Muslim congressman defends CAIR

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn.

A Muslim congressman says there is no need to investigate interns who may be placed with members of strategic security committees by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., who took his oath of office holding his hand on a Quran instead of a Bible and had CAIR staff members working on his campaign, read a statement in Congress criticizing the call for an investigation.

Lawmakers John Shadegg, R-Ariz.; Sue Myrick, R-N.C.; Paul Broun, R-Ga.; and Trent Franks, R-Ariz., earlier asked the House sergeant at arms to investigate whether the D.C.-based Muslim group carried out its plan, revealed in the book "Muslim Mafia" by Dave Gaubatz and Paul Sperry.

In another letter, this one to Attorney General Eric Holder, the House members asked the Justice Department to reveal to Congress members why CAIR was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terror-finance case in U.S. history.

The lawmakers, referring to findings about CAIR's association with terrorism in the Holy Land Foundation case in Texas, wrote in the letter to House Sergeant at Arms Wilson Livingood that they are concerned in light of revelations in the book "Muslim Mafia" that CAIR "has made it a strategic goal to influence Members of Congress on the Judiciary, Intelligence and Homeland Security Committees."

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The letter to Holder, noting the FBI cut formal ties with CAIR as a result of the Holy Land case, asked the Department of Justice to provide each Congress member with "a summary of the evidence and findings by the DOJ and FBI which led them to name CAIR an unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorism trial."

"We also ask that this summary include an appendix containing complete documents and evidence produced during the Holy Land trial that shows how CAIR has ties to Hamas," the Palestinian terrorist group, the lawmakers wrote.

The letter to Livingood cited "Muslim Mafia" reporting CAIR has "created an internal electronic mailing list, called 'Policy-net' to influence policy. It also states that associates of CAIR lobbied Members of Congress in order to weaken the Patriot Act and other critical law-enforcement tools used to protect America's national security."

"Due to the seriousness of this issue, we ask that you work with Members of Congress on the House Judiciary, Homeland Security, and Intelligence Committees to determine if CAIR was successful in placing interns in any of their offices," the four Congress members wrote.

"We also ask that you review evidence, produced by the FBI and DOJ, regarding CAIR's ties to Hamas and determine if CAIR is a security threat. If you find that CAIR is a security threat, we ask that you take the appropriate security measures."

In response, Ellison read a statement on the House floor Monday that condemned the idea of investigating interns who may have ulterior motives in their work on Capitol Hill.

"The idea that we should investigate Muslim interns as spies is a blow to the very principle of religious freedom that our founding fathers cherished so dearly," Ellison said.

"If anything, we should be encouraging all Americans to engage in the U.S. political process; to take part in, and to contribute to, the great democratic experiment that is America," he said.

"We ask these charges be disavowed and we issue a hearty welcome to interns and staff of all creeds, color, ethnicities and sexual orientation," Ellison said.

The Minnesota Star-Tribune reported Ellison has had a long relationship with CAIR.

As WND reported earlier, the House members publicized their claims at a Capitol Hill press conference that took place despite protests and threats from CAIR. The Muslim group's legal counsel sent a fax to the lawmakers Oct. 13 alleging the authors of the new book, counter-terrorism expert P. David Gaubatz and "Infiltration" author Paul Sperry, had engaged in "criminal actions" and warning that a report already had been filed with law enforcement authorities.

Myrick wrote the foreword to "Muslim Mafia," which includes internal CAIR documents obtained in a six-month undercover operation, declaring the book finally provides the "proof" that radical Muslim "agents living among us have a plan in place, and they are successfully carrying out that subversive plan."

"Muslim Mafia" uncovered confidential CAIR memos revealing that in one year alone, officials with the terror-supporting front group made 72 separate trips to Congress to lobby against the Patriot Act. The same year Congress met fewer than 150 days.

U.S. prosecutors believe CAIR, while claiming to be a civil-rights group, is actually a front group for Hamas and other terrorists. The Justice Department stated in September 2007 during its prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation in Dallas – the largest terror-financing case in history – that CAIR "has been identified by the government at trial as a participant in an ongoing and ultimately unlawful conspiracy to support a designated terrorist organization, a conspiracy from which CAIR never withdrew."

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