The Anti-CPAC Conservative

A number of people have questioned my choice of venue for the historical counter-jihad event I held last Friday with the pre-eminent author and scholar Robert Spencer. Many feel, and rightly so, that the American Conservative Union (ACU) – the political Right’s largest and most influential grassroots umbrella organization and sponsor of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) — has abandoned conservative principles and morphed into some fleshy, ambiguous, compromised political machine doling out money and favors for cronies, when it is doing anything at all. 

I agree. Wholeheartedly. It has been co-opted. Islamist (a term I use to refer to a non-Muslim who advances Islam) Grover Norquist is a board member of the ACU, and from the looks of CPAC's covered topics and omission of discussion of jihad, it looks as if he exerts enormous influence over David Keene, the ACU's nominal leader. But that is exactly why I held the event at CPAC and did not criticize the Islamists and infiltrators who seem to have enormous influence over the CPAC show until now. It was too important that the presentation be made in order to educate everyone. The story of a cancellation might have made good blog fodder, but it would have served no other purpose. Years ago, when I first met the great historian Bat Ye’or, I asked her, “What can I do?” She answered, “Learn everything first.” That was the purpose of our CPAC presentation. Many people were shocked by it, but Americans needed to know, and need to know, what we are up against.

And they didn’t find out at any other event at CPAC. In fact, they were fed misinformation. Take, for example, this panel:

“You’ve Been Lied To: Why Real Conservatives are Against the War on Terror Delaware Ballroom
Sponsored by Campaign for Liberty (60 minutes)
Speakers: Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Karen Kwiatkowski and Jacob Hornberger, President of FFF
Open to All CPAC Attendees”

The message there was that “real conservatives” don’t support the war on terror because it is a creation of the “Israeli lobby” — which coalesces with the left-wing’s new anti-Semitism against neoconservatives. Karen Kwiatkowski is a darling of both the leftist Huffington Post and the anti-Semitic paleocon site Antiwar.com. In a 2006 article, she describes John Bolton as “that blubbering bundle of self-righteousness.” KK[K] wrote:

“Many in America oppose the U.S. knee-jerk, unquestioning support for Israel. Many more worry that the Israeli lobby is unusually influential in Washington, while remaining hidden and unaccountable to average Americans. Still others are alarmed that Israel’s constant war mentality has become our new American model, and that Iraq and our own borders have become our own occupied territories, teeming with terror and constituting a never-ending threat to our lives, prosperity and value system.”

Kwiatkowski is also a retired military officer. Is this type of thinking prevalent in the military? (Methinks not.) Giving her a platform at CPAC can only undermine those who are now serving. Having different points of view presented is one thing, but by hosting this event, CPAC explicitly endorsed this fringe, anti-American thinking.

That panel was, of course, a reflection of Ron Paul’s perspective. There were no counter-jihadists, no Robert Spencer, no Ibn Warraq on any CPAC panel, but they had room for this well-funded “Campaign for Liberty” presentation. The same group also had a co-sponsor booth. No expense was spared — they were everywhere. At the event Jacob Hornberger said that there were four reasons why real conservatives should be against the war on terror: because it is too costly, because it makes us less safe (he said Americans were less secure because American troops kill children and mothers and people who are simply defending their country against invaders, and have even, he said, killed a bride at her wedding), because it violates Constitutional principles, and because it is a threat to liberty.

Nothing was said about the Islamic doctrine that shows that jihadists would be waging war against the U.S. even if we did end all actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The panel agreed with Obama, that Muslims are angry with us because of our actions, and will stop being angry with us if we change our foreign policy. This view is naïve and reflects ignorance of Islamic doctrine. And consider this: if Ron Paul were as anti-Islam as he is anti-Israel, he would not have been in CPAC, and his perspective would not have been represented. Instead of coming together on our basic core values and circling the wagons on the fundamentals — national security, small government, low taxes, and the freedom of speech — the floundering, fleshy, unfocused CPAC leadership had a circus of the fringe.

There’s nothing conservative about soft-pedaling jihad. This was CPAC? Or was it the Islamist repackaging of the conservative movement?

Every year CPAC gets progressively worse. Silly, even. Is it hard to believe that this year’s CPAC was co-opted by Paulian bots?

CPAC 2010 was like CPAC 2009 in that it had nothing addressing the war we are engaged in and the enemy threat doctrine. That again was why I held my event there. Stealth jihadist Grover Norquist and his soldier of Allah explained at our CPAC event) that it controls the information and dissemination of everything you see, hear, and read on Islam — unless you do your own research, your own study, and frequent blogs like mine and Robert Spencer’s.

Journalist Paul Sperry says that Norquist’s strategy has been to “dress Islamists up as patriotic Republicans so they can infiltrate the government.” According to the Investigative Project on Terrorism:

Grover Norquist hoped to…harness votes from the country’s growing Muslim population by creating the Islamic Free Market Institute in 1998. He did so with significant financial help from Abdurahman Alamoudi, then one of America’s most influential Muslim activists and head of the American Muslim Council. Today, Alamoudi is serving a 23-year prison sentence after admitting to illegal transactions with Libya and being part of a plot to assassinate the then-Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. Alamoudi was also found to be a long time secret financial courier for Al Qaeda while at the same time being routinely invited to the Clinton White House for receptions and meetings.

But the ten thousand great Americans who attended CPAC were not Sharia compliant. The patriots attending CPAC were not Islamists. They were not willing to hand America over to sharia (Islamic) law. We needed to reach them. We needed to educate them. They know they are being deceived. They look around their towns and cities and see the unremitting capitulation to Islamic supremacism.

Arm them with knowledge, I say, and what better way then to bring the leading authorities across the world to speak honestly and forthrightly directly to the American people? This had to be done if we are to have any shot at saving America.

Last year, I brought Geert Wilders to CPAC. I fought fiercely for months trying to get Wilders on the official CPAC roster. They should have been clamoring to have him. He represents the fight for the idea of American freedom, our unalienable rights as endowed by our creator.

Imagine having to battle with the head of the American Conservative Union to have the future Prime Minister of the Netherlands, who is being persecuted for speaking the truth, address an audience at CPAC. And yet, look at the circus of clowns at this year's freak show gay bashers, Birchers and Paulian hordes.

 Norquist should be a pariah, not a kingmaker. We need a real CPAC. Keene, Norquist, and Khan must go.

UPDATE: One thing I should mention. CPAC did put the event on the schedule. They didn't cancel it when they heard what it was. And they didn't cancel the event when cowards in the media published the unindicted co-conspirator, Muslim Brotherhood CAIR's suggestion that they do. Lisa De Pasquale, whom I adore, was very cool about it. David Keene could have canceled it as well, but didn't. CPAC posted it on their website and program schedule, and that certainly helped draw folks to the event. 

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