Thread: Controversial DHS Adviser Let Go Amid Allegations of Cover Up

Controversial DHS Adviser Let Go Amid Allegations of Cover Up

Elibiary let go after extremist rhetoric, claims he improperly used classified docs

BY: Adam Kredo
September 15, 2014 1:00 pm

A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) adviser long engulfed in controversy over his radical views was let go from his role in the department last week after a long fight by lawmakers and others to revoke the individual’s privileges at DHS.

Mohamed Elibiary was until last week a senior member of DHS’ Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC). After years of controversy about his status at DHS, Elibiaryannounced his final day with the department on Twitter earlier this month and said he would remain close to the agency.

Media outlets have raised questions about the circumstances surrounding his departure, speculating that his provocative comments about the “inevitable” return of the Muslim “caliphate” may have played a role.

New documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon indicate that Elibiary had no choice in the matter, and that he may have been let go by DHS in order to minimize the fallout from an investigation into allegations that he improperly accessed and used classified materials obtained with his security clearance.

Elibiary was originally appointed to HSAC in 2010 and reappointed in September 2013 with the elevated title of “senior fellow,” DHS informed Rep. Louie Gohmert (R., Texas) in a July letter about Elibiary’s status with the agency, according to a copy of that correspondence obtained by the Free Beacon.

“Mr. Elibiary will not be reappointed when his term expires in September of 2014,” Alan Bernstein, DHS assistant secretary for policy and chief diplomatic officer, informed Gohmert.

Bernstein provided no specific reason for this decision and a DHS spokesperson did not respond to a request for more information on the matter.

Patrick Poole, a counterterrorism analyst and writer who has closely tracked Elibiary’s career and first reported on the allegations against him, said that DHS is trying to limit the fallout of his controversial tenure at the department.

“Mohamed wants to pretend that he’s moving on to bigger and better things,” Poole said. “But it’s clear that Homeland Security threw him under the bus, and he’s going back to [his home state of] Texas with his tail between his legs.”

Elibiary has long been a lightening rod for controversy and a poster boy for critics who accuse the Obama administration of appointing radical advisers to a range of sensitive security posts.

Elibiary, for instance, came under fire in June for tweeting about the “inevitable” return of the Muslim “caliphate.” His tweets were later praised by affiliates of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) and potentially used to recruit extremist followers.
Elibiary also has maintained that America is “an Islamic country with an Islamically compliant constitution” and argued that the Muslim Brotherhood poses no threat to the United States.

While these comment have sparked outrage among critics who call Elibiary an extremist unfit to serve in such a sensitive role, the most concerning issue for lawmakers has been Elibiary’s alleged role in the “inappropriate disclosure of sensitive law enforcement documents,” as the letter from DHS frames it.

The exact details of the case have long been shrouded in mystery, with various officials providing unclear and at times contradictory answers about whether DHS ever properly investigated the allegations that Elibiary inappropriately accessed classified documents from a secure site and may have attempted to pass them to reporters.

Lawmakers such as Gohmert have expressed particular concern about how exactly Elibiary was vetted for a security clearance and what he did with it after being approved by DHS, which continues to maintain that no wrongdoing took place.

“As part of his role on the Homeland Security Advisory Council, [Elibiary] was provided access to a network containing sensitive but unclassified information,” DHS claimed in its July 15 letter to Gohmert.

DHS further claimed that a 2011 investigation “found no credible information” that Elibiary “disclosed or sought to disclose For Official Use Only information to members of the media.”

“The Department also did not find any indication that he sought to disclose any other internal OHS [Office of Homeland Security] information to anyone apart from official use of information within the scope of his role for the Homeland Security Advisory Council,” the letter states. “Mr. Elibiary was sponsored for access to the Department’s [secured] HS-SLIC system by the State of Texas and was only able to access unclassified information on this system.”

However, documents obtained by Judicial Watch under the Freedom of Information Act contradict DHS’s claims and indicate that a proper investigation into Elibiary’s actions never even took place.

“We conducted a comprehensive search of files within the DHS Enterprise Correspondence Tracking System (ECT) for records that would be responsive to your request. Unfortunately, we were unable to locate or identify any responsive records,” DHS informed Judicial Watch in a Sept. 16, 2013, letter.

DHS could find not “investigative records regarding the alleged mishandling and any records of communication between any official, employee, or representative of the Department of Homeland Security and any member of Congress, congressional staff member, congressional committee, and/or congressional committee staff member regarding the alleged mishandling,” it said in the letter.

Conflicting information such as this from DHS has led Gohmert and others to speculate that the department never thoroughly investigated the alleged abuse and is now letting Elibiary go in order to minimize any potential fallout.

The Judicial Watch documents “tells you Homeland Security lied” about the investigation, Gohmert said. “There was no legitimate investigation. They didn’t say these documents are classified or secure, they said no such documents exist.”
Poole speculated that Elibiary’s controversial public comments as well as ongoing questions about the investigation likely fueled DHS’s decision not to renew his tenure on the advisory council.

“I think two things contributed to him getting the boot by DHS,” Poolse said. “The first was that Twitter gave the world an unfiltered look into the twisted extremist worldview of Mohamed Elibiary. It is amazing that someone in Homeland Security public affairs didn’t put the clamp down on that. So his social media use was attracting nothing but negative attention.”

“The other thing was that the phony … investigation into Elibiary’s document leaking was quickly unraveling,” Poole said. “I knew the ‘investigation’ was phony because neither my source or myself were ever contacted by DHS about the matter, and members of Congress who were making inquiries knew that at best it was one-sided. And when DHS couldn’t provide a single email or document in response to the Judicial Watch FOIA to prove this investigation ever took place, the jig was up.”

“I suspect they’re cutting him loose so they don’t have any more congressional inquiries about how they handled, or more accurately didn’t handle, that matter,” Poole said.

Elibiary did not respond to an email seeking clarification on why DHS did not reappoint him.
http://freebeacon.com/issues/controversial-dhs-adviser-let-go-amid-allegations-of-cover-up/

DHS Adviser’s Anti-American Tweets Celebrated by ISIS Terrorists

Elibiary’s controversial tweets coopted by terrorists

ISIL demonstrators in Iraq / AP

BY: Adam Kredo
June 19, 2014 12:55 pm

Affiliates of the Iraqi terror group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as ISIS, are praising and potentially recruiting extremists based on controversial tweets by a senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) adviser who recently claimed that ISIL is proof that a Muslim “caliphate” is making an “inevitable” return.

The recent tweets by Mohamed Elibiary, a controversial figure who serves as a senior member of DHS’ Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC), were recently picked up in the Arabic press and widely disseminated on Twitter by multiple Islamic extremists.

Elibiary’s tweets—which disparaged Americans as showing “belligerence” after the 9/11 terror attacks and told of the “inevitable” return of the Muslim caliphate—drew widespread criticism online and prompted calls for his removal from DHS’ advisory committee.

Now the comments are being circulated and praised by Islamic jihadists affiliated with ISIL and Syrian extremists.
“Starting yesterday, Arabic reports of Elibiary’s comments went viral on social media and were especially disseminated by Islamic extremist Twitter accounts and those affiliated with [ISIL] and/or jihadi fighters in Syria, Iraq, and even Yemen” Oren Adaki, an Arabic language specialist at Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), told the Washington Free Beacon.

“Many of these tweets were accompanied by #Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_Syria and #Remains hashtags, implying that the Elibiary’s comments validated that the U.S. recognizes and has come to terms with ISIL’s advance in Syria and Iraq,” Adaki said.

Elibiary’s made the comments late last week during a discussion about ISIL’s rise in Iraq.

“As I’ve said b4 inevitable that ‘Caliphate’ returns,” Elibiary tweeted in response to a question about ISIL, which is currently seeking to overthrow the Iraqi government and instate strict Sharia law in the country.

“Choice only whether we support [European Union] like Muslim Union vision or not,” continued Elibiary, who has “advised numerous federal, state, and local law enforcement organizations on homeland security-related matters,” according to his biography on DHS’ website.

Additionally, Elibiary claimed that conservatives “misread” the 9/11 terror attacks and “should reassess” their “belligerence.”

These controversial comments quickly ricocheted through the Muslim world after the Arabic website Rassd republished the comments in Arabic and touted the words of what it called a key “Obama adviser.”

That article was then disseminated and celebrated on Twitter by several accounts affiliated with ISIL.

“Obama Adviser: The caliphate will return, that is inevitable,” the Arabic tweet reads, according to a translation provided by FDD’s Adaki.

The tweet, first picked up on by the website Weasel Zippers, includes the hash tags “#Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_Sham” and “#Remains.”

The tweet also includes a screenshot of the Rassd article on Elibiary’s tweets, including a portion of the piece that reads: “Mohammad al Abyari, adviser to the American president for domestic security, warned in a tweet on the social media site ‘Twitter’ about the rise of the Islamic caliphate.”

Several other Twitter feeds associated with ISIL and Islamic jihadists also have picked up on Elibiary’s comments
Terrorism analyst Patrick Poole said that Elibiary’s tweets are being used to recruit jihadists and that he should face repercussions for employing such rhetoric given his sensitive position at DHS.

“For years those of us complaining about Elibiary’s extremist statements have done so to no avail,” Poole said. “The Obama administration has repeatedly doubled-down on their support for Elibiary and recently promoted him to homeland security senior fellow.”

“I have personally briefed a roomful of members of Congress about the situation, and only a very few have been willing to publicly raise the issue while most have privately admitted the problem but sat back and done nothing,” Poole said. “The question for both the administration and Congress now is what are they going to do about the patently surreal position that Elibiary’s cheerleading for the ‘inevitable caliphate’ is being used fairly and in context by [ISIL] to recruit for jihad?”
Elibiary has long been a controversial figure in some political circles.

He has come under heavy criticism in the past for claiming that America is “an Islamic country with an Islamically compliant constitution.”

Elibiary also stated at the time that “sociologically speaking” the Christian right is “similar” to the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that he has described as “pragmatic” and “non-violent.”

Elibiary also has argued that the Muslim Brotherhood poses little threat to the United States and he once referred to former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi as “Egypt’s Mandela,” a reference to the recently deceased South African leader.

Elibiary did not respond to an email request seeking comment on the response to his tweets.

http://freebeacon.com/national-secur...-of-caliphate/

DHS Adviser Tweets: America ‘an Islamic country’

Controversial adviser sympathetic to Muslim Brotherhood

Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Cairo / AP

BY: Adam Kredo
November 1, 2013 12:55 pm

A member of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Advisory Council is under fire for tweeting on Thursday that America is “an Islamic country with an Islamically compliant constitution.”

Mohamed Elibiary, a member of DHS’s Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC), made the controversial claim on Thursday while arguing on Twitter.

A Twitter user who identified himself as Tim Lee asked Elibiary to “show me just ONE example of an Islamic country where non Muslims are treated with equality.”

Elibiary responded: “America and yes I do consider the United States of America an Islamic country with an Islamically compliant constitution. Move On!”

The online argument began after Elibiary accused America’s “right wing” of having an issue with Muslims and advised conservatives to “evolve.”

Elibiary went on to say that “sociologically speaking” the Christian right is “similar” to the Muslim Brotherhood.

This is not the first time that his tweets, which he says are his personal opinions, have become the subject of controversy.
Elibiary argued earlier this month that the Muslim Brotherhood is not a threat to the United States, according to the nonprofit Clarion Project, which has tracked and documented Elibiary’s online activity.

He also has called former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi “Egypt’s Mandela,” a reference to South Africa’s Nelson Mandela.

Elibiary has expressed great support for the Muslim Brotherhood, claiming in a recent interview with Clarion that the organization is “pragmatic” and “non-violent.”

Supporters of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood have been cited for a range of violent crimes before and after the fall of Morsi, including the desecration of churches and other abuses.

“I believe that MB and its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, has by and large acted responsibly, if not always effectively, during the democratic transition period that Egypt is in the very early stages of,” Elbiary told Clarion.

Elibiary has served on the DHS’ “Countering Violent Extremist Working Group,” as well as its “Faith-based Security and Communications Advisory Committee.”

Elibiary’s critics say that someone with his views should not be advising DHS, the country’s chiefcounter-terror agency responsible for advising local governments across the country.

“This isn’t just a foreign policy issue,” said Ryan Mauro, a national security analyst for the Clarion Project. “Elibiary’s beliefs are reflected in DHS training guidelines that leave counter-terrorism personnel unaware that the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood even exists.”

Neither Elibiary nor a DHS spokesperson responded to a Washington Free Beacon request for comment.

DHS was engulfed in controversy earlier this year when an employee was put on administrative leave for operating a website promoting race wars.

Media reports showed that Ayo Kimathi, formerly an acquisitions officer at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, was the proprietor of “War on the Horizon,” a website that trafficked conspiracy theories and criticized the mixing of races.

http://freebeacon.com/national-secur...lamic-country/

WHY does it take so long to take out the trash in this country and in this government? Good riddance. Now hillary can hire him on to be her muslim outreach person for her terrorist get out the vote campaign.