White House to testify on ‘home-grown’ militants

The Obama administration has signaled it will cooperate with a controversial congressional inquiry into alleged threats posed by “home-grown” Islamic militants that critics have branded a “witch hunt.” The House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security said on its website that the White House would supply two official witnesses for a December 7 hearing on “The threat to military communities inside the United States.” The committee, chaired by Republican Representative Peter King, had led controversial hearings earlier this year on alleged domestic Islamic radicalisation. The administration’s apparent decision to take part in the hearings could expose it to criticism from American Muslims and civil liberties groups on a hot-button issue they say reflects anti-Muslim bias, just as an election year begins. Proponents, however, argue that there is a genuine threat from home-grown Islamic militants in the United States and that the matter deserves serious scrutiny, including by Congress. The hearing, which will be held jointly with the Senate’s Homeland Security Committee, chaired by Independent Joseph Lieberman, is the latest in a series of politically-charged hearings launched by King into alleged efforts by Islamic militants to recruit and radicalise American citizens on US soil. King’s earlier hearings that began in March were criticised by Democrats and civil liberties groups as overzealous and prejudiced against Muslims. The website of Foreign Policy, a journal for Washington insiders, described them as “Peter King’s Witch Hunt.” A Capitol Hill source said that the Obama administration refused to cooperate or send witnesses to the earlier King hearings. Democrats on King’s committee also limited their participation. But on Friday the website of King’s committee published a witness list for the December 7 hearing that included the names of Paul Stockton, an Assistant Secretary Defense for Homeland Security, and Jim Stuteville, a senior US Army Advisor for counter-intelligence and liaison to the FBI. Also listed as a witness is Lt. Col. Reid Sawyer, director of a counter-terrorism research center at the U.S. military academy West Point. King said in a statement the forthcoming hearing would focus on cases like the 2009 attack at Ft. Hood, Texas, in which an Army Psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan, a Muslim, shot dead 13 people, and that of Naser Jason Abdo, a Muslim US Army private who went AWOL and allegedly plotted a second attack against Ft. Hood. King’s previous hearings had sought to highlight alleged Islamic radicalisation efforts in U.S. prisons and activities inside the United States of Al-Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda affiliate based in Somalia. Lieberman’s committee, meanwhile, has been conducting an extended investigation into how the Army and Pentagon handled the case of Maj. Hasan, and whether authorities responded appropriately to intelligence some officials believe raised questions about Hasan before the shooting spree.