King Demands Answers on Egyptian Radical's Visit

A senior member of Congress wants Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to explain how an Egyptian tied to a terrorist group secured a visa to visit American officials last week.

Hani Nour Eldin, a member of the banned Islamic Group (Gamaa Islamiya), met with government officials as part of a delegation of Egyptian parliamentarians. Eldin's presence was first reported last week by the Daily Beast's Eli Lake, who called it a budding "political fiasco."

The Islamic Group's spiritual leader is Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, considered the inspiration behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and convicted of conspiring in a subsequent plot to blow up New York landmarks and tunnels.

In a letter dated Sunday, U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., asked how Eldin received a visa and came to the United States.

"I am aware that there may be legitimate diplomatic reasons to grant a member of a designated foreign terrorist organization a visa to visit the United States, such as for example in furtherance of peace negotiations," King wrote. "However, the nature of Eldin's visit suggests an absence of full vetting rather than a policy choice, or perhaps a break-down in the screening missions of and coordination among our Federal agencies."

He asked for information about the scrutiny Eldin's visa received, including any consultation with the Department of Homeland Security about Eldin's Islamic Group ties.

In addition, King asked Napolitano for its position about "any potential custodial transfer, or release, of Omar Abdel Rahman," which is something several Egyptians have expressed as a goal.

Eldin's admission into the country is the latest in a series of questionable actions by the administration when it comes to hosting Egyptian Islamists.

In April, the Investigative Project on Terrorism reported on extraordinary measures taken to allow members of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party to glide through border security. The State Department ordered that no secondary inspection be done on the group, despite their ties to a radical organization. In addition, one member of the group had been implicated in a child pornography investigation when he lived in the United States.

But due to bureaucratic interference, his laptop computer and other personal items were not searched for illicit material.

Report: Brotherhood Has Egyptian Caliphate Plans

Watch out Egypt: Now that Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi has been declared the country's new president, Sharia punishments may be making their way to a public square near you.

And that's only the start of it.

According to an Arabic-language report last Tuesday of a closed-door senior-level Brotherhood confab, the Islamist group intends to get rid of film and "artistic heritage," replace police uniforms with "Islamic garb," and make memorization of Islam's holy book a pre-condition for advancement in school. These sweeping changes—dubbed the "Jazira Plan"—are to "be put into execution on the first day Dr. [Mohamed] Morsi assumes the presidency."

The first step in the plan is to "replace the national anthem with the so-called anthem of the Islamic Caliphate," soon after followed by "the abolition of the Ministry of Information and replacing it with an Islamic media organization" whose sole aim would be to "publish Islamic heritage only."

The plan speaks to the Brotherhood's deep-seated, and oft-referenced, "dream" of reinstating the Caliphate. Yet, when pressed to expound upon its goals by an unfriendly audience or in the West, the group instead turns ambiguous, speaking in terms of Western concepts of freedom, dignity, and justice.

Even for the Brotherhood, the meeting's take-aways as reported by Rose al-Yusuf appear over the top. The group certainly has its own ideal for how the world should work, but tends to skew toward the pragmatic, insisting that change must be applied gradually. As with all news coming out of the Egyptian press—known for its often wild, un-sourced conspiracy theories—reports of this meeting should be read with a healthy dose of skepticism.

If the reports prove true, the Brotherhood may have little say in implementing its grand plan anyway. Tension with the military and uncertainty over the fate and composition of a new Parliament endure despite the presidential outcome.

Islamists Mourn French Holocaust Denier

A European Islamist group linked to the Muslim Brotherhood is mourning the death of French Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy, who died earlier this month. The Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report points out that the Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe (FIOE) expressed "great sorrow" over the death of Garaudy, a Muslim convert.

According to the NEFA Foundation, FIOE "is an umbrella group that comprises the global Muslim Brotherhood in Europe." The group has strong ties to Hamas and Hamas fund-raising organizations and some FIOE organizations show evidence of links with Al-Qaida." In February, FIOE President Chakib Makhlouf visited Hamas-ruled Gaza where he met with regime officials, praised Palestinian "martyrs" and demanded the "right of return" to ancestral homes in what is now Israel.

After Garaudy's death, FIOE issued a statement hailing him as a "great thinker" who "lives on through his works, philosophical legacy and humane example."

As the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has noted, in 1998 Garaudy was charged with inciting racial hatred and violating a French law making it illegal to deny "crimes against humanity." The charges stemmed from his 1995 book The Founding Myths of Modern Israel, in which he claimed that "there was no Nazi program of genocide during World War II, and that Jews essentially fabricated the Holocaust for their financial and political gain." A Paris court found Garaudy guilty and fined him $40,000.

The prosecution triggered an outpouring of support for Garaudy in the Islamic world in the late 1990s. According to the ADL, the wife of Sheikh Zayed ibn Sultan al-Nahayan, leader of the United Arab Emirates, gave Garaudy $50,000.The Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram published an article defending Garaudy which argued that 6 million Jews could not have been killed in the Holocaust and that there is "no trace of the gas chambers" that were supposed to have existed in Germany.

Former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani concluded that "Hitler had only killed 20,000 Jews and not six million." He added that "Garaudy's crime derives from the doubt he cast on Zionist propaganda."

Read more here and here.

Would-Be Capitol Bomber Pleads Guilty

A man who thought he could walk into the U.S. Capitol and detonate a suicide bomb pleaded guilty Friday to one count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. Amine El-Khalifi, an illegal immigrant from Morocco, was motivated by his belief that the "war on terrorism" was a "war on Muslims."

Khalifi, 29, was arrested Feb. 17 as he made his way toward the Capitol with what he thought was a suicide bomb vest and a MAC-10 automatic. He initially expressed a desire to carry out a terrorist attack in December and discussed a variety of targets in Washington and northern Virginia before settling on the Capitol Dome.

According to a statement of facts, he made a series of scouting trips earlier this year, identifying where he would try to walk in with the bomb and how he might try to evade security. That included his intent to shoot a police officer at the door who might block his entry. He asked an associate to detonate the bomb remotely if he wasn't able to do it.

The bomb was provided by FBI agents and inert, never posing an actual threat to safety.

"Amine El Khalifi sought to bring down the U.S. Capitol and kill as many people as possible," said U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride in a statement. "He admitted today that he picked the targets, weapons, and means of the suicide attack while working with someone he believed was an Al Qaeda operative."

El Khalifi accepted the gun and bomb vest in a van parked in a Capitol Hill garage. He "walked alone from the vehicle toward the United States Capitol, where he intended to shoot people and detonate the bomb," the statement of facts said.

The notion of an American "war on Islam" is considered among the most effective narratives used in radicalizing Muslims. Yet, the phrase often has been invoked often by American Islamist organizations.

Egyptian Tied to Radical Group Gets State Department Visa

The Obama administration granted a visa to a member of a Specially Designated Terrorist Group as part of a visiting Egyptian delegation, reports the Daily Beast's Eli Lake. Hani Nour Eldin, a self-admitted member of the banned Egyptian Islamic Group (Gamaa Islamiya), lobbied senior American officials as a State Department spokesman denied knowledge of his affiliation with the terrorist group.

Eldin claims that he received "the American visa from the embassy as a member of the parliament representing a political party that has been elected and is a legitimate party." Likewise, his membership in the Gamaa doesn't mean he "was personally not involved in any violent action or terrorism against the United States or any other country."

However, Eldin used his visit to lobby Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough about transferring Gamaa spiritual leader Omar Abdel Rahman to Egyptian custody. Rahman is serving a life sentence in a North Carolina jail after being convicted in 1995 for plotting to blow up New York landmarks and assassinate key figures.

The State Department has been quick to pass the buck. A spokesman said the Egyptian delegation was "invited to Washington by the Wilson Center," and referred questions to the think tank. But the Wilson Center claimed that its center was just one of many places the group visited, and that it did "not invite these people; the State Department arranged the visit."

Former counterterrorism officials and think tank researchers were quick to criticize the lapse in judgment.

Juan Zarate, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former deputy national security adviser for counter-terrorism under President George W. Bush, called the move a mistake and said that the administration has to walk a fine line in its engagement of Islamists.

"It would have taken the State Department five seconds to Google his name in Arabic and realize he is a member of a designated terrorist organization," said Samuel Tadros, an Egyptian citizen and research fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington D.C.

The Gamaa formed as a more radical alternative to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which renounced violence to form an Islamist state in the 1970s. Its campaign of violence in the 1990s killed over 1200 and directly targeted Egypt's government, which the group wished to replace with an Islamic theocracy

Hamas Celebrates MB Victory Claim

Anticipation of a Muslim Brotherhood victory in Egypt's presidential elections has Hamas officials in Gaza "jubilant," reports say.

While official results aren't expected before Thursday, Brotherhood-backed candidate Mohamed Mursi claims he bested former Hosni Mubarak ally and Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq in weekend voting. Shafiq, too, claims victory.

Mursi's announcement prompted street rallies outside Hamas offices in Gaza and expectations that the terrorist group will grow more entrenched in a belief Egypt's new leadership will provide more support.

"We pin great hopes upon the Egyptian leadership, revolution, army, people and presidency to bolster the resistance of the Palestinian people, which has looked to Egypt throughout history," said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zohri.

That further frustrates ongoing efforts at reconciling Palestinian leadership with the PLO leadership in control of the West Bank.

"This is good news for Hamas and bad news for [PA President] Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah," the Jerusalem Post quoted West Bank journalist Ayman Abu Omar saying. "The fact that the Muslim Brotherhood has won the election in Egypt will strengthen Hamas."

Meanwhile, Hamas claimed responsibility for at least 10 of at least 19 rockets fired from Gaza toward Israeli communities since Monday. They said it was in retaliation for Israeli air strikes which killed terrorists with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

New York Man Pleads Guilty to Aiding Al-Qaida

A New York man pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to provide material support to al-Qaida. A federal indictment unsealed in April 2010 charged Wessam El-Hanafi with providing monetary and technical assistance to the terrorist group.

A co-defendant, Sabirhan Hasanoff, charged in the indictment pleaded guilty earlier this month.

The indictment alleged that El-Hanafi, a U.S. citizen and computer engineer residing in Brooklyn, swore allegiance to al-Qaida during a 2005 trip to Yemen. El-Hanafi also bought seven Casio digital watches online for al-Qaida. In addition, he subscribed to a software program that let him communicate more securely with others on the Internet. Both El-Hanafi and Hasanoff used code words to express their desire to wage jihad in Internet chat rooms as well as reach out to other al-Qaida members, the indictment said. El-Hanafi faces up to 20 years in prison at sentencing.

Sinai Militants Kill Israeli in Cross Border Attack

Gaza-based militants are suspected of carrying out an attack inside Israel Monday from the Sinai Peninsula, the Washington Post reports. The number of militant infiltrations from the Gaza Strip has increased in the year since Egypt's Hosni Mubarak was ousted, and Israeli security officials remain concerned about security cooperation should the Muslim Brotherhood take power in Cairo.

"No doubt Sinai has become a security problem," Israeli vice-premier Shaul Mofaz told Israel army radio. "Today's incident ratchets it up a notch."

One Israeli was killed in the attack and border communities placed in a state of lockdown. Sinai has also suffered from kidnappings of foreign visitors and the 2004-2005 bombing of tourist resorts, a mainstay of the local economy.

Although there was no word on who was responsible, Gaza-based terrorists and al-Qaida's fledgling Sinai branch remain potential culprits. Both have exploited Israel's incomplete border fence with the Sinai, notably in an August 2011 attack that killed eight Israelis and forced a revision of the Jewish state's approach to its formerly peaceful Egyptian border.

The Israeli Air Force struck targets in the Gaza Strip Monday, killing four Islamic Jihad operatives engaged in anti-Israel terror activities. The Israeli army claimed that the strikes were unrelated to Monday's Sinai infiltration attack.

CAIR Official Blames Israel for Brotherhood Setback

The civil rights manager for New York's Council on American Islamic Relations' (CAIR) chapter advocated for the Muslim Brotherhood political ascension and blamed Israel for the recent events in Egypt in sequential twitter posts Saturday.

Last week, Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court dissolved the newly-elected Parliament, one dominated by the Brotherhood and other religious conservatives, saying a third of them "were chosen on an unconstitutional basis."

CAIR-NY's Cyrus McGoldrick characterized the move as a coup d'etat by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which seized power immediately after Hosni Mubarak's ouster last year, and is comprised of several Mubarak apologists.

"My heart is with Egypt after yesterday's military coup," McGoldrick wrote in a Twitter post. "May Allah protect the revolution & people from the military doing Israel's bidding."

McGoldrick also advocated for the Muslim Brotherhood political dominance, denouncing "the powers" for prohibiting their takeover.

"We should have known the powers would never let the Ikhwan [Brotherhood] in through the front door," he wrote.

On Monday, the Brotherhood claimed its presidential candidate Mohamed Mursi, won elections held during the weekend. Those results have not been confirmed.

Iran Not Budging On Uranium Enrichment

"Intense and tough" negotiations between Iran and six Western nations Monday reportedly showed no signs of progress as the Islamic Republic refuses to yield in its uranium enrichment and demands economic sanctions against it be dropped.

The intransigence comes amid a New York Times report Thursday that espionage efforts to slow the Iranian march toward a nuclear weapon just haven't worked. Cyberattacks and suspected assassinations of nuclear scientists haven't stopped Iran from increasing its enrichment pace "and are now raising their production of a concentrated form close to bomb grade," the newspaper reported.

Monday's talks followed fruitless negotiations from April and come two weeks before a planned European Union oil embargo and enhanced American economic sanctions.

Israel, meanwhile, continues to warn that it will resort to military action than risk Iran developing nuclear weapons. The United States has vowed to keep a military option on the table, too, but has stuck by its sanctions and negotiation efforts.

A bipartisan group of 44 U.S. Senators on Friday wrote to President Obama saying it was time to cut off talks if Tehran refused to make concessions "and instead focus on significantly increasing the pressure on the Iranian government through sanctions and making clear that a credible military option exists."

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said Sunday that he also would resort to striking Iran "if necessary to keep them from becoming a nuclear threat to the world" and that could be done without congressional approval.

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