For decades US media has whitewashed the threat of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), but last week a newspaper in Montana broke the story of the CCP spy balloon, and global headlines exploded with photos of a huge zeppelin hovering over US military installations, an ominous symbol of CCP aggression and hubris. The Biden team was widely castigated for covering up the spy balloon so as not to impede Secretary of State Blinken’s Beijing summit with CCP dictator Xi Jinping, now postponed (not cancelled), and for letting the spy balloon complete its mission before shooting it down as it crossed over the Atlantic Ocean on 4 February. Montana’s Republican Cong. Matt Rosendale stated, “Now that China has gathered information about our military and infrastructure for over a week, we finally bring down the balloon?”
US Democrats were quiet about this egregious violation of US airspace, with a notable exception; Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, who tweeted “It’s down folks!” This took many by surprise, as Omar has a track record of praising the CCP and never speaking of the CCP’s slaughter of millions of Uyghur Muslims, while accusing India of committing “genocide” upon its Muslim citizens. Omar is widely believed to be an agent of the Sino-Wahhabi network, which is ramping up attacks on India. In April 2022, Omar was flown to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK), where she posted provocative videos and paved the way for US Ambassador to Pakistan Donald Blome to fly to Muzaffarabad in October 2022, where he called POK “Azad Jammu and Kashmir.” Does anyone think the CCP would tolerate a US envoy flying to Lhasa or Urumchi to expose the state sponsored extermination of Tibetans and Uyghurs? Or letting a US spy balloon float above PLA military bases for over a week?
Ilhan Omar’s celebrity status took a hit on 2 February 2023, when she was removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee for her record of anti-Semitic and anti-American statements. Two of Omar’s fellow Democratic “Squad” members, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and New York’s AOC, made hysterical rants in defence of Omar, denouncing her detractors “racist Islamophobes.” In 2019, Omar called Israelis “evil” and accused Jews of buying US support; “It’s all about the Benjamins, baby” and recently compared the US with Hamas and the Taliban. After being struck from the committee, Omar worked the talk show circuit, claiming “I wasn’t aware of the fact that there are tropes about Jews and money. That has been very enlightening part of this journey.”
The Sino-Wahhabi network has infiltrated US politics to the extent that no expression of pride in India’s Vedic civilization goes unpunished. The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) protested Maryland’s new Lt. Governor, Aruna Miller, for taking her oath of office on the Bhagavad Gita. Speaking on NewsX, Joyeeta Basu noted that the IAMC would have no issue with Miller taking her oath on the Quran, Bible, or any other holy book, only the Gita is condemned. US news instantly filled with articles labeling Miller a “Hindu fascist” and compared her to “white supremacists.”
IAMC featured former Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari at an event titled “Reclaiming India.” Ansari advocates for Sharia courts to be established in every district of India, and was seen attending an event organized by the Popular Front of India (PFI), a group operating terror training camps and manufacturing bombs. Ansari later denied that he or his staff had knowledge of PFI’s participation.
The US State Department’s Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which is known to be infiltrated by pan-Islamist groups, is working with IAMC to designate India a “country of particular concern” (CPC), and the IAMC has an action alert stating: “Since the USCIRF released its 2022 Annual Report in April recommending, for the third straight year, that the US Department of State designate India as a CPC, IAMC had worked tirelessly behind the scenes with the offices of the Members of Congress who are the co-sponsors of this resolution. The resolution was introduced by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (MN).”
While the USCRIF and IAMC assert that India is committing “genocide” and “impending genocide”, they offer no proof that India is annihilating its minorities in massive concentration camps, which is what the CCP has been doing for decades in Tibet and Xinjiang. India is a secular republic of many faiths, sectarian conflict in India is reported in Indian media and adjudicated in courts. The People’s Republic of China is the world’s largest totalitarian dictatorship, where Muslim women are being sterilized and gang raped, where Uyghur men have their bodies ripped apart for the CCP’s lucrative organ transplant tourism industry, but the IAMC never utters a word of concern about the CCP’s atrocious persecution of their Muslim brethren. So from where does the IAMC get its funding? Their website lists no donors, but its content aligns with the propaganda narratives of the Sino-Wahhabi network.
For years I’ve seen the CCP and Pakistan hire top Washington lobbyists and wondered why India didn’t mount a counter offensive, with or without lobbyists. Who are India’s friends in the US Congress? India is not blatantly invading US airspace, or butchering men, women and children in death camps, but Democrats like Ilhan Omar are pushing the US State Department to label India “genocidal”. US elites helped build CCP into the fearsome monstrosity it is today, and now the CCP has humiliated the US with the spy balloon incident. It is long past time to ask our elected officials and their corporate donors, which side are you on?
Maura Moynihan is a New York based journalist and author, specialising in the Chinese Communist occupation of Tibet.