Rudy Giuliani and John Bolton Are Terrorists Now

[meegbear]

Did Rudy Giuliani, Tom Ridge, John Bolton, and a bunch of other neocons really attend a rally in support of a communist Saddam Hussein-loving terrorist organization last month? Yes! Is that really a crime? Yes!

In today's New York Times, attorney David Cole points out that the Patriot Act makes it a (thought) crime to help, want to help, or in any way nod approvingly toward a group that has been designated a terrorist entity by the State Department. For instance: The U.S. has decided that the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which conducts attacks against our NATO ally Turkey, is a terrorist group. So anyone who, say, wants to train PKK members on how to petition the U.N. for redress of grievances against Turkey, is guilty of the crime of providing material support to a terrorist organization. Cole represented a group called the Humanitarian Law Project in a case before the Supreme Court last year arguing that the material support law is unconstitutional, and he lost. So it's settled.

Which makes it very odd that Giuliani, Bolton, Ridge, Bush-era Attorney General Michael Mukasey, and Bush Homland Security adviser Frances Frago Townsend attended a rally last month in Paris to support the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), a terror group dedicated to overthrowing the Iranian regime. It's odd because 1) The MEK are communists (that's an MEK terrorist pictured along with the group's logo, which features a sickle), 2) they helped Saddam Hussein carry out atrocities against Iraq's Shiite population in the 1990s, and 3) they killed Americans in the 1980s and helped carry out the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran. But it's also odd because the MEK is currently on that State Department list of terror groups, so happy thoughts about them are illegal.

The former Bush officials presumably like the MEK because the MEK wants to kill Iranians, which is a good thing right now even though Saddam Hussein probably killed more Iranians than anyone who ever lived and that didn't seem to get him much sympathy from John Bolton. The Middle East is confusing! "The United States should not just be on your side," Giuliani told the MEK crowd at the rally. "It should be enthusiastically on your side. You want the same things we want." The event was sponsored by something called the French Committee for a Democratic Iran, which the Washington Post describes as "a pressure group formed to support MEK."

Giuliani's use of the second-person there—the U.S. should be on "your side"—is kind of important, because under the Supreme Court's interpretation of the material support statute, any public "advocacy performed in coordination with, or at the direction of, a foreign terrorist organization" is a crime. Giuliani could say "I love the MEK" on Fox News, and that wouldn't be a crime. But if he says it in a way that is coordinated with the MEK, then it becomes a crime. And when you say it actually, directly to the MEK at a rally for a pressure group formed to support the MEK, that sounds a lot like coordination.

<snip>

http://gawker.com/5723432/rudy-giuliani-and-john-bolton-are-terrorists-now?skyline=true&s=i

[Atman]

1. So who does it take to file charges against these guys?

Does The State have to do it, or can a private citizen? Clearly the anti-terror laws are only in place to quell disturbances and uprises from the masses...they have nothing to do with State-sponsored/endorsed aiding and abetting.

SURPRISE!

.

[Blecht]

2. Of course it's a crime

But the law isn't for these guys -- it's for us.

[rhett o rick]

3. bingo