Bolton Chooses Associate of Right-Wing, Conspiracy Theorist Frank Gaffney To Be NSC Chief of Staff
Atlantic, 1 June 2018, A Radical Pick for the National Security Council
John Bolton’s new chief of staff comes from the Center for Security Policy, a group that was largely shunned by conservatives in Washington—but is making a comeback in the Trump era.
Extract: On Wednesday, National-Security Adviser John Bolton chose Fred Fleitz—who for the last five years served as a senior vice president at the Center for Security Policy—to be the National Security Council’s executive secretary and chief of staff. Frank Gaffney, a right-wing conspiracy theorist, heads the Center for Security Policy.
Not long ago, Gaffney and the Center for Security Policy were pariahs among conservatives in Washington. In 2011, after Gaffney went so far as to accuse. anti-tax activist Grover Norquist of “supporting a stealthy effort to bring shariah” to the United States, the American Conservative Union informally banned him from speaking at its signature event, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
In 2013, Gaffney lost his longtime column at The Washington Times. In 2015, The Daily Beast observed that, “Gaffney has been shunned by pretty much everyone in conservative intellectual circles.”
The national-security adviser now is John Bolton,a frequent speaker at events sponsored by the Center, and the man most responsible for Gaffney’s reinstatement at CPAC in 2016. And, as of Wednesday, Bolton’s chief of staff is Gaffney’s longtime right-hand man. For more, please see the hyperlink below:
Washington Post, 30 May 2018, New NSC chief of staff is from group that believes Muslims are plotting to take over U.S.
Extract: The appointment of Fred Fleitz drew condemnation from civil rights groups this week. The Anti-Defamation League criticized what it described as “his senior leadership role with the Center for Security Policy, an Islamophobic, conspiracy-promoting organization.” For more, please see the hyperlink below:
Talking Points Memo, 30 May 2018, Bolton’s New NSC Chief Of Staff Served As VP Of Gaffney’s Anti-Muslim Hate Group
Extract: Gaffney and the Center for Security Policy have for years promoted anti-Muslim beliefs, including accusing government officials of being aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Center for Security Policy was founded by Gaffney, a former Reagan official, in 1988. Since then, it has morphed from a “hawkish think tank” into a “conspiracy-oriented mouthpiece for the growing anti-Muslim movement in the United States.” CSP has also reportedly been banned from CPAC. For more, please see the hyperlink below:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bolton-pick-nsc-cos-vp-of-hate-group
National Interest, 30 May 2018, Who is Fred Fleitz?
Extract: Frank Gaffney, Fred Fleitz’s old boss at the Center for Security Policy, has harbored a long-standing fixation with the Muslim Brotherhood, going so far as to accuse prominent Washington figures as being agents of the group.
Fleitz will succeed the staid Gen. Keith Kellogg as NSC chief of staff.
Kellogg now works for Vice President Pence, as of late April, after being passed over for the National Security Advisor job itself in favor of Bolton. Kellogg’s scuttled candidacy was relayed to me by a former senior White House official.
Fleitz’s hiring came parallel to the White House acquisition of Sarah Tinsley, who worked for Bolton’s super PAC, and Garrett Marquis, who had been serving as Bolton’s spokesman outside the Trump administration.
Contrary to Bolton, Fleitz did not cut an enormous figure on the cable news circuit prior to joining the National Security Council.
But an interview on Fox from December is instructive. On that program with Martha McCallum he called the Russia probe a “Democratic trap.” He also touted his close friendship with Michael Ledeen, who co-authored a book with embattled former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, Bolton’s predecessor. For more, please see the hyperlink below:
http://nationalinterest.org/feature/who-fred-fleitz-26037
Yahoo, 30 May 2018, John Bolton’s Latest Staff Pick Has Spread Unfounded Anti-Muslim, Anti-Iran Claims
Extract: In January of last year, Fleitz wrote an op-ed in Fox News Opinion about the Office of the Director of National intelligence’s report, which included the conclusion of 17 intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. Fleitz dismissed the report, calling it an attempt to undermine President Donald Trump’s election.
“I also suspect the entire purpose of this report and its timing was to provide President Obama with a supposedly objective intelligence report on Russian interference in the 2016 election that the president could release before he left office to undermine the legitimacy of Trump’s election,” he wrote. For more, please see the hyperlink below:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/john-bolton-apos-latest-staff-201433494.html
CNN, 1 June 2018, John Bolton’s new chief of staff linked to anti-Muslim writings
Extract: Fleitz was one of more than a dozen authors of a 2015 report from the Center for Security Policy that called for, among other things, using “shariah-adherent advocacy and practices as legal premises for deportation and stripping of American citizenship.”
Gaffney, who leads the Center for Security Policy and had been Fleitz’s most recent boss, has earned a reputation as a conspiracy theorist for making false claims about Islam, among other things — including his accusation that the Muslim Brotherhood had infiltrated the ranks of the Conservative Political Action Committee, a large annual gathering of conservatives.
Fleitz’s relationship with Bolton stretches back more than a decade. The former CIA analyst served as Bolton’s chief of staff in the Bush administration and went on to work as a senior staffer on the House Intelligence Committee in 2006. Bolton served as Bush’s ambassador to the United Nations.
Sebastian Gorka, a former deputy assistant to President Donald Trump, defended Fleitz’s past writings about Islam and also blamed the Southern Poverty Law Center for attacks on Bolton’s new chief of staff. Gorka, who was fired from his job on the White House staff, called the Southern Poverty Law Center a radical, left-wing hate group. For more, please see the hyperlink below:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/01/politics/fred-fleitz-john-bolton-chief-of-staff/index.html
Foreign Policy & Domestic Politics 