Time’s up for the MB: Momentum is growing on Capitol Hill for the United States to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, the Free Beacon‘s Adam Kredo reports.
The global Islamist group already enjoys such status in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Syria, and Bahrain, but the United States has thus far failed to follow suit. That could soon change, with the move picking up steam in the wake of a closed-door Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy congressional briefing as well as President Donald Trump’s trip to the Middle East, where Arab officials raised the issue.
“One method the United States could use involves classifying the Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, which would sanction the group’s leaders and freeze its assets,” writes Kredo. “A second option would see it added to the Specially Designated Global Terrorist organization list, which imposes similar financial penalties, according to those briefed on the effort.” A more piecemeal approach could see the United States designating violent branches within the Brotherhood before expanding scope.
READ MORE: Congress Nears Move To Designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization
Whoopsie daisy: Nearly 48 hours after the Washington Post quietly edited a piece claiming, without evidence, that Israel killed dozens of Gazans near a humanitarian site, it issued a statement acknowledging the error of its ways.
“Early versions” of the piece, according to a Post statement released Tuesday afternoon, “failed to make clear if attributing the deaths to Israel was the position of the Gaza health ministry,” a Hamas-run entity, “or a fact verified by the Post. … The early versions fell short of Post standards of fairness and should not have been published in that form.” You don’t say.
One of the piece’s authors, former Al Jazeera correspondent Louisa Loveluck, “was part of the Post team named as a Pulitzer Prize finalist for international reporting on Gaza,” an accolade she celebrated “with a speech to the Post newsroom that condemned the ‘level of suffering’ in Gaza but did not mention Hamas or the Israeli hostages.” She’s been through this before, having worked as the lead reporter on a since-corrected story that alleged Israel had a policy of separating Palestinian mothers from their children. Two strikes, she’s out? Probably not.
Mainstreaming anti-Semitism: Community Movement Builders is an Atlanta-based nonprofit that promotes “black liberation.” It’s run by left-wing activist Kamau Franklin, who recently signed a letter lauding Capital Jewish Museum shooter Elias Rodriguez as “morally righteous.” Though other signees are part of the left’s radical wing, Franklin is associated with heavy hitters in the Democratic Party’s mainstream.
That’s according to tax forms reviewed by our Chuck Ross, which show that Apple heiress Laurene Powell Jobs gave $1 million to Franklin’s group between 2022 and 2023. Another top donor is Google founder Eric Schmidt, whose family foundation contributed $540,000 from 2021 to 2023. The Heising-Simons Foundation, funded by top Dem donors Mark Heising and Liz Simons, gave $100,000. So did the George Soros-backed Tides Foundation.
“The group’s radical rhetoric could raise concerns for its roster of deep-pocketed donors, while showing that violent, anti-Israel sentiments are closer to the Democratic Party mainstream than they would like to admit,” writes Ross. “Of the $2.9 million that Community Movement Builders raised in 2023, the most recent year for which tax information is available, nearly $2 million came through large donations from the charities of several Democratic donors, liberal philanthropies, and groups in the Arabella network, a Democratic dark money juggernaut.”
In other news:
- The New York Times is out with a report about the federal government’s investigation into racial discrimination at the Harvard Law Review, which is itself the product of a Washington Free Beacon report. “The internal messages and documents published by The Free Beacon,” wrote the paper of record, “showed how race and gender were discussed inside The Law Review, but did not indicate that race or gender were predominant considerations behind its final decisions.” Nothing to see here! Readers can consult the documents and decide for themselves here.
- More mixed signals: The day after Donald Trump said he would “NOT ALLOW ANY ENRICHMENT OF URANIUM” in Iran, the New York Times reported that a U.S. proposal for a nuclear deal would “allow Iran to continue enriching uranium at low levels while a broader arrangement is worked out.” It follows an Axios report that said the same.
- It’s over, Drumpf: The DNC paid to place a free taco truck somewhat near the RNC headquarters on Tuesday, a move that Axios promoted as a journalistic “Scoop.” Touch grass, guys.
