Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
The Justice Department’s decision one week ago to scrub references to Islam from the transcript of the 9-1-1 call in which Orlando killer Omar Mateen declared his allegiance to ISIS before murdering 49 people had a familiar ring to Philip Haney.
It’s why a Senate subcommittee with some of the chamber’s biggest names – including Dianne Feinstein, Chuck Schumer, chairman Ted Cruz, Charles Grassley, Lindsey Graham and Jeff Sessions – will hear Haney testify Tuesday afternoon.
The title of the hearing scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time is “Willful Blindness: Consequences of Agency Efforts To Deemphasize Radical Islam in Combating Terrorism.”
The senators will hear Haney tell what he witnessed as a founding member of the Department of Homeland Security who suffered repeated retaliation because his intelligence gathering and analysis of Muslim networks in the United States clashed with the administration’s politically correct policies.
Haney’s story, recounted in his new book, “See Something, Say Nothing: A Homeland Security Officer Exposes the Government’s Submission to Jihad,” has direct relevance to the Orlando attack.
Much as the transcript of Omar Mateen’s call was scrubbed of his Islamic motive, a case Haney helped develop as a member of one of the National Targeting Center’s advanced units was shut down by Hillary Clinton’s State Department and the DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties out of concern for the “rights” of foreign Muslims.
The intelligence, however, had been used to connect members of the movement to several terrorist organizations and financing at the highest levels, including for Hamas and al-Qaida. And after Haney retired honorably last year, he discovered that had his case continued, it might have prevented both the Orlando and the San Bernardino attacks.
Along with the quashing of the case in June 2012, the administration subsequently ordered the deletion of an additional 67 records concerning a related network.
Haney has explained that this kind of information comprises the “dots” that counter-terrorism analysts connect to form cases that are used to identify potential terrorist threats.
Other members of the committee that will convene Tuesday – the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts – are Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Mike Lee of Utah, David Vitter of Louisiana and Democrats Dick Durbin of Illinois, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, ranking member Chris Coons of Delaware, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.
‘Modern-day hero’
Two days after the Orlando attack, former Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., and current Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, were among the figures who joined Haney at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to back the former DHS officer and urge that his story gain more visibility to help bring reform to America’s national security.
See the full press conference:
Gohmert has described Haney as “a modern-day hero who did all within his power to protect America from the internal and external threats from jihad.”
See Gohmert’s comments at the National Press Club:
As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, Bachmann relied on Haney’s information and tried to help him gain whistleblower status.
“What Philip’s story is telling us is that we’re going down the wrong road,” Bachmann said in an interview before the press conference. “Innocent Americans have gotten killed by following this false fantasy, delusional view of Islam, that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism.”
Bachmann told reporters in her remarks that Haney did “what we want 100,000 employees to do, to act in accordance with his job description and keep the American people safe.”
See Bachmann speak at National Press Club:
Also speaking on Haney’s behalf was a former top official for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, William Ferri, who had been assigned by DHS authorities to investigate Haney. Haney had been accused of using classified information to write an article about the Hamas network in the United States. Ferri found Haney to be innocent, and later the two of them broke a case together, preventing members of a radical movement that Haney had been tracking from entering the U.S.
See William Ferri at the National Press Club:
Joseph E. Schmitz, a former Defense Department inspector general, told of his legal representation of Haney when the Justice Department impaneled a grand jury to prosecute Haney for allegedly leaking information regarding the Boston Marathon bombing.
Haney was exonerated, and his book reveals the astonishing behind-the-scenes events in the days after the bombing, leading to Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano twice deceiving Congress in hearings on Capitol Hill.
Schmitz, a top foreign-policy adviser for Donald Trump’s campaign who appeared at the press conference on his own behalf, called Haney a “very, very courageous, very smart and dedicated man.”
“At the end of all of our days, we all have to meet our maker and account for our talents,” he said. “And I don’t think Philip Haney – as painful as everything he’s been through – I don’t think he’s going to have to have any problem accounting for his talents.”
See Joseph Schmitz at the National Press Club:
Note: Media wishing to interview the authors of “See Something, Say Nothing” can contact them here.
See a trailer for “See Something, Say Nothing”:
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