Skeptic Project

The conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch has filed a petition with the New York State Supreme Court demanding that NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg release all records of communication with the leader of the future Islamic community center in downtown Manhattan as well as a slew of other Muslim groups.

"Mayor Bloomberg's support for the Ground Zero mosque needs to be fully explored. New Yorkers are going to want to know how closely he's working with the radicals supporting the Ground Zero mosque," the president of Judicial Watch, Tom Fitton, said in a press release. "It is troubling that the Mayor's office cannot be bothered to comply with the open records law. What is the Mayor's office hiding?"

Judicial Watch filed a request under New York's Freedom of Information Law, or FOIL, back in August, when the street outside the Park51 Islamic center was packed daily with protesters and Islamophobia in general was rising throughout America. The furor over the project has died down considerably since, with only the fiercest anti-mosque folks voicing opposition.

The group asked for any communications between Bloomberg and Park51's imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf. It also asked for communications between Bloomberg and several Muslim groups, including the Council for American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America and other favorite targets of "stealth jihad" alarmists.

Although the city notified Judicial Watch that it had received the request, it never sent any documents, according to Judicial Watch.

The mayor's office declined to comment on "ongoing litigation."

Bloomberg has been supportive of the plans for Park51, and Judicial Watch filed its FOIL a few days after Bloomberg made a highly-publicized, very emotional speech in support of the project.

Although Judicial Watch bills itself as "non-partisan," its causes are mostly of a conservative bent. The group filed nearly 20 lawsuits against President Clinton's administration. It sued Hillary Clinton last year, alleging she was constitutionally ineligible to serve as Secretary of State.

In 2009, its list of most corrupt politicians included President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Attorney General Eric Holder (and, for good measure, Republican Sen. John Ensign). The group's blog called Holder's outreach to Muslim-Americans last weekend evidence of "the administration's fervent crusade to befriend Islamists" and has railed against Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor for referring to illegal immigrants as "undocumented."

The group's founder, Larry Klayman, said just a few weeks ago that Obama is on a "political jihad to promote Islam."

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