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The Center for Security Policy (CSP) is a self-described national security think tank based in Washington, DC that has been widely accused of engaging in conspiracy theorizing by a range of individuals, media outlets and organizations. Its activities are focused on what it claims is a secret, global campaign to destroy western civilization.

History and programs

Frank Gaffney, Jr., founded Center for Security Policy in 1988 and committed it to pursuing Ronald Reagan's "peace through strength" approach to national Security. Reagan was awarded the Center's Keeper of the Flame Award in 1995. Gaffney wrote a tribute to Reagan on what would have been his 104th birthday in April 2015.

The Center has claimed the existence of a "Global Jihad Movement" which it alleges is a worldwide campaign at war with Western civilization 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.

Another major focus of the Center is protecting America's infrastructure, especially the U.S. power grid from electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attacks. Gaffney has worked closely with former CIA Director James Woolsey and former CIA analyst Peter Pry to educate the American public and the U.S. Congress about the EMP threat and how states like Iran and North Korea could destroy the U.S. power grid with an EMP attack by detonating small nuclear weapons in the atmosphere.

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)".

Criticism

The Center's views have caused it and the Center's founder and President, Frank Gaffney, Jr., to be criticized for propagating conspiracy theories by Reason , American Conservative Magazine , the Washington Post, Salon, Peter Bergen, Grover Norquist , Philip Giraldi, Jonathan Kay , Georgetown University's Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim–Christian Understanding, Center for American Progress, Media Matters for America,, The Nation, the Southern Poverty Law Center , The Intercept , the Anti-Defamation League, and the Institute for Southern Studies , among others.

The Hill has characterized the group as "an extremist think tank" while 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 ... 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."

The Southern Poverty Law Center has said the CSP's "alarming investigative reports" are designed "to reinforce Gaffney's delusions." In one of the group's "Occasional Papers," it alleged Huma Abedin, then Hillary Clinton's aide, was an undercover spy for the Muslim Brotherhood. The CSP's accusation was denounced by John McCain, John Boehner, Scott Brown, and Marco Rubio.

In a separate report, it declared Susan Rice, Richard Haass, and Dennis Ross, were being secretly controlled by a covert "Iran lobby."

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 March 2015 Mediaite described what it characterized as a typical scene at a CSP hosted forum held in South Carolina:

During a Q&A session with the conference’s attendees, a woman came up to the microphone and introduced herself as a "retired schoolteacher." Two minutes and twenty seconds later, she was dragged away while screaming about how the "communist dictator" Obama was trying to destroy the country by trying to nuke Charleston.

References

1. Gaffney, Frank. Reagan: Relevant, revered on his 104th birthday - plus a 21-gun salute to celebrate "Washington Times" February 5, 2015
2. "Center for Security Policy - Frank Gaffney". Center for Security Policy.
3. Understanding the Shariah Threat Doctrine Center for Security Policy website, accessed September 22, 2015
4. Frank Gaffney: Is North Korea Planning to Launch EMP Attack? Fox News, the Kudlow Report, April 10, 2013
5. Woolsey: EMP catastrophe worse than effects of nuclear war Empact America Conference, February 6, 2014.
6. Clifton, Eli (1 October 2014). "Look who's backing Islamophobe Frank Gaffney". www.salon.com. Salon Media Group, Inc. Retrieved 1 October 2014.
7. "Frank Gaffney, Obama Truther". Reason.com.
8. "Islamophobia Is Still a Republican Value". The American Conservative.
9. Dana Milbank (21 September 2015). "It's up to voters to reject Trump and Carson's bigotry". Washington Post.
10. Simon Maloy. "Cruz's cynical Trump detente: They're good buddies now, but wait until The Donald's support drops". salon.com.
11. Peter Bergen, CNN National Security Analyst (21 September 2015). "The Republicans' Muslim 'problem'". CNN. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
12. "Bloomberg Politics". Bloomberg.com/politics. 16 March 2015.
13. "Neocons Preoccupied With Islamic Conspiracy Theories by Philip Giraldi -- Antiwar.com". antiwar.com.
14. "Bachmann, Gaffney, and the GOP's Anti-Muslim Culture of Conspiracy". The Daily Beast.
15. Cite error: The named reference Georgetown University was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
16. "Fear, Inc". americanprogress.org. Center for American Progress. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
17. "Media Matters". http://mediamatters.org. Retrieved 24 July 2015. {{cite web}}: External link in |website= (help)
18. Green, Hannah (25 June 2014). "What the Right Misses About Islamic Extremism: A Conversation With Saba Ahmed". The Nation. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
19. "Frank Gaffney Jr". Southern Poverty Law Center.
20. "Ahmed Mohamed's Clock Was "Half a Bomb," Says Anti-Muslim Group With Ties to Trump, Cruz". The Intercept.
21. http://www.adl.org/assets/pdf/civil-rights/stop-islamization-of-america-2013-1-11-v1.pdf
22. "Meet the man behind the Muslim conspiracy uproar". The Institute for Southern Studies.
23. "Anti-Muslim bigotry has no place in politics". TheHill.
24. Sarah Posner. "Welcome to the Shari'ah Conspiracy Theory Industry". Religion Dispatches.
25. The Michael Harrington Center for Democratic Values and Social Action Action Brief April, 2011
26. ^ "Frank Gaffney Jr". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
27. "More Republicans Speak Out Against Bachmann Attacks". Huffington Post. 19 July 2012.
28. "Far-right birther's secret funders: Look who's backing Islamophobe Frank Gaffney". Salon. 14 October 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
29. Nguyen, Tina. "Watch Santorum Painfully React to Totally Batty Question About 'Communist Dictator' Obama". Mediaite. No. 18 March 2015. Retrieved 27 July 2015.

External links

• Center for Security Policy Official Website

• Foreign policy and strategy think tanks in the United States
• Political and economic think tanks in the United States
• New Right (United States)
• Think tanks established in 1988
• Organizations based in Washington, D.C.
• 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations