ThinkProgress is a site that specializes in weird, petty hackish attacks on conservatives. Of course, that alone doesn’t distinguish it from other Soros-funded outfits; what makes ThinkProgress ‘special’ is the shockingly low quality of its propagandists. They’re young and dumb, sent into battle by John Podesta and his underlings at the Center for American Progress without even a cursory understanding of facts related to their ‘beat’ (but, of course, amplifying the focus of the left wing hate machine is actually their beat). For ThinkProgress– and Mother Jones and the DailyKos (who’ve picked up the story)– their “big story” can be anything at all, as long as it attacks a conservative.
Last week ThinkProgress sent a few of their precocious ‘reporters’ to cover the Western Conservative Summit in Denver, and tried to ambush Frank Gaffney on Herman Cain’s recent and ill-considered meeting with Islamic Society of America (ISNA) President Mohamed Magid.
The breathlessness with which ThinkProgress reports on Gaffney’s comment is unintentionally quite funny. ThinkProgress’ Scott Keyes is so out of his depth on this issue, he runs an entire story on something pretty unremarkable: that ISNA is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood:
The Center for Security Policy president had a unique take on the matter: Herman Cain had actually been meeting with the Muslim Brotherhood.
According to Gaffney, the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center, where Cain met with Muslim leaders last Wednesday, is “a prominent Muslim Brotherhood apparatus in Washington DC.” The Center’s Imam, Mohamed Magid, is actually, says Gaffney, “the president of the largest Muslim Brotherhood front in the United States [ed: the Islamic Society of North America].”
That’s the sound of ThinkProgess shrieking with outrage.
The ‘reporter’ they sent to do the story is not aware that, as recently as 2008, federal court judge Solis wrote of the Islamic Society of North America, “the evidence introduced [in the Holy Land Foundation ] trial… established that ISNA and NAIT were among those organizations created by the U.S.-Muslim Brotherhood.”
As a public service to ThinkProgress and its readers, I included a little clarification in the comments section of the post, with help from the invaluable HLF resource at the NEFA Foundation and the Investigative Project. I couldn’t help myself:
The usual ThinkProgress FAIL. Cain spoke to the president of ISNA– an unindicted coconpirator in the largest terror fundraising trial in US history. They tried to get their name off the list, but the court decided against it, claiming there was too much evidence linking the organization to the US Muslim Brotherhood:
“In July 2008, federal prosecutors filed a motion opposing NAIT and ISNA’s request to have their names expunged from the unindicted co-conspirator list. DOJ wrote that, “during last year’s trial, numerous exhibits were entered into evidence establishing both ISNA’s and NAIT’s intimate relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Palestine Committee, and the defendants in this case. Accordingly, there is no possible basis for petitioner’s ‘expungement’ from the Government’s list of co-conspirators and joint venturers.” In the filing, DOJ explicitly stated that “the evidence introduced at trial…established that ISNA and NAIT were among those organizations created by the U.S.-Muslim Brotherhood.” Court documents here: http://nefafoundation.org//index.cfm?pageID=65.
Was Gaffney correct in making the statement you’ve squealed about? Yes he was.
Sorry, ThinkProgress kids. Try again!
It’s always fun to trip up ThinkProgress on the logic train; Mother Jones, DailyKos, and the others who’re running with this story and have never heard of the Holy Land Foundation Trial and the Muslim Brotherhood in America will continue to spin their wheels and work themselves into a lather. It’s a free country, and George Soros and others are free to waste their money on employing recent college grads who hate The Man as ‘progressive bloggers.’
I wrote this in the small hope that a ThinkProgress reader would follow up at the site, read learn about the Muslim Brotherhood and its groups in the US– as established in federal court!— and realize they’re being propagandized to and used. And pretty cheaply, too. With several of these realizations, even some leftist readers may come to question the ThinkProgress’ honesty and understanding of the subject matter on other issues. One can only dream.
What’s more troubling than ThinkProgress, of course, is why Herman Cain felt the need to meet with the president of the Islamic Society of North America, a group, “among those organizations created by the U.S.-Muslim Brotherhood.”
Update: Never overestimate the intelligence, honesty and goodwill of ThinkProgress readers. A non-profit called SoundMusic, Inc. replied to my comment about ISNA being affiliated with the US Muslim Brotherhood (reproduced above), with the following:
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