The GMBDW reported in October 2007 that current Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate Tim Kaine had a close relationship to the Muslim American Society (MAS), a part of the US Muslim Brotherhood closest to the Egyptian organization. According to a local media article cited in that post:

Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is far too close to a Muslim group that allegedly has ties to Islamic terrorism and espouses radical views, according to two local delegates. But a group leader says the charges are founded in racism. Kaine should move to put some distance between his administration and the Falls Church-based Muslim American Society, said Dels. Todd Gilbert, R-Woodstock, and Clifford L. “Clay” Athey Jr., R-Front Royal. It all started when Kaine appointed Dr. Esam Omeish, the president of the society, to the Virginia Commission on Immigration. Gilbert wrote to Kaine, asking him to reconsider the appointment after seeing online videos of Omeish accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians and exhorting Muslims to “the jihad way.” Omeish resigned less than a day later under pressure from Kaine. But after some investigation, the delegates say the connections between Kaine and MAS appear to be deeper than just one appointment. Kaine was the keynote speaker at the society’s Freedom Foundation “Standing for Justice Dinner.” He was photographed with leaders of the group, including Imam Mahdi Bray, the executive director of the foundation. In an online video of a 2000 rally in Washington, Abdurahman al-Amoudi — who would later plead guilty to charges of funneling money from Libya to Saudi militants — took to the podium and declared his support for Hamas and Hezbollah. Hamas, now the ruling party in the Gaza Strip, started a wave of suicide bombings against Israeli civilians in 1993, according to the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations. Hezbollah, which now holds a quasi-state in southern Lebanon, is thought to be behind the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 servicemen. “I have been labeled by the media in New York to be a supporter of Hamas. Anybody support this Hamas here?” al-Amoudi says in the video, drawing cheers from the crowd and fist pumps from Bray. “I wish the added that I am also a supporter of Hezbollah. Anybody supports Hezbollah here?” he asks, drawing more cheers and fist pumps. Read the rest here.

The GMBDW also reported exclusively in October 2011 that then Senatorial candidate Kaine had spoken at an event at which US Muslim Brotherhood leader Jamal Barzinji was given a Lifetime Achievement award. Dr. Barzinji, recently deceased, was one of the founders of the US Muslim Brotherhood and the website of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), itself an important component of the US Brotherhood, acknowledged the role Dr. Barzinji played in helping to found almost all of the organizations comprising the US Brotherhood. The GMBDW also reported in June of this year that the Obama Administration had appointed Zaki Barzinji, the 27-year-old grandson of Jamal Barzinji, as the new liaison to the Muslim American community under the White House Office of Public Engagement.

The selection of Tim Kaine as the Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate appears to be the continuation of what the GMBW considers to be the exceeding ill-advised history of engagement with and/or support for the Global Muslim Brotherhood on the part of major Democratic political leaders. This history dates back to at least December 1995 when Maher Hathout, the late leader of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), was invited to the White House to discuss the Bosnia peace agreement with senior administration officials. According to unpublished GMBDW research:

The MPAC/Clinton White House relationship appears to have begun in December 1995 when MPAC leader Mather Hathout was invited to the White House to discuss the Bosnia peace agreement with senior administration officials. The relationship drew national attention in May 1996 when Hillary Clinton attended a lunch hosted by MPAC. Then, in January 1998 Ms. Clinton invited MPAC and the Muslim Women’s League, an MPAC-affiliated organization, to organize an Eid al-Fitr celebration for 100 persons at the White House. The relationship continued through 2000 when MPAC director Salam Al-Marayati was included in a group of Arab-American leaders who met with President Clinton and again in April 2000 when MPAC representatives attended a White House briefing that included President Clinton, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Secretary of State Madeline Albright and Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Mousa. In August 2000, Dr. Hathout was selected to give the invocation at the Democratic National Convention.

It is worth noting that it was in 1998, during the Presidency of Bill Clinton, that the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID) was founded in what appears to have been a cooperative effort among the US Muslim Brotherhood, the US State Department and Georgetown University academic Dr. John Esposito who served during the 1990’s as a State Department “foreign affairs analyst” and who has at least a dozen past or present affiliations with global Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas organizations. The relationship of the Clintons to the Global Muslim Brotherhood was on display relatively recently when we reported that during the closing session of the 2012 meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, Bill Clinton failed to hold Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi to account for the anti-Semitic and anti-U.S. incitement engaged in over the years by both Dr. Morsi and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. We also reported exclusively in May 2013 that Gehad El-Haddad, the son of an important Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader and a leader in the group in is own right, was the City Director in Egypt for the William J. Clinton Foundation.

The GMBDW has also been in the forefront of reporting on high profile individuals in the Obama Administration that are tied to the Global Muslim Brotherhood. In most cases, we were the first to identify the Global Muslim Brotherhood ties of Obama officials such as former Obama campaign advisor Mazen Asbahi, Hillary Clinton’s now notorious aide Huma Abdedin, and the US OIC envoy Rashed Hussein.

As we have written, we believe that the US governmental engagement with and/or support of the Global Muslim Brotherhood that has occurred with varying degrees of intensity during both Democratic and Republican administrations is part of a long-standing and misguided policy of attempting to use the “moderate” Islamists of the Global Muslim Brotherhood as a tool against what are viewed as more pernicious enemies. As author and former Wall Street Journal reporter Ian Johnson, a former colleague of the GMBDW editor, wrote in an article titled “Washington’s Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood”:

Most—including the Obama administration —seem to think that [the Muslim Brotherhood] is a movement the West can do business with, even if the White House denies formal contacts. If this discussion evokes a sense of déjà vu, this is because over the past sixty years we have had it many times before, with almost identical outcomes. Since the 1950s, the United States has secretly struck up alliances with the Brotherhood or its offshoots on issues as diverse as fighting communism and calming tensions among European Muslims. And if we look to history, we can see a familiar pattern: each time, US leaders have decided that the Brotherhood could be useful and tried to bend it to America’s goals, and each time, maybe not surprisingly, the only party that clearly has benefited has been the Brotherhood. Read the rest here.

The GMBDW notes that candidate Tim Kaine’s own history with the US Muslim Brotherhood is likely nothing more than craven electoral politicking but which should call into question his fitness and judgment to be part of national security decision making in a possible Hillary Clinton White House. The Clinton’s own record on the Global Muslim Brotherhood gives us no cause for optimism as to any change in US policy toward the Global Muslim Brotherhood during a Hillary Clinton Administration.