February 17, 2005, 8:43 a.m. Soros Funded Stewart Defense The anti-Bush billionaire supported lawyer who aided terrorists. Billionaire financier George Soros, whose opposition to President Bush's conduct of the war on terror caused him to pour millions of dollars into the effort to defeat the president, made a substantial donation to the defense fund for radical lawyer Lynne Stewart, who last week was found guilty of giving aid to Islamic terrorists. According to records filed with the Internal Revenue Service, Soros's foundation, the Open Society Institute, or OSI, gave $20,000 in September 2002 to the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee. In filings with the IRS, foundation officials wrote that the purpose of the contribution was "to conduct a public education campaign around the broad civil rights implications of Lynne Stewart's indictment." Answering questions by e-mail, Amy Weil, a spokeswoman for the Open Society Institute, said the foundation contributed to Stewart's fund because "it appeared to us at that time that there was a right-to-counsel issue worthy of our support." Stewart's legal troubles stemmed from her defense of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, sometimes known as the Blind Sheikh. Rahman led an Egyptian-based terrorist organization known as the Islamic Group. In 1996, Rahman was sentenced to life in prison for his involvement in the first attack on the World Trade Center, in 1993, and for his part in failed plots to blow up the United Nations building and the Lincoln and Holland tunnels in New York. After his conviction, Rahman's followers threatened a series of terrorist attacks against American targets unless he were released. In 1998, the U.S. government reportedly had intelligence that Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda were plotting to hijack aircraft in the United States in order to demand freedom for Rahman and other convicted terrorists. Because of those threats, the government issued a special order that the imprisoned Rahman not be allowed to communicate with his followers, to prevent his inciting them to further violence. He was allowed to communicate only with his wife and with his lawyers, who were not allowed to relay his wishes to his followers. Stewart promised to abide by those rules. But at her trial, the government produced evidence showing that Stewart and two codefendants on a number of occasions used their privileged access to Rahman to help transmit Rahman's orders to his followers in the Islamic Group. On February 10, Stewart was convicted on two counts of providing material aid to terrorists and three counts of lying to federal investigators. She is planning to appeal. Before the verdict, officials of the Open Society Institute characterized Stewart's work as that of a "human rights defender." In an October 2004 speech in Norway, Gara LaMarche, head of OSI programs in the United States, said, "The right to counsel, and its erosion in the United States since September 11, strikes with particular force at the role of human rights defenders. One troubling trend has been the arrest and prosecution of lawyers and other defenders as 'material witnesses' to terrorism. These include Lynne Stewart, attorney for Sheik Abdel Rahman..." At one point, Stewart's Defense Committee website, lynnestewart.org, bore the notation, "This website is made possible by the generous support of the Open Society Institute." Amy Weil told National Review that while the Institute initially underwrote Stewart's defense, the foundation's commitment was not open-ended. "More recently, OSI was asked for additional funding and we turned down that request," she said. Bryon York NRO _____________________________________________ Stewart was sentenced to 2.3 years in prison today.
Since when do real Americans oppose funding for a fair trial? I would think you would be thrilled to see Stewart get decent council, then be found guilty, so that lack of decent council would not be an issue...
From when did you start considering the chickenshit neocons as "real Americans"? To me they are the real SadDamn's.
The point is who the Dems fund. Lets see if Soros funds legal defense of those on the other side, although I wouln't hold my breath. They always fund our enemies as Dem procedure.
Are right wing Christian groups free to fund those who terrorize abortion clinics when those terrorists go to trial? On, and Rush didn't refuse help from the ACLU when they took his side to protect his rights...
god you're a fricking tool. who exactly are you calling a "chickenshit neocon" in relation to this thread.
So basically you're saying that Soros is broadly sympathetic to what this woman was doing, eg serving as an illegal conduit for terrorist information? The point is that out of all the worthy philantropic avenues open to Soros, this is what they chose to spend a significant amount of money on. HOw many starving babies would this money have fed?
I will guess that Soros doesn't even know where the money actually goes...it is his foundation, which is day to day run by others. You know how these things work. Besides, since when is 20K toward a legal defense a significant amount? LOL! 20K toward some legal defense is...Squat... Oh, and a republican even mentioning a starving baby is so duplicitous... Man, you spin like a drunken teenager on prom night glued to a toilet puking his guts out...
She's lucky to have only received 27 months. I love defendant's who outside the court show ZERO contrition but when appearing in front of the Judge they're suddenly meek little kitties begging for mercy. Makes me want to shoot them in the head.....
Monday, Oct. 16, 2006 11:18 a.m. EDT Blind Sheik's Lawyer: "I'm Not a Traitor" In a letter to the judge, civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart proclaimed "I am not a traitor." She acknowledged that she zealously tried to save a blind Egyptian sheik from life in prison for plotting to blow up New York City landmarks. But she argued that the government's characterization of her was wrong and took unfair advantage of the "hysteria that followed 9/11 and that was re-lived during the trial." On Monday, that judge was to decide whether Stewart, 67, should join her former client behind bars for enabling him to communicate with his followers. Prosecutors asked for the maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. Stewart was convicted in February 2005 of providing material support to terrorists. She had released a statement by Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who she represented at his 1995 trial and who was sentenced to life in prison for plots to blow up five New York landmarks and assassinate Egypt's president. In court papers, prosecutors told U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl that Stewart's "egregious, flagrant abuse of her profession, abuse that amounted to material support to a terrorist group, deserves to be severely punished." Stewart, whose sentencing was delayed after she was diagnosed with breast cancer last year and underwent treatment, asked the judge for mercy. "The government's characterization of me and what occurred is inaccurate and untrue," she wrote. "It takes unfair advantage of the climate of urgency and hysteria that followed 9/11 and that was re-lived during the trial. I did not intentionally enter into any plot or conspiracy to aid a terrorist organization." Mixed with her trademark defiance - "I am not a traitor" - was a measure of contrition. After some soul searching, she wrote, she had concluded that a careless over-devotion to her clients - "I am softhearted to the point of self-abnegation" - was her undoing. Stewart was arrested six months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, along with Mohamed Yousry, an Arabic interpreter, and Ahmed Abdel Sattar, a U.S. postal worker. Prosecutors argued that Stewart blatantly broke rules designed to keep the blind cleric from inciting violence among his followers, and Koeltl upheld her conviction. The judge rejected her claim that Abdel-Rahman was engaging in protected speech when he expressed his opinion about a cease fire by Islamic militants in Egypt that Stewart passed along in a 2000 press release. Stewart and Yousry were both convicted of providing material support to terrorists. Stewart also was convicted of defrauding the government and making false statements for breaking her promise to abide by government rules to keep the sheik from communicating with his followers. Sattar was convicted of conspiracy to kill and kidnap people in a foreign country and could face life in prison. All three were to be sentenced Monday. At least one lawyer, Elizabeth Fink, wrote to the judge on Stewart's behalf, calling the government's position "draconian, inhumane and ludicrous." Outside the federal courthouse Monday, about 150 Stewart supporters who could not get inside the capacity-filled courtroom chanted "Free Lynne, Free Lynne." As she entered the courthouse, Stewart shouted to them "I love you" and "I'm hanging in there." "It's not just Lynn Stewart who is a victim, it's the Bill of Rights that's the victim," said Al Dorfman, 72, a retired lawyer who was among the Stewart supporters standing outside. © 2006 Associated Press. _______________________________________________ Nawh, Dems aren't traitors. But the shoes fit.