According to a report by Star Tribune Washington Bureau correspondent Kevin Diaz, Rep. Michele Bachmann is doubling down on her earlier charges that the Muslim Brotherhood — the international Islamist movement that recently came to power in Egypt — has achieved “deep penetration” within the U.S. government.

Yesterday, Bachmann distributed a speech that conservative scholar and former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy gave Wednesday at the National Press Club at the invitation of the Center for Security Policy — the organization cited by Bachmann in June when she requested an investigation of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s top aide, Huma Abedin, and other top government officials for alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

In the speech, McCarthy attempted to connect Abedin to the al-Qaida terrorist network in what Washington Post opinion writer Dana Milbank described as “a twisted line from Abedin all the way to al-Qaeda.”

Following are extensive excerpts from reporting by Kevin Diaz and Dana Milbank, who interviewed McCarthy.

Bachmann Distributes Speech Escalating Her Charges

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. (Photo credit: Charlie Riedel / Associated Press via Star Tribune)

By Kevin Diaz

August 11, 2012

WASHINGTON — Just as the controversy over Michele Bachmann’s allegations of Islamist government infiltration had begun to subside, the Minnesota Republican is distributing a speech by a prominent supporter that attempts to connect a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the Al-Qaida terrorist network.

Bachmann’s office sent out a speech [link added] Friday given by conservative scholar and former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy, who says Bachmann and four other Republicans in Congress “actually understated the case” against Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

The accusation represents a significant escalation of Bachmann’s original allegations tying Abedin to the Muslim Brotherhood. McCarthy’s speech was followed by a “Bachmann Bulletin” [link added] redistributing a recent Star Tribune opinion piece she wrote [link added] describing her concerns about radical Islam.

McCarthy’s speech, however, represents the most detailed public account that has been provided by any of Bachmann’s supporters so far to substantiate her accusation against Abedin.

The State Department did not comment, though earlier a spokesman called Bachmann’s allegations “vicious and disgusting lies.”

Abedin, according to the McCarthy speech, “had a very lengthy affiliation with an institute founded by a top figure at the nexus between Saudi terror funding, Brotherhood ideology, and Al-Qaida jihad against the United States.”

McCarthy gave the speech at the National Press Club [link to C-SPAN 3 video added] on Wednesday at the invitation of the Center for Security Policy, the organization cited by Bachmann in June when she requested an investigation of Abedin and other top government officials.

Bachmann’s request met with a firestorm of criticism from Democrats as well as top Republicans. …

Full story

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Modern-Day McCarthyism Regarding Hillary Clinton Aide Huma Abedin

By Dana Milbank

Opinion Writer

August 8, 2012

There are frequent bouts of McCarthyism in the capital, but the latest version has the special touch of being delivered by a guy named McCarthy.

This McCarthy isn’t your average Joe: Andrew McCarthy’s work is providing the intellectual underpinnings — such as they are — for Rep. Michele Bachmann’s outrageous suggestion that Huma Abedin, a longtime aide to Hillary Rodham Clinton, has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

McCarthy gave a 90-minute talk at the National Press Club on Wednesday morning sponsored by the conservative Center for Security Policy, which was the source cited by Bachmann (R-Minn.) in her letter challenging Abedin’s loyalty. Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and other top Republicans justifiably blasted Bachmann, but McCarthy defended the congresswoman and went her allegation one further — drawing a twisted line from Abedin all the way to al-Qaeda.

“I don’t understand why more people in Washington from both parties have not rallied in support of Congresswoman Bachmann” and her fellow signatories on the letter, McCarthy lamented, “at a time when government policy is being radically harmonized with the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood, meaning policy has shifted in the direction of avowed enemies of the United States.”

In fact, the accuser went on, Bachmann “actually understated the case” against the Clinton aide. “Ms. Abedin had a very lengthy affiliation with an institute founded by a top figure at the nexus between Saudi terror funding, Brotherhood ideology and al-Qaeda’s jihad against the United States.” …

McCarthy is a serious man who once prosecuted Omar Abdel-Rahman, the blind sheik. He may have valid points to make about the Muslim Brotherhood’s influence. But going after Abedin with a cockamamie case discredits him.

The core of McCarthy’s charge is guilt by association: Abedin’s mother, brother and late father, all academics, were active in the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs, which McCarthy alleges was created by Abdullah Omar Naseef, “a major Muslim Brotherhood figure involved in the financing of al-Qaeda.” To that, he adds the charge that “Abedin is directly connected” to Naseef because her mother, the editor of the institute’s quarterly journal, listed her as an “assistant editor” between 1996 (when she was 20) and 2008.

Abedin worked for the Clinton White House, Hillary Clinton’s Senate office and the Clinton campaign during that time, so it’s unlikely that she was doing much editing. It’s also difficult to see how affiliation with the journal — which publishes articles such as “The North African Heritage of the Hui Chinese” and “Muslim Mudejar Women in Thirteenth-Century Spain” — gives Abedin conflicted loyalties.

I pressed McCarthy about how Abedin might exert the Brotherhood’s influence over Clinton other than by, say, selecting for her an ugly pantsuit.

“She managed to get Mrs. Clinton to appear at a college that her mother founded in Egypt,” he answered.

I pointed out that George W. Bush adviser Karen Hughes also spoke there. Was she, too, doing the Brotherhood’s bidding?

“Yeah, I think she did her share, too,” McCarthy replied.

The prosecutor’s case was crumbling. Moments later, he likened Egypt’s new government to Hitler’s Germany. He had difficulty when Mother Jones reporter Adam Serwer challenged him to explain how Obama was advancing sharia at the same time he was supporting same-sex marriage. Serwer also asked McCarthy about his 2010 suggestion that Obama was free to kill Osama bin Laden because “the Islamists [Obama] wants to engage have decided al-Qaeda is expendable” and counter to their peaceful takeover of American institutions.

Replied McCarthy: “I’m a whack job, I guess.”

If he says so.

Full story

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Related reports on this site

Michele Bachmann’s Muslim Brotherhood Conspiracy (July 18, 2012)

Michele Bachmann’s Record of Reckless Conspiracy Theories (July 24, 2012)

Catholic Bishops, Lutheran Church Condemn Bachmann (July 27, 2012)