President Obama and DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson (WhiteHouse.gov)
WND
HOUSE BILL WOULD FORCE OBAMA TO COMBAT 'RADICAL ISLAM'
Day after DHS sec claimed ignorance of 'purge,' defended PC policy
One day after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson claimed he had no knowledge of his agency’s scrubbing of intelligence deemed offensive to Muslims, House Republican leaders introduced a bill that would force the DHS to recognize the source of terrorist activity, name the threat directly and take action against it.
The Washington Examiner reported House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Friday the bill would be on the House floor next week.
DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson listens to Sen. Ted Cruz confront him with a former DHS employee’s claim that his agency scrubbed records deemed offensive to Muslims.
“While the enemy’s tactics are evolving, the Obama administration’s strategy to defeat radical Islamist extremism is not,” Ryan said. “We have to step up our game. This counter-terrorism legislation provides new tools to protect our homeland, including a provision to prevent terrorists from buying guns.”
On Thursday, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, confronted Johnson in a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, pointing to a graphic documenting DHS’s elimination of Islamic terminology from its reports and citing the testimony of former Customs and Border Protection officer Philip Haney.
The scrubbing, exemplified also in the redaction of references to Islam and ISIS in the transcript of Orlando killer Omar Mateen’s 9-1-1 call, is a manifestation of the administration’s approach to terrorism. The policy, known as Counter Violent Extremism, presumes ISIS and other jihadist groups have nothing to do with Islam and regards that threat as just one among many.
Cruz posed to Johnson the testimony Haney gave Tuesday before a subcommittee he chairs that the administration “modified” or eliminated more than 800 of his records related to the Muslim Brotherhood network in the U.S. because they were an offense to Muslims.
“Was that testimony accurate?” Cruz asked Johnson on Thursday.
“I have no idea,” Johnson replied. “I don’t know who Mr. Haney is. I wouldn’t know him if he walked in the room.”
“So, you have not investigated whether your department ordered documents to be modified?” Cruz followed up.
“No, I have not taken the time to investigate what Mr. Haney says. No,” Johnson said.
What Haney witnessed in more than a dozen years as a founding member of the DHS is recounted in his new bestselling book, “See Something, Say Nothing: A Homeland Security Officer Exposes the Government’s Submission to Jihad.”
The new bill was introduced by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who said that in the aftermath of the Orlando attack, “we must step up our efforts to combat the radicalization and recruitment of citizens by [ISIS].”
“The bill introduced today will provide more tools and resources to combat the spread of dangerous radical Islamist ideology and help our law enforcement agencies prevent future attacks on our soil,” he said, according to the Examiner.
The Examiner said McCarthy’s bill includes language from a bill from House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, that would require DHS to create an assistant secretary position to fight radical Islamic terrorism in the U.S.
It also includes a proposal from Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, that would revoke U.S. passports from members or supporters of a designated foreign terrorist organization.
In a compromise with Democrats who are pushing for tougher gun measures, the bill includes language from Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, that would allow the attorney general to delay the transfer of guns to people who are suspected terrorists, the Washington paper said. The government would have three days to make the case that a gun purchase should be delayed.
‘It makes no difference’
After Johnson on Thursday claimed ignorance of the scrubbing, Cruz then asked him if it would concern him if the testimony of his former employee, Haney, was accurate.
“Senator, I find this whole debate to be interesting, but I have to tell you,” Johnson replied, “when I was at the Department of Defense giving the legal sign-off on a lot of drone strikes, I didn’t particularly care whether the baseball card said Islamic extremist or violent extremist. I think this is very interesting, but it makes no difference to me in terms of who we need to go after, who is determined to attack our homeland.
Johnson insisted that “in practical terms, if we, in our efforts, here in the homeland, start giving the Islamic State the credence that they want, to be referred to as part of Islam, or some form of Islam, we get nowhere in our efforts to build bridges with Muslim communities.”
Cruz noted his question was whether or not information had been scrubbed.
“I would note the title of the hearing on Tuesday was ‘Willful Blindness,’ and your testimony to this full committee now is that you have no idea and apparently have no intention of finding out whether DHS materials had been scrubbed,” Cruz said.
“And you suggested just a moment ago that it’s a semantic difference,” the senator continued. “Well, I don’t believe it’s a semantic difference, that when you erase references to radical jihad, it impacts the behavior of law enforcement and national security to respond to red flags and prevent terrorist attacks before they occur.”
See Sen. Cruz question DHS Secretary Johnson:As WND reported Tuesday, a Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee chaired by Cruz held a hearing titled “Willful Blindness: Consequences of Agency Efforts to Deemphasize Radical Islam in Combating Terrorism” in which Haney testified.
Cruz chastised his Democrat colleagues on the panel for showing no concern about Haney’s testimony.
“Apparently, the Orwellian censorship of law enforcement materials and intelligence materials is not a concern to my colleagues,” Cruz said.
“And at a time when we’re facing a global war on terror, I would hope that my colleagues on the Democratic side of the aisle will express real concern about a censorship and editing of law enforcement materials.”
Emphasizing his point about the administration’s propensity to scrub mention of Islam, Cruz pointed to the recent 9-1-1 transcript in which Orlando killer Omar Mateen’s declaration of allegiance to ISIS was redacted. The senator used a chart to illustrate the fact that the 9/11 report used the word “jihad” 126 times while there are zero occurrences of the word in more recent administration documents related to terrorism.
Sen. Ted Cruz questions DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee June 30, 2016 (Screenshot C-Span video)
In his first opportunity to ask questions, Cruz told Haney his testimony before the committee is “exceptionally important.”
“I commend both members of the media and the American public to examine your testimony closely, because you have described a systematic policy, indeed of scrubbing, sanitizing, erasing references to radical Islam,” Cruz told the recently retired DHS officer.
In addition, Haney said, a highly successful case he helped develop as a member of one of the National Targeting Center’s advanced units was shut down by Hillary Clinton’s State Department and the DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties out of concern for the “rights” of foreign Muslims. And after Haney retired honorably last year, he discovered that had his case continued, it might have prevented both the Orlando and the San Bernardino attacks.
Along with the quashing of the case in June 2012, the administration subsequently ordered the deletion of an additional 67 records concerning a related network.
Note: Media wishing to interview the authors of “See Something, Say Nothing” can contact them here.
See a trailer for “See Something, Say Nothing”:
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/07/house-bill-would-force-obama-to-combat-radical-islam/#9IRVGUEQdEUof3x4.99My comments: Obama and Johnson are Determined to make the US vulnerable to Muslim Attacks by Scrubbing vital information about Islamic activities and relationships. They want Nothing that might impinge on bringing more Muslims to the Us. Their Goal is the TRANSFORMATION of America into a godless, Socialist, Secular Humanist STATE and they will not let a Few Dead Americans stand in their way.
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