What is Wrong w/ the State Department ?

Let us count the ways ....

Here's a big one:

The State Department Doubles Down on the Islamist Mosque in Virginia [Andy McCarthy]

Yesterday I noted the State Department's showcasing of the Dar al-Hijra Islamic Center in a film about Muslim life in America — despite the mosque's longstanding ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, its virulent Islamist ideology, its support for the murderous Hamas organization, its notorious Islamist imams and elders (including al Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki), and the ties of some of its worshippers to the 9/11 attacks and the Fort Hood massacre. Then, we learned that the federal government has struck a deal to pay Dar al-Hijra a whopping $582K just for this year (i.e., about one-tenth what it cost the Saudis to build the place), purportedly because the Census Bureau needs work space — y'know, because there are like no federal facilities anywhere near Falls Church, Virginia.

Now we learn that State is doubling down. Steve Emerson's Investigative Project on Terrorism is reported today that:

The State Department wants its next wave of diplomats to learn what Muslims in other countries think of America. To do that, it is sending a class to Anwar al-Awlaki's former mosque in Falls Church, Va. this Sunday, the Investigative Project on Terrorism has learned.
As we reported Tuesday, federal law enforcement officials view the Dar al-Hijrah mosque as home to Hamas operatives and others linked to terrorist financing and "bad orgs." In addition, it was home to two years to Awlaki, a charismatic, American-born cleric now living in Yemen. He is considered to have been inspirational to the accused Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan, failed airplane bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and Times Square bomber Faizal Shahzad. As a result, he may be the only American the CIA is authorized by the President to kill.
Awlaki has been gone for eight years, and mosque leadership publicly disavows him, but Alwaki's radical preaching was well established during his time there. The 9/11 Commission Report found that Awlaki knew two of the hijackers and that one, Nawaf al-Hamzi, followed Awlaki from San Diego to Virginia in early 2001, "an appearance that may not have been coincidental."
According to a mosque invitation to its members:

"Dar Al-Hijrah will host a group of adult students from the Foreign Service Institute (college). They will be joining the diplomatic corp and will be working in largely Arab Muslim countries.You are invited to join us for small group discussions with our guests regarding the attitudes and perspectives that immigrants from Muslims countries had about America before arriving and how their understandings have changed. Brothers and sisters, this is our chance to help these Americans understand the culture, customs and attitudes of Muslims in our home countries."

The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) visit is an informal event organized by the students, an official said. Dar al-Hijrah was selected because it is a large mosque that is conveniently located for the group.

While not all mosque members maintain radical views, its leaders and many members have attracted law enforcement scrutiny for years. According to reports between 2002 and 2007 obtained by the IPT through a Freedom of Information Act request, Dar al-Hijrah "has been under numerous investigations for financing and proving (sic) aid and comfort to bad orgs and members." Another report said the mosque was "operating as a front for Hamas operatives in U.S."

The rest of Steve's report, including a description of the Dar al-Hijra heavyweights who've been prominent supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and its Palestinian branch, Hamas, is here. Steve also notes that Rep. John Carter, a Republican whose Texas district includes Fort Hood, has called for the lease to be severed. Carter had some stinging words for Janet Napolitano's Homeland Security Department: "The purpose for creating this cabinet-level agency in 2002 was to coordinate all agencies of the federal government to prevent any more radical Islamic attacks like 9-11. Eight years later and they can't even tell a federal agency they're renting office space from the very mosque involved with the 9-11 attacks, and that has seeded this past year's assaults through the likes of Al-Awlaki."

Refreshingly, some Muslims are speaking up publicly against our government's relentlessly cozy relations with Islamist elements. Hedieh Mirahmadi, who heads an anti-extremist group, complained that the State Department should expand its horizons. "They have this set of go-to people that they approach," she said, "and they keep going back to that list.... With the controversy surrounding Dar al-Hijrah now, I wouldn't want to send the message to the world that this is Islam in America."