OMG! Key Pentagon Counter Jihad Specialist Fired

Steve Coughlin is hardly a "Christian zealot with a pen," being a rather lapsed Catholic, the way I am a rather lapsed Jew, in terms of religious observance. This is a major loss.  Steve brought Andrew Bostom  to the Pentagon to lecture on jihad.

Last week I reported that the insidious Islamists had infiltrated the Pentagon at the highest levels and there was intense Muslim pressure at the Pentagon. Pro-Muslim officials at the Pentagon were putting political pressure on one of the U.S. military's most important specialists on Islamist extremism, according to defense officials. Well the Muslims got the specialist on Islamic law and Islamic extremism fired.

Inside the Ring  Bill Gertz -

Coughlin sacked

Stephen Coughlin, the Pentagon specialist on Islamic law and Islamist extremism, has been fired from his position on the military's Joint Staff. The action followed a report in this space last week revealing opposition to his work for the military by pro-Muslim officials within the office of Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England.

Mr. Coughlin was notified this week that his contract with the Joint Staff will end in March, effectively halting the career of one of the U.S. government's most important figures in analyzing the nature of extremism and ultimately preparing to wage ideological war against it.

He had run afoul of a key aide to Mr. England, Hasham Islam, who confronted Mr. Coughlin during a meeting several weeks ago when Mr. Islam sought to have Mr. Coughlin soften his views on Islamist extremism.

Mr. Coughlin was accused directly by Mr. Islam of being a Christian zealot or extremist "with a pen," according to defense officials. Mr. Coughlin appears to have become one of the first casualties in the war of ideas with Islamism.

The officials said Mr. Coughlin was let go because he had become "too hot" or controversial within the Pentagon.

Misguided Pentagon officials, including Mr. Islam and Mr. England, have initiated an aggressive "outreach" program to U.S. Muslim groups that critics say is lending credibility to what has been identified as a budding support network for Islamist extremists, including front groups for the radical Muslim Brotherhood.

Mr. Coughlin wrote a memorandum several months ago based on documents made public in a federal trial in Dallas that revealed a covert plan by the Muslim Brotherhood, an Egyptian-origin Islamist extremist group, to subvert the United States using front groups. Members of one of the identified front groups, the Islamic Society of North America, has been hosted by Mr. England at the Pentagon.

After word of the confrontation between Mr. Coughlin and Mr. Islam was made public, support for Mr. Coughlin skyrocketed among those in and out of government who feared the worst, namely that pro-Muslim officials in the Pentagon were after Mr. Coughlin's scalp, and that his departure would be a major setback for the Pentagon's struggling efforts to develop a war of ideas against extremism. Blogs lit up with hundreds of postings, some suggesting that Mr. England's office is "penetrated" by the enemy in the war on terrorism.

Kevin Wensing, a spokesman for Mr. England, said "no one in the deputy's office had any input into this decision" by the Joint Staff to end Mr. Coughlin's contract. A Joint Staff spokesman had no immediate comment.

Comments

[justamomof4]

Trying to find the silver lining on this black cloud . . . perhaps now that Coughlin has nothing to loose, he will open the floodgates and reveal what the hell is going on.

[Charles Martel]

It is impossible to control islam in America as long as it is considered a religion.
As long as it is a religion, it enjoys constitutional protection.

We must work to strip islam of its status and to reconsider it a political doctrine, a militant ideology, just like fascism and communism were once.

[Yidwithlid]

Why am I not surprised..every day this nation sinks deeper into Dhimmitude

[Carolyn]

Death by inches. I keep thinking of Saudi Prince Bin Talal (who owns 6% of News Corp.) bragging over how he called up Fox News last year and ordered them to change their reporting on the Muslim riots in France to instead say 'civil riots' in France. Within half an hour, it was done.

Death by inches. Get enough inches and it will carry you all the way into the rump of Czechoslovakia.

[sheik yer'mami]

Unbelievable. The Bush government is in bed with the ummah. Bush, like his father before him, a whore for the Arabs.

That's why Bolton was gone.

Who said America can be trusted to do the right thing after it does all the wrong things first?

What a waste.

Did anybody notice that Michelle Malkin got booted off FOX, but puffpiece Geraldo is still on?

Anybody notice that FOX also doesn't report anything about Muslims/jihad/Islam anymore, but instead focuses on missing girls, women, blond girls, raped girls, whatever, anything to not touch the enemy that has already infiltrated every level of government & the judiciary.

A sad state of affairs...

[USorThem]

Yes good point justamomof4

I generally don't like "tell all" books from ex insiders but this would be an exception.

He ought to embarrass the ass off Bush, Cheney, Gates and Rumsfeld before him. Expose the ignorance of them all. Make them a laughing stock so the current incoming candidates observe the level of stupidity that will no be tolerated from a new administration.

Mike Wallace, you have a call to make...

Bill O'Rielly, get this guy to unspin about the depths of a real spin zone.

[Surak]

I'm missing something. What were the alleged grounds for dismissal? What type of nonfeasance, misfeasance or malfeasance? Does Mr. Coughlin have a cause of action for wrongful dismissal? I'm guessing he probably can't do that in any job with a security clearance.

Yes, I want him to tell all as soon as possible. Maybe, if we don't get a win in November from Giuliani or McCain or Romney or Thompson, we should set up a "shadow government", as they do in the parliamentary democracies - or heck, a government-in-exile. Hey, we need that right now, come to think of it.