Willful blindness: The return

As a matter of national security doctrine the Obama administration has blinded itself to the phenomenon of Islamist terrorism. One can observe the administration’s public teaching at work in John Brennan’s pandering performance to a largely Muslim audience at the NYU Islamic Center this past weekend.
Michelle Malkin notes that among those in attendance peddling his grievances to Brennan was flying imams’ ringleader Omar Shahin. The conclusion of the lawsuit brought by the flying imams represented the capitulation of the airline and law enforcement agencies to the imams’ grievance theater. As I observed in “The flying imams win,” they walked away winners, their pockets full of an undisclosed amount of cash. Best of all, from their perspective, they (and Minnesota federal district court Judge Ann Montgomery) gave responsible institutions reason to close their eyes the next time Islamist violence appears imminent. Think Major Nidal Malik Hassan, a/k/a “Soldier of Allah.”
Malkin pauses over Brennan’s performance before the NYU Islamic Center audience and focuses on Brennan’s exchange with Shahin. She says everything that needs to be said about it in her syndicated column. (Michelle includes the video of Brennan’s 80-minute question and answer period before the NYU Islamic Center audience. It is worth watching in its entirety.)
Malkin is virtually alone among her peers in giving Brennan’s performance the attention it deserves. As Mrs. Loman said, attention must be paid. It represents the higher wisdom operative in the Obama administration’s national security policy.
So do Janet Napolitano’s meetings last month with three organizations associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Included in the meetings was a representative of the Islamic Society of North America. ISNA was designated as an unindicted co-conspirator of the Holy Land Foundation along with CAIR and others in the government’s prosecution of HLF. The Holy Land Foundation had been shuttered by the Bush administration in the wake of 9/11 and was ultimately convicted as a terrorist front.
In another part of Brennan’s session at NYU, incidentally, he responds to the assertion that the government’s designation of unindicted co-conspirators is misguided. The question can only have alluded to the government’s Holy Land Foundation prosecution. As I recall from watching the video earlier this week, Brennan does not respond to the question in substance except by seeking to assuage purportedly hurt feelings. It is a disgusting performance.
Andrew McCarthy was the lead prosecutor of the perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Willful Blindness is his invaluable memoir. McCarthy takes note of the items above in the context of Obama’s appointment of CAIR devotee and Sami al-Arian fan Rashad Hussain as envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference. McCarthy titles his post “Sleeping with the enemy.”