My, how spectacularly vindictive our government has become.
Patriot Act Used In 16-Year-Old Deportation Case (washingtonpost.com): The Bush administration has decided to pursue a 16-year-old effort to deport two Palestinian activists who as students distributed magazines and raised funds for a group the government now considers a terrorist organization, despite several court rulings that the deportations are unconstitutional because the men were not involved in terrorist activity. The case, which has long had a high profile among Palestinian Americans, could pose a new judicial test of a controversial provision in the Patriot Act, passed in 2001. The provision prohibits supplying material support for organizations the government deems "terrorist," even without evidence of a link to specific terrorist acts. At the time of their initial arrests in 1987, the activists, Khader Hamide and Michel Shehadeh, were allegedly affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist group that has advocated an independent Palestinian state and has been involved in various acts of terrorism. The government alleges that Hamide and Shehadeh helped raise funds for the PFLP in the mid-1980s at California churches, a Scottish Rite temple and an auditorium owned by the Veterans of Foreign Wars and distributed magazines for the group.
Procedurally, the case makes absolutely no sense. Why on earth would the Bush administration ever have been given permission to invoke an act that was declared unconstutional, and then repealed before they ever took office? Why would the cases still be in the courts? It would normally not matter that Congress' action didn't affect pending disputes; the grounds on which those disputes were based were declared unconstitutional by the court in any event. Thus, the administration looked to other grounds.
What nobody in the administration will likely explain is why it's worthwhile to pursue a 16-year-old case against people whose actions were neither illegal nor unconstitutional at the time, whose alleged affiliation -- which they deny -- was not at the time declared to be a terrorist organization, and who would not and could not have been arrested had they been US citizens.
It will be interesting to see the results. Ideally, this should draw a biting opinion from the court, and a dismissal with prejudice. Practically, I'm afraid that with this government's dogged persistence in doing the wrong things, these people are in for a very long haul indeed.
Posted by iain at September 23, 2003 10:24 AMComments
