Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Homeland Security?

Just who the heck is running the show here? And from whom should we be protecting ourselves?

From the Progress Report:

According to a new article in Salon, "The policy director for the Department of Homeland Security's intelligence division was briefly removed from his job in March when the Federal Bureau of Investigation discovered he had failed to disclose his association with Abdurahman Alamoudi" – a man jailed on terrorism-related money-laundering charges. The policy director, Faisal Gill, failed to disclose his ties to Alamoudi on his security clearance documents. After "a flurry of interagency meetings, however, Homeland Security decided to leave [Gill] in place." Who is Faisal Gill? "A White House political appointee with close ties to Republican power broker Grover Norquist and no apparent background in intelligence." With this job, "Gill has access to top-secret information on the vulnerability of America's seaports, aviation facilities and nuclear power plants to terrorist attacks."

You remember Grover Norquist.

Loftus, a former Nazi-hunting prosecutor for the Justice Department, is accusing Karl Rove's friend Grover Norquist, the quarterback of the national don't-ever-tax-rich-folks lobby, of fronting for the people who fund terrorist activity in this country, including Abdurahman Alamoudi. Alamoudi is accused of running money for al-Qaeda and Hamas; he is listed as vice-president of a foundation set up by one of Osama's nephews. He was also involvedd in setting up the Islamic chaplaincy program that recruited al-Qaeda collaborators to minister to the prisoners at Guantanamo.
  article

Are you beginning to see why I sometimes wonder if the al-Qa'ida threat is being orchestrated inside the United States government? Grover Norquist, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Dumbass Bush.....is my tin-foil too heavy? What was that earlier quote? A little intellectual discipline is in order here. How about just a little more attention?

Gill's omission of the information on his "Standard Form 86" national security questionnaire is a potential felony violation. There is no evidence, however, that Gill has taken any action to compromise national security.
  Salon article

Well, not yet perhaps! Do we have to wait for that?!?

Gill also worked in 2001 for a Muslim political outreach organization that Norquist co-founded with a former top aide to Alamoudi. Norquist did not respond to phone calls, a fax and an e-mail seeking comment.

..."There's an overall denial in the administration that the agenda being pushed by Norquist might be a problem," one official said. "It's so absurd that a Grover Norquist person could even be close to something like this. That's really what's so insidious."

...[S]ome officials remain concerned that Gill apparently enjoys the political protection of Norquist, the architect of the 1994 Republican election sweep that brought Georgia Republican Newt Gingrich to power as House speaker. Norquist speaks of "crushing" his political opponents and dismisses those who don't agree with his anti-tax, anti-government agenda as "Bolsheviks." His power derives from a formidable coalition of evangelical, business and other conservative groups that he controls to push favored GOP issues, as well as from his close relationship with White House political chief Karl Rove.

...In 1998, Norquist and a former deputy to Alamoudi at the AMC co-founded the nonprofit Islamic Institute as part of a drive to win Muslim voters for Bush in 2000.


Muslims for Bush. That's about as whacky as Gay Republicans.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

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