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Andrew C. McCarthy is a former federal prosecutor closely associated with a number of neoconservative and other militarist policy factions in the United States. He is a senior fellow at the National Review Institute (NRI), a right-wing policy group connected to National Review magazine, and co-chair of the Center for Law and Counterterrorism, a joint project of NRI and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.[1]

Like many of his neoconservative counterparts, McCarthy tends to see Islam as threatening to the West.[2] In particular,according to McCarthy, Salafism—the original inspiration of the Muslim Brotherhood—is the core ideological foundation of both Islamist terrorists as well as other Muslims who reject terrorism. Writing in the Washington Examiner, he claimed that both groups nevertheless reject Western rationalism and the Christian unity of faith and reason, instead favoring Sharia determinism. “Both support the development of fundamentalist Muslim enclaves and the ultimate supplanting of American constitutional democracy by Islamic law. Non-terrorist Islamists want to overthrow the U.S. government every bit as much as the terrorists do. They are not moderates. Their differences with the terrorists are over means and methods, not goals.”[3]

McCarthy has used his perch at the National Review to promote various conspiracy theories, including adding his voice in 2008 to the chorus of right-wing voices who called into question whether then-Senator Barack Obama was born in the United States.[4] He sees President Obama as the “bridge figure between the Left and the Islamists,” characterizes Obama’s relationship to the Muslim world as “cagey,” and chastises Obama for not being more upfront about his own Muslim roots.[5] He has called Obama a radical leftist[6]; “an Alinskyite,” alluding to Chicago born community organizer Saul Alinsky; and a “fifth-column radical” with the goal of overthrowing the capitalist social order.[7]

When describing Obama’s handling of foreign policy, he says, “Barack Obama is a wolf in 'pragmatist' clothing: Beneath the easy smile and above-it-all manner—the 'neutral' doing his best to weigh competing claims—is a radical leftist wedded to a Manichean vision that depicts American imperialism as the primary evil in the world.”[8]

Along with Frank Gaffney, James Woolsey and others, McCarthy has formed a “Team B” approach to reviewing current U.S. policy towards Sharia, which he says is modeled after the group formed in 1976 by then CIA director George H.W. Bush to reevaluate the strategy of détente.[9] In September 2010, the Center for Security Policy posted on its website the team’s report, “Shariah: The Threat to America,” which was roundly criticized by experts in Islam.

McCarthy worked as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York for 18 years. From 1993 through 1996, he led the prosecution against the jihad organization of Omar Abdel Rahman, which resulted in the conviction of a dozen people on charges related to terrorist plots, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing[10] and plots to bomb the UN, the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels, and other landmarks.[11]He also worked on the prosecutions of the bombers of the U.S. Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.[12] Following the 9/11 attacks, he supervised the Justice Department’s Command Post near Ground Zero in New York City.[13]

In 2004, the George W. Bush administration tapped McCarthy to serve as a special assistant to the deputy secretary of defense.[14]

McCarthy’s views on legal justice have shifted over the years. Hehas criticized the military commissions system as well as private lawyers assisting detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. He called for creation of a national security court rather than allowing terrorism suspects to be tried in the civilian justice system.[15]

In addition to writing for the National Review, McCarthy is a frequent guest on conservative broadcast networks. He is the author of several books, including The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America(Encounter Books, 2010), Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad (Encounter Books 2008), and How the Obama Administration Has Politicized Justice (Encounter’s “Broadsides” series, 2010).[16]

He has taught law at New York Law School and Fordham University’s School of Law.

Please note: IPS Right Web neither represents nor endorses any of the individuals or groups profiled on this site.