After a week delay, four Republican lawmakers have formally asked the House sergeant at arms to investigate whether a Muslim advocacy group placed interns in national security committees, a spokesperson for the sergeant at arms confirmed to TPMmuckraker this afternoon.
Spokesperson Kerri Hanley would only say that a letter requesting a probe of the Council on American Islamic Relations was received today and that it is under review.
The letter, which you can read in full here, claims that CAIR is tied to “HAMAS” and cites the new WND-published book Muslim Mafia, written by a man who has labeled President Obama “Muslim”:
Muslim Mafia raises claims that CAIR, who the FBI says has a relationship with HAMAS, has made it a strategic goal to influence Members of Congress on the Judiciary, Intelligence and Homeland Security Committees.
Politico described the document that is the basis for that claim as “basically [laying] out a fairly straight forward public relations and lobbying strategy.”
The letter, signed by Reps. Paul Broun (R-GA), John Shadegg (R-AZ), Sue Myrick (R-NC), and Trent Franks (R-AZ), continues:
The book states they have created an internal electronic mailing list, called “Policy-net” to influence policy. It also states that associates of CAIR lobbied Member of Congress in order to weaken the Patriot Act and other critical law-enforcement tools used to protect America’s national security.
The lawmakers charged at a press conference last week that Muslim “intern spies” from CAIR may have infiltrated national security committees on the Hill.
“They did what they said they were going to do,” CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper told TPMmuckraker, saying the group had no plans to reach out to the sergeant at arms. “I think the sergeant at arms will take it as seriously as other reasonable people do and file it under bizarre political stunts,” he said.
The Republicans also sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, requesting that the DOJ brief each member of Congress on why CAIR was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case. The group was in a controversial list of co-conspirators in case, which involved funding of Hamas.
The office of Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Several Democrats have denounced what one called a “slander against democracy and religious freedom.”
