Inflammatory Committee Terror Report Helps McCain/Lieberman Target Obama

An inflammatory first report on the domestic threat of "violent Islamist extremism" issued a week ago via the Senate Committee on Homeland Security turns out not to have been drafted by the Committee at all. The report was drafted solely under the direction of Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman (CT)-- a pro-war "Independent Democrat"-- and ranking Republican Susan Collins (ME). It appears that other members of the Committee, including Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), had no part in authoring the controversial document, titled: "Violent Islamist Extremism, the Internet, and the Homegrown Terrorism Threat."(PDF). "Neither Senator Obama nor his staff had any input into the report," said the spokesperson in Obama's Washington, DC, office Wednesday evening.

The international news service Reuters carried a story identifying the report as coming from the Homeland Security Committee as a whole, and the confusion is understandable. Senator Collins's office in DC, however, stressed that "It was never a full Committee report" and that the cover and inside text of the report itself made that clear. The spokesperson added that "There is a lot of cooperation on this Committee, it is very bipartisan."

Bipartisan perhaps is not the proper word to describe this report, as Lieberman, the chair, is campaigning against his former political party, the Democrats. Nor is it just an interesting anecdote that Democratic Senator and presumptive Democratic nominee for president Obama happens to sit on the Committee, since the report (and the Committee's threatened follow-up reports on "Violent Islamist Extremism") can easily be turned against Obama by his political adversaries.

It has become clear that one of the leading themes of the general election campaign being promoted by Republicans is that Obama is weak in the fight against terrorism. McCain has already personally attempted to tie Obama to the controversial Palestinian political party Hamas and President Bush yesterday in a speech to the Israeli parliament transparently likened Obama to "Nazi appeasers" for his willingness to "negotiate with terrorists and radicals." Lieberman's senate committee report, therefore, is uniquely positioned to influence the political discourse. If Obama fails to embrace the document and the hard-line national security legislation it is preparing the ground for, the case may be made that he is choosing to ignore the import of his own congressional committee's findings, that he is knowingly failing to appreciate the threat of "radical Islam" here and abroad and is therefore willfully soft on terrorism.

At least three other Democratic Senators--Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI), Thomas R. Carper (D-DE); and Carl Levin, (D-MI)--who sit on the Committee with Obama had no role in the writing of the report, according to their DC Senate office spokespeople. I placed calls to the DC offices of all members of the Committee over several days, but most had yet to return phone calls or emails sent to their press secretaries when this article was published.

"Minority staff reports" and "majority staff reports" are common enough, but this report-- coming from the ostensibly bipartisan leaders of the committee-- can leave the impression that it took into account the views of all of the committee members, which it clearly does not. Reports authored together by the majority and minority staff of a committee are not unheard of and in fact come more often than usual from the Homeland Security committee, but they are not generally common. In addition, Capitol Hill insiders say the report was primarily driven by Lieberman's staff. One Democratic Party operative grumbled that the staff didn't even send Democratic members of the Committee courtesy copies of the report before it was issued.

Lieberman is no neophyte on the political scene. He surely knows the report, its release timed as it is to coincide with the heating up of the general election campaigns, will be used for political ends-- to whiplash Barack Obama and to push both Obama and Hillary Clinton toward hard-line policy positions on the Middle East, as well as to more generally soften opposition to civil liberties abuses by the Bush Administration. More than any serious attempt to examine the serious issues it addresses, the report seems a mere election year political trick.

A spokesperson for the Senate Committee said Thursday afternoon, however, that there was "zero truth" to assertions that the report was politically motivated. "We held six hearings going back for over a year. There were multiple drafts. It was a long process. The staff worked hard on it. There was never any consideration of the political impact." She said that in an election year season when "even the weather is being interpreted through a political lens," such speculation is common but regrettable. There was "absolutely no connection to Obama" or the campaign, she continued. The report came out of Senator Lieberman's deep and sincere interest in the topic and was issued when it was finished.

The Lieberman report has been condemned by critics as based on dangerously thin analysis and so a threat to freedom of expression, civil liberties, and civil rights. The report echoes an equally flawed legislative bill stalled in Congress titled "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007," which I criticized last November.

Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office, summarized the ACLU response to the report: "Once we begin trying to regulate belief systems, we have veered perilously far from the Constitution."

The Defending Dissent Foundation (on whose board I sit) coordinated an open letter to the Senate Committee even before the report was released. According to the letter, already signed by 20 civil liberties groups:

We must be clear; the need to prevent criminal acts of violence is unquestionable. Studying and understanding the origin of terrorism and what provokes violence is an important element of prevention. But one of the greatest challenges to countering such movements is drawing the line between advocacy of ideas, including violence, and taking concrete steps toward carrying out a violent act. It is also important to distinguish between violence that injures or kills people and minor acts of vandalism that are part of an act of civil disobedience. Properly viewed, dissent can be an antidote to terrorism, not a precursor to it.

More groups are signing onto the letter, already endorsed by civil liberties activists across the political spectrum from the Republican Liberty Coalition to United for Peace and Justice.

Senator Lieberman has pushed out a report that many experts say is full of superficial stereotyping of Muslims and grade-school analysis of terrorism. It seems one more way that Lieberman, the "Independent Democrat," is campaigning for Republican candidate McCain. Kate Phillips on the New York Times Politics Blog calls their dance "the McCain-Lieberman duet."

The Democratic Party is reluctant to criticize Lieberman because the Senate is home to 49 Republicans and 49 Democrats, with two independents (Lieberman and Bernie Sanders of Vermont) who line up with the Democrats in caucus, thus giving the Democrats a voting majority and senior status on Senate Committees. If Lieberman moves to caucus with the Republicans, it would mean the Senate was evenly divided, sending more tied votes to Vice President Dick Cheney, who serves as the President of the Senate. In addition, Democrats would no longer unilaterally control the chairs of all Senate committees, and would have to negotiate a power-sharing arrangement with Republicans.

There are certainly political groups who will use the report to fire bigoted salvos on behalf of McCain, just as they used falsehoods and fabrications to sink the candidacy of John Kerry. McCain at the time called the charges against Kerry "dishonest and dishonorable." Yet McCain, who has a long track record as a militarist., is the clear beneficiary of election year fear-mongering about Islam and terrorism, and has reached out to leaders of the Christian Right who have a track record of Islamophobia.

When McCain stood before the audience of some 2000 Christian conservatives last year at the FRC Action Values Voters "Washington Briefing" conference, it was already clear that he was seeking to mend fences with the Christian Right. Now McCain has cultivated support from apocalyptic preacher John Hagee, who has stated that "Jihad has come to America. If we lose the war to Islamic fascism, it will change the world as we know it." Hagee is not just talking about "radical Islam," he also believes that the Quran itself gives Muslims a mandate to kill Christians and Jews. According to Hagee, "Well, the Quran teaches that. Yes, it teaches that very clearly."

American Muslims have launched a campaign to encourage more precise language when linking Islam and terrorism, just what the Lieberman report fails to do. According to Religion News Service:

While Muslim Americans have made this argument for years, U.S. government officials have only recently adopted it. In March, the National Counterterrorism Center drafted a memo for the State Department urging diplomats to drop words like "jihadists" or "mujahedeen" (those engaged in jihad) when describing terrorists because it "unintentionally legitimizes their actions."

In fact, in January the Department of Homeland Security suggested that "We should not concede the terrorists' claim that they are legitimate adherents of Islam," according to a memo obtained by the Associated Press. This fact has already attracted attention in the blogosphere, but mainstream media have yet to offer any meaningful coverage of this entire episode. My first report on this matter was posted on the HuffingtonPost / OffTheBus last Monday.

The group Muslim Advocates notes that "The Senate report, issued by Senators Lieberman and Collins on May 8, 2008, with bold red letters on the title and provocative graphic photos of al Qaeda overseas, insinuated that American Muslims are ripe for radicalization and present a potential 'homegrown' security threat to the nation."

A letter critical of the report and asking for a dialogue has been sent to the committee by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), and Muslim Advocates. The letter notes that "Given that only one of nineteen witnesses before the committee represented the American Muslim community, we also urge you to include representative American Muslims at future hearings on Islam or the American Muslim community." The letter suggests that the report undermines its own stated goals, and points out:

As Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff testified to the committee, in response to a question from Senator Tester, "It is very important that ...we make clear that we are not racially profiling people. We are not imputing to people that they are dangerous or threatening because they are Muslim. ... We have to continually treat every American with the same respect that our Constitution requires, regardless of their heritage, regardless of what their religion is, and when that is not honored, that actually has a counterproductive effect." Unfortunately, the committee's report undermines fundamental American values (as well as its own stated recommendations) by encouraging alienating suspicion of several million Americans on the basis of their faith. Contrary to Secretary Chertoff's recommendations, it thus exacerbates the current climate of fear, suspicion and hatemongering of Islam and American Muslims.

Fear-mongering by Republicans about terrorism, Islam, and the Middle East is ratcheting up in the campaign, and Islamophobia has consequences, as I outlined in my previous post about the firing of school principal Debbie Almontaser, Muslim bashing is the New Witch Hunt.

Lieberman has a long track record of supporting an aggressive U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East that is tilted in favor of an aggressive stance by the government of Israel. This serves to mobilize that sector of the Christian Right known as "Christian Zionists," profiled by Max Blumenthal here on HuffPost in an article and video about Christians United for Israel, which McCain endorser Hagee heads. While some critics of U.S. foreign policy slip into a stereotypical conflation of Israel, the Israeli government, Jews, Zionism, and Christian Zionism, the relationships among "Culture, Religion, Apocalypse, and Middle East Foreign Policy" are well studied. Christian Zionists help push U.S. foreign policy in a bellicose direction that undermines chances for a lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis; a matter for reflection this week, when the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel is being celebrated.

The 2008 Christian Right Values Voters Summit scheduled for September places "immigration" and "radical Islam" just after "marriage and the family" on its list of the important "highlights" of the conference. For the past two years, the Values Voters conference and "Washington Briefing" has featured a range of Islamophobic speeches and publications. If McCain moves to the Political Right to shore up the Republican voter base in the Christian Right--which trial balloons about Gov. Mike Huckabee being considered for the VP slot make more plausible--then Islamophobic and anti-immigrant rhetoric will find an eager audience. Summit co-sponsor FRC Action is already bashing Obama.

Last year on HuffPost I wrote that "A McCain-Huckabee ticket, however, could pull voters to the polls across several core Republican constituencies mobilized around the economy and immigration." I should have added Islamophobia, because it clearly is going to play a role in election 2008, no matter who ends up as the final presidential standard bearers for the Republicans and Democrats.

Follow Chip Berlet on Twitter: www.twitter.com/cberlet

Comments

[Daddio1]

The last thing our world needs right now is more fear and war mongers. The upcoming election is possibly the last best opportunity to steer our world in a vitally healthier direction.

[Testtubebaby]

Oh Snap! The Democrats need to get a reality check and make sure he isn't in on any secrets before they strip him of his chairmanship on whatever committee he holds.

[Willl]

What is happening in this country raises concerns of false flag disasters:

Chip Berlet is seeing the big picture, his scope is narrow, writing about the tip of the ice berg. Checkout,
DemocracyNow interview about America's TEN steps to fascism:

http://www.democracynow.org/2007/11/28/the_end_of_america_feminist_social

Recovering our Constitutional Values will requiring the courage of many.

WE ARE OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD OF OZ, I guess this ain't Kansas anymore TOTO!

[comebackid]

Gee Connecticut what were you thinking? We were rid of this guy and you helped revive him!

Pretty Boy Joe should be made to go sit in the corner of the Senate floor with a dunce cap on for the remainder of his term. He needs to just shut up!

[Willl]

FORMER Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich has said he believes the bill is "unconstitutional" and has referred to the bill as a "thought crime" bill. The text of the passed HOUSE version is at (S1959 pending senate version is almost identical):

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-1955


A faint hope is that Berlet’s opinion will force the presidential candidates to address this issue, but admittedly this is not as sexy as gasoline prices and universal health care. THIS UNCONSTITUIONAL THREAT TO OUR HISTORIC FREEDOMS must stay bottled up in Liebermann's HS security committee forever!

Moreover, Nullification of historic habeas Corpus Rights, See Wiki entry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_corpus

and the Unconstitutional Collins Senate version of the bill, remain a threat to everyone under Liebermann’s ENDGAME strategy according to the SF Chronicle opinion titled: Rule by fear or rule by law?

Feb 4, 2008 the KBR contract is part of a Homeland Security plan titled ENDGAME, which sets as its ...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/04/ED5OUPQJ7.DTL

by Seiler, Hamburg

Also Check:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violent_Radicalization_and_Homegrown_Terrorism_Prevention_Act_of_2007

S. 1959/HR 1955 is a CHARADE. Street demonstrations have broken out in Maine over this "THOUGHT POLICE" and INTERNET CENSORSHIP bill.

[jdenham]

Gee Joe Liebermann supports the Republican talking points that we arent safe. Wonder why we arent safe? Could it be that GWB has failed to slow down Al-queda. They are much larger and organized today than in 2001. We have not been able to catch Osama Bin Laden in 7 years. But dont worry John McCain and Joe will hunt him down as soon as they are done with this election.
Anything that comes from Joe Liebermann is a lie and be treated as such. The politicians that spread fear to further their political goals should be shunned from society. I will be voting to remove these fear mongers from society.
Lets just hope he does not destroy America and Isreal with his war mongering rethoric. His new Committee Chairmanship in 2009 should be Committee in charge of toilet security in the Capitol. A fitting and just position for Senator Liebermann.

Oh an Connecticut what the hell were you thinking when you re-elected this guy?

[cubalibre]

Do you really think that we have nothing to fear?Do you really think that Iran and Syria and
most Middle Eastern countries do not want to see us obliterated?Why do you think 911
happened?Do you really think that all Arab countries were not celebrating after it happened?
Ask yourself why haven't we had another attack?Why did the first one happen?

[cubalibre]

I don't understand this argument, that these people are somehow excused from being
cold-blooded killers because at some point they were employed by us?So, if I hire a
baby sitter and then she murders my child. I should not seek the death penalty because
I hired her? She would still be a cold-blooded killer.
If all of this terrorism is a result of the war in Iraq.Then what was the reason for 911?
Why were people celebrating in the street in the middle east after it happened?

[Chakrora]

I don't think we should close our eyes to any attempts to limit our liberties no matter the intentions. You will soon end up afraid to have a political conversation even at home. In Irak (during Sadam Hussien era), the secret service even asks kids what their parents talk about at home. That's where we are going, if you give up you liberty little by little because of fear.
I agree with what CaptainHowdy said about the odds of being a victim of terrorism. The thing that scares the hell out of me, is the power we people are giving to the religious nuts across the word.

[ronmyers]

I have read much of the report and do not consider it a threat to civil liberties. The reaction of the ACLU and others is a knee jerk, as usual. I grant the report could use some more work but twhat end would be served by testimony of moderate muslims? I can not accept that if I have a mortal enemy who professes his religious faith as grounds to kill me, I must refrain from mentioning the name of such beliefs. Excuse me! And I am well aware of moderate muslims attempting to gain acceptance for a rewriting of the Koran in hopes of evolving a peace loving religion, and I applaud them.

[CaptainHowdy]

Oddly enough, the Christian Zionists mentioned in this article, support Israel and it's interest only because they believe that in order for their messiah to come back, Israel needs to first be destroyed, thereby fulfilling biblical prophesy.

Since these Christians are merely supporting Israel because they believe that it will bring about it's destruction, why aren't they too seen as enemies of Israel, just like Islam is?

The irony is simply mind boggling, to say the least.

By the way, during the Crusades, when the Christians hunted down and killed Jews (in addition to Muslims) by the thousands, the Jews were given sanctuary and protection by the Muslims.

My, my, how things have changed.

Again, the ironies are just utterly and astonishingly mind boggling.

[Chakrora]

I don't think anyone is trying to rewrite the Koran. I think you meant using more tolerant interpretations of it. All religions have been used for political gain and used to massacre millions of innocents at one time or another.

[CaptainHowdy]

It never ceases to amaze me, that so many Americans are actually stupid enough to allow themselves to be manipulated by the threat of their safety.

A brief glance at some relevant statistics shows just exactly how absurd this all is...

Over 15,000 are murdered in the US every year.

Over 20,000 die from the flu every year.

Over 40,000 people are killed in car accidents every year.

Your chances of getting killed in a terrorist attack are far, far less than many common every day activities, such as driving, walking down the street or just plain breathing.

Wake-up folks, you're being manipulated by complete and utter sociopaths, that will stop at nothing in order to gain more money and power, at your expense.

[twinfinfish]

Wouldn't it be more cost effective to use DHL or Fedex to courier these documents from the AIPAC offices to Capitol hill , instead of go-betweens like Lieberman ... he's rarely on time.

[3443649]

The photo of lieberman with this article, is a photo of "Evil Incarnate" to the umth degree!
Whatever it takes to dispence with this two- faced weasel should be done......Legal process of course! ;-)

[JonSmiley]

Lieberman's loyalties lie with Israel, not the United States. He sees the world through the prism of Israel, and wants us to fight wars against Israels enemies.

This is absolutely crucial to understand. Because once we do, we can identify the motives behind these dangerous policies that he advocates.

[Mitchell4A]

Lieberman is an embarrassment to the Democratic Party. He gets to keep his seniority in the Senate even as he mocks the Party by running around and campaigning with McCain. It is truly a shame that in the "real" political world, the Dem's believe that they have to hold on to this guy so that that can hold the Senate. The best remedy, a big Democratic win in the fall. Having Jim Webb as Obama's running mate could help out here. Also, he would be willing to tell Joe and Co to Stuff it.

"It's Going to be Webb for VP," http://msa4.wordpress.com/

[Chakrora]

I thought Lieberman is an Independent now.

[springsm]

Who knows WHAT Lieberman is.. CT are you proud now?

[americanwhocares]

The big weasel, Lieberman, is only needed now by the Democratic Party to maintain their majority in the Senate. After the Nov 08 elections, he won't be needed anymore, he will spend the rest of his pathetic career in the senate licking stamps for Senator Reid.

[larose501]

So he you go spinning some B.S. It is clear that the media thinks that the American public is really quite stupid, but what the media doesn't realize is that everyday Americans are on the front lines of the chaos and what the media says can't negate the average citizens reality in hard times that promises to get worse.That's why hope and change resonate so clearly. Also we're getting tired of the spin and hype. We want facts nothing but the facts!

[quest44]

Thank you larose !
Why don't we cut to the chase and tell the truth about this so called war on terror and that man with the turbin in Afganistan whose long been dead !
This war is not about terrorists its about oil and control of the middle east !
I am so sick of hearing the same fear mongering we heard at the start of this war and every time Bush and company want to scare people into compromising with them on an issue.
This propaganda is tailor made to make American's feel unsafe and therefore vote for a Republican war monger is getting old. Iran is not a real threat to the US it doesn't have the capablitity of doing us any harm and all this talk is just to prey on the naive who into believing Iran is a real threat.

Maybe we should spend more time investigating 9/11 and finding out who really perpertrated this horendous act on American's . Don't you even think its kind of odd that the eye witness accounts don't match the 9/11 commisions report ?

[imajoebob]

If (enough) Americans are as smart as you give credit, then why did W win in 2004? Why did Lieberman win in '06 in the state that has the best educated population? Why did so many West Virginia Democrats say they voted for Clinton because Obama is Muslim? Why do more people tune in to Beck and Limbaugh and Fox News than PBS and NPR?

If you add the majorities that vote for the fear mongers to the Americans who simply don't vote, you'll see you give far too much credit to Americans. Go overseas and you'll see that the negative image of America comes from 1) a fear mongering government run by fundamentalist radicals (not necessarily religious), and 2) a population that's stupid enough to support it.

The saddest part is that this is an accurate assessment.

[provgrays]

So Lieberman and Collins are now issuing propaganda disguised as official government findings? When you consider the recent Pentagon proganda that used retired generals as impartial "experts", it all fits together.

We are not living a free republic anymore.

[jcar]

It appears that Lieberman is using his committee chairmanship to stab Democrats in the back. Harry Reid should consider removing him as chair, even if it means that Lieberman will go caucus with the Republicans.

Dems. really don't have a majority anyway... at this point, why pretend?

[BethStuart]

Lieberman is in bed with Hagee as much as McCain is. Here is what Lieberman said at last year's CUFI conference organized by Hagee in Washington:

JOSEPH LIEBERMAN: Of describing Pastor Hagee in the words that the Torah uses to describe Moses, he is an "Ish Elokim," a man of God and those words really do fit him; and, I'd add something else, like Moses he's become the leader of a mighty multitude, even greater than the multitude that Moses led from Egypt to the promised land.

Check out this link if you want to see and hear Lieberman say it:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10052007/watch2.html

[Binx101]

Beth, that is great link and diligent exposure of this neocon propagandist.

It calls into question exactly what kind of inside con-job that persuaded him to select Lieberman as a running mate. Add Lieberman to voter fraud and the Supreme Court and that was the hat-trick that delivered us from evil - and deposited us directly into hell.

Any interview that Lieberman gives is peppered with subtle lies and micro slurs against Obama.

Obama has been unwavering - he almost seems allergic to the bait.

Unlike Bush though, as we described in today's article - The Kevin James of Politicians - Lieberman actually possesses a lot of information. He understands it, and then he converts it into propaganda almost effortlessly.

The DNC should be ashamed of themselves for not stomping him into submission when they had the chance. Next time it will be easy - but along the way he does a lot damage.

Binx101
The Almost Daily Binx
http://binx101.wordpress.com

[Chip Berlet - Huffpost Blogger]

Creepy! Talk2Action group blog has lots on Hagee.