Center for Security Policy

Center for Security Policy

Abbreviation	CSP
Motto	Peace through Strength
Formation	1988
Headquarters	1901 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Location	Washington, D.C., U.S.
Founder and President	Frank Gaffney, Jr.
Website	centerforsecuritypolicy.org

For the think tank based in Geneva, Switzerland, see Geneva Centre for Security Policy.

The Center for Security Policy (CSP) is a Washington, D.C.-based national security think tank that has been widely accused of engaging in conspiracy theorizing by a range of individuals, media outlets and organizations. Its activities are focused on exposing and researching perceived jihadist threats to the United States. The Center has been described as "not very highly respected" by BBC News and "disreputable" by Salon. It has faced strong criticism from people across the political spectrum, but has also had its reports cited by political figures such as Donald Trump and Michele Bachmann.

History and programs

Frank Gaffney, Jr., founded the Center for Security Policy in 1988.

The CSP claims the existence of a "stealth jihad" to install shariah law as a parallel legal and political system in the United States, constituting a separate governance system for the Muslim community with respect to family law, civil society, media and political discourse, finance and homeland security.

Former CIA director James Woolsey has co-authored a report for the center, claiming that sharia law is a major threat to United States.

Salon has reported that in 2013, CSP received donations from Boeing ($25,000); General Dynamics ($15,000); Lockheed Martin ($15,000); Northrup Grumman ($5,000); Raytheon ($20,000); and General Electric ($5,000). The group has also received $1.4 million in donations from the Bradley Foundation.

Controversy

The CSP's views have caused it and Gaffney, the Center's founder and president, to be criticized for propagating conspiracy theories by the Washington Post, Salon, CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen, Grover Norquist, Jonathan Kay, Georgetown University's Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim–Christian Understanding, Center for American Progress, Media Matters for America, the Southern Poverty Law Center, The Intercept, the Anti-Defamation League, and the Institute for Southern Studies, among others.

Terri A. Johnson, executive director of the Center for New Community, and J. Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), have characterized the CSP as "an extremist think tank." The SPLC further criticizes CSP's "investigative reports," saying that they are designed "to reinforce [Frank] Gaffney's delusions."

One of the CSP's "Occasional Papers" accused Huma Abedin, then Hillary Clinton's aide, of being an undercover spy for the Muslim Brotherhood. On June 13, 2012 Republican members of Congress Michele Bachmann, Trent Franks, Louie Gohmert, Thomas Rooney and Lynn Westmoreland, sent a letter to the State Department Inspector General including accusations against Abedin cited to the CSP. The letter and the CSP's accusation were widely denounced as a smear, and achieved "near-universal condemnation," including from several prominent Republicans such as John McCain, John Boehner, Scott Brown, and Marco Rubio. In a separate report, the group declared that Susan Rice, Richard Haass, and Dennis Ross, were being secretly controlled by a covert "Iran lobby."

The University of Southern California's Annenberg Center for Communication has described the organization as "a far-right think tank whose president, Frank Gaffney, was banned from the CPAC [Conservative Political Action Conference] ... because its organizers believed him to be a 'crazy bigot.'" The Center for Democratic Values at Queens College, City University of New York has said the Center is among the "key players in the Sharīʿah cottage industry," what it describes as a "conspiracy theory" that claims the existence of "secretive power elite groups that conspire to replace sovereign nation-states in order to eventually rule the world."

Gaffney's leadership of the organization has also prompted criticism of the group in the context of specific accusations made by Gaffney, including that the logo of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency "appears ominously to reflect a morphing of the Islamic crescent and star with the Obama campaign logo" and is part of a "worrying pattern of official U.S. submission to Islam."

In December 2015, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States," citing a Pew Research Center poll and another poll conducted by CSP in June 2015. A CSP online opt-in poll asked 600 Muslim Americans about their willingness to either engage in violent attacks against the United States, which 25% supported, and support for sharia law, which 51% supported. Philip Bump of The Washington Post questioned the poll's methodology, accuracy and its characterization. Bump noted that an opt-in online poll is unlikely to be reflective of Muslim-Americans as a whole, and pointed to research indicating that the poll's structure encouraged people to select the options endorsing violence.

External links

• Official website