According to whistleblowers, civilian Arabic specialists with no
understanding of Islam tried to defeat complex religious
justifications for terrorism, resulting in the program becoming a
laughingstock in jihadist circles.
·In
December 2014, the New York Timesreportedthat
the then-head of Special Operations Command, Major Gen. Michael Nagata,
convened a series of conference calls with outside experts attempting to
understand why the message of the Islamic State had grown so dangerous. But
after the Obama administration's counter-terror training purge, Gen. Nagata was
forced to admit that “we do not understand the movement, and until we
do, we are not going to defeat it....We have not defeated the idea. We
do not even understand the idea.”
·In
September 2011, Obama signed an executive order creating the State
Department's Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC). One
of their early failures was a graphic video producedcalled "Welcome
to ISIS Land," targeting would-be Islamic State recruits. The
center's director was quickly replaced. Then a Twitter campaign, "Think
Again Turn Away," was largely panned by terror experts who
claimed the effort was largely ineffective andwas actually
legitimizing the terrorist narrative. Apanel of outside expertsconvened
by the State Department agreed, finding that the CSCC was so
counterproductive to its mission that they questioned whether the U.S.
government should be involved in counter-propaganda at all. The center
was promptly closed.
·One
of the first CVE guidelines produced by the Department of Homeland Security in
2011 was to instruct federal
agencies to avoid using "trainers who are
self-professed 'Muslim Reformers,'" and yet documents uncovered
regarding meetings with DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano show the agency
soliciting advice from known extremist groups
and controversial Islamic leaders. Some of these extremist leaders
even held official positionsadvising
DHS. Last June, when the DHS Countering Violent Extremism Subcommittee released
its recommendations urging $100 million in new CVE funding, it urged
banning the use of "jihad" or "sharia" in training --
two very common terms used by terrorist recruiters. One of the subcommittee
members, a Syrian immigrant, had previously said that
the 9/11 terror attacks had "changed the world for good." Andin December, DHS
teamed up with the State Department to bring in the Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR), an organization that the Justice Department had argued in
federal court had supported terrorism, to teach a CVE course for French
officials. Even though the State Department programs have been
universally panned, it was reported last August that they had tripled the budget.
·In
implementing the Obama administration's CVE agenda, the FBI had conducted
awide-scale purgeof
its terrorism training curriculum at the request of Islamic groups claiming it
was biased. In a movequestioned by members of
Congress, the FBI classified the identities of the outside
experts brought in to censor the material. A subsequent reviewof
the censored terror-training material discovered suspect and
inconsistent standards in purging the curriculum. More recently, a FBI
website and video game ("Don't Be a Puppet") intended
to target youth vulnerable to terrorist recruitment was launched, and
then suspended after just a day in response to complaints of Islamic
groups, terror experts, and even teachers unions that the effort was biased,
ineffective, and encouraged students to inform on each other. Some of the
criticism came from the FBI's own Muslim outreach partners that were brought in
to advise the bureau on its CVE policies.
So it's no great mystery why
the incoming Trump administration began discussions about scaling back and
ending Obama's CVE program.
Others contend that the CVE
grants were political payoffs to groups to enlist their aid in
scuttling counter-terror programs and to silence any possible criticism of the
Obama national security and foreign policy agenda.
The chairman of one group
that was scheduled to receive a $400,000
CVE grant, Life After Hate, has publicly launched attacks on the
incoming Trump administration and even called for the violent removal of
President Trump one day after his inauguration.
Meanwhile in Minneapolis, as
Ka Joog declines the $500,000 in announced DHS CVE grants the group has
quickly transitioned from attempting to deradicalizing area Somali youth to publicly
declaring that President Trump is engaged in "an official war against
Islam" -- parroting a standard terrorist narrative.
But as mentioned previously,
the nephew of the executive director who had participated in Ka Joog programs
was still recruited to join the Islamic State.
In another instance, an
Islamic State recruit from Alexandria, Virginia, later captured by Kurdish
troops and currently facing federal charges, lived less than 50 yards from one
of the Obama administration's top go-to CVE experts.
If these so-called CVE
"experts" can't prevent their closest relatives or neighbors from
joining terrorist groups, why should the Trump administration continue to
entrust them with our national security?
Despite all the media
hand-wringing, it seems that questioning the effectiveness of Obama's CVE
program is entirely in order given its constant track record of failure.
Yet in light of the current
media climate, the new administration should expect that it will come under
fire for whatever they eventually replace the failed CVE agenda with. And the
Islamic State and other terrorist groups continue to recruit and encourage
supporters to conduct attacks inside the homeland.
Ending the CVE scam would be
a good first step in reversing the corrosive policies established by the Obama
administration that have hampered and sometimes punished our law enforcement
and national security professionals for doing their job.
Not only has Obama set the stage for Islamic terrorists to
come to America as refugees, it appears the Obama Administration has allowed
the “Department of Homeland Security has given Somalis“community
engagement tours,” including security briefings, in secured areas at least
three major U.S. airports – Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Columbus, Ohio.”
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today
released 31 pages of records from
U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealing that the Department of Homeland
Security has given Somalis“community
engagement tours,” including security briefings, in secured areas at least
three major U.S. airports – Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Columbus, Ohio.
The records came in response to a May 2016 Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) request, which sought records, documents and
communications regarding a “Community Engagement Tour” in Minneapolis-St. Paul
Airport on February 18, 2016.
The briefings provided to the Somali groups were so
sensitive that in 14 instances the agency redacted portions of the records
under Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) exemption (B)(7)(e), the
law-enforcement “risk circumvention” exemption, which reads:
Exemption 7(E) of the Freedom of
Information Act affords protection to all law enforcement information that
would disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or
prosecutions, or would disclose guidelines for law enforcement investigations
or prosecutions if such disclosure could reasonably be expected to risk
circumvention of the law.
In another instance, Customs and Border Protection exempted
under (B)(7)(e) a portion of a February 16, 2016, “Minute by Minute Agenda”
provided during a tour/briefing of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International
Airport (MSP). The material that was withheld from Judicial Watch as too
law-enforcement sensitive – but provided in full to the Somali group – included
a section entitled: “TSA Overview — Processing [Redacted].” The invitees
were provided briefings of the Global Entry system, APC [Automated Passport
Control] system, secondary screening procedures, baggage-screening procedures
and given tours of the holding cells/interview rooms.
Notes from the February Minneapolis St. Paul Airport tour
include: “Current CBP and TSA job vacancies were
discussed. Attendees responded with requests for DHS outreach efforts during
Somali community events to further advertise these positions to interested
individuals.”
oIn addition to the
Minneapolis Airport tours/briefings given to Somalis during 2014 and 2015 –
and first revealed by Judicial Watch in August 2016 – tours of
U.S. airports and security briefings also have been provided to other groups at
airports in Los Angeles and Columbus, Ohio:
“Once we agree on the dates we will select the time based on prayer schedules.
Another idea could be the roundtable to take place at the airport after the
tour. We have done that before in LA and Columbus and it worked well both
times”.
oThe timing of the
Minneapolis Airport tour given to a group of Somalis in February 2016 was scheduled between 6-8 pm because
it would “accommodate prayer times well”
oDuring the “annual” tour,
federal authorities granted excursions of the facility’s “secure areas.” It is also noted
that two parties in the previous year “did not pass vetting.”
oThe invitation extended to
the Somalis for the Minneapolis Airport tour addressed them as “Dear
Colleague,” and promised “walking people through CBP’s process, walking people
through TSA’s process” and provide “a step-by-step tour of our
operations, designed to offer a greater understanding of airport processes and
procedures.”
Eight senior ranking Homeland Security and Customs officials
were tasked with accompanying and briefing the Somalis on the February 18,
2016, Minneapolis Airport tour, including the Minneapolis Area Port Director,
the Assistant Port Director, the Watch Commander, a Homeland Security Civil
Rights and Civil Liberties Senior Policy Advisor (flown in from Washington),
the TSA Federal Security Director and TSA Deputy Federal Security Director.
The documents show Customs officials reporting that one of
the invited individuals had given “CBP Chicago a hard time”
following the last tour and noted three of the invitees had had investigations
against them, which had since been closed. Another invitee had an active
investigation pending.
“Logically, information that is too sensitive to provide to
Judicial Watch and the public should not have been given to a ‘community
engagement tour,’” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The U.S.
government has been aware for years that Minnesota is a hotbed of Somali
terrorist-cell activity. The behind-the-scenes tours and security briefings of
the Minneapolis airport very well could have created a threat to public
safety.”
In August 2016, the Judicial Watch blog, Corruption
Chronicles, reported on the Muslim airport tour story: “The Obama
administration gave Somali Muslims behind-the-scenes tours at a major U.S.
airport after the group complained to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson
about feeling harassed and profiled, government records obtained
by Judicial Watch reveal. The special security tours not offered to any other
group occurred at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport after
Department of Homeland Security roundtable meetings with local Somali leaders
to obtain feedback for ‘modifications to practices that would allow for
operations to be more culturally sensitive.’”
ACT for America is the nation’s largest non-profit, non-partisan,
grassroots national security organization with 400,000 members and more than
1,000 chapters around the country focused on educating, engaging, and
mobilizing citizens and elected officials to impact legislative outcomes to
protect America.
We’re committed to recruiting, training, and mobilizing citizens
community by community to help protect and preserve American culture and to
keep this nation safe.
ACT for America stands ready to take effective action as the only
national security grassroots organization in America. If each of us does just a
little, together we can accomplish a lot. We are America.
Who We Are
…
What We Do
ACT for America educates citizens and elected officials to impact
public policy and protect America from terrorism. As a result, ACT’s grassroots
network (1000 chapters strong) has driven the education process toward the
successful passage of 43 bills in 22 states. ACT for America is continuing to…READ ENTIRETY
