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Advocacy Blog
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Fallout Continues from the Holy Land Foundation Case
With headlines mostly describing the confusion that befell the court room on Monday and a seeming defeat for the government, there are now many opportunities. For example, will more notice our concerns with the designation process of groups as terrorist organizations, and will more now pay attention to the problems with shutting down a charity before any criminal charges are brought and freezing all of its assets all with secret evidence? An opinion piece in the Washington Post by David Cole, a law professor at Georgetown University, identifies these concerns.
The president has asserted the power to designate any organization or individual he chooses, here or abroad, without formal charges, a trial or hearing of any kind; without a statement of reasons; and on the basis of secret evidence. While full-scale criminal protections are not necessary, surely groups should be afforded a meaningful opportunity to defend themselves before they are shut down.
Along the same lines, check out this blog entry from the Huffington Post, "Let's Reassess Material Support"
And this New York Times article marks Monday's events as "another in a series of missteps and setbacks" for the government's track record in terrorist convictions. Meanwhile, tomorrow (Oct.25) Tariq Ramadan, who was denied a work visa for a teaching position at the University of Notre Dame will face material support charges. After academic and literary groups sued the government, the reasoning for not giving him the visa changed. After the suit was filed, the government changed its rationale for excluding Professor Ramadan, now saying that he had contributed about $1,300 to a charity in Switzerland from 1998 to 2002. That charity, later designated a terrorist organization by the Treasury Department, in turn made contributions to Hamas, which had already been designated one. Professor Ramadan's second-hand contribution amounted to material support for terrorism, the government said.
More news coverage on the Holy Land case includes: the LA Times and the Washington Post. And check out this recent Watcher story, "No Conviction, Mistrial for Holy Land Foundation".
Posted by Amanda Adams
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