ACLU Labels Defending the U.S. Against Terrorists as ‘Discrimination’

(Compiler's note: A must read article.)

by John Armor

The ACLU has attacked an information-sharing center in Dallas for "discrimination" against Muslims for reporting facts about associations between Muslim terrorists abroad, and Muslim groups in the United States. If it prevailed, the ACLU position would cripple the effectiveness of these 58 Homeland Security centers around the country.

The facts for this article, but not its legal conclusions, come from an article in the Dallas Morning News on February 26, 2009. The ACLU was objecting to the contents of a memo, leaked from inside a "Fusion Center."

To back up and explain: Fifty-eight Fusion Centers were set up around the country by the Homeland Security Department where information could be gathered and shared between different enforcement agencies, federal, state and local. The reasoning was that the attacks of 9/11 might have been discovered in advance and prevented except for barriers against interagency sharing of information, set up by Jamie Gorelick, Assistant Attorney General under President Bill Clinton.

One of these Fusion Centers was set up in Dallas. And a memo was leaked from that Center, the February 19th Prevention Awareness Bulletin, which cautioned readers that "Middle Eastern terrorist groups and their supporting organizations have been successful in gaining support for Islamic goals in the United States and providing an environment for terrorist organizations to flourish."

This summary statement falls in the category of “everybody knows that.” What got the ACLU riled up was the example of CAIR’s cooperation with terrorists that was cited. CAIR is the Council on American-Islamic Relations. It bills itself as a "civil rights" organization. However, it was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land criminal indictments of various officials of the Holy Land Foundation for raising some $12 million for the terrorist organization Hamas, under the pretense of charitable giving.

In a separate action, the ACLU is seeking to get CAIR’s name removed from the indictment which resulted in the conviction of Holy Land and its officers.

In short, the ACLU is claiming that it "discriminates against Muslims" to state the obvious point that Muslim terrorists from the Middle East are more likely to seek and get aid and comfort from Muslim groups in the U.S. than any other types of groups. And the ACLU claims that it is discrimination for the investigators to pay close attention to CAIR because of the established close ties between its organizers and officers with convicted terrorists.