For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. II – Corinthians 11:13-15
Everyone has a right to be stupid. Politicians just abuse the privilege. – Anonymous
Christopher James “Chris” Christie (born September 6, 1962) is a member of the Republican Party who has served as the 55th Governor of New Jersey since January 2010. He is a moderate leftist Republican, not a Constitutional conservative. Christie earned a J.D. at Seton Hall University School of Law. He is married to Mary Pat Foster, who is currently a managing director at the Wall Street investment firm Angelo, Gordon & Co.
Governor Christie has not yet declared his candidacy for President in 2016, but said he would announce a decision by late May or early June.
So, let’s take a look at the New Jersey governor’s stance on issues. Is he really a conservative, or is he a closet democrat?
Fort Lee Lane Closure Scandal (Bridgegate)
The Fort Lee lane closure scandal is a U.S. political scandal in which a staff member and political appointees of Governor Christie collaborated to create traffic jams in Fort Lee, New Jersey by closing lanes at the toll plazato the George Washington Bridge. Local officials, emergency services, and the public were not notified of the lane closures, which Fort Lee declared a threat to public safety. The resulting back-ups and gridlock on local streets only ended when the two lanes were reopened on Friday, September 13, 2013 by an order from Port Authority Executive Director, Patrick Foye (D). He said that the “hasty and ill-informed decision” could have endangered lives and violated federal and state laws.
The incident was investigated from a few possible motives. The prevailing theory is that the lane closures were retribution against Fort Lee’s Mayor Mark Sokolich (D) for not endorsing Christie in the 2013 gubernatorial election. [Link]
The former Port Authority official who personally oversaw the lane closings at the George Washington Bridge, central to the scandal which swirled around Governor Christie, said that “evidence exists” that the governor knew about the closings when they were happening.
A lawyer for the former official, David Wildstein, wrote a letter describing the move to shut the lanes as “the Christie administration’s order” and said “evidence exists as well tying Mr. Christie to having knowledge of the lane closures, during the period when the lanes were closed, contrary to what the governor stated publicly in a two-hour press conference” after the scandal broke. [Link]
Christie claimed he knew nothing about the lane closures, and didn’t authorize them. He ordered an internal probe be conducted by law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. The firm cleared Christie of wrongdoing in their report. The report was criticized for not being able to interview key participants and for reading like a legal brief for Christie’s defense. Investigations of the affair by United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey and the New Jersey Legislature are ongoing.
Beware of Abu Christie
Christie’s Bridgegate is nothing however, compared to his cultivation of relationships with Islamists who have connections to known terrorist groups. The governor has a problem, a very big problem, specifically an Islam problem, and it should well keep him from attaining any higher office. Why? Because he consistently sides with Islamist forces against those who worry about safeguarding American security and civilization. Let’s take a look at those allegiances. New Jersey has the second largest Muslim population of any state, after Michigan, so is it any wonder Christie cultivates these friendships? [Link]
In 2008, when Christie was serving as US attorney for New Jersey, he embraced and kissed Mohammed Qatanani, imam of the Islamic Center of Passaic County (ICPC), and praised him as “a man of great goodwill.” He did this after Qatanani had publicly ranted against Jews and in support of funding Hamas, a U.S. government–designated terror organization, and on the eve of his deportation hearing for not hiding an Israeli conviction for membership in Hamas. And, in a June 2007 sermon at the ICPC, Imam Qatanani condemned Christians to “eternal hellfire.” He is an advocate of Islamic blasphemy laws that criminalize criticism of Islam. In addition, Christie designated a top aide, Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles McKenna, to testify as a character witness for Qatanani.
Investigative journalist, Daniel Greenfield, reports that, “despite the fact that Mohammed Qatanani was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, the organization that is behind both al-Qaeda and Hamas, despite his own guilty plea to being a member of Hamas, and despite the fact that even in the United States, he had defended a charity that provided funds to children of suicide bombers (this is done as an incentive to reassure terrorists that if they die their families will be taken care of), Qatanani was not deported.”
Imam Mohammed Qatanani greets his supporters outside the Peter Rodino Federal Office Building in Newark last June after testifying in his deportation trial. Photo by Walter Ruby
To top it off, Governor Christie has derided anyone who perceives shariah lawas a threat in the U.S. despite the fact that 23 states have already used shariah as a factor in their deliberations. In 2009, a New Jersey judge referenced shariah when he refused a temporary restraining order for a divorced Muslim woman who had been raped and assaulted by her ex-husband, maintaining that Islamic doctrine requires wives to comply with all of their husband’s sexual demands. Under current New Jersey law, non-consensual sex between married persons is considered rape. (Fortunately, the decision was overturned 13 months later).
In 2010, when New Jersey Transit employee, Derek Fenton, burned three pages of the Koran at a 9/11 ceremony, his employer got Christie’s approval to fire him. Christie endorsed Fenton’s termination saying, “That kind of intolerance is something I think is unacceptable. So I don’t have any problem with him being fired.” The American Civil Liberties Union successfully represented Fenton to get his job back.
In 2011, Christie appointed an Islamist, Sohail Mohammed, to the New Jersey state superior court. Mohammed has a very jaded record. He serves as general counsel to the American Muslim Union, (which has stated that a “Zionist Commando Orchestrated The 9-11 Terrorist Attacks”). He was defendingPalestinian Islamic Jihad operative Sami Al-Arian (his indictment, Mohammed said, was “nothing but a witch-hunt”), and helping Qatanani’s legal defense. Mohammed established himself not just as the Islamists’ lawyer, but as one of them.
Chris Christie was New Jersey’s Attorney General during the investigation of the murder (and “neck slashing”) of the Armanious family, Coptic Christians massacred in Jersey City in 2005. A cover-up of the facts in this case is alleged.
That same year, Sohail Mohammed called for a “bias crime” investigation of the Coptic community for its anti-Muslim sentiment following the slaying of a Coptic family in Jersey City. As an American lawyer, no doubt familiar with the Constitution and the First Amendment, Mohammed doubtless knew that his request constituted a threat to the Coptic community’s freedom of speech by attempting to muffle their vocal suspicions of Muslim involvement in the crime.
When members of New Jersey’s Senate Judiciary Committee asked Mohammed appropriately tough questions about his enthusiasm for Islam’s archaic law code, Shariah, Christie ridiculed the lawmakers, “Sharia law has nothing to do with this appointment of Mohammed at all. It’s crazy. It’s crazy. . . . So, this Sharia law business is crap. It’s just crazy. And I’m tired of dealing with the crazies. I mean, you know, it’s just unnecessary to be accusing this guy of things just because of his religious background.” For this outburst, unsurprisingly, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) thanked and applauded Christie.
Governor Chris Christie attends the Swearing-In Ceremony for Sohail Mohammed as New Jersey Superior Court Judge at the Passaic County Courthouse in Paterson, N.J. on Tuesday, July 26, 2011.
CAIR excoriated many of its critics in its 2013 ‘Islamophobia” report, but the group also had a ‘Best List’ of Muslim-sympathizers which included New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Here is the full report. Other inductees on the “best list” are Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), Rais Bhulyan, CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Rep. Yvette Clark (D-NY), Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA), Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), Rep. Laura Richardson (D-CA), Wired magazine’s Spencer Ackerman, and former Congressman Hansen Clarke (D-MI). Notice the rest are all Democrats.
In 2012, Governor Christie called for an investigation into the NYPD’s counterterrorism procedures as he objected to their conducting surveillance of mosques and a Muslim student group known as a front for the Muslim Brotherhood, the Muslim Student Association (MSA). In 2010, Christie publicly proclaimed support for the mosque at the graveyard of 9/11.
Senator Jeffrey Chiesa
Christie appointed Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa to the Senate following the 2013 death of Senator Frank Lautenberg. Chiesa, served until October 30, 2013, a successor having been chosen in a special election; not a candidate for election to the unexpired portion of the term, has led the Christie Administration’s outreach to Islamist radicals.
Clarion Project – In November, 2012, the Clarion Project broke the story that four Islamists belong to Attorney General Chiesa’s Muslim Outreach Committee. One member, Imam Mohammad Qatanani, has a long and close relationship with New Jersey Governor Christie.
Imam Mohammad Qatanani, who deportation is sought by the DHS for not disclosing on his green card application that he was arrested and convicted by Israel in 1993, for his involvement with Hamas.
Ahmed Shedeed, a fervent supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood and President of the Islamic Center of Jersey City, a mosque with a history of Islamist leadership. Its website (which was recently removed because of a 2014 fire in the mosque) contained disturbing statements about jihad, the West, wife beating and polygamy.
Mohammed Younes, the President of the American Muslim Union, a group with Islamist leadership and close ties to Qatanani’s mosque, which was founded by a Hamas fundraiser.
Imam Abdul Basit of the New Brunswick Islamic Center, a mosque founded by a radical cleric. In July, it held a Brotherhood-linked seminar featuring multiple extremist speakers.
There is far more one could expose regarding Governor Christie, but suffice to say, his snuggling with all the Islamists is enough to eliminate him from the 2016 GOP presidential race.
