CPAC AFDI event
The CPAC events that we organized were always fraught with difficulty. And while David Keene was tough to work with, or should I say work around, I always managed to get there (thanks, in large part to Lisa DePasquale).
And while Keene was hardly a supporter, it became increasingly difficult after Keene's unceremonious departure. Most folks didn't understand why I worked so hard to hold an event at CPAC. A number of people have questioned my choice of venue for our historical counter-jihad events. Many feel, and rightly so, that the American Conservative Union (ACU) – the political Right’s largest and most influential grassroots umbrella organization and sponsor of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) -- has abandoned conservative principles and morphed into some fleshy, ambiguous, compromised political machine doling out money and favors for cronies, when it is doing anything at all.
I agree. Wholeheartedly. It has been co-opted. Jihadist operative Grover Norquist and Suhail Khan, board members of the ACU, made sure jihad and related topics were omitted from the program, year in and year out. But that is exactly why I held the event at CPAC, and in the early years held my tongue over the difficulties I experienced in bringing my events to CPAC. It was too important that the presentation be made in order to educate everyone. Years ago, when I first met the great historian Bat Ye’or, I asked her, “What can I do?” She answered, “Learn everything first.” That was the purpose of our CPAC presentation. Many people were shocked by it, but Americans needed to know, and need to know, what we are up against.
There’s nothing conservative about soft-pedaling jihad. Every year CPAC gets progressively worse. Silly, even.
CPAC 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 had little in the way of addressing the war we are engaged in and the enemy threat doctrine. That again was why I held my event there. Stealth jihadist Grover Norquist and his soldier of Allah Suhail Khan seem to be in charge at CPAC -- no CPAC event goes on that doesn't reflect their perspective. Norquist and Khan are serving the purposes of the Muslim Brotherhood, the international Islamic organization that has infiltrated the U.S. government and media to such an extent (as Stephen Coughlin explained at our CPAC event) that it controls the information and dissemination of everything you see, hear, and read on Islam -- unless you do your own research, your own study, and frequent blogs like mine and Robert Spencer’s.
Journalist Paul Sperry says that Norquist’s strategy has been to “dress Islamists up as patriotic Republicans so they can infiltrate the government.” According to the Investigative Project on Terrorism:
Grover Norquist hoped to…harness votes from the country’s growing Muslim population by creating the Islamic Free Market Institute in 1998. He did so with significant financial help from Abdurahman Alamoudi, then one of America’s most influential Muslim activists and head of the American Muslim Council. Today, Alamoudi is serving a 23-year prison sentence after admitting to illegal transactions with Libya and being part of a plot to assassinate the then-Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. Alamoudi was also found to be a long time secret financial courier for Al Qaeda while at the same time being routinely invited to the Clinton White House for receptions and meetings.
But the ten thousand great Americans who attend CPAC are not Sharia compliant. The patriots attending CPAC are not pro-jihad. They were not willing to hand America over to sharia (Islamic) law. We needed to reach them. We needed to educate them. They know they are being deceived. They look around their towns and cities and see the unremitting capitulation to Islamic supremacism.
Arm them with knowledge, I say, and what better way than to bring the leading authorities across the world to speak honestly and forthrightly directly to the American people? This had to be done if we are to have any shot at saving America.
- CPAC 2008: Introducing Mark Steyn
- CPAC 2009: Pamela Geller Brings Geert Wilders to CPAC
- CPAC 2010: FDI Inaugural Event, Jihad: The Political Third Rail
- CPAC 2011: Ground Zero Mosque
- CPAC 2012: Islamic Law in America
This year I wanted to hold an event, "The War on Free Speech." After the historic free speech legal wins in DC and NY, the bus ads, and the ongoing fight to run our counter jihad campaign, what could be more timely? I applied to CPAC and met with their signature wall of silence. I tried to partner with the Tea Party (as I had done last year), but no dice. Apparently the Tea Party came under enormous pressure last year when they helped me hold our event. A confidential source told me the pressure to cancel was ongoing. This year, no go.
Pete "DaTech guy" Ingemi writes;"Years from now if they’re successful and they have control of this country, there will be no free meeting, there will be no free speech, there will be no freedom expression and guess what you will have been complicit in this because you were too much of a coward to take a stand" Allen West at Pam Geller’s event CPAC 2010
If you want to understand the difference Pam makes here is some perspectiveThink about this for a moment: A single woman has for a decade fought a fight that others have refused to make:
How easy would it be for her to just give in?
How simple would it be to pocket the Saudi money?
Now easy would it be to just go silent?
How nice would it be, to be invited to the parties?
How pleasant would it be to no longer be insulted or called a bigot?
How relaxing would it be to have the great and the powerful not use the full weight of their strength to silence her.
How nice would it be to be able to travel without that bodyguard?
A lot of people talk about being held down, about being oppressed, about taking risks for freedom, in reality very few people actually take physical risks to fight for freedom. Pam Geller does.
This is a disgrace, but more than a disgrace, this is a problem to overcome.
I will be on Pete's radio show this weekend to discuss.
CPAC Rejects Pamela Geller Duane Lester Published: March 4, 2013
Pamela Geller has been a presence at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference for as long as I’ve been going, but this year, she’s been ousted and all the fingers are pointing at Suhail Khan and Grover Norquist:
I won’t be at CPAC this year. Every year AFDI organizes a must-see event, addressing issues that the Grover Norquist/Suhail Khan cabal refuse to address (jihad, sharia, the war on freedom in the West).
This year, I applied to speak and was ignored. I tried to get a room for an AFDI event, “The War on Free Speech,” and was ignored. So, for the first time in five years, I won’t be at CPAC. Last year Suhail Khan bragged out loud that he (and his other operatives) had successfully kept Robert Spencer and me from being invited to speak. He went so far as to warn people not to attend our events or read our books.
In several articles I took on Grover Norquist and his powerful influence over CPAC, most notably here and here. As soon as I published my Newsmax column concerning his perfidious influence at CPAC, my Newsmax column was taken down and my name and picture were removed from the Newsmax page….. it was two slots away from Grover’s. My weekly column never appeared at Newsmax again. It was axed.
Now this. I might add, every AFDI event at CPAC was standing room only. We turned people away every year.
That’s true. I arrived late to last year’s and couldn’t find a place to sit.
Why would they exclude her and her message?
The Right Scoop has compiled a must read post explaining it all:
I think I know why. And their names are David Keene, Grover Norquist and Suhail Khan. It is Norquist who is blamed for getting Geller kicked off of Newsmax. We will look at all the players in a bit. But first some background on an issue that was brought to the attention of FrontPage magazine on February 25, 2010. The article is titled “CPAC Shills For Islamic Terrorists.” The interview is with Pam Geller of Atlas Shrugs and Front Page’s Jamie Glazov. I think that this interview describes perfectly the decision by CPAC to diss Geller and her group.
Here are a few other stories from around the Intertubes:
- Twitchy: Michelle Malkin, others #StandWithPamelaGeller after CPAC snub
- Theo Spark: #CPAC Gives Atlas Shrugs the Boot
- Jihad Watch: Compromised CPAC turns away Pamela Geller and AFDI
- iOwnTheWorld: CPAC Moving Leftward, Sides With Islamic Tyranny, Ousts AFDI
- Blazing Cat Fur: Pamela Geller Banned From CPAC!
- Breitbart: CPAC TURNS AWAY PAMELA GELLER
- Maggie’s Notebook: CPAC Pam Geller Chopped: Accusing CPAC Board of Muslim Infiltration Having Effect – Bill Maher Confused
- American Power Blog: PC-PAC — Pamela Geller Banned From CPAC!
Why, other than what is detailed above, would CPAC keep Pamela Geller away?
What happened to the idea of the big tent? We have plenty of room for the open borders and amnesty crowd, but no room for the Anti-Radical Islam folks?
This is wrong. Geller and her message need to be heard.
UPDATE: The left, of course, is crowing.
