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

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

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Reps. John Shadegg (R-AZ), Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) and Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) at news conference about CAIR today.

Anti-Terrorism Caucus, CAIR, Chris Gaubatz, Corey Saylor, Ibrahim Hooper, Intern Dave Marshall, Intern Spy vs. Intern Spy, John Shadegg, Muslim Mafia, Nihad Awad, Paul Broun, Sue Myrick, WND Books, World Net Daily

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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":

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.

Late Update: Here are the video highlights of the press conference.