The attack dogs were out quickly over a question asked by a man at a Trump campaign event. The focus of the man’s question was what was going to be done about ‘Muslim training camps’ in the U.S. In the process of his question, the man also asserted that Obama was a Muslim and ‘wasn’t even born here’.

Trump’s response to the Muslim training camp question was ‘we’re looking into it’.

Suddenly, MSM was all atwitter as to ‘why didn’t Trump denounce the horrible bigotry of the question?’

Democrats like Debbie Wasserman Schultz decried Trump’s horrible ‘racism’:

“GOP frontrunner Donald Trump’s racism knows no bounds,” Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in a Thursday night statement. “This is certainly horrendous but unfortunately unsurprising given what we have seen already. The vile rhetoric coming from the GOP candidates is appalling.”

Wasserman Schultz also said that all Republican presidential candidates who did not denounce Trump’s comments immediately “will be tacitly agreeing with him.”

The White House said today there were no ‘terrorist training camps’ of which they were aware of in the United States.

Vox and WaPo immediately painted this as a bigoted conservative ‘conspiracy theory’.

Vox out and out seems to deny any such camps exist, and blames the ‘conspiracy theory’ for a man named Robert Doggert plotting an attack on the Muslim ‘camp/village’ of Islamberg, in New York. Vox called the question a call for ‘ethnic cleansing of 2.6 million Muslims’.

WaPo’s exposition on the conspiracy theory is actually more deceptive. Vox doesn’t claim to have researched the question, WaPo does. WaPo in two different articles addresses the question. The first, by Jenna Johnson, characterizes it this way:

Fears of “Muslim training camps” have simmered on the far right for years, especially since the rise of the Islamic State. World Net Daily and Judicial Watch — the latter an advocacy group that has successfully sued for records from Hillary Clinton’s tenure at the State Department — have published stories that allege FBI knowledge of dozens of camps, many across the deep South. Trump is not the first Republican candidate to be asked about the reports, though his response — that they may be worth looking into — is unique.

The second article, by Phillip Bump, first makes fun of the conservative reports on the subject, calling into question the ‘spooky’ conservative videos of training at camps. Then Bump notes that what ‘nefarious activity’ there had been, which WaPo does not elaborate in text on, was in the ’80s and 90s’. Translation, oh it was a long time ago. The article notes that reports go back to a report by the National White Collar Crime Center, so that in any event this was ‘white collar crime’ as though to disconnect it from any thought of violent terrorism. “Fuqra was involved in white-collar crime, like workers-compensation fraud. That’s tough to pair with spooky music”, he says. Finally, he pulls the 2nd Amendment card saying, hey, people running around with guns in the woods are usually looked upon favorably by conservatives so obviously just anti-Muslim sentiment.

Bump’s article doesn’t even pass the smell test. He refutes his own argument, with a photo from the National White Collar Crime Center showing some of the activities associated with the camps of Jammat ul-Furqra. Murders, bombings and terrorism are not ‘workmen’s compensation cases’.

But perhaps what’s noticeably missing are the very obvious and easy to find reports from governmental agencies that he has neglected to reference. The State Department report from 1999 notes Jammat ul-Furqra among terrorist groups, and notes they seek to ‘purify Islam through violence’, areas of operation including the United States.

A 2007 FBI report notes that the MOA (Muslims Of America group) aka Jamaat ul-Fuqra, has been involved in at least 10 murders, one disappearance, three firebombings, one attempted firebombing, two explosive bombings and one attempted bombing. It also notes they possess the ‘infrastructure capable of planning and mounting terrorist campaigns overseas and within the U.S.

An extensive 2006 report by the ROCIC in collaboration with the DOJ put out for law enforcement calls Jamaat ul-Fuqra a terrorist organization, connects the group to the 1993 WTC bombing and the shoe bomber, notes DC sniper John Muhammad may have been connected and also notes that Daniel Pearl was abducted when trying to interview the head of the group, Sheikh Gilani. It states there were 35 camps of the group in 2006. WaPo makes reference to the 35 noting some ‘iterations’ of the ‘conspiracy theory’ reference 35 camps. No, the report underwritten by the DOJ finds that to be true, at least in 2006.

All of this information is easy to find, and quickly. Which begs the question as to why Vox and WaPo seemingly were unable or unwilling to cite the actually governmental agency reports behind the ‘conspiracy theories’. Neither Vox or the WaPo reporter responded to my inquiries as to whether they were aware of the above reports. What’s even sadder is why the White House also says they have no idea that such camps exist.