Excerpt:
Following the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253 on Christmas Day, the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) has come under fire for failing to connect the dots concerning bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. But new information concerning the NCTC's de-radicalization expert, Yasir Qadhi, raises questions about how far the rot of political correctness extends within the agency most responsible for connecting the dots.
Qadhi's association with the NCTC came to light late last week in a report by CNN that Abdulmutallab had attended a 16-day conference in Houston sponsored by the AlMaghrib Institute, where Qadhi is a featured instructor. The report also noted that Abdulmutallab had attended two other AlMaghrib events in the UK.
Qadhi spoke to CNN on behalf of AlMaghrib, attempting to explain away the terrorist's repeated attendance at his organization's events. Towards the end of the CNN report came a disturbing revelation:
Qadhi, of New Haven, Connecticut, has been involved in de-radicalization efforts in the United States and was a leading participant in the U.S. Counter-Radicalization Strategy conference organized by the National Counterterrorism Center in the summer of 2008.