Here's a good backgrounder on the "undesirable influence" that CAIR and other "mainstream" groups have:

Readers of this column were not surprised by the news article that led the front page of Wall Street Journal last Wednesday. They are already aware that a number of Arab- and Muslim-American organizations and representatives that support Hamas and other militant Islamic (or "Islamist") terrorist groups have gained unwarranted access to the White House and top Bush Administration officials...

Even those who have followed this story on these pages and elsewhere, however, might have been surprised at the response Karl Rove, President Bush's top political advisor, gave the authors of the Journal article: "'What's the evidence' of undesirable influence? he says. 'There's no there there.'"

Actually, the evidence of undesirable influence is unmistakable to anyone willing to look for it. Past and present leaders of the American Muslim Council (AMC), the Council on American Islamic Relations, the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the American Muslim Alliance, for example, have publicly expressed support for those engaged in "armed struggle" against Israel and the United States... [more about the "Wahhabi Lobby", al-Arian, etc. etc.]