You Are Known By The Company You Keep

January 20th, 2006 · 1 Comment

Trackbacked at Wizbang:

The ACLU and CAIR have filed a lawsuit against the government for NSA “spying”. The lawsuits accusing President Bush of exceeding his constitutional powers. The New York suit, filed on behalf of the center and individuals, names Bush, the head of the National Security Agency, and the heads of the other major security agencies, challenging the NSA’s surveillance of persons within the United States without judicial approval or statutory authorization. The ACLU and CAIR say the program bypasses safeguards in a 1978 law requiring court approval of electronic monitoring.

Bush maintains the program is legal under a congressional resolution passed after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It authorizes eavesdropping on international phone calls and e-mails of people deemed terror risks.

An identifiable group, al Qaeda, was responsible and believed to be planning future attacks in the U.S. Electronic surveillance of communications to or from those who might plausibly be members of or in contact with al Qaeda was probably the only means of obtaining information about what its members were planning next. It would have been foolish NOT to perform electronic surveillance on these people as part of protecting our national security.

But not to the Left. “I’m personally outraged that my confidential communication with my clients may have been listened to by the U.S. government,” said Rachel Meeropol, an attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights.

It is interesting to note that there was no such lawsuit when Bill Clinton was doing the same thing with “Echelon” and “Carnivore”, until we remember that the Left never “break” the law but merely “interpret” the law.

So let’s look at the amazing Cast of Characters we have in this little circus:

ACLU lawyer Noel Saleh: The thrice-disciplined attorney (who was suspended from the practice of law) openly stated at a town hall meeting with federal officials that he has financially contributed to Hezbollah.

ACLU lawyer Mohammed Abdrabboh: This Palestinian attorney has represented and continues to represent people the government has suspected of allegedly having some link to terrorism or terrorist organizations.

ACLU lawyer Nabih Ayad: Both Abdrabboh and Ayad go on annual trips to the Middle East with Hamad. The trips involve meetings with Lebanese and Syrian officials tied to Hezbollah, and their travel-mates include officials of a Detroit charity that openly donated millions to HAMAS and privately raised money for Iraqi insurgents at a Los Angeles area fundraiser.

CAIR member Nazih Hassan: This guy is personally connected to IANA (Islamic Assembly of North America), a charity raided for financing Saddam Hussein (while pretending the money was going to fund needy Iraqis who needed food). IANA, which was raided by the FBI, operated websites before 9/11 that featured fatwas urging the use of planes directed at buildings as a way to murder Americans.

And then there’s Rachel Meeropol, the one quoted earlier that is “personally outraged”. Who is she?

For starters her grandparents were Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. You may remember them as the spies executed in 1953 for helping to pass U.S. atom bomb secrets to the Soviet Union.

Then there’s Rachel’s father, Robert Meeropol, an avowed Communist supporter.

And finally there’s sweet Rachel herself. She is a Vice President of the New York City chapter of the communist National Lawyers Guild. She has also filed several Guantánamo detainee habeas corpus petitions.

You are known by the company you keep. This lawsuit against the government over electronic surveillance will be known by its cast of characters.

NSA, surveillance, ACLU, CAIR, eavesdropping, al Qaeda, Rachel Meeropol