WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight plans to explore the administration’s different agencies that “deemphasize radical Islam in combating terrorism” Tuesday.
Chaired by Texas Senator Ted Cruz, the committee will question expert witnesses ranging from a Department of Homeland Security whistleblower to the president of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The Obama administration has been criticized throughout the president’s two terms for not explicitly calling certain acts of terror a result of radical Islam or even acts of terror.
Additionally, DHS established training policies, along with the Justice Department, intended to keep officers in both agencies from adhering to any national security policy that could be interpreted as offensive or discriminatory to Muslims.
“In the wake of the attack, many of us predicted what would unfold, and it was sadly the same political tale we have seen over and over again,” Cruz said on the Senate floor almost two weeks ago. “Many of us predicted that Democrats would, as a matter of rigid partisan ideology, refuse even to say the words ’radical Islamist terrorism;’ that they would suggest this attack was yet another isolated incident, one lone criminal not connected to any global ideology, not connected to any global jihad, and that even worse they would try to use it as an excuse to go after the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.”
Critics of the administration’s policies point to the suspicions of witnesses who supsected something strange about the San Bernardino shooters but failed to inform the authorities out of fear ofracism accusations.
More recently, the FBI called off an investigation of the Orlando shooter before his attack because the agency believed his co-workers made racist accusations about him.