Judicial Watch finds it hard to believe that the Department of Homeland Security and State Department has enlisted a pro-Muslim group to conduct anti-terrorist training – but the proof is in pudding, so to speak.
The public interest group, which investigates and prosecutes government corruption, has learned that DHS and State recently teamed up with the Council on American-Islamic Relations to train French national security officials on how to protect Muslims' civil rights and avoid discrimination and profiling when countering violent extremism. It marks the latest of many collaborations between the Obama administration and CAIR, a group with extensive links to foreign and domestic Islamists that was founded by three Middle Eastern extremists and reportedly raises money for Hamas.
Irene Garcia is an investigative reporter for Judicial Watch.
"You can only imagine the things that were going on," she begins. "And this was, of course, sponsored by our government, [by] two key agencies: Homeland Security and the State Department. I mean this is outrageous!"
CAIR, she says, isn't only playing a key role in shaping anti-terrorism training to be Muslim-friendly, but has also flexed its muscle to block terrorism investigations during the Obama presidency.
"It was preposterous and really dumbfounding from the beginning that this group had wielded so much power in the Obama administration," she states.
According to Judicial Watch, CAIR has interfered with the government's investigation into the radicalization of young Somali men in the U.S. Several young Somalis from Minnesota were involved in the 2013 shopping mall attack in Nairobi.
Garcia is hopeful that for the sake of national security, President-elect Trump will not cave to CAIR's demands.