Frank Gaffney is the Founder and President of the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C. (www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org) The Center is a not-for-profit, non-partisan educational corporation established in 1988. Under Mr. Gaffney's leadership, the Center has been nationally and internationally recognized as a resource for timely, informed and penetrating analyses of foreign and defense policy matters.
Mr. Gaffney is the host of Secure Freedom Radio (www.securefreedomradio.org ), a nationally-syndicated radio program heard weeknights throught the country. On Secure Freedom Radio, Mr. Gaffney addresses current and emerging threats to national security, sovereignty and our ways of life. Featured guests have included Newt Gingrich, John Bolton, and many current and former policymakers and elected officials.
Mr. Gaffney is the lead-author of War Footing: Ten Steps America Must Take to Prevail in the War for the Free World (Naval Institute Press, 2005). With a foreword by former CIA Director R. James Woolsey, an introduction by Victor Davis Hanson and contributions from thirty-two other accomplished security policy practitioners, this highly acclaimed volume constitutes an "owners manual" for the new global conflict in which America finds itself engaged - the War for the Free World. War Footing draws upon the work program of the Center for Security Policy and offers practical steps for mobilizing the Nation and other freedom-loving peoples to enable their victory over those who would destroy them.
Mr. Gaffney also contributes actively to the security policy debate in his capacity as a weekly columnist for the Washington Times, TownHall.com, and JewishWorldReview.com. He is a contributor to National Review Online and his columns also appear periodically in WorldNetDaily.com, the New York Post and FrontPageMagazine.com. He is a featured weekly contributor to Hugh Hewitt's nationally syndicated radio program and a frequent guest on syndicated programs with hosts like: Lars Larsen, Monica Crowley, Janet Parshall, Michael Reagan and Jim Bohannan. In addition, he appears often on national and international television and radio news programs. Over the years, his op.ed. articles have appeared in such publications as: The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New Republic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Los Angeles Times, National Review, Newsday, American Legion Magazine, and Commentary.
In April 1987, Mr. Gaffney was nominated by President Reagan to become the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy, the senior position in the Defense Department with responsibility for policies involving nuclear forces, arms control and U.S.-European defense relations. He acted in that capacity for seven months during which time, he was the Chairman of the prestigious High Level Group, NATO's senior politico-military committee. He also represented the Secretary of Defense in key U.S.-Soviet negotiations and ministerial meetings.
From August 1983 until November 1987, Mr. Gaffney was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy under Assistant Secretary Richard Perle.
From February 1981 to August 1983, Mr. Gaffney was a Professional Staff Member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, chaired by Senator John Tower (R-Texas). And, in the latter 1970's, Mr. Gaffney served as an aide to the late Senator Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson (D-Washington) in the areas of defense and foreign policy.
Mr. Gaffney holds a Master of Arts degree in International Studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.
Mr. Gaffney's leadership has been recognized by numerous organizations including: the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award (1987), the U.S. Business and Industry Council's Defender of the National Interest Award (1994), the Navy League of the United States' "Alfred Thayer Mahan Literary Achievement Award" (1999), and the Zionist Organization of America's "Louis Brandeis Award" (2003).
Frank Gaffney
It Can’t Be True: More on that Missile Defense Agency logo
by Frank GaffneyIn a post here Wednesday, under the headline “Can This Possibly Be True?,” I called attention to a “new” logo being used by the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA) on the grounds that it bore a disconcerting resemblance to an amalgamation of the Obama campaign’s logo and the symbols of Islam, the crescent and a single star. It turns out the answer is “no,” it isn’t true that the MDA’s logo is exactly new or, apparently, that it reflects an Obama-directed redesign.
We have since learned that the logo has been used at the MDA website since at least October 2009. Matters are made more confusing by the fact that the agency continues to use its older shield-like logo for online and other purposes. The contract for a complete rebranding for MDA was let in 2007, during the Bush administration, although much of the work appears to have been done in 2008 in follow-on contracts during the presidential campaign in which the Obama logo was much in evidence.
It has also been observed that – rather than embracing the symbolic crescent and star, they could be interpreted as the targets of the intercepting swoosh in the MDA’s latest logo. If so, the 2009 design would presumably be offensive to Islamists, rather than evidence of submission to them.
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Can This Possibly Be True? New Obama Missile Defense Logo Includes A Crescent
by Frank GaffneyThe Obama administration’s determined effort to reduce America’s missile defense capabilities initially seemed to be just standard Leftist fare — of a piece with the Democratic base’s visceral hostility to the idea of protecting us against ballistic missile threats. A just-unveiled symbolic action suggests, however, that something even more nefarious is afoot.
The former would be bad enough, starting with Candidate Obama’s pledge to block “unproven missile defenses.” Once in office, he cut over a billion dollars from the Missile Defense Agency’s budget. He cancelled the deployment of interceptors and radars in Eastern Europe designed to defend this country, as well as our allies over there.
Among other reprehensible actions, Team Obama terminated the nation’s only program capable of providing a near-term ability to intercept ballistic missiles early in their flight (i.e., the boost-phase). This Airborne Laser Program nonetheless was successfully tested earlier this month — destroying not one but two missiles similar to those arrayed against us and our friends today and making the case that such systems should be operationalized and deployed as a matter of the utmost urgency.
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February Fundraiser for Convicted Terrorist Supporter in Al-Awlaki’s Mosque
by Frank GaffneyOn Saturday, February 13, the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia – about 20 minutes from the White House - held a fundraiser dinner to raise money for Sabri Benkhala’s various legal appeals. (They’re holding an even bigger fundraiser in April, which may be attended by some well-known elected officials – more on that later….) Benkhala is serving a 10-year term in a federal prison for perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to the FBI.
According to a February 5, 2007 statement from the Department of Justice, “Benkahla was convicted of making materially false statements both in his grand jury appearances in 2004, as well as to the FBI in 2004. These false statements included his denial of his involvement with an overseas jihad training camp in 1999, as well as his asserted lack of knowledge about individuals with whom he was in contact.”
If you want to fundraise for a jailed jihadist, Dar Al-Hijrah is definitely the $40-donation-for-a-halal-chicken-dinner venue of choice. Dar Al-Hijrah’s jihadist credentials are impeccable:
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Federal Reserve Bank of New York Subpoenaed in AIG Fraud Case
by Frank GaffneyHere’s the latest in the question of the New York Fed, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and the AIG bailout, as we’ve covered here at Big Government before (here and here). Last year, Iraq war vet Kevin Murray brought a lawsuit against the Treasury Department and Ben Bernanke (Murray vs. Geithner, et al) for its acquisition of AIG– a scheme that made the US taxpayer the world’s largest provider of Shariah-compliant insurance products. Lawyers David Yerushalmi and The Thomas More Law Center’s Robert Muise found, in the course of discovery, that that was just the tip of the iceberg.
Yerushalmi and Muise quickly realized that, in acquiring 77.9% of AIG, the New York Fed may have set up an illegal trust, with the knowledge that what they were to do was illegal. Tuesday, Murray’s attorneys issued a subpoena for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
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Federal Court: No, the Government May Not Prevent Further Discovery of the Takeover of AIG
by Frank GaffneyThis week we broke the story of possible criminal wrongdoing in the government takeover of insurance giant AIG. In the last several months, the US government has tried, unsuccessfully, to throw out plaintiff Kevin Murray’s case, alleging that the government’s takeover of AIG puts it in the position of supporting and promoting Islam and Shariah finance.
In the discovery process attorneys for Murray, David Yerushalmi and Robert Muise (of the Thomas More Law Center), discovered that the takeover itself may have been illegal, and have attempted to get Treasury Secretary under oath to try and untangle this mess. Again, the Fed and the Treasury Department tried to stonewall.
This past Tuesday, Federal district court judge Lawrence P. Zatkoff rejected the Treasury Department’s and the Fed’s effort to prevent any further discovery while the government attempts to convince the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to overrule Judge Zatkoff’s earlier ruling rejecting the government’s motion to dismiss the federal lawsuit challenging the government’s takeover of AIG on First Amendment-Establishment Clause grounds.
Tim Geithner: The “extraordinary move to depose a sitting Treasury Secretary”
The lawsuit, captioned Murray v. Geithner et al., was brought by attorneys David Yerushalmi and Robert Muise, representing the plaintiff, Kevin Murray, a tax payer and former combat Marine who served in Iraq. The federal lawsuit alleges that the U.S. government’s takeover and financial bailout of AIG was in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
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Shariah Finance, Criminal Wrongdoing in the AIG Takeover: Will the Special Inspector General for the TARP Funds Investigate the Illegal Trust?
by Frank GaffneyYesterday we broke the story of possible criminal wrongdoing in regards to the bailout of AIG by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, then Director of the New York Federal Reserve, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
It appears that, through it’s 77.9% control of AIG’s equity and voting rights, the NYFed “sought to accomplish an illegal financial transaction through false means” by creating an “independent”: trust that was in fact not independent, placing it “in violation of federal anti-money laundering statutes (18 USC § 1956).” Here we elaborate a bit further, laying out the issue in the text of a letter submitted to Neil Barofsky, Special Inspector General for TARP (SIGTARP)– as the government takeover of AIG was accomplished using funds provided to the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
First, however, some context: Crucially, these facts were discovered while securities litigator David Yerushalmi and the Thomas More Law Center was representing Iraq War vet Kevin Murray in Murray vs. Geithner, et al. Mr. Murray is rightfully horrified that the very doctrines of the enemy he faced in combat would be promoted by the US government. Specifically, prior to the U.S. government’s takeover of the insurance giant AIG, the company was the world’s leading promoter of Shariah-compliant finance products and businesses. Bailing out and forcefully (and illegally) taking ownership of AIG put the American taxpayer in the position of advocating Shariah-compliant finance, which is troubling on many levels:
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Geithner and Bernanke: Laundering Money Through an Illegal Trust?
by Frank GaffneyThis afternoon on Secure Freedom Radio we announced a breaking news story concerning the Administration’s ongoing cover-up of AIG financial wrong-doing. In an interview with David Yerushalmi, senior litigator on the Murray v. Geithner et al lawsuit, we expose possible fraud, money-laundering and criminal activity.
As Yerushalmi says in the interview, “So here’s what we find out in the midst of discovery when we depose the Treasury Department’s deponent and the Fed and get documents, here’s what we’ve learned: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York at the time that it structured the debt that it was going to give AIG insisted that not only did it get the debt, not only would it get principal and interest payments and collateral for that, it wanted 80% of AIG, precisely 77.9% of the shares and the voting rights. But the Federal Reserve Bank and Geithner knew that it was illegal for the Fed system whether there’s a Fed or the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to own that, so what did they do….”
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The IRS and CAIR
by Frank Gaffney
On November 17, 2009, a prominent Senator and five leading Members of Congress sent a letter to the IRS asking for an investigation of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) concerning their possible violation of the Lobbying Disclosure Act which limits the expenditures a non-profit can spend on lobbying If CAIR has exceeded the limits of that law, they risk losing their non-profit status. Other penalties may be more severe: if the Secretary of the Senate or Clerk of the House of Representatives determines that CAIR should have registered and find “a knowing violation by a preponderance of the evidence,” CAIR could be “subject to a civil fine of not more than $200,000, depending on the extent and gravity of the violation,” and if CAIR “knowingly and corruptly failed to comply,” they could be subject to imprisonment up to 5 years. Our separate analysis of CAIR tax returns, compared to audio evidence recorded in 2006, reveals another potential issue for IRS investigators – more on that follows below…
The November 17 letter to the IRS was signed by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), Ranking Member on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The members of Congress signing the letter also have extensive experience in intelligence, counter-terrorism and investigations:
- Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC), Deputy Whip, founder of the Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus, who also serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
- Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), who serves on the Judiciary Committee and the Armed Services Committee
- Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA), who serves on the United States House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing, and Terrorism Risk Assessment
- Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ), who serves on the Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming
- Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), who serves on the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs for the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
Our own investigation revealed another problem CAIR may have with the IRS.
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Has CAIR Violated the Iranian Assets Control Regulations?
by Frank GaffneyOn November 12 2009, the federal government moved to seize four mosques and a New York City skyscraper owned by the Alavi Foundation, a group allegedly under the direct control of the Iranian government. The following day, the Washington Times exposed the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) for allegedly lobbying on behalf of the Iranian government in violation of the Lobbying Disclosure Act and the Foreign Agents Registration Act. We believe that a third U.S.-based group may be guilty of illegal ties to Iran under the Iranian Assets Control Regulations: the Council On American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
On November 18, 2006 and November 23, 2008, CAIR held their gala annual fundraisers at the Marriott hotel in Arlington, Virginia. We’ve posted previously that the Interests Section of Iran attended both events. Because the U.S. and Iran do not have diplomatic relations, the Interests Section of Iran, sponsored by the Embassy of Pakistan, functions as the defacto embassy representing Iran’s government.
At the 2008 event, we recorded video of Master of Ceremonies and then CAIR-Tampa Executive Director Ahmed Bedier giving personal thanks to “the Interests Section of Iran” for their support:
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The Incredible Shrinking CAIR
by Frank GaffneyLast week, right after the Fort Hood shootings by Major Nidal Malik Hasan that killed thirteen people and wounded thirty, the Council on American Islamic Relations showed up on PBS and MSNBC with their three standard talking points, here paraphrased:
- So sorry about the dead and wounded, but…
- The media’s real concern should be the possible backlash that could maybe happen sometime against Muslim Americans… and most important…
- IT IS FORBIDDEN to report or analyze the shooter’s jihadist motivations!
Or as Nihad Awad, Executive Director of CAIR instructed MSNBC’s Chris Matthews:
“I’m really not happy to see that his religion is becoming the subject…even if this guy uttered the words Allahu Akhbar or God is great, so what? It tells me that this is an isolated incident…We need to find out how he thinks and what he did, but I will NEVER come to the conclusion that religion is the motive…”
Media outlets like leftwing MSNBC and PBS give CAIR airtime because of the group’s claim to the title of “America’s largest Islamic civil liberties group.” But that claim rests on a smoke and mirrors illusion of political support from Muslim Americans and the U.S. Congress. That political support for CAIR seems to be diminishing and indeed nearing the vanishing point. In fact, much of their current support appears to derive from foreign sources. As a matter of stated policy, CAIR openly solicits and accepts donations from foreign embassies, foreign organizations and individuals from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and other Middle Eastern states.
However, even that foreign support can’t conceal the reality that CAIR is a rapidly shrinking organization that may be approaching obsolescence. A look at just three printed programs distributed in 2006, 2008 and 2009 to attendees at CAIR’s annual fundraisers, and their most recent publicly available IRS tax documents, shows an unrelenting downward trend in their public support over the last five years. The numbers don’t lie, and they are drawn from CAIR’s own public documents.
So you don’t have to wait for Hollywood’s remake next year of The Incredible Shrinking Man ; a real-life remake is going on in Washington starring the controversial lawfare and lobbying group, The Incredible Shrinking Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Let us count the ways that CAIR is shrinking:
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Why You Should Care About CAIR….
by Frank Gaffney
Over the next month, we will be exposing new evidence about the activities of the Council on American Islamic Relations, known as CAIR. The evidence – and ensuing requests for formal investigations of CAIR – will be submitted to members of Congress, to the Departments of Justice and Treasury, as well as to the public here at Big Government. To set the scene, here’s a brief “CAIR for Dummies” backgrounder from author Paul Sperry, whose just-published best-seller Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that’s Conspiring to Islamize America unmasks CAIR and its foreign backers:
The Council on American-Islamic Relations bills itself as a “civil-rights advocacy group,” much like the NAACP, but for Muslims
However, the FBI says that far from being a benign nonprofit, CAIR is a front group for Hamas terrorists and the radical Muslim Brotherhood in America. And the bureau recently cut off formal ties to CAIR’s national office in Washington and all 30 of its branch offices across the country.
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U.S. Congress and Iran – Commingling at CAIR?
by Frank Gaffney[PREVIOUSLY: On Friday, we presented the undercover video from the 2008 CAIR Annual banquet showing that the "Interests Section of Iran" - the defacto embassy of Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism as named by the U.S. State Department - was thanked by Master of Ceremonies Ahmed Bedier for their support. And the "Interests Section of Iran" was also listed in the "Thanks To" section on page 20 in the 2008 printed program.]
October 24 – tonight’s the big night for the 15th annual fundraiser for CAIR – the Council on American Islamic Relations, named by the Justice Department in 2007 as an unindicted terrorism finance co-conspirator because of their ties to Hamas, a terrorist organization. This event should be of particular interest to Mr. Stuart A. Levey, Under Secretary in the Treasury Department’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence – as well as to Attorney General Eric Holder at the Department of Justice – because of the apparent support for CAIR’s 2008 annual fundraiser by the “Interests Section of Iran.”
Members of Congress should also note two matters of concern from the 2008 annual fundraiser, now that Big Government has presented documentary evidence that the “Interests Section of Iran” attended the event:
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Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) Thanks Iran For Its Support
by Frank GaffneyThis Saturday, the Council on American Islamic Relations will hold its 15th Annual fundraiser in Arlington, Virginia. Last year, our investigative teams went undercover to the November 23, 2008 CAIR 14th Annual Banquet fundraiser, and secretly videotaped the proceedings. They were there to videotape the moment when Nihad Awad, Executive Director of CAIR, was served court papers for a civil suit for fraud, now on appeal. But to their surprise, our team discovered that six of the tables at the fundraiser were identified with signs for foreign embassies officially attending the event: the embassies of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. Those same embassies were listed in the CAIR 14th Annual Banquet’s printed program (see below) in a section titled “Thanks To: ” on page 20, which appears to give credit to supporters for the fundraiser.
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