RUTHFULLY YOURS

Joe Martin is a retired U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel, a graduate of the National Defense University, and served with 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, and as a Military Congressional Fellow to the United States Senate Majority Leader. His operational experience includes deployments to Afghanistan, Qatar, Kuwait, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, and Venezuela.

We met at a conference here in Washington DC several years ago, and I knew him from his reputation based on the national reporting after he had been a whistleblower to Congress about malfeasance in the Department of Homeland Security under the Obama Administration. He struck an appearance like Dr. Emmett Brown and his delivery was not unlike Ben Stein’s economics teacher in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. His appearance, delivery, dry sense of humor and gaiety were disarming, making it deceptively easy to underestimate him. ­­­

An etymologist and self-proclaimed nerd, Phil was relentless in his pursuit of those who were infesting our country and attacking our way of life. Among the enemies this quirky bug hunter pursued were Osama Bin Laden, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, the Holy Land Foundation and their offspring – the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) as well as the subversive operatives in the Obama administration… many of whom are still working for the Department of Homeland Security.

 The leaders of those [Muslim Brotherhood] organizations were deliberately and intentionally brought into the [Obama] Administration to help promote and create both domestic and foreign policy and this status continues to this very day.

Phil was so bold as to put the derogatory information about these leaders into the law enforcement system. In response, the Obama Administration ordered Phil to remove all 852 records with the linking information from the law enforcement system. They went on to order several more rounds of purges of his information.

“They told me to delete the files”

“But I wasn’t a very good employee.” He said with a sheepish grin.

Phil turned the information over to the appropriate oversight committees, triggering Congressional hearings into the Obama Administration’s pro-terrorist policies. And make no mistake this wasn’t some civil rights case.  It was about a law enforcement officer reporting established ties between members of formally designated terrorist organizations, their direct contacts immigrating, and ultimately their integration into the Obama Administration to implement a counter-Constitutional agenda. And he was repeatedly harassed and investigated for it.

Here’s one example. After reading Phil’s assessment of Hamas, the CIA wrongly assumed Phil had access to classified information and reported him to headquarters… rather than asking him what his methodology was and how he reached the conclusions he did. The investigation took 11 months before ultimately exonerating him. The investigator would later go one to work with Phil pursuing the very terrorist organization that would go on to facilitate and perpetrate the attack in San Bernardino.

“Obama was working with two front groups that were un-indicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation trial.” – Philip Haney

Phil took his oath of office to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies seriously – to the point where he re-administered the oath to himself at the start of his press conference about the launch of his book “SEE SOMETHING, SAY NOTHING.”

The press worked hard to ignore Phil and his book. His story didn’t jive with their pro-Obama “moderate Muslim Brotherhood” fairy tale narrative. Phil’s irrepressible intellectual and moral commitment to the meliorative counter jihad efforts made him a persona non grata to any mainstream media beyond FOX News.

Phil was on the trail of the terrorists behind the attacks in both San Bernardino and Orlando. But those cases were shut down by the Obama Administration. And Phil made the case there were several opportunities where their investigation could have prevented these attacks. And Like Phil, other counter jihad warriors including Stephen Coughlin, John Guandolo, Matthew Dooley, and others were all among those purged from the U.S. Government under the Obama Administration. Their work products excised from their respective agencies.

By the time I walked away from his presentation, there was no doubt that Phil had a solid understanding of the threat, both foreign and domestic. As I left the Act for America conference in Washington DC later that evening, I saw him, clutching his wife Francesca’s hand aglow as they posed for pictures with patriotic fans inspired by his work and personal integrity and bravery. I never saw him again.

We don’t know many of the specifics about how Phil died yet. It is our sincere hope that the publicity his loving fans and admirers generate will force an in-depth investigation into the circumstances surrounding Phil’s death.

Given the enemies he hunted – both foreign and domestic – there are plenty of people and groups who have a strong motive to kill him. And that’s a testament to his tremendous work and his meticulous defense of our country.

Antithetically, renowned counter-jihadist Robert Spencer mourned Phil’s passing by saying that:

Phil Haney was a man of singular courage and inspiring patriotism in a time of pandemic cowardice and the ascendancy of America-hatred on the Left. He will be as missed as much as he should be emulated.

And the unintimidatable Pamela Geller shared that:

Phil Haney was a patriot and a hero. His courage in the face of overwhelming adversity was rare. He was without peer. Haney stood up to the Obama administration and shook the DHS to its very foundation. Our country has lost a great American. I mourn this kind and gentle man. My thoughts and prayers go out to his loved ones. It is a great loss.

For me, and others who knew him, Phil had been the warning bell of an honest whistleblower. This little-known figure was a titan in the counter jihad effort. Truly, a hidden national treasure.

And we will miss this happy warrior.