Obama Does A "Complete 180" On Releasing Detainee Abuse Photos To ACLU

Obama has, as ABC White House Correspondent Jack Tapper puts it, done a "complete 180" on the issue of whether to release 44 more detainee abuse photos pursuant to a FOIA lawsuit brought by the ACLU. The photos date to the Abu Ghraib time frame and come from DOD investigative files. The primary effect of their release is quite predictable - to provide the radical Muslim element with a propaganda windfall and to put our soldiers in greater danger. That is weighted against the ACLU claim that it would show how evil BushHitler was, or something like that.

Obama, three weeks ago, had stopped court proceedings on this issue, indicating that the U.S. would release the photos without any further defense. Sec. of Def. Gates, in the link above, indicated that he passed on the warning to Obama from Gen. Odierno - that such release of photos would "cost American lives." I can't imagine that alone would be a tipping point for Obama, given his prior positions on things such as genocide in Iraq. But Obama is under fire for his blatantly political decision to release the carefully redacted torture memos and the ramifications of that decision are clearly getting away from him. I would imagination that the tipping point lies in the latter rather than the former.

Update: It has been pointed out that Obama is supposed to give a major speech in Egypt very shortly after the May 28 release date set for the photos. Could that also have influenced his decision?

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Hesham Islam, Exposed As A Member of the Muslim Brotherhood, To Resign From Pentagon Post

This is a horrific scandal that exposes inexcusable ignorance and security shortfalls in our government. That Hesham Islam, an individual with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, was able to get a senior job in the Pentagon with Top Secret security clearance is a very serious lapse in security. That he was then successful in muddying the waters on the Salafi and Khomeinist threats, influence the government towards an alignment with the very forces that seek to destroy us, and force the firing of another government expert on radical Islamic doctrine is a direct result of the failure of our government to name and define the enemy we face. This is precisely within the ambit of that which I warned about when I wrote a few weeks ago, What You Don't Know Could Kill You.


For those who do not know it, the Muslim Brotherhood is a “Salafi jihadist organization” and the precursor to al Qaeda (Walid Phares, Future Jihad, p. 64-65). The Muslim Brotherhood is ideologically the same as al Qaeda as to its beliefs and goals. It differs only in method.

This today from WND:

In a stunning turn of events, a high-level Muslim military aide blamed for costing an intelligence contractor his job will step down from his own Pentagon post, WND has learned.

Meanwhile, his rival, Maj. Stephen Coughlin, a leading authority on Islamic war doctrine, may stay in the Pentagon, moving from the office of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the office of the secretary of defense. However, sources say a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey is trying to block his new contract.

The top Pentagon aide, Egyptian-born Hesham H. Islam, came under a cloud of suspicion after reports raised doubt about his resume and contacts he had made with radical Muslims. He is expected to leave the government next month, officials say.
Islam and Coughlin recently quarreled over intelligence briefings Coughlin presented showing a close connection between the religion of Islam and terrorism. Coughlin's contract with the Joint Chiefs, which ends in March, was not renewed.

But 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.

The Pentagon had no comment. And Islam, who has not been accused of any crimes, has refused interviews.

Emerson says Islam prescribed a steady diet of Muslim Brotherhood-connected outreach for his unwitting boss, deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England....
Pentagon insiders say Eric S. Edelman, undersecretary of defense for policy, has sought to stop the awarding of a new contract to Coughlin. Edelman served as ambassador to Turkey from 2003 to 2005.

Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., who co-chairs the House Anti-Terrorism Caucus, has been fighting to keep Coughlin in the Pentagon, where she says his blunt analysis of the Islamic enemy is sorely needed....

"I know that some people will refuse to admit there is a subversive movement going on here, but let me remind you that we have underestimated the will and capability of our enemy for more than 30 years," she added. "They are patient and determined to achieve their radical agenda."

Read the entire article. This is a scandal that our government should be investigating. Islam should never have passed a security screening. When his advice was to cashier an expert on radical Islam and to hold discussions with elements of the Muslim Brotherhood, everyone, and particularly everyone in government, should have understood the ramifications of those acts. That they occurred was only because our government has been grossly negligent in their failure to clearly define and identify the sources and organizations that President Bush still refers to under the euphanism of "radical Islam."

(H/T Villagers With Torches)

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