TPM asked White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs during his briefing today about the Republicans who claim the Council on American Islamic Relations planted Muslim spies on Capitol Hill.
When we asked if President Obama was aware of the Republican charges, which have not moved an inch since they first announced the claims last week, Gibbs demurred.
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Four Republican lawmakers have not submitted a request to the House sergeant at arms to investigate a threat that one of the four described as a terrorist-linked group possibly "running influence operations or planting spies in key national security-related offices."
A spokesperson for the sergeant at arms told TPMmuckraker this morning that the office was aware of the charge by GOP members at a press conference Wednesday that the Council on American-Islamic Relations planted Muslim intern spies on the Hill for purposes of subversion. But, says spokesperson Kerri Hanley, the office hasn't received a request for an investigation, and it wouldn't launch any probe until such a request is made.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (14) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)Suhail Khan has seen this happen before. He was working as a senior political appointee for the Bush White House through Sept. 11, 2001, until this past January.
The same crowd of what he calls "professional bigots" -- people, he says, like Frank Gaffney and Dave Gaubatz -- have launched campaigns against specific Muslims working in the government, accusing them of terrorist sympathies.
The only thing different about the call by four House Republicans this week for authorities to investigate alleged "infiltration" of the Hill by Muslim interns, Khan told TPMmuckraker today, is that "they're not going after individuals by name."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (18) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Change your name. Grow a beard and learn the ways of Islam. Present yourself at the Council on American Islamic Relations. Acquire an internship. Wear a wire. Take whatever isn't bolted down.
That's the mission Chris Gaubatz accepted last year. And Gaubatz, who sells insurance for a living, told TPMmuckraker in an email interview that he never once felt guilty during the six months as a Muslim intern spy and that, well, some of the CAIR folks were pretty darn nice, despite any terrorist sympathies.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (38) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (12)Remember how the House sergeant at arms hadn't heard of the call Wednesday by four GOP lawmakers for a probe of alleged infiltration of the Hill by Muslim intern subversives?
It turns out that's because Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC), the de facto leader of the group, who also wrote the foreword for the book on which the charges are based, hasn't yet submitted a request for an investigation, Myrick's office tells TPMmuckraker.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (13) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Last night, Rachel Maddow took on the "Muslim intern spy" story we've been covering. Unfortunately, she didn't touch on the real intern spy angle here -- that of the man who grew a beard and posed as a Muslim to infiltrate the Council on American-Islamic Relations as an intern.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (6) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)We told you earlier about the strong statements from Reps. John Conyers (D-MI) and André Carson (D-IN) denouncing the call by four Republicans for the sergeant at arms to probe whether a Muslim advocacy group planted "intern spies" on the Hill.
But it looks like Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) was first out of the gate on this one.
She released this statement yesterday:
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (13) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)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.'"
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (36) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (11)Chris Gaubatz, who went undercover as a Muslim to infiltrate the Council on American-Islamic Relations for a new book from WorldNetDaily, posed for a picture with Muslim Democratic Rep. André Carson (IN) while under guise as "CAIR intern" Dave Marshall.
The picture with Carson, who became the second Muslim member of Congress when he took office in 2008, was taken at the convention of the Islamic Society of North America in Ohio last year.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (9) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) is today pressing on in the campaign against supposed infiltration of terrorist-linked Muslim interns in key national security committees on Capitol Hill.
As we told you yesterday, the charges are based on a book published by WorldNetDaily, which draws on the work of an actual intern spy, the son of the co-author who went undercover at the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
An animated Myrick complained on Fox News this morning that "quite frankly, [CAIR makes] everybody else look like they're being paranoid by saying anything about them."
Here's the video of the Myrick segment:
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (32) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)Here it is, the highlights of the press conference in which four House Republicans, relying on the work of a WND-published book based an intern spy's infiltration of the Council on American Islamic Relations, charging that CAIR itself is planting scary Muslim interns on national security committees.
The representatives in the video after the jump are: Sue Myrick (R-NC), John Shadegg (R-AZ), Paul Broun (R-GA) and Trent Franks (R-AZ).
J'accuse!
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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.
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