Wingnut Congressional Republicans pimp Muslim spy conspiracy theory

[oldhat]

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmem...slim_group.php

Citing Work Of Right-Wing Intern Spy, GOP Accuses Muslim Group Of Infiltrating Hill With Intern 'Spies'

Justin Elliott | October 14, 2009, 5:56PM

Four House Republicans are charging that the Council on American Islamic Relations is infiltrating Capitol Hill with undercover interns, and they're basing the charge on a WND-published book that itself is based on the work of a man who posed as a Muslim to infiltrate CAIR as ... an intern!

In other words, it's Intern Spy vs. Intern Spy.

As Greg Sargent notes, the office of Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) does not have a list of the "Manchurian Interns" that she claims may have penetrated national security-related committees.

Myrick and three other members of the Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus came to a news conference today armed with Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America (WND Books, $22.95). They called on the sergeant at arms to investigate whether, as Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) put it, a group that "is connected to or supports terrorists [and] is running influence operations or planting spies in key national security-related offices."

WorldNetDaily describes the premise of the new book, i.e. the co-author's son getting into the Muslim advocacy group the only way he knew how, as a "bearded Muslim convert":

Quote:

The book begins as a real-life, heart-pounding thriller, with Chris Gaubatz, the son of co-author David Gaubatz, preparing to go underground as an intern for CAIR at its Herndon, Va., office.

Astoundingly, the younger Gaubatz, posing as a bearded Muslim convert, ends up with a position at CAIR's national office in Washington, just three blocks from the U.S. Capitol building, working alongside top leaders Ibrahim Hooper, Nihad Awad and Corey Saylor.

Along with declassified government documents, the book unveils thousands of e-mails, faxes and internal memos that were never meant for public viewing.

To CAIR officials, Chris Gaubatz was Muslim convert and college student Dave Marshall, CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper tells TPMmuckraker.

"We treated him so well. I jokingly offered to help him get married," says an angry Hooper. "They lied to us about their background. They falsely claimed to be Muslim. They would stand next to us and pray during prayers."

Hooper and the WND crowd agree on one thing: that "Intern Dave Marshall" took a lot of documents while he was at CAIR -- basically everything he could. WND argues that the documents prove that CAIR is "part of an organized crime network" with other Muslim groups that "collectively comprise the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood."

Hooper is not impressed. "This guy spied on us for months, and the most they can come up with is that we're doing ordinary lobbying work on Capitol Hill?"

Politico reports that the four Republicans revealed an internal CAIR "strategy" document today, that, in the words of the Politico reporters, "basically lays out a fairly straight forward public relations and lobbying strategy."

Hooper says CAIR has filed a complaint with Washington police for theft of property.

[oldhat]

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmem....php?ref=fpblg

Meet The Man Behind The Intern Spy Wars: Muslim Mafia Author Dave Gaubatz

Justin Elliott | October 15, 2009, 5:18PM

Let's take a closer look at the co-author of Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America, just out from WND Books, and now at #16 among all books on Amazon.

That would be David Gaubatz, a former Air Force investigator and Arabic speaker, who dispatched his son Chris to grow a beard and go undercover as a Muslim to obtain an internship at the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Gaubatz, who has long warned about the threat of Islamism in the United States, has claimed that he found Saddam's long-lost WMDs while in Iraq and has labeled Obama "Muslim" and a "self-admitted 'crack head.'"

The documents Chris took from CAIR are the basis for the new book, which has been seized on by four House Republicans to call for a probe into whether the group planted Muslim "intern spies" on key national security committees.

Keep in mind that Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) actually wrote the foreward for the book, warning that "We Americans must wake up before it is too late!"

Here's the lowdown on Gaubatz:

* He referred to "our Muslim leader" Barack Obama on his blog last year.
* He has claimed that he personally found sites with Iraqi weapons of mass destruction when he was an agent with the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations in 2003. But the Syrians beat us to the punch on excavating the sites, Gaubatz claims, and the U.S. government suppressed the information to avoid the "explosive revelation of their own lethal incompetence."
* Just yesterday he wondered about Congress' two Muslim representatives, "How much information do we have on Carson and Congressman Keith Ellison?"
* According to Glenn Greenwald, Gaubatz in 2007 was focusing his time on creating "a comprehensive map of every mosque and Islamic school in the U.S" in order to determine which ones were preaching "Islamic law." The Web site that explained that project has since been made private.
* He said in September 2008 on a now scrubbed blog post at www.jihadishere.blogspot.com that: "We are now on the verge of allowing a self admitted 'crack-head' to have his finger on every nuclear weapon in America."
* He apparently has a history of faking conversions to Islam as part of his investigations.

Media Matters has a comprehensive roundup here and Greenwald has more here.

Also via Greenwald is this line from Myrick in 2003 that may explain a lot about why she contributed to the book and is at the vanguard of the campaign to root out Muslim "intern spies":

Quote:

In remarks about domestic security threats, Rep. Sue Myrick of Charlotte said, "Look at who runs all the convenience stores across the country."

[quixotecoyote]

We sure know how to elect 'em, don't we.

[Brainster]

If World Nut Daily's involved, I'm sure it's crazy.

That is one benefit that's come out of Obama's administration; at least I can tell who the crazy people are on my side of the aisle.