Blue Collar Muse

Hesham Islam has been in the new recently. Well, not really. He has been covered by conservative news sites like World Net Daily, NRO and The Washington Times but there’s been precious little MSM coverage outside of that. Bloggers have also covered the news.

I wrote about it here. You can catch other stories at 1389 Blog, Atlas Shrugs, The Jawa Report and elsewhere.

Hesham is a close friend, confidant and advisor to Gordon England. England is the #2 man at the Department of Defense. The problem is that Hesham is also something of a mystery. Despite a DoD published biographical profile which described his early life as akin to a Hollywood thriller, there was more to Islam than met the eye. It all came to light after Hesham Islam used his influence to punish Stephen Coughlin, possibly the best Islamic analyst at the Pentagon. Coughlin’s contract was not renewed after Islam described him as a “Christian zealot with a poison pen”. That statement came after Coughlin’s Pentagon reports became increasingly alarmist with respect to Islamic activity which precipitated an ideological conflict with Hesham Islam.

What was unknown at the time was the truth about who Hesham Islam is. When Coughlin’s contract was not renewed, ClaudiaRosset wrote a superb piece at NRO on the matter and asked pointed questions about Hesham Islam’s history. Even under a casual scrutiny, it was unraveling. Republican Congressman Sue Myrick of NC, Co-Chair of the House Anti-Terrorism Caucus got involved trying to keep Coughlin’s expertise on the job as a crucial asset to our fight on terror.

In place of his crumbling, Hollywood blockbuster bio, a new picture emerged of Hesham Islam. Not only was he not the golden boy that Secretary England thought he was, he was not even neutral. It seems he may even be one of the bad guys!

… as a result of the ensuing firestorm that played out in the conservative press – led by Washington Times Pentagon reporter Bill Gertz – Islam was put under a microscope, and questions were raised regarding his background.

For example, Claudia Rosett of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies wrote a column challenging key claims in Islam’s official biography. Within days, a Defense Department profile of Islam was removed from the department’s website.

A Pentagon spokesman said it was “taken down in an attempt to reduce the rhetoric and the emotion surrounding this issue while we try to determine the facts.”

A senior U.S. official says the life story Islam presented now appears sketchy.

“His resume didn’t add up, and he knows it,” the official said. “He’s voluntarily leaving the government in March.”

At the same time, a report by terror expert Steven Emerson revealed that Islam, as special assistant to the deputy secretary of defense, has scheduled at least two meetings in the Pentagon with Syrian-tied radicals – including a leading member of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood – in direct violation of U.S. policy.

As WND previously reported, FBI officials believe Islam is involved with the U.S. branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and is helping its front groups run “influence operations” against the U.S. government.

“He’s a Muslim brother,” an FBI official told WND. “He’s a bad actor, and he’s made other unreported nefarious contacts.”

Islam has worked closely in the Pentagon with Muslim chaplain Abuhena M. Saifulislam, who as WND also previously reported, received his training at a radical Islamic school in Northern Virginia that was raided by federal authorities after 9/11.

Islam, whose son is active in the military, obtained one of the highest security clearances for classified information. Sources confirm he has sat in on Pentagon meetings in which intelligence clearance was restricted at the Top Secret/SCI (Sensitive Compartmented Information) level.

Regarding how such a man got into such a sensitive position with the ear of the second most powerful man at the Defense Department, there are few facts. It appears to be a relational issue. England and Islam had a relationship and Islam exploited it for a purpose that doesn’t seem to have the best interests of the US in mind. As such, it appears the responsibility is going to fall on England.

WND has learned:

… (an) FBI official warned that the Muslim aides are part of a conspiracy by Muslim Brotherhood fronts to run “influence operations” against the U.S. government.

“Their M.O. is to make nice for the very purpose of penetrating us,” he said, “and we just roll over for them, at least at the top levels.”

He says England, who also recently dedicated an Islamic prayer center at Quantico on the advice of Saifulislam, is blind to the threat.

“England doesn’t know it’s an influence operation that’s been laid at his door,” he said. “His lack of awareness is irresponsible.”

A senior U.S. official who has met with England says he was not even aware that a convicted terrorist and al-Qaida fund-raiser created the Pentagon’s Muslim chaplains corps.

Adurahman Alamoudi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader and founder of the American Muslim Council, placed Muslim chaplains throughout the military. He is now in jail on charges of terrorism. However, most of the chaplains he trained and sponsored are still in their current positions.

“The Islamic chaplains who serve were trained by a known terrorist,” said terrorism expert Steve Emerson.

Emerson says Islam, like Alamoudi, has invited “subversive” elements into U.S. military headquarters.

“Hesham Islam is an Islamist with a pro-Muslim Brotherhood bent who has brought in groups to the Pentagon who have been unindicted co-conspirators,” he said.

Emerson said a “Trojan horse” of subversives and potential spies have penetrated deep inside the Pentagon, and they are now bearing fruit with the ouster of Coughlin. Sources say Islam has high security clearance.

A former Pentagon colleague of Coughlin described Islam as a “gatekeeper,” who at a minimum, is blocking candid discussion of the religious nature of the threat posed by Muslim terrorists. Such action, William Gawthrop says, thwarts the U.S. war effort, because it denies military brass and rank-and-file the information they need to effectively fight the Islamist enemy.

Hesham Islam is not granting interviews these days. Nor has he been charged with any crime. He’s also not going to be working in government much longer. World Net Daily reports that Islam is voluntarily stepping away from government service in March. Hopefully he’ll be asked about some of these discrepancies before that happens. If there’s been damage done to US interests, it would be nice to know now as opposed to later.

Blue

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 at 3:56 pm and is filed under Blogroll, Muslim, Politics, Terrorism, War on Terror. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.