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A Report from the Hill:

Inside the Myrick Hearing on the Muslim
Brotherhood

“Our Government is Playing Checkers, While the

Muslim
Brotherhood is Playing Chess”     -Sue Myrick
by Lisa Piraneo, Director of Government Relations

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Yesterday, I attended a hearing in the House Select Intelligence Committee’s
Subcommittee on Terrorism, HUMINT (human intelligence), Analysis and
Counterintelligence—or THACI for short. The focus of the hearing was to “Examine
Political and Religious Entities in the Middle East”—in particular the Muslim
Brotherhood.

You can watch C-Span’s coverage of the full hearing HERE and read how the
Washington Times covered the event HERE.

As I did for the King hearing last month, I arrived on the Hill early to make sure I
could get into the room. As an aside, yesterday’s hearing was actually held in the
House Budget Committee room—to accommodate more people.

When I arrived, there were only two people waiting in line. This hearing—unlike the
one held recently by Peter King on Muslim Radicalization—was only announced
Tuesday of this week. Additionally, most hearings by the House Select Committee on
Intelligence are closed to the public as they discuss matters that require various levels
of security clearance. The hearing yesterday was one of the few that are “open,”
allowing the public to attend and listen in. Though there were less people waiting to
watch the discussion, there was certainly no shortage of security surrounding the room
and at brief moment early on, there were actually more police surrounding the entrance
to the room than people waiting in line to get in.

Fifteen minutes prior to the start of the hearing, we were allowed to enter the room and
this time instead of being relegated to watching the discussion from an overflow room
next door, I was able to grab a seat in the third row and again got ready to Tweet.

In her Opening Statement, Chairwoman Myrick noted that one

of her primary reasons for holding the hearing was to shed
more light on the Muslim Brotherhood, due to “confusion
about the nature and degree” of their threat. Further, the
Congresswoman stated, “I believe we must also look beyond
tactics—whether they are violent or non-violent—and explore
the root issue, their core beliefs and ideology. The 9/11
Commission Report states that ‘our strategy must match our
means to two ends: dismantling the al-Qaeda network and
prevailing in the longer term over the ideology that gives rise
to Islamist terrorism.’ That is why I believe that when we talk
about the threat the Muslim Brotherhood poses, we must not
merely look at whether they are violent or non-violent. We
must also look at the extremist ideology they espouse and
whether it leads to radicalization, and ultimately, acts of terrorism.”

Congresswoman Myrick hit the nail on the head when she said, “Our government is
playing checkers while the Muslim Brotherhood is playing chess.”
 [Rep. Myrick is one of the Members of Congress we have invited to speak at
  this year’s National Conference and Legislative Briefing. Visit here to find
out more and to register for this memorable event.]

During the course of the 2 hours, the Subcommittee heard from five witnesses:

Lorenzo Vidino, a visiting Fellow at the Rand Corporation; Ahmed Subhy Mansour,
President of the International Quranic Center; Tarek Masoud, Assistant Professor of
Public Policy at Harvard University; Robert Satloff, Executive Director of the
Washington Institute for Near East Policy; and Nathan Brown, Professor of Political
Science and International Affairs at George Washington University.

Though the discussion was interrupted for about a half hour at one point, so the
Members of Congress could go to the House Floor for a series of votes, the witnesses
had plenty of time to speak about the Muslim Brotherhood as an organization—both in
Egypt and the mid-East as well as here in the United States.

Congresswoman Myrick highlighted the Brotherhood’s Explanatory Memorandum on

the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood of North America—calling attention to
the section that says the organization “must understand that their work in America is
a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from
within and "sabotaging" its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the
believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other
religions.” In response, Lorenzo Vidino stated that there is clear evidence that the
Muslim Brotherhood is here and operating—and that the government really doesn’t
know who the brotherhood is.

As I listened to the back and forth during yesterday’s congressional hearing, it struck
me how critical the impact of the American grassroots, and in particular ACT! for
America’s grassroots, have been on the issue of national security.

Consider this: Since the commencement of the 112th Congress, there has been a
consistent drumbeat—at least in the House of Representatives—about the threat of
radical Islam to our nation. Congressman Peter King has stated that he refuses to
succumb to political correctness and that he intends to shed light on the issue of radical
Islam in our nation. And he’s done just that. As promised, he held his first hearing on
Muslim Radicalization on March 10th. He and his staff are gearing up for a second
hearing on the issue, expected to be held next month --- on the issue of radicalization
within the U.S. prison system.

Yesterday, a little over one month later, I sat in a rare public hearing held by a
subcommittee of the House Select Committee on Intelligence to listen to a discussion
about the Muslim Brotherhood.

Why has so much attention been focused on these critical issues by our Federal
elected officials? Because the American public is speaking up. They are asking
questions and they are clear that they expect answers.

While we still have far to go, it appears that members of the 112th Congress have
gotten off to a good start. Along with Representative King, Mrs. Myrick has also said
that yesterday’s hearing was but a first step. She expects to hold subsequent hearings in
her subcommittee on the Muslim Brotherhood and related matters. Like yesterday’s
discussion, some will be “open” to the public and some will be “closed”—but the
dialogue will at least continue and that is wonderful news.

Though I was extremely encouraged by the discussion on the Muslim Brotherhood

yesterday, I was at the same time discouraged by the level of attendance by
subcommittee members. As a former Hill employee, I understand how very busy days
are in the House and Senate—and particularly the week before a long recess (the
House and Senate will adjourn for the next two weeks for Easter/spring recess). The
bottom line is, the entire subcommittee should have been in attendance to discuss this
critical issue—and, save for the series of votes that were called on the House Floor—
they should have remained there for the entire discussion. They did not and, I feel, that
is unacceptable.

What can be learned from this? While extremely important to the cause, information
that comes out of hearings like those presented by Representatives Myrick and King
are not enough. As a high-level congressional staffer told me recently, this problem
will only be solved when the grassroots speak up loudly enough. The American people
MUST stay vocal. They MUST continue to let their Members of Congress know that
they expect our current national security policies to change. The current course is not
sustainable and it is not acceptable.

Our representatives in the U.S. House and Senate are now listening to their
constituents. They’ve learned from last year’s elections. They hear the concerns and
frustration about issues like the economy, jobs, and health care. The roar about those
subjects is almost deafening and, therefore, those issues are certainly front and center
on the legislative agenda.

Will the same happen with the issue of national security and the threat of radical
Islam here in our nation? What will our congressional representatives hear from
their constituents about those issues? You can rest assured ACT! for America will
do everything we can to ensure that our concerns are heard.

We are off to a good start very early on, with two solid congressional hearings in the
U.S. House of Representatives in two powerful committees.

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