Frank Gaffney
Encyclopedia
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. (born April 5, 1953 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
) is the founder and president of the American Center for Security Policy
, columnist at the Washington Times, blogger at Big Peace and radio host on Secure Freedom Radio.
of Georgetown University
., Gaffney holds a graduate degree from the Johns Hopkins University
's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
.
Gaffney began his public service career in the 1970s, working as an aide in the office of Democratic Senator Henry M. Jackson
, under Richard Perle
. From August 1983 until November 1987, Gaffney held the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy in the Reagan Administration
, again serving under Perle. In April 1987, Gaffney was nominated to the position of US Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy. He served as the acting Assistant Secretary for seven months, though his confirmation was ultimately blocked by the United States Senate
.
In 1988, Gaffney established the Center for Security Policy
(CSP), a neo-conservative national security
and defense policy
organization. The CSP is subsidized by donors supportive of neo-conservative causes, including the Sarah Mellon Scaife Foundation, the Shelby Cullom Davis Foundation and the William H. Donner Foundation.
Gaffney appeared on FahrenHYPE 9/11
, the conservative documentary that was intended as a rebuttal to Michael Moore
's liberal
film Fahrenheit 9/11
. He is also a regular guest on MSNBC
's "Hardball with Chris Matthews
" show.
Gaffney was an executive producer for the documentary Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center. The documentary was created to air as part of the America at a Crossroads
series on PBS, but it has not been shown.
Gaffney is the lead author of War Footing (Naval Institute Press, 2005), a collection of essays that "offer ten specific steps that Americans, as individuals and as communities, can take to ensure their way of life and safety and the future well-being of their children and grandchildren."
He is a founding member of the Set America Free Coalition, dedicated to reducing dependence on foreign oil
, as well as of the current iteration of the Committee on the Present Danger
.
. Election officials stopped registering voters 40 days before the election. Polling stations had identical voting results. The MPLA retained a monopoly on television election-coverage. CSP also found widespread vote buying by the MPLA, the discarding of as many as 25% of casted ballots, and electricity blackouts during voter counting. United Nations
special envoy Margaret Anstee
said she "had never witnessed a more unfair election, even in Latin America
."
, Gaffney was one of 25 signatories of the June 3, 1997 "Statement of Principles" from the Project for the New American Century
, an educational and political advocacy organization whose stated goal was "to promote American global leadership."
, an anti-tax activist and prominent Republican strategist, for alleged ties to radical Islamist groups attempting to influence the Bush Administration. Gaffney said a press release by the American Muslim Council
credited Ali Tulbah, a Bush-White House aide, for getting them access to the administration. Norquist banned Gaffney from the weekly "Wednesday Meeting" of the Leave Us Alone Coalition
that Norquist hosted. Norquist later wrote an open letter, accusing Gaffney of "racial prejudice, religious bigotry [and] ethnic hatred," calling Gaffney a "sick, little bigot.... His whole life screams of bigotry, and what he said is just part of a pattern.... Frank Gaffney and Osama bin Laden
share the same view on the relationship between the United States and Islam. I agree with the president
in rejecting Osama bin Laden's and Frank Gaffney's worldview." In 2011, Gaffney accused Norquist of "helping the Muslim Brotherhood
spread its influence in the nation's capital." David Keene
, President of the American Conservative Union
, later commented on the Gaffney-Norquist dispute, saying, "I, for one, don't see it. If you read the transcript [of the panel], you can see if Frank was right or wrong, but there was nothing racist or bigoted about it." Norquist's comments so angered Keene that he stopped talking to Norquist.
In a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal
, Karl Rove
dismissed Gaffney's assertions regarding Bush, stating "there's no there there." In an article appearing in the January 2007 edition of Vanity Fair
about neoconservatives who pushed for the 2003 invasion of Iraq
, Gaffney said of Bush, "He doesn't in fact seem to be a man of principle who's steadfastly pursuing what he thinks is the right course. He talks about it, but the policy doesn't track with the rhetoric, and that's what creates the incoherence that causes us problems around the world and at home."
's Hardball with Chris Matthews
, Gaffney, commenting on the 2003 invasion of Iraq
, said, "My position is [that] it is regrettable that any Americans died. It is regrettable that they had to die, but I believe they did have to die. The threat we did know about was the chemical capability that Saddam Hussein had used against his own people. The potential for biological agents were real there was evidence that there was an ongoing nuclear program... The danger was inaction could have resulted in the death[s] of a great many more Americans than 4,000 and that's the reason I'm still delighted that we did what we did."
news network for inciting violence against the Western world
by showcasing Osama bin Laden
and Saddam Hussein
's "calls-to-arms."
Barack Obama
of Illinois
is a "natural born citizen of the United States" and his legal eligibility to be the President of the United States
.
In a February 2009 Washington Times column, Gaffney accused President Obama of "embracing the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood
," a political organization banned in several countries in the Middle East
.
In April 2009, Gaffney appeared on television and accused President Obama of using coded language to indicate that America would submit to Sharia
law.
In a June 9, 2009, Washington Times article Gaffney wrote: "With Mr. Obama's unbelievably ballyhoo
ed address in Cairo
Thursday to what he calls 'the Muslim world' ... there is mounting evidence that the president not only identifies with Muslims, but actually may still be one himself."
Gaffney continued this theme in on February 24, 2010, in his column on Andrew Breitbart
's BigGovernment blog, when Gaffney attacked the administration's plans to modernize and update the missile defense program as "US submission to Islam
" from "an Alinsky acolyte", citing as evidence the redesigned logo of the Missile Defense Agency
.
However, Al Kamen reports that the new Missile Defense Agency logo is over three years old and was actually developed during the George Bush administration.
Gaffney has accused Obama of attempting to buy a larger more capable aircraft for the KC-X
contract, under the pretext that it costs less than the aircraft made by Gaffney's client.
's Hardball with Chris Matthews
and accused Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
of being involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing
and the Oklahoma City bombing
, "There is also circumstantial evidence, not proven by any means, but nonetheless some pretty compelling circumstantial evidence of Saddam Hussein's Iraq being involved with the people who perpetrated both the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center and even the Oklahoma City bombing."
and former CIA Director R. James Woolsey, Jr.
, released a book entitled "Shariah: The Threat to America," published by the Center for Security Policy
. The book "describes what its authors call a 'stealth jihad
' that must be thwarted before it's too late," and argues that "most mosques in the United States already have been radicalized, that most Muslim social organizations are fronts for violent jihadists, and that Muslims who practice Sharia
law seek to impose it in this country." According to the Washington Post, "Government terrorism experts call the views expressed in the center's book inaccurate and counterproductive." In other articles, Gaffney claims that stealth jihad to advance Sharia constitute sedition.
In early 2011, Gaffney charged that the Conservative Political Action Conference
(CPAC) had "come under the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood
, which is working to bring America under Saudi
-style Shariah law." Gaffney told the conservative website WorldNetDaily
that "Islamism
has infiltrated the American Conservative Union
, the host of CPAC, in the person of Washington
attorney and political activist Suhail Khan and a group called Muslims for America
.
In Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Gaffney testified to support a lawsuit against a planned mosque. The lawsuit alleged that the county zoning board didn't give proper notice of a hearing, however during eight days of hearing the judge allowed mosque opponents to introduce unverified claims or inflammatory statements, to include arguing Islam is not a religion and asking a county commissioner if he supported keeping a whip over his bed to beat his wife with. Although Gaffney was currently not a member of any police or intelligence agency, and admitting under oath he is not an expert in Shariah law or Islam, he testified Islam is a threat to the United States and by extension the mosque was a threat.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
) is the founder and president of the American Center for Security Policy
Center for Security Policy
The Center for Security Policy is a Washington, D.C. think tank that focuses on national security issues. The Center was founded in 1988 by Frank Gaffney, Jr....
, columnist at the Washington Times, blogger at Big Peace and radio host on Secure Freedom Radio.
Education and career
A 1975 graduate of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign ServiceEdmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service
The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service is a school within Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., United States. Jesuit priest Edmund A...
of Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
., Gaffney holds a graduate degree from the Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies , a division of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C., is one of the world's leading and most prestigious graduate schools devoted to the study of international affairs, economics, diplomacy, and policy research and...
.
Gaffney began his public service career in the 1970s, working as an aide in the office of Democratic Senator Henry M. Jackson
Henry M. Jackson
Henry Martin "Scoop" Jackson was a U.S. Congressman and Senator from the state of Washington from 1941 until his death...
, under Richard Perle
Richard Perle
Richard Norman Perle is an American political advisor, consultant, and lobbyist who began his career in government, a senior staff member to Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson on the Senate Armed Services Committee in the 1970’s...
. From August 1983 until November 1987, Gaffney held the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy in the Reagan Administration
Reagan Administration
The United States presidency of Ronald Reagan, also known as the Reagan administration, was a Republican administration headed by Ronald Reagan from January 20, 1981, to January 20, 1989....
, again serving under Perle. In April 1987, Gaffney was nominated to the position of US Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy. He served as the acting Assistant Secretary for seven months, though his confirmation was ultimately blocked by the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
.
In 1988, Gaffney established the Center for Security Policy
Center for Security Policy
The Center for Security Policy is a Washington, D.C. think tank that focuses on national security issues. The Center was founded in 1988 by Frank Gaffney, Jr....
(CSP), a neo-conservative national security
National security
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
and defense policy
National defence policy
Defence policy is public policy dealing with international security and the military. It comprises the measures and initiatives that governments do or do not take in relation to decision-making and strategic goals, such as when and how to commit national armed forces.It is used to ensure retention...
organization. The CSP is subsidized by donors supportive of neo-conservative causes, including the Sarah Mellon Scaife Foundation, the Shelby Cullom Davis Foundation and the William H. Donner Foundation.
Gaffney appeared on FahrenHYPE 9/11
FahrenHYPE 9/11
FahrenHYPE 9/11 is a 2004 film that examines and challenges Michael Moore's documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11. The movie is narrated by Ron Silver...
, the conservative documentary that was intended as a rebuttal to Michael Moore
Michael Moore
Michael Francis Moore is an American filmmaker, author, social critic and activist. He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, which is the highest-grossing documentary of all time. His films Bowling for Columbine and Sicko also place in the top ten highest-grossing documentaries...
's liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
film Fahrenheit 9/11
Fahrenheit 9/11
Fahrenheit 9/11 is a 2004 documentary film by American filmmaker and political commentator Michael Moore. The film takes a critical look at the presidency of George W. Bush, the War on Terror, and its coverage in the news media...
. He is also a regular guest on MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
's "Hardball with Chris Matthews
Hardball with Chris Matthews
Hardball with Chris Matthews is a talk show on MSNBC, broadcast weekdays at 5 and 7 PM hosted by Chris Matthews. It originally aired on now-defunct America's Talking and later CNBC. The current title was derived from a book Matthews wrote in 1988, Hardball: How Politics Is Played Told by One Who...
" show.
Gaffney was an executive producer for the documentary Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center. The documentary was created to air as part of the America at a Crossroads
America at a Crossroads
America at a Crossroads is a documentary miniseries concerning the issues facing the United States of America as related to the War on Terrorism. It aired originally on PBS television....
series on PBS, but it has not been shown.
Gaffney is the lead author of War Footing (Naval Institute Press, 2005), a collection of essays that "offer ten specific steps that Americans, as individuals and as communities, can take to ensure their way of life and safety and the future well-being of their children and grandchildren."
He is a founding member of the Set America Free Coalition, dedicated to reducing dependence on foreign oil
Oil
An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....
, as well as of the current iteration of the Committee on the Present Danger
Committee on the Present Danger
The Committee on the Present Danger is an American foreign policy interest group. Its current stated single goal is "to stiffen American resolve to confront the challenge presented by terrorism and the ideologies that drive it" through "education and advocacy"...
.
Angolan presidential election, 1992
In November 1992, Gaffney's Center for Security Policy organization released a report detailing voter fraud in Angola's presidential electionAngolan presidential election, 1992
General elections were held in Angola on 29 and 30 September 1992 to elect a President and National Assembly, the first time multi-party elections had been held in the country. They followed the signing of the Bicesse Accord on 31 May 1991 in an attempt to end the 17-year long civil war...
. Election officials stopped registering voters 40 days before the election. Polling stations had identical voting results. The MPLA retained a monopoly on television election-coverage. CSP also found widespread vote buying by the MPLA, the discarding of as many as 25% of casted ballots, and electricity blackouts during voter counting. United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
special envoy Margaret Anstee
Margaret Anstee
Dame Margaret Joan Anstee, DCMG served at the United Nations for over four decades , rising to the rank of Under-Secretary General in 1987. She worked on operational programmes of economic and social development in all regions of the world, mostly with the United Nations Development Programme...
said she "had never witnessed a more unfair election, even in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
."
Project for a New American Century
Along with a number of figures who later assumed leading positions in the George W. Bush administrationGeorge W. Bush administration
The presidency of George W. Bush began on January 20, 2001, when he was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States of America. The oldest son of former president George H. W. Bush, George W...
, Gaffney was one of 25 signatories of the June 3, 1997 "Statement of Principles" from the Project for the New American Century
Project for the New American Century
The Project for the New American Century was an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. that lasted from 1997 to 2006. It was co-founded as a non-profit educational organization by neoconservatives William Kristol and Robert Kagan...
, an educational and political advocacy organization whose stated goal was "to promote American global leadership."
Gaffney–Norquist dispute
In 2002, Gaffney publicly accused Grover NorquistGrover Norquist
Grover Glenn Norquist is an American lobbyist, conservative activist, and founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform...
, an anti-tax activist and prominent Republican strategist, for alleged ties to radical Islamist groups attempting to influence the Bush Administration. Gaffney said a press release by the American Muslim Council
American Muslim Council
The American Muslim Council is an Islamic organization and registered charity in the United States. Its headquarters is located in Chicago, Illinois....
credited Ali Tulbah, a Bush-White House aide, for getting them access to the administration. Norquist banned Gaffney from the weekly "Wednesday Meeting" of the Leave Us Alone Coalition
Leave Us Alone Coalition
The Leave Us Alone Coalition is an idea popularized by conservative/libertarian activist Grover Norquist for a wide-ranging and loose collaboration among various elements of U.S. politics, united by a common desire for minimal involvement with and restrictions from government, especially the U.S....
that Norquist hosted. Norquist later wrote an open letter, accusing Gaffney of "racial prejudice, religious bigotry [and] ethnic hatred," calling Gaffney a "sick, little bigot.... His whole life screams of bigotry, and what he said is just part of a pattern.... Frank Gaffney and Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
share the same view on the relationship between the United States and Islam. I agree with the president
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
in rejecting Osama bin Laden's and Frank Gaffney's worldview." In 2011, Gaffney accused Norquist of "helping the Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...
spread its influence in the nation's capital." David Keene
David Keene
David A. Keene , President of the National Rifle Association as of May 2, 2011, was the chairman of the American Conservative Union, from 1984 to 2011. Additionally, he is the managing associate at the Carmen Group Lobbying, a lobbying firm based in Washington, D.C...
, President of the American Conservative Union
American Conservative Union
The American Conservative Union is an American political organization advocating conservative policies, and is the oldest such conservative lobbying organization in the country.-Organization:...
, later commented on the Gaffney-Norquist dispute, saying, "I, for one, don't see it. If you read the transcript [of the panel], you can see if Frank was right or wrong, but there was nothing racist or bigoted about it." Norquist's comments so angered Keene that he stopped talking to Norquist.
In a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, Karl Rove
Karl Rove
Karl Christian Rove was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to former President George W. Bush until Rove's resignation on August 31, 2007. He has headed the Office of Political Affairs, the Office of Public Liaison, and the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives...
dismissed Gaffney's assertions regarding Bush, stating "there's no there there." In an article appearing in the January 2007 edition of Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
about neoconservatives who pushed for the 2003 invasion of Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
, Gaffney said of Bush, "He doesn't in fact seem to be a man of principle who's steadfastly pursuing what he thinks is the right course. He talks about it, but the policy doesn't track with the rhetoric, and that's what creates the incoherence that causes us problems around the world and at home."
U.S. troop deaths in Iraq
On MSNBCMSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
's Hardball with Chris Matthews
Hardball with Chris Matthews
Hardball with Chris Matthews is a talk show on MSNBC, broadcast weekdays at 5 and 7 PM hosted by Chris Matthews. It originally aired on now-defunct America's Talking and later CNBC. The current title was derived from a book Matthews wrote in 1988, Hardball: How Politics Is Played Told by One Who...
, Gaffney, commenting on the 2003 invasion of Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
, said, "My position is [that] it is regrettable that any Americans died. It is regrettable that they had to die, but I believe they did have to die. The threat we did know about was the chemical capability that Saddam Hussein had used against his own people. The potential for biological agents were real there was evidence that there was an ongoing nuclear program... The danger was inaction could have resulted in the death[s] of a great many more Americans than 4,000 and that's the reason I'm still delighted that we did what we did."
Al Jazeera
In 2003, Gaffney called on the United States military to "take out" the Al JazeeraAl Jazeera
Al Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...
news network for inciting violence against the Western world
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
by showcasing Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
and Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
's "calls-to-arms."
Criticism of Barack Obama
In October 2008, Gaffney questioned whether then SenatorUnited States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
of Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
is a "natural born citizen of the United States" and his legal eligibility to be the President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
.
In a February 2009 Washington Times column, Gaffney accused President Obama of "embracing the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...
," a political organization banned in several countries in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
.
In April 2009, Gaffney appeared on television and accused President Obama of using coded language to indicate that America would submit to Sharia
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
law.
In a June 9, 2009, Washington Times article Gaffney wrote: "With Mr. Obama's unbelievably ballyhoo
Ballyhoo
The ballyhoo or bally, Hemiramphus brasiliensis, is a baitfish of the halfbeak family . It is similar to the Balao halfbeak . Ballyhoo are frequently used as cut bait and for trolling purposes by saltwater sportsmen.Ballyhoo can also be seen above the waters skimming the surface to escape from...
ed address in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
Thursday to what he calls 'the Muslim world' ... there is mounting evidence that the president not only identifies with Muslims, but actually may still be one himself."
Gaffney continued this theme in on February 24, 2010, in his column on Andrew Breitbart
Andrew Breitbart
Andrew Breitbart is an American publisher, commentator for the Washington Times, author, an occasional guest commentator on various news programs who has served as an editor for the Drudge Report website...
's BigGovernment blog, when Gaffney attacked the administration's plans to modernize and update the missile defense program as "US submission to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
" from "an Alinsky acolyte", citing as evidence the redesigned logo of the Missile Defense Agency
Missile Defense Agency
The Missile Defense Agency is the section of the United States government's Department of Defense responsible for developing a layered defense against ballistic missiles. The agency has its origins in the Strategic Defense Initiative, which was established in 1983 and was headed by Lt...
.
-
- "Team Obama’s anti-anti-missile initiatives are not simply acts of unilateral disarmament of the sort to be expected from an Alinsky acolyte. They seem to fit an increasingly obvious and worrying pattern of official U.S. submission to Islam and the theo-political-legal program the latter’s authorities call Shariah.
-
- "What could be code-breaking evidence of the latter explanation is to be found in the newly-disclosed redesign of the Missile Defense AgencyMissile Defense AgencyThe Missile Defense Agency is the section of the United States government's Department of Defense responsible for developing a layered defense against ballistic missiles. The agency has its origins in the Strategic Defense Initiative, which was established in 1983 and was headed by Lt...
logo.... As Logan helpfully shows, the new MDA shield appears ominously to reflect a morphing of the Islamic crescent and starStar and crescentA star and crescent featuring in some combination form the basis of symbols widely found across the ancient world, with examples attested from the Eastern Mediterranean and Central Asia....
with the Obama campaign logo."
- "What could be code-breaking evidence of the latter explanation is to be found in the newly-disclosed redesign of the Missile Defense Agency
However, Al Kamen reports that the new Missile Defense Agency logo is over three years old and was actually developed during the George Bush administration.
Gaffney has accused Obama of attempting to buy a larger more capable aircraft for the KC-X
KC-X
KC-X is the United States Air Force program to procure its next-generation aerial refueling tanker aircraft to replace some of the older Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers. The contest was for a production contract for 179 new tankers with estimated value of US$35 billion...
contract, under the pretext that it costs less than the aircraft made by Gaffney's client.
Saddam Hussein, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and the Oklahoma City Bombing
On March 12, 2009, Gaffney appeared on MSNBCMSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
's Hardball with Chris Matthews
Hardball with Chris Matthews
Hardball with Chris Matthews is a talk show on MSNBC, broadcast weekdays at 5 and 7 PM hosted by Chris Matthews. It originally aired on now-defunct America's Talking and later CNBC. The current title was derived from a book Matthews wrote in 1988, Hardball: How Politics Is Played Told by One Who...
and accused Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
of being involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing
1993 World Trade Center bombing
The 1993 World Trade Center bombing occurred on February 26, 1993, when a truck bomb was detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The 1,336 lb urea nitrate–hydrogen gas enhanced device was intended to knock the North Tower into the South Tower , bringing...
and the Oklahoma City bombing
Oklahoma City bombing
The Oklahoma City bombing was a terrorist bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. It was the most destructive act of terrorism on American soil until the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Oklahoma blast claimed 168 lives, including 19...
, "There is also circumstantial evidence, not proven by any means, but nonetheless some pretty compelling circumstantial evidence of Saddam Hussein's Iraq being involved with the people who perpetrated both the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center and even the Oklahoma City bombing."
Recent activities
In 2010, Gaffney, along with co-authors such as former deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence Lt. Gen. William G. BoykinWilliam G. Boykin
Lieutenant General William G. Boykin was the United States Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence. He has played a role in almost every recent major American military operation, serving in Grenada, Somalia, and Iraq. He is currently an author and teaches at Hampden-Sydney College,...
and former CIA Director R. James Woolsey, Jr.
R. James Woolsey, Jr.
Robert James Woolsey Jr. is a foreign policy specialist and former Director of Central Intelligence and head of the Central Intelligence Agency .-Early life:...
, released a book entitled "Shariah: The Threat to America," published by the Center for Security Policy
Center for Security Policy
The Center for Security Policy is a Washington, D.C. think tank that focuses on national security issues. The Center was founded in 1988 by Frank Gaffney, Jr....
. The book "describes what its authors call a 'stealth jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
' that must be thwarted before it's too late," and argues that "most mosques in the United States already have been radicalized, that most Muslim social organizations are fronts for violent jihadists, and that Muslims who practice Sharia
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
law seek to impose it in this country." According to the Washington Post, "Government terrorism experts call the views expressed in the center's book inaccurate and counterproductive." In other articles, Gaffney claims that stealth jihad to advance Sharia constitute sedition.
In early 2011, Gaffney charged that the Conservative Political Action Conference
Conservative Political Action Conference
The Conservative Political Action Conference is an annual political conference attended by conservative activists and elected officials from across the United States....
(CPAC) had "come under the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...
, which is working to bring America under Saudi
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
-style Shariah law." Gaffney told the conservative website WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily is an American web site that publishes news and associated content from a U.S. conservative perspective. It was founded in May 1997 by Joseph Farah with the stated intent of "exposing wrongdoing, corruption and abuse of power" and is headquartered in Washington, D.C.-History:In...
that "Islamism
Islamic fundamentalism
Islamic fundamentalism is a term used to describe religious ideologies seen as advocating a return to the "fundamentals" of Islam: the Quran and the Sunnah. Definitions of the term vary. According to Christine L...
has infiltrated the American Conservative Union
American Conservative Union
The American Conservative Union is an American political organization advocating conservative policies, and is the oldest such conservative lobbying organization in the country.-Organization:...
, the host of CPAC, in the person of Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
attorney and political activist Suhail Khan and a group called Muslims for America
Muslims for America
Muslims For America, is a pressure group dedicated to introducing American Muslims into politics and ensuring US foreign policy is "written with an understanding of Islam." According to its website, Muslims For America aims to work with the Republican National Committee, in setting up American...
.
In Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Murfreesboro is a city in and the county seat of Rutherford County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 108,755 according to the United States Census Bureau's 2010 U.S. Census, up from 68,816 residents certified during the 2000 census. The center of population of Tennessee is located in...
Gaffney testified to support a lawsuit against a planned mosque. The lawsuit alleged that the county zoning board didn't give proper notice of a hearing, however during eight days of hearing the judge allowed mosque opponents to introduce unverified claims or inflammatory statements, to include arguing Islam is not a religion and asking a county commissioner if he supported keeping a whip over his bed to beat his wife with. Although Gaffney was currently not a member of any police or intelligence agency, and admitting under oath he is not an expert in Shariah law or Islam, he testified Islam is a threat to the United States and by extension the mosque was a threat.
External links
- Center for Security Policy: Frank Gaffney