[From article]
For years, I have wrestled and wrangled with and cajoled the CPAC organizers to allow me the same privilege they routinely extend to other conservative groups: the right to host events at the largest gathering of conservatives in the country. Every year I faced roadblocks, delays, and lame excuses -- all stemming from the crippling cowardice of the CPAC leadership and its adamant refusal to grapple honestly with the jihad threat. This year, with jihadis threatening the whole world, it hasn’t gotten better -- it has gotten worse.
[. . .]
the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), wanted to be a full-fledged sponsor of CPAC, so that I could host an event, “How Liberal Ideology Is Crippling National Security Capability.” Being a CPAC sponsor is not some honor that CPAC organizers confer; any conservative group can buy sponsor status.
[. . .]
we invited the internationally renowned Dutch freedom fighter Geert Wilders, who just won the “Politician of the Year” award in The Netherlands. We also invited British politician Paul Weston of LibertyGB, who was arrested for quoting Winston Churchill’s words about Islam; Swiss freedom fighter Oskar Freysinger; Israeli political analyst Caroline Glick; and DHS whistleblower Philip Haney.
[. . .]
They were concerned about security because of the death threats I have received since my free speech conference in Garland, Texas last May was attacked by Jihadis. I assured them that my entire security apparatus, a seasoned team of the top professionals in their field, would be in place (at our expense, not CPAC’s), and that several of my speakers who are European politicians would also be coming with their own secret service protection.
[. . .]
At CPAC 2008, I introduced Mark Steyn. I also once introduced David Horowitz. But once I started to criticize CPAC, the ACU’s David Keene, along with members of the ACU board such as Grover Norquist and Suhail Khan, those invitations quickly stopped coming.
[. . .]
we succeeded in bringing much-needed coverage of the jihad threat that CPAC was resolutely ignoring. Apparently because they were determined to continue ignoring it, I’ve had problems with the ACU leadership for years, as they have steadfastly refused to address the jihad threat and related issues adequately, and have continuously marginalized the most courageous voices.
[. . .]
after I fought fiercely for months trying to get Wilders on the official CPAC roster. They should have been clamoring to have him. He represents the fight for the idea of American freedom, our unalienable rights as endowed by our creator. After much conversation, David Keene was planning to give the Courage Under Fire Award to Wilders at CPAC for his fight for free speech (the very bedrock of conservative principles).
Yet within 24 hours of the decision to give Wilders the Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire award, it was withdrawn. Keene canceled the decision to honor Wilders because of an article in Newsweek in which David Horowitz and my AFDI colleague Robert Spencer criticized CPAC for its Norquist-mandated refusal to deal with the jihad or Islamic supremacism in any meaningful or effective way.
[. . .]
I hosted a panel on Islamic Law in America, featuring Justice Department whistleblower J. Christian Adams, Robert Muise of the American Freedom Law Center, and others. By this time, David Horowitz was no longer a sponsor of CPAC: the Norquist/Khan cabal was deeply problematic to many others besides me. We partnered with the Tea Party. Despite our being under the official umbrella of the Tea Party, CPAC put that event in a tiny, windowless, sweltering room
[. . .]
I appeared on Breitbart’s “Uninvited” panel -- after being banned by the ACU.
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I had to promise that if I came to CPAC, there would be “no cartoons.” So I had to surrender on the point where free speech is most challenged in order to speak out there for free speech. They also told me I could not publicize my event beforehand. My past events at CPAC were always SRO, but if I couldn’t publicize it, how would people know to come? Nevertheless, I agreed to every request.
[. . .]
Schneider told me Tuesday that they were not allowing AFDI to be a sponsor – not because of security concerns, but because I have criticized them in the past for not paying adequate attention to the jihad threat.
When Schneider told me that I was being denied because of the “negative press coverage” I had previously given them, after months of saying that they were hesitating because of something else, I responded that I had reported on what happened. I reported what was true and accurate. Back on our first phone call, Schneider had even admitted that I had been right about CPAC: that in previous years the conference had gone to great lengths to avoid the subject of jihad and sharia. And yet now that was why they were denying me an opportunity to host an event there. It looks as if Schneider’s new and improved CPAC is the same as the old, broken CPAC.
[. . .]
It is apparently official CPAC policy at this point to avoid and ignore the greatest national security threat to our country -- or at best to feature speakers whose analysis is hamstrung by political correctness and ignorance of the subject. Year in, year out, the ACU has managed to keep jihad and sharia off the CPAC schedule.
[. . .]
The Middle East is on fire. ISIS has vowed to commit a jihad attack larger than 9/11 and called on Muslims to murder American civilians. The country is deeply concerned about the jihad issue, and yet it is hardly anywhere on the CPAC schedule, and they’re not allowing me space because I criticized their weakness and flabbiness on this very issue in the past.
[. . .]
CPAC doesn’t deserve the name “Conservative.” It should be called the “Cowards Political Action Conference.”
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/02/cpac_turns_me_awayyet_again.html
February 26, 2016
CPAC Turns Me Away…Yet Again
By Pamela Geller
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