Center for Security Policy

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For the think tank based in Geneva, Switzerland, see Geneva Centre for Security Policy.

Center for Security Policy
Center for Security Policy logo.png
AbbreviationCSP
Formation1988
Type501(c)(3) non-profit educational[1]
52-1601976
Headquarters2020 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Ste 189
Location
Founder and President
Frank Gaffney, Jr.[2][3]
Revenue (2015)
$4,562,641[4]
Expenses (2015)$4,945,226[4]
Websitecenterforsecuritypolicy.org

The Center for Security Policy (CSP) is a far-right,[5][6] anti-Muslim,[7][8] Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The organization's founder and current president is Frank Gaffney Jr. who is known for promoting falsehoods about former U.S. President Barack Obama being a Muslim.[9]

History and programs[]

In April 1987, Frank Gaffney, Jr. was nominated to serve as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs during the Reagan Administration, having served in that role for seven months until being removed in November of that same year.[10] In a meeting with former Department of Defense officials after Gaffney's ouster, Richard Perle, for whom Gaffney had previously served as a top deputy,[10] said, "What we need is the Domino’s Pizza of the policy business. ... If you don’t get your policy analysis in 30 minutes, you get your money back."[11] Gaffney founded the CSP a year later in 1988.[12] One of the center's annual reports later echoed Perle's words calling the CSP "the Domino's Pizza of the policy business."[13]

In 2010, James Woolsey and Joseph E. Schmitz co-authored a CSP report that claimed sharia law was a major threat to the national security of the United States.[14][15] In 2012, Gaffney released a 50-page document titled, "The Muslim Brotherhood in the Obama Administration".[14] The document questioned the Obama administration’s approach to the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East.[16] The CSP has since accused a number of US officials of having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, including Huma Abedin[17] and Grover Norquist.[18]

In 2013, CSP received donations from Boeing ($25,000); General Dynamics ($15,000); Lockheed Martin ($15,000); Northrup Grumman ($5,000); Raytheon ($20,000); and General Electric ($5,000).[19] The group has also received $1.4 million from the Bradley Foundation.[20]

The CSP helped to organize a rally on Capitol Hill on September 9, 2015 against the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal.[21] Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Donald Trump spoke at the rally.[22] In a separate report about Iran, the CSP declared that Susan Rice, Richard Haass, and Dennis Ross were being secretly controlled by a covert "Iran lobby".[17]

On March 16, 2016, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz announced he would appoint Gaffney to be his National Security Advisor. Cruz also said his foreign policy team would also include three other employees of Gaffney's think tank: Fred Fleitz, Clare Lopez, and Jim Hanson.[23] During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump cited a widely debunked CSP poll in support of his call to ban Muslims from the United States.[24][15]

Trump administration[]

Since 2017 several people with ties to the CSP have joined the Trump administration, including Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway in 2017, chief of staff for the National Security Council Fred Fleitz in 2018,[25] and Deputy National Security Advisor Charles Kupperman in 2019.[26] Kupperman served on the board of directors for CSP between 2001 and 2010.[26]

The Trump administration used reports released by the CSP when it proposed to ban all Muslims from entering the United States.[27]

Controversy[]

The Center and Gaffney have been criticized for propagating conspiracy theories by Dana Milbank of The Washington Post,[28] Simon Maloy of Salon,[29] CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen,[14] Grover Norquist,[30] Jonathan Kay,[31] Georgetown University's Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim–Christian Understanding,[32] Center for American Progress,[33] Media Matters for America,[34] the Southern Poverty Law Center,[17] The Intercept,[35] the Anti-Defamation League,[36] and the Institute for Southern Studies,[37] among others.

In 2016, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) labeled the CSP as a hate group and a "conspiracy-oriented mouthpiece for the growing anti-Muslim movement",[38][39][40] a characterization disputed by the CSP.[41] SPLC representatives have characterized the CSP as "an extremist think tank" and suggested that it is led by an "anti-muslim conspiracy theorist."[42][24] The SPLC further criticizes CSP's "investigative reports", saying that they are designed "to reinforce [Frank] Gaffney's delusions".[17]

One of the CSP's "Occasional Papers" accused Huma Abedin, then Hillary Clinton's aide, of being an undercover spy for the Muslim Brotherhood.[17] On June 13, 2012, Republican members of Congress Michele Bachmann, Trent Franks, Louie Gohmert, Thomas Rooney and Lynn Westmoreland, sent a letter to the State Department Inspector General including accusations against Abedin cited to the CSP. The letter and the CSP's accusation were widely denounced as a smear, and achieved "near-universal condemnation", including from several prominent Republicans such as John McCain, John Boehner, Scott Brown, and Marco Rubio.[31][37][43]

Writing in Religion Dispatches, Sarah Posner described the organization as "a far-right think tank whose president, Frank Gaffney, was banned from the CPAC [Conservative Political Action Conference] ... because its organizers believed him to be a 'crazy bigot'".[44] The Center for Democratic Values at Queens College, City University of New York has said the center is among the "key players in the Sharīʿah cottage industry", which it describes as a "conspiracy theory" that claims the existence of "secretive power elite groups that conspire to replace sovereign nation-states in order to eventually rule the world".[45]

In March 1995, William M. Arkin, a reporter and commentator on military affairs, criticized the CSP's Gaffney as a "maestro of bumper-sticker policy" who "specializes in intensely personal attacks" and who has "never met a flag-waving, pro-defense, anti-Democratic idea he didn't like."[13] Gaffney has also generated controversy for writing in 2010 that the logo of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency "appears ominously to reflect a morphing of the Islamic crescent and star with the Obama campaign logo" and was part of a "worrying pattern of official U.S. submission to Islam".[19][46]

References[]

  1. ^ "Center for Security Policy". Rating Profile. Glen Rock, NJ: Charity Navigator. June 1, 2016. Archived from the original on February 11, 2017. Retrieved February 7, 2017. 3 star rating (83.57)
  2. ^ "Another anti-Muslim group wants to hold event at Trump's Palm Beach resort, Mar-a-Lago". Miami Herald.
  3. ^ "Trump's Acting National Security Adviser Once Tied to Group Known for Anti-Muslim Stance". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved July 8, 2020.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b "Center for Security Policy Inc" (PDF). Foundation Center. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
  5. ^ Bertrand, Natasha (August 4, 2017). "The knives are coming out for H.R. McMaster". Business Insider. Archived from the original on January 31, 2018. Retrieved January 29, 2018.
  6. ^ O’Donnell, S. Jonathon (December 19, 2017). "Islamophobic conspiracism and neoliberal subjectivity: the inassimilable society". Patterns of Prejudice. 52: 1–23. doi:10.1080/0031322X.2017.1414473.
  7. ^ Zaveri, Mihir (October 17, 2019). "Mar-a-Lago Again Under Fire for Hosting Group That Promoted Islamophobia". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 23, 2019.
  8. ^ "Another anti-Muslim group wants to hold event at Trump's Palm Beach resort, Mar-a-Lago". Miami Herald. 2019.
  9. ^ Baumann, Nick (March 21, 2016). "Ted Cruz Defends Adviser Who Called Obama America's "First Muslim President"". HuffPost. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b Blumenthal, Sidney (November 23, 1987). "Richard Perle: Disarmed but Undeterred; His Once Pervasive Power Waning, The Hard-Liner Awaits the Summit". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 15, 2017. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  11. ^ Ken Silverstein; Daniel Burton-Rose (2000). Private Warriors. Verso. p. 244. ISBN 978-1-85984-325-3.
  12. ^ "Center for Security Policy – Frank Gaffney". Center for Security Policy. Archived from the original on September 25, 2015. Retrieved September 26, 2015.
  13. ^ Jump up to: a b Arkin, William M. (March 1995). "The Story of Two Franks". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 51 (2): 80. doi:10.1080/00963402.1995.11658058.
  14. ^ Jump up to: a b c Bergen, Peter (September 21, 2015). "The Republicans' Muslim 'problem'". CNN. Archived from the original on September 29, 2015. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  15. ^ Jump up to: a b Hauslohner, Abigail (November 5, 2016). "How a series of fringe anti-Muslim conspiracy theories went mainstream — via Donald Trump". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 18, 2018. Retrieved March 2, 2018.
  16. ^ Gertz, Bill (June 3, 2015). "Obama Secretly Backing Muslim Brotherhood". The Washington Times. Archived from the original on February 8, 2018. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
  17. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Southern Poverty Law Center. "Frank Gaffney Jr". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on September 8, 2015. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  18. ^ Terkel, Amanda (March 5, 2014). "Frank Gaffney Escalates Crusade To Take Down Grover Norquist". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on August 5, 2015. Retrieved July 26, 2015.
  19. ^ Jump up to: a b Clifton, Eli (October 1, 2014). "Look who's backing Islamophobe Frank Gaffney". Salon. Archived from the original on July 25, 2015. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
  20. ^ "Anti-Islam Group Cited by Trump Roils Wisc. Politics". The Chronicle of Philanthropy. December 16, 2015. Archived from the original on January 21, 2016. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
  21. ^ Keating, Joshua (September 9, 2015). "Trump and Cruz Stump Against Iran Deal". Slate. Archived from the original on February 7, 2018. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
  22. ^ "Trump, Cruz Pair Up to Slam Iran Deal at Capitol Hill Rally". NBC News. September 9, 2015. Archived from the original on March 1, 2018. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
  23. ^ "Ted Cruz Names Anti-Muslim Conspiracy Theorist As Top Foreign-Policy Adviser". New York. March 17, 2016. Archived from the original on March 18, 2016. Retrieved March 19, 2016.
  24. ^ Jump up to: a b Joel Gunter (December 8, 2015). "Trump's 'Muslim lockdown': What is the Center for Security Policy?". BBC News. Archived from the original on December 12, 2015. Retrieved December 10, 2015.
  25. ^ Uddin, Asma (2019). When Islam is Not a Religion. Pegasus Books. p. 93. ISBN 9781643131740.
  26. ^ Jump up to: a b "Archived copy". Archived from the original on January 18, 2019. Retrieved January 18, 2019.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  27. ^ "Far-right group warning of Islamist infiltration to hold banquet at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club". The Washington Post. 2019.
  28. ^ Milbank, Dana (September 21, 2015). "It's up to voters to reject Trump and Carson's bigotry". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 3, 2015. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  29. ^ Maloy, Simon (August 28, 2015). "Cruz's cynical Trump detente: They're good buddies now, but wait until The Donald's support drops". Salon. Archived from the original on December 27, 2015. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  30. ^ David Weigel (March 16, 2015). "Election Became a Civil War Over Radical Islam: Grover Norquist, Frank Gaffney, and the battle that could reach Hillary Clinton's campaign". Bloomberg Politics. Archived from the original on April 26, 2017. Retrieved March 6, 2017.
  31. ^ Jump up to: a b Kay, Jonathan (July 23, 2012). "Bachmann, Gaffney, and the GOP's Anti-Muslim Culture of Conspiracy". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on July 11, 2015. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  32. ^ The Bridge Initiative Team (July 20, 2015). "Presidential Candidates Set to Appear at Event Hosted By Anti-Muslim Conspiracy Theorist". The Bridge Initiative. Georgetown University. Archived from the original on July 26, 2015. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  33. ^ Wajahat Ali; et al. (August 26, 2015). "Fear, Inc". Center for American Progress. Archived from the original on November 6, 2015. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  34. ^ Johnson, Timothy (April 9, 2015). "NRA Annual Meeting To Enmesh Gun Extremism With GOP Presidential Hopefuls". Media Matters for America. Archived from the original on July 25, 2015. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  35. ^ Lee, Fang (September 18, 2015). "Ahmed Mohamed's Clock Was "Half a Bomb", Says Anti-Muslim Group With Ties to Trump, Cruz". The Intercept. Archived from the original on September 26, 2015. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  36. ^ Anti-Defamation League (March 2011) "Stop Islamization of America (SIOA)" Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  37. ^ Jump up to: a b Sturgis, Sue (July 20, 2012). "Meet the man behind the Muslim conspiracy uproar". The Institute for Southern Studies. Archived from the original on September 12, 2015. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  38. ^ "Center for Security Policy". Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on April 11, 2016. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
  39. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on June 19, 2018. Retrieved June 22, 2018.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  40. ^ Chokshi, Niraj (February 17, 2016). "The year of 'enormous rage': Number of hate groups rose by 14 percent in 2015". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 19, 2018. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  41. ^ Fleitz, Fred (February 19, 2016). "What do Ben Carson, Frank Gaffney share? Both are victims of a left-wing smear machine". Fox News Opinion. FoxNews.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2017. Retrieved February 10, 2017.
  42. ^ Johnson, Terri A.; Cohen, J. Richard (September 3, 2015). "Anti-Muslim bigotry has no place in politics". The Hill. Archived from the original on October 6, 2015. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  43. ^ Jennifer Bendery; Terkel, Amanda (July 19, 2012). "More Republicans Speak Out Against Bachmann Attacks". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on July 25, 2015. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
  44. ^ Posner, Sarah (April 17, 2012). "Welcome to the Shari'ah Conspiracy Theory Industry". Religion Dispatches. Archived from the original on September 28, 2015. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  45. ^ The Michael Harrington Center for Democratic Values and Social Action "Action Brief" Archived September 8, 2015, at the Wayback Machine (April 2011)
  46. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on May 22, 2017. Retrieved February 28, 2017.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

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