According to documents acquired by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, the Obama administration gave VIP treatment to members of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, and exempted them from extra security screening at New York’s JFK International Airport, The Blaze reported Tuesday.
The preferential treatment, known as “port courtesy,” is usually reserved for visiting dignitaries, but was extended to members of the Muslim Brotherhood in March and April 2012 — before the organization came to power in Egypt. The Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, IPT said, had won a plurality of seats in parliamentary elections.
According to “sensitive but unclassified” documents, one senior Muslim Brotherhood official and visiting delegate, Abdul Mawgoud Dardery, was escorted through security checkpoints at JFK and reportedly avoided all “secondary inspections,” which include TSA agents going through baggage and electronic equipment.
The IPT reported that Dardery had “been linked to a child pornography investigation in the United States years earlier. Under normal circumstances, he likely would have been subjected to extra scrutiny.”
“We did not hear anything further from the MB [Muslim Brotherhood] so we assume to departure went smoothly,” said a department official after the trip.
The IPT said one U.S. official familiar with immigration procedures called the Muslim Brotherhood exemption “extraordinary” in 2012.
“The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 with the goal of establishing a worldwide Islamic state. Just weeks before the delegation visited the United States, a Brotherhood spokesman said that goal remained at the forefront of the group’s ambitions,” the IPT added.
The administration has come under fire for its extremely close ties with the organization.
Recently, retired Air Force Gen. Tom McInerney said the Brotherhood is “in the U.S. government today.”
Republicans in the House have also demanded to know the extent of the Brotherhood’s involvement in the administration.
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