Congressmen Call on Bureau of Prisons to Remove Violent Islamic Texts from Prisons

It's a start and it's logical. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) and Rep. Peter King (R-NY) are calling on the Bureau of Prisons to remove any and all Islamic texts that espouse or condone violence. This includes books, videos, and anything else inmates with nothing but time on their hands could get ahold of that would do nothing more than 'rub raw the sores of their discontent,' to quote from one of Barack Obama's ideological heroes, Saul Alinsky. Quite interestingly, the pair has even singled out Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan.

Via Daily Caller:

In an attempt to stem the tide of radicalization in American prisons, Tuesday Rep. Frank Wolf and Rep. Peter King called on the U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to remove “inflammatory written, audio and video materials produced by the ‘Nation of Islam’ and Louis Farrakhan,” and examine all the other Islamic materials circulating in their facilities.

The pair further asked for an audit of the manner in which texts are vetted prior to providing them to inmates.

In a letter to BOP acting director Thomas Kane, Wolf and King, Republicans from Virginia and New York, respectively, cite the June 15, House Homeland Security Committee hearing, led by King, titled “The Threat of Muslim-American Radicalization in U.S. Prisons,” and testimony from former Bureau of Prisons (BOP) director Harley Lappin explaining the susceptibility of convicts to radical propaganda.

“Inmates are particularly vulnerable to recruitment by terrorists,” the letter quotes Lappin. “[BOP] must guard against the spread of terrorism and extremist ideologies.”

Wolf and Kane also pointed to a memo prepared by the House Homeland Security Committee, which highlighted a number of anti-American documents such as “Conspiracy of the US Government” and “Which One Will You Choose: The Flag of Islam or the Flag of America?”

“It defies common sense that any inmate, let alone convicted al Qaeda terrorists, would be able to receive anti-American and anti-Semitic propaganda from the Bureau of Prisons,” said King in the June hearing. “It is imperative that BOP not only remove all materials produced by the ‘Nation of Islam’ and Louis Farrakhan but ensure that all other Islamic texts provided to inmates are vetted.”

This is called 'nibbling around the edges' and it's good to see Republicans starting to address one of the elephants in the living room.

Read it all.

Video: Chris Matthews calls Republicans 'Wahhabis' and Wahhabis Curiously Silent

Forget for a moment that the comparison is completely misplaced; it is over-the-top misplaced. My question is: Why don't the Wahhabis take offense at Matthews? In deriding the Republicans by sardonically calling them the 'Wahabbis' of American government, isn't he also deriding the Muslim Brotherhood, CAIR, ISNA, MSA, and practically every other Islamic group by implication? Keith Ellison should be up in arms over this. Chris Matthews referred to Republicans as 'Wahhabis!' The non-reaction from the Wahhabis is akin to the ACLU not caring when liberals attack black conservatives or when NOW doesn't care after the latest unhinged attack on Sarah Palin.

Via NewsBusters:

ATF Director Testifies, Not Falling on the Sword

The only thing more ridiculous than the incessant coverage of the Casey Anthony trial is that this story isn't getting a hundred times more attention. It was explosive enough to learn that ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson was being briefed weekly on the Operation Fast & Furious program, in which his agency allowed guns to 'walk' into Mexico but now it looks like he is not going to take the fall for the Justice Department or Obama administration.

He testified in front of Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee Charles Grassley (R-IA). I found this LETTER in my inbox, courtesy of Issa's press office. It's from Issa and Grassley and addressed to Eric Holder. It says, in part:

Acting Director Melson's cooperation was extremely helpful to our investigation. He was candid in admitting mistakes that his agency made and described various ways he says that he tried to remedy the problems. According to Mr. Melson, it was not until after the public controversy that he personally reviewed hundreds of documents relating to the case, including wiretap applications and Reports of Investigation (ROIs). By his account, he was sick to his stomach when he obtained those documents and learned the full story. Mr. Melson said that he told the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (ODAG) at the end of March that the Department needed to reexamine how it was responding to the requests for information from Congress.

According to Mr. Melson, he and ATF's senior leadership team moved to reassign every manager involved in Fast and Furious, from the Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations down to the Group Supervisor, after learning the facts in those documents. Mr. Melson also said he was not allowed to communicate to Congress the reasons for the reassignments. He claimed that ATF's senior leadership would have preferred to be more cooperative with our inquiry much earlier in the process. However, he said that Justice Department officials directed them not to respond and took full control of replying to briefing and document requests from Congress. The result is that Congress only got the parts of the story that the Department wanted us to hear. If his account is accurate, then ATF leadership appears to have been effectively muzzled while the DOJ sent over false denials and buried its head in the sand. That approach distorted the truth and obstructed our investigation. The Department's inability or unwillingness to be more forthcoming served to conceal critical information that we are now learning about the involvement of other agencies, including the DEA and the FBI.

This letter unlikely revealed the full extent of what Melson said but it reveals quite a bit anyway. Basically, Melson has decided not to take the fall for Eric Holder's Justice Department and has begun pointing the finger away from ATF and directly at DOJ.

This is going to get a whole lot more interesting...

Read the entire letter HERE.