After last night’s foreign policy presidential debate, let’s take a look at Moran’s foreign policy record over the last couple years, shall we?
In early 2009, when the Obama administration was attempting to find takers for the suspected terrorists in prison at Guantanamo Bay, there was talk of moving six Uighurs (Chinese Muslims) who were trained al-Qaeda members to Northern Virginia. Needless to say, it was a bad idea, and Congressman Frank Wolf of our neighboring 10th District, led the successful charge to stop that from happening. But who was strongly supportive of bringing six terrorists to live in our backyard? You guessed it, Jim Moran. Not only did he support the idea, but he accused anyone who objected of racism. (That’s his strategy for a lot of things – play the race card.) He said on CNN, “It’s just appealing to people’s fear instinct of the other people that they don’t know whose name they can’t even pronounce. In fact, he disputed the fact that these al-Qaeda trainees were even terrorists! Read the full story here.
Remember the controversy that erupted in 2009 when the Obama administration said it planned to hold a civilian trial for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammad in New York City? Not only did Jim Moran say it was “un-American” to oppose the idea, but he volunteered Alexandria, the heart of the 8th District, to hold civilian trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees! In an op-ed in The Washington Post, he wrote: “Like those in any other congressional districts, we Virginians would rather not have terrorism suspects held and tried in our back yard.” You don’t say?
He further acknowledged, “Should some of the detainees at Guantanamo be sent to the Alexandria courthouse, there is no question that people in the immediate vicinity — more than 10,000 residents and workers during business hours — would be affected. The strain on local law enforcement and other public safety officers would be significant. The media attention following such a decision would probably generate public outrage in some circles over safety concerns, regardless of the security measures implemented.”
He continued the op-ed by bizarrely invoking George Washington, John F. Kennedy, and Robert E. Lee to justify bringing thousands of suspected terrorists to the heart of the D.C. area. What? Glad it didn’t end up happening. But the thought that he volunteered Alexandrians, without seeking input of any kind, is disturbing.
But the icing on the cake for Moran’s frightening foreign policy positions is the fact that he co-headlined a banquet for a shady group with a known terrorist. You read that right – last October, Moran wined and dined with Imam Siraj Wahhaj at the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) banquet. CAIR is shady to say the least, with suspected ties to such charmers as Muammar Gaddafi and Hamas. But who’s this Wahhaj guy? He must be harmless, right? No. The federal government has labeled him as an unindicted conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six people and injured over a thousand. Wahhaj has defended his co-conspirators, has called the FBI and CIA “the real terrorists”, and said all Americans must convert to Islam. And Moran headlined a banquet and had dinner with this guy.
We ask again: Is this the man you want representing you?