IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
By Ed Hoffman
Have you ever heard of CIA officer Sabrina de Sousa? She is a dual Portuguese-American citizen being extradited from Portugal to Italy for incarceration. Why is our government allowing one of its own CIA operatives to be jailed in a foreign country? Apparently, it’s because her “crime” wasn’t politically correct – and God forbid the United States government allow that.
All De Sousa did was carry out the orders her CIA superiors gave her: oversee the capture of radical Egyptian imam Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr while he was hiding out in Milan. De Sousa didn’t do the physical apprehension herself; she was 200 miles away at the time of Nasr’s capture. But an Italian court convicted her in absentia in 2009 for her alleged role in the “kidnapping” nonetheless, and because Nasr claimed he was “tortured” in CIA custody, our government turned its back on De Sousa.
It kind of reminds me of the story of Dr. Shakeel Afridi, the Pakistani doctor who helped our government find Osama bin Laden. Despite his heroic act, Dr. Afridi sits in a Pakistani prison today. Our government turned its back on him, too.
And now, it’s turning its back on the gay community. Let me explain: Because it isn’t politically correct to acknowledge that Omar Mateen pledged his allegiance to ISIS before shooting up a gay nightclub in Orlando, the words “Islamic State” and “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi” were omitted from the Justice Department’s transcript of Mateen’s 911 call that night. They claimed to do it because they didn’t want to give any credence to the terrorist organizations Mateen named in the call. I think they did it because they want people to forget that Mateen’s actions had anything to do with Islamism.
When the DOJ re-inserted those words in the transcript hours later on Monday, they did so begrudgingly because Republicans had made it “an unnecessary distraction from the investigation.” In other words, they got called out and had to admit the mistake – refusing to admit it was their mistake. All this hypocrisy makes me wonder if gay Americans are starting to wake up to the reality that they’ve been used as political pawns for the past several years – and now, the Obama administration’s feverish protection of Islamism supersedes their past devotion to the gay community. Maybe that’s why the “gays for Trump” movement has taken off over the past week? If you don’t believe me, check out the #GaysForTrump hashtag on Twitter (although it looks like Twitter is doing everything it can to censor it away).
It’s not just dreaded “white male” Americans who are tired of seeing Obama run our country into the ground. It’s women and gay people of all races; it’s Latinos and African-Americans of both genders. Americans as a whole are tired of seeing our government release terrorists from Guantanamo Bay only to return to terrorism. They’re tired of seeing every disgusting, murderous act committed in the name of Allah get swept under the rug as a gun control issue. And they’re certainly tired of seeing their President run around the world making apologies for the greatest, freest nation on earth. They’re tired, and this time they’re ready for true hope and change.
Ed Hoffman is host of The Main Event on AM590, which airs Saturday 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM and Sunday 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM. Follow him on Twitter @EdHoffman, and like him on Facebook by searching The Main Event 590.
