America Should Require President-Elect Barack Obama to Pass an FBI Background Check Before Granting Access to National Security Information

On 11 June, 2008, Al-Jazeera TV (of Qatar) broadcast an address by Libyan Leader Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi to the Libyan people in which Qadhafi stated the following:

"Along came a black citizen of Kenyan African origins, a Muslim, who had studied in an Islamic school in Indonesia. His name is Obama. All the people in the Arab and Islamic world and in Africa applauded this man. They welcomed him and prayed for him and for his success, and they may have even been involved in legitimate contribution campaigns to enable him to win the American presidency. But we were taken by surprise when our African Kenyan brother, who is an American national, made statements that shocked all his supporters in the Arab world."

Although never seeming to come to the attention of American media, this address was very recently made public by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), and is freely available on the Internet (http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1791.htm). The clear implication is that President-Elect Obama's campaign was financed in part not only by illegal foreign contributions, but also by the known terrorist Al-Qadhafi himself (e.g., "we were taken by surprise", above).

Executive Order 13224, signed by President Bush on September 23, blocks the assets of organizations and individuals linked to terrorism. There are now 189 such groups, entities, and individuals covered by the Executive Order. If President-Elect Obama received and expended funds derived from entities listed on the Comprehensive List of Terrorist Organizations to campaign for the office of President of the United States, this would at least preclude his ability to obtain and/or maintain the security clearance necessary to execute his duties as President of the United States, and at worst, could be evidence of a foreign conspiracy to buy the Presidency. This possibility poses exceptionally grave danger to the U.S. national security.

The Supreme Court, in "Department of the Navy versus Egan", 484 U.S. 518 (1988), states that no one has the right to a security clearance and that the grant of a clearance is an affirmative act of discretion... only when clearly consistent with the interests of national security. We, the American Citizens for Preservation of National Security (ACPNS), respectfully request that United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) subject President-Elect Obama to a background investigation, including a comprehensive investigation of his campaign finances, before he is given access to national security information, the revelation of which could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the United States.

We believe that no person should be granted access to Top Secret national security information by default merely because of the outcome of an election, if unbiased evidence points to the credible possibility of terrorist involvement. In light of the unique dangers, we posit that it is both necessary and reasonable for President-Elect Obama to be properly vetted before Inauguration, and that he be asked to stand up to the same criteria for trustworthiness that would be required of any American Citizen seeking access to classified national security information.