Excerpt:
Rep. Michele Bachmann and four other members of Congress are getting dumped on by members of both political parties for their letter requesting information about the influence of Muslim Brotherhood-tied groups and individuals in the U.S. government. The case of Huma Abedein, Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Clinton, has gotten almost all of the attention but their question about her is legitimate: Was her family's close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood taken into account when granting her a security clearance?
The potential security concerns mentioned in the State Department's published guidelines include:
- "contact with a foreign family member… if that contact creates a heightened risk of foreign exploitation, inducement, manipulation, pressure or coercion."
- "connections to a foreign person, group, government, or country that create a potential conflict of interest between the individual's obligation to protect sensitive information or technology and the individual's desire to help a foreign person, group, or country by providing that information.