Press Release

ADL Concerned by Selection of Fred Fleitz as New National Security Council Chief of Staff

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New York, NY, May 30, 2018 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today strongly criticized the selection of Fred Fleitz to be the National Security Council’s chief of staff. Fleitz has served as the senior vice president for policy and programs at the Center for Security Policy (CSP), an extreme, hawkish think tank that promotes the false conspiracy theory America is under threat from “Islamization” and that the implementation of Islamic law is imminent.

CSP is spearheaded by Frank Gaffney, who over the years has promulgated a number of anti-Muslim conspiracy theories, including the falsehood that the U.S. government has been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood and that a number of mainstream American political figures have shadowy ties to the group.

“It’s deeply disturbing and concerning that the National Security Adviser would choose someone from CSP for his chief of staff,” said ADL CEO and National Director Jonathan A. Greenblatt. “Fleitz’s senior leadership role with the Center for Security Policy, an Islamophobic, conspiracy-promoting organization, should automatically disqualify him from a position that deals with America’s most essential foreign policy and national security interests.”

In 2015, Fleitz was a co-author of a CSP publication, “A Plan for Victory Over The Global Jihad Movement,” which not only promotes the notion that “the majority of Muslims and Islamic authorities” continue to “promote or at least support jihad and shariah supremacism unabated,” but also the concept of a “civilization jihad” – a conspiratorial idea that some Muslims are trying to wage war on America by infiltrating government, Hollywood and other institutions in order to implement Sharia law.