March 16, 2015
(Washington, D.C.): Secure Freedom (also known as the Center for Security Policy) today applauded radio and television talk show host Glenn Beck for his principled declaration that he would end his close association with the National Rifle Association (NRA) if Grover Norquist were to be reelected to the NRA's Board of Directors in balloting now underway. Mr. Beck initially made this pledge on his syndicated radio program in the course of an interview with Secure Freedom President Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. on Wednesday, calling Norquist "a very bad man" and enabler of Muslim Brotherhood operatives.
Evidence of Mr. Norquist's longstanding ties to Islamic supremacists was compiled in a detailed dossier transmitted in February 2014 to the then-leadership of another prominent national organization, the American Conservative Union, by ten influential national security professionals, led by Bush '43 Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey and Clinton Director of Central Intelligence R. James Woolsey.
A fourth edition of this monograph, entitled Agent of Influence: Grover Norquist and the Assault on the Right – Targeting the NRA, has just been released by Secure Freedom. It includes illuminating correspondence written on the one hand by Mr. Norquist and one of his defenders, Washington attorney Cleta Mitchell, and on the other by General Mukasey and Mr. Gaffney.
Glenn Beck announced during his radio program on Friday that he had spoken for over an hour with Wayne LaPierre, the Executive Vice President of the NRA. In response to what Mr. Beck described as "hundreds and hundreds and hundreds" of phone calls stimulated by his earlier announcement, Mr. LaPierre promised that the National Rifle Association would be launching a "transparent" ethics investigation of Mr. Norquist.
In the interest of assisting in that investigation, Mr. Gaffney today sent every member of the NRA's Board of Directors copies of the new edition of Agent of Influence, together with a transmittal letter (see below) offering to provide to have the Mukasey-Woolsey et.al. team provide its members with a briefing on the wealth of evidence of Grover Norquist's involvement with and assistance to Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist figures.
In response to this week's dramatic developments, Mr. Gaffney said:
For sixteen years, it has been evident that Grover Norquist has helped jihadists – including two who were subsequently convicted on terrorism charges – gain access to and influence over conservative organizations, the Republican Party and, most especially, the 2000 campaign and presidency of George W. Bush. Until now, none of the groups with which he has been associated have been willing to do a serious inquiry into the nature and acceptability of such activities.
Members of the National Rifle Association are to be congratulated for their success in instigating such an investigation, as is Glenn Beck for raising the alarm that precipitated this inquiry and Wayne LaPierre for appreciating that nothing less would be acceptable. The investigation will be in order and should be rigorously completed – even if, as seems inevitable, Grover Norquist resigns from the NRA Board.
Agent of Influence can be downloaded for free at www.SecureFreedom.org or purchased at Amazon.com. For more information, contact: [Samantha Nerove at sam@anelisgroup.com or 703.504.8856].
Secure Freedom, is a non-profit, non-partisan national security organization that specializes in identifying policies, actions, and resource needs that are vital to American security and then ensures that such issues are the subject of both focused, principled examination and effective action by recognized policy experts, appropriate officials, opinion leaders, and the general public. For more information visit www.securefreedom.org
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