Peter King: The Anti-Muslim McCarthy

From Firedoglake.com:
Representative Peter King (R-NY), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, will hold his third anti-Muslim hearing this morning. Or, as he frames it, his “third Muslim radicalization hearing.”

This third hearing titled, “Al Shabaab: Recruitment and Radicalization within the Muslim American Community and the Threat to the Homeland,” explicitly targets Somali Americans in this country especially those in the Midwest in Minnesota and Ohio. Rep. King is convinced that they are susceptible to recruitment, radicalization and training from this organization that allegedly has ties to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

If this hearing were to be conducted in any other setting, like some place not on Capitol Hill, this would have the potential to be a riveting hearing. The Nation’s Jeremy Scahill recently reported on CIA secret prison sites in Somalia. He mentioned Al Shabaab and how they didn’t used to be such a force in the region. It sure seems like US support for renditions and torture in the region might be giving Al Shabaab a boost in its ability to recruit and conduct operations. But, don’t expect any representatives from the CIA or any task force in the region to testify on how operations might be radicalizing Muslims.

If this hearing wasn’t being held by Rep. Peter King, who appears to be this generation’s Joseph McCarthy, someone with the FBI might be asked to come before the committee and testify on entrapment schemes that are being engineered in Muslim communities. Somali-born teenager Mohamed Osman Mohamud, accused of trying to detonate a bomb in Portland, Oregon, at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony, was set up by FBI agents in a sting operation to commit the attack. This sort of thing can’t possibly help efforts to curb whatever sort of radicalization might be happening in this country

Live Blogging Rep. Peter King’s Third ‘Muslim Radicalization’ Hearing
Kevin Gosztola
Wednesday July 27, 2011
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2011/07/27/live-blogging-rep-peter-kings-third-muslim-radicalization-hearing/