Church Activists Call for End to Terrorism Investigation

on January 20, 2011

Alan Wisdom
January 20, 2011

 

Three caucuses within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), including one officially sponsored by the denomination, are demanding that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) cease an investigation of possible material support for Palestinian terrorist groups. Calling the investigation by Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald a “fishing expedition,” the caucuses seemed to imply that there were no legitimate concerns about U.S. donors funding militant movements in Israel/Palestine. Convictions won in previous cases suggest that such concerns may be legitimate. Moreover, it is difficult to see how the three groups could pre-emptively dismiss Fitzgerald’s investigation as baseless when all testimony so far has been given to a grand jury behind closed doors. Their eagerness to shut down the investigation raises questions about their own motives.

On January 18 the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the PCUSA, the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, and the National Middle East Presbyterian Caucus issued a joint press release “denouncing the DOJ’s bold attempts to suppress peaceful dissent on the part of those working for an end to the illegal Israeli occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories [OPT].” The three groups complained that Fitzgerald’s office had “served a total of nine federal grand jury subpoenas to Chicago area Palestinian solidarity activists in the month of December alone, raising the total subpoenas served to 23.”  The official Presbyterian News Service picked up and transmitted the press release almost word for word, without including any opinions at variance with the three caucus groups.

The Israel/Palestine Mission Network (IPMN) is a pro-Palestinian activist group officially sponsored by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) under a General Assembly mandate. Although funded by private donations, the IPMN operates under the PCUSA’s tax-exempt status and advertises its connection to the denomination. It says that it “speaks TO the Church, not FOR the Church.” The Presbyterian Peace Fellowship is a left-leaning unofficial caucus group of PCUSA pacifists. It often works closely with the denomination’s official Presbyterian Peacemaking Program. The Middle East Caucus is also unofficial, but has close relations with denominational bodies such as the Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns.

The three groups’ January 18 press release quoted the Rev. Jeffrey DeYoe, Advocacy Chairperson for the IPMN, as insisting that “all Christians should be concerned about judicial efforts to silence fellow citizens opposing unjust policy.” The groups condemned Fitzgerald’s investigation of terrorism funding as “a ‘fishing expedition’ in which the DOJ looks for ways to prosecute activists without legal grounds.”

The press release also quoted Jeff Story, whom it identified as “a Chicago attorney and member of the IPMN” as well as “a member of the National Lawyers Guild Free Palestine Subcommittee.” Story declared that “the time for all Americans to speak up about these encroachments on our constitutional right to dissent is now.” He added his regret that churches did not “raise the alarm when the DOJ politically prosecuted Muslim charities and mosques in the recent past.”

Where There’s Smoke, There May Be Fire

In fact, those recent DOJ prosecutions have produced a number of convictions of groups and individuals funding Palestinian terrorism. The most prominent case involved the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), once the largest Muslim charity in the United States. On November 24, 2008, a federal jury found the HLF and five of its officers guilty on 108 counts related to lending “material support to a foreign terrorist organization.” The five were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 15 to 65 years.

The Justice Department presented evidence proving that between 1995 and 2001 the HLF funneled more than $12 million to groups connected to Hamas, the militant Islamist group that now rules Gaza. Hamas states in its charter that its goal is the creation of an Islamic state on the entire territory now occupied by Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it,” the charter proclaims. “There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad.” In pursuit of that strategy, Hamas has coordinated suicide bombings and rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. The evidence presented at the trial showed that HLF’s Jerusalem representative distributed monthly payments to the families of Hamas suicide bombers.

In separate prosecutions as recent as October 2010, at least three other HLF operatives have been convicted of providing material support to Hamas. In 2006 Florida professor Sami Al-Arian pleaded guilty to channeling funds to Palestine Islamic Jihad, another “specially designated terrorist” organization.

Clearly, there is a problem of U.S. donations going to Palestinian terrorist groups, and it would appear reasonable for a U.S. attorney to investigate the problem. Patrick Fitzgerald, the attorney for the Chicago area, has a reputation for independence and integrity that belies charges that he would go on an irresponsible “fishing expedition.” He has undertaken successful prosecutions of high-ranking officials of both political parties: vice presidential aide Scott (Scooter) Libby, Illinois Republican Governor George Ryan, Illinois Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich, and top aides to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.

It would seem premature for the PCUSA caucus groups to pronounce Fitzgerald’s investigation to be “without legal grounds.” The Chicago prosecutor might have some motives besides a dictatorial desire to “suppress peaceful dissent.” Some of the Palestinian activities funded by some U.S. “solidarity activists” go well beyond most people’s notion of “peaceful dissent.” We will have to await the evidence in this case.

A Curious Connection

So why are the IPMN and its partner groups so reluctant to await the evidence, and so quick to call for shutting down Fitzgerald’s grand jury? A suggestive sidelights Jeff Story’s affiliation with the National Lawyers Guild, a longtime radical leftist groupThe guild says that it “represent[s] progressive political movements, using the law to protect human rights above property interests.” The guild was established in 1937 as a “popular front” outreach of the Communist International, designed to include both communists and non-communists. It is affiliated with the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, which the CIA in 1978 characterized as “one of the most useful Communist front organizations at the service of the Soviet Communist Party.”

Over the years, guild lawyers have mounted aggressive, politicized defenses of the likes of the Chicago Seven rioters in 1968, the Black Panthers, and the communist professor Angela Davis. More recently, the guild has a pattern of defending Islamist militants accused of involvement in terrorism. These include Omar Abdel Rahman, the Egyptian Islamic cleric convicted of plotting a campaign of “urban terrorism” including the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center; Sami Al-Arian (see above); and many of the suspects detained in Guantanamo. Guild lawyer Lynne Stewart was found guilty in 2005 of passing messages between the imprisoned Rahman and his Islamic Group terrorist organization.

The guild has endorsed the Palestine Liberation Organization as the “sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.” After the September 11 terrorist attacks, it distributed flyers, posters, and CDs advising U.S. Muslim immigrants not to cooperate in FBI anti-terrorism investigations. “The FBI is not just trying to find terrorists, but is gathering information on immigrants and activists who have done nothing wrong,” the radical lawyers’ group charged. This allegation tracks closely with the criticisms that guild committee member Story and the PCUSA caucus groups are now leveling against Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation in Chicago.

Presbyterian blogger David Fischler comments:

The National Lawyers Guild is a long-time Communist front group, and therein lies the substance of what’s going on. It seems that some far-left and Communist organizations in the Chicago area have been supporting, not just the Palestinian cause in general, but the actions of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (a Marxist organization that has been designated as a terrorist group since the late 1960s that has never wavered in its call for the destruction of Israel). What the Department of Justice is trying to do in its grand jury investigation is determine if in fact Chicago activists have been lending “material aid” to the PFLP or other terrorists. To do that, they’ve subpoenaed a variety of people who have worked with the activists.

Outside observers do not know whether these suspicions of material aid to a foreign terrorist organization will prove to be correct or not. Under U.S. law the public cannot have access to the secret grand jury proceedings. The pro-Palestinian activists have been subpoenaed as witnesses, not as “targets” of the investigation. Even if they were targets, they would be presumed innocent until proven guilty, and they would have the right under the Fifth Amendment to refuse to testify.

So it is much too early to reach any conclusions about Patrick Fitzgerald’s anti-terrorism investigation. Why are the three PCUSA caucus groups so ready to jump to a (negative) conclusion?


       Follow TheIRD on Twitter

 

No comments yet

The work of IRD is made possible by your generous contributions.

Receive expert analysis in your inbox.