The ACLU Is Suing The Federal Government On Behalf Of Terrorist Anwar Al Awlaki

From Creeping Sharia:

ACLU sues Feds on behalf of radical Muslim terror cleric al-Awlaki


Posted on August 5, 2010 by creeping

Politicians fast-tracking a mosque that will be promote sharia law in America, and so-called rights groups defending Islamic terrorists. Whiskey, tango, foxtrot?





The ACLU and CCR want to represent the terror cleric that the Obama administration has made more popular than he ever was before. In a written letter, al Awlaki’s father already asked Obama to call off a manhunt for his jihad-preaching son claiming he hadn’t done anything wrong (because jihad is permitted in Islam). That didn’t work so it’s on to the legal jihad.





WASHINGTON (Aug. 3) — Should the Internet imam touted as a next-generation Osama bin Laden be allowed a lawyer so he can argue that the CIA bull’s-eye on his back is illegal?



That’s the question behind a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington today on behalf of the father of Anwar al-Awlaki. The radical Muslim cleric, who was born in New Mexico, is thought to be hiding out in Yemen, where he is alleged to be a senior member of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.



Al-Awlaki has never been publicly charged or indicted in the United States, but he has been named a “specially designated global terrorist.” That makes it illegal for lawyers to represent him, even at no charge, without a license from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.



The Center for Constitutional Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union are suing the Treasury Department and the OFAC for refusing to grant them a license to represent al-Awlaki so they can legally challenge the authority of the CIA and U.S. military special forces to target him for killing.



The groups said they took the action because the government has not responded to its faxed license request on July 23 “despite the urgency created by an outstanding execution order.”



Al-Awlaki’s father, Nasser al-Awlaki, is in Yemen, where he met with ACLU lawyers in May. He was unavailable for comment. But lawyers for the groups said he is concerned that while no formal charges have been lodged against his son, he is widely reported to have been added to the CIA’s “capture or kill” list, a designation that amounts to a warrant for his assassination.



OFAC Director Adam Szubin said in a statement that the civil liberties groups’ claim is “significantly misleading.” He said the agency, which did not formally respond to the request for a license but did not deny it either, has a longstanding policy “to broadly authorize the provision of pro bono legal services to designated persons in legal proceedings challenging governmental action.”



“To the extent that the particular legal services that the ACLU wishes to provide in this instance do not fall into any of the broad categories that are generally licensed, OFAC will work with the ACLU to ensure that the legal services can be delivered,” he said.



Whether the groups need a license or not, if they get to court on the larger issue it will be the first legal challenge to the CIA’s secret target lists, said Pardiss Kebriaei, a CCR staff attorney. Al-Awlaki may elicit little sympathy given the attacks he has been linked to, but “the government cannot designate someone a terrorist and act as judge, jury and executioner outside any judicial process,” she said.



Jonathan Manes, an ACLU lawyer, said the underlying lawsuit hinges on the fact that the United States is not at war with Yemen, where al-Awlaki holds duel citizenship.



“The laws that govern war don’t apply anywhere and everywhere in the world,” he said. “Outside of armed conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, the law of peace applies and the standards of killing a person under ordinary law are very stringent. There’s a crucial distinction.”



But Samuel Rascoff, who specializes in national security law at New York University, called targeted killings “absolutely essential to American counterterrorism” efforts.



While the lawsuit “breaks new ground” in a legal landscape that has focused mostly on government detention and surveillance policies, it is “incredibly unlikely” that a federal court will grant the father legal standing or agree with his argument, Rascoff said.



“The government maintains that al-Awlaki is an al-Qaida operative, no different than anyone threatening our country’s security,” he said. “The fact that he carries an American passport doesn’t buy him immunity or special treatment from the sort of force the government has used against terrorists.”



So why go to court if the odds are so low?



“It’s to raise awareness,” Rascoff said, “of a very delicate legal issue that the administration would prefer to be buried in government process and not a matter of public debate.”



Read it all via Father of Radical Muslim Cleric Anwar al-Awlaki Sues US Government.



Where was the ACLU when Michael Savage was banned from the UK? Or when several Christians were arrested for speaking to Muslims in Detroit? The ACLU or al Awlaki’s father must know where al Awlaki is and have communication with him.



Update: The Dean of the Al Qaeda Bar Strikes Again By Marc Thiessen





In March I wrote for the Weekly Standard about Michael Ratner and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the organization that is leading the legal crusade on behalf of al Qaeda terrorists. In addition to coordinating the work of hundreds of pro-bono lawyers representing Gitmo detainees, CCR’s direct clients include Jose Padilla, the American-born terrorist sent by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to blow up apartment buildings in a major American city; Mohammed al-Qahtani, the 20th hijacker in the 9/11 plot, who would have been on United Flight 93 had he not been turned away by immigration officials at the Orlando airport; and Majid Khan, an al Qaeda operative groomed by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed for suicide missions against America