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.

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UPDATED and PROMOTED to TOP: Good News! Steve Coughlin will be reinstated and may get a promotion of sorts out of the deal. 1389 Blog reports on an Atlas post about an Andrew Bostom piece on the matter.

1389 blog alerted me to an article which needs to be read by everyone.

It outlines the story of a man named Hesham Islam, currently serving as a senior advisor and confidant of Gordon England, the man in Paul Wolfowitz’s old post, the #2 position at the Defense Department, Deputy Secretary. England describes Islam as

“my personal close confidante,” “my interlocutor,” a man who “represents me to the international community,” and “assists me in my own outreach efforts.” Photos taken on the Washington’s diplomatic reception circuit show England and Islam side-by-side, chatting up contacts. Last October, England described Islam to a Pentagon in-house reporter as a man with “wonderful friendships and relationships” which allow Islam to “give me extraordinarily good advice in dealing with countries and people.” England added, “I take his advice, and I listen to him all the time.”

All that would be fine and well if Islam’s story checks out and if he could be demonstrated to be on the side of the United States in its current struggle with Islamo-fascism. However, the article at NRO by Claudia Rossett outlines some very disturbing facts about Hesham Islam. After Stephen Coughlin, the Pentagon’s “top expert on Islamist doctrine” called attention to potential problems with Hesham Islam, it is alleged that Coughlin earned Islam’s ire. Not only is Islam possibly working to cashier Coughlin, Islam’s credentials for such a post are unraveling under mild scrutiny.

Many of the details of his bio posted at the DoD website are either incorrect or unverifiable. Since 1980 we have the details of his life here in the US. It is his life before arriving here that are cloudy but by Islam’s admission include time spent in Egypt and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. But nothing can be nailed down, The qualifications of Hesham Islam for his current post are restricted to his life from 1985 to 2005 and these are as follows:

In 1980, according to the profile, Islam immigrated to the U.S. to get married, being suddenly love-smitten after receiving a photo of an American pen pal with whom he had been corresponding sight-unseen for more than three years. For the next five years he worked in what the spokesman describes as the “food services” industry. In 1985 he joined the Navy as an electronics technician in the submarine service. According to his Pentagon biography, he went on to serve on a number of ships, in largely technical and operational posts, before hooking up with Gordon England and finally arriving at his current job in the Pentagon.

So, what qualifies Islam to serve as an adviser to whom Gordon England listens all the time, and whose advice England takes? According to Kevin Wensing, England’s public-affairs aide: “Mr. Islam brings 20 years of experience in the U.S. Navy and international relations to his current assignment.”

This includes an M.A. in national-security affairs, awarded in 1992 at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. For this degree, Islam wrote a 139-page thesis about the Middle East, entitled “Roots of Regional Ambition.” In it, he devoted dozens of pages to lambasting Israel, and the influence of American Jews on U.S. politics. He deplored “Israeli activities which have detrimentally affected U.S. objectives but which have continued with impunity.” He argued that U.S. support for Israel “has negatively affected the attainment of U.S. objectives in the Middle East.” He blamed the influence of American Jews on U.S. policy for a host of ills, ranging from Arab “retaliation” against Americans, to jobs lost overseas, to hampering sales of “defensive arms to friendly Arab states.”

It is entirely possible that Hesham Islam is exactly who he says he is and that there is nothing ulterior going on. It seems, however, that there needs to be some more investigation of the man holding the spot of senior advisor and close confidant to the #2 man at the Defense Department.

Remembering that the oath people take when joining up includes something about domestic enemies …

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