Govt’s False & Dangerous Charge: “Material Support for Terrorism”
Posted by Mike E on November 2, 2010
The following appeared in Revolution newspaper. (October 31)
President Jimmy Carter criticized the Holder decision:
“The ‘material support law’—which is aimed at putting an end to terrorism—actually threatens our work and the work of many other peacemaking organizations that must interact directly with groups that have engaged in violence.”
Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project:
A Supremely Bad Supreme Court Decision
“Attorneys and the activists who were subpoenaed by a federal grand jury after the FBI raids in late September have pointed out that they ‘fear that the government may be seeking to use the recent Supreme Court decision in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project to attack conduct that clearly falls under the realm of freedom of speech and that we never imagined could be construed as ‘material support for terrorism.’”
“Grand Juries,” by Committee to Stop FBI Repression.
In order to understand this point, it is first necessary to understand that the U.S. Secretary of State has the authority to designate any group as a “foreign terrorist organization,” or FTO. This authority has been used in a highly selective way. According to David Cole, a civil rights attorney who argued before the Supreme Court for the Humanitarian Law Project, groups and individuals can be blacklisted as a FTO if the Secretary of State “finds that the group’s activities undermine our ‘national defense, foreign relations, or economic interests.’ There is essentially no viable process to challenge this designation.” (Cole, Less Safe, Less Free, p. 55) The government can designate a group as “terrorist” based on its say-so, just like it did with the people it seized and held in Guantánamo.
Nancy Chang writes in her book Silencing Political Dissent that if the FTO statute had been on the books in the 1970s and ’80s, then Mandela’s African National Congress could have been put on the FTO list during the anti-apartheid struggle.
There are currently many Palestinian groups on the list and no Israeli groups.
Once the Secretary of State designates a group an FTO, it becomes a crime punishable by 15 years in prison to “knowingly provide material support or resources” to the group. Since the USA Patriot Act, the concept of “material support” has been expanded greatly. According to David Cole,
“It is a crime to provide ‘material support’ to listed groups, not only in the form of money or weapons, but also in the form of speech; the law specifically prohibits anyone from providing them with ‘expert advice,’ ‘training,’ and ‘services.’ According to the Obama administration the law prohibits even speech that seeks to discourage violence by encouraging lawful alternatives.” (Cole, “The Roberts Court vs. Free Speech,” The New York Review of Books, August 19, 2010.)
The USA Patriot Act explicitly made it a crime to donate educational and humanitarian aid to FTO-designated organizations. Exceptions were supposedly made for medicines and, of course, for religious materials. Raising money for the lawful activities of any group on the FTO list—clinics, schools, orphanages, flood or tsunami relief—or even teaching about how to raise money for these purposes, which had always been legal, now became illegal.
Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court went even further when it decided Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project. The case came about after a retired judge, a medical doctor, a human rights organization, and several non-profit groups wanted to teach and advocate the use of international law and other non-violent means to reduce conflict and advance human rights to certain FTOs. For example, Humanitarian Law Project wanted to provide this kind of assistance to an organization that the government had labeled terrorist—specifically, the Kurdistan Worker’s Party. But if they did, they would risk prosecution under that statute due to this expanded definition of “material support.” Multiple lower courts had previously issued injunctions declaring that the statute was unconstitutional as applied to the Humanitarian Law Project.
The Obama Justice Department appealed this case up to the Supreme Court, whose decision sided with the U.S. government and against the Humanitarian Law Project. The Supreme Court majority said that it didn’t matter that the purpose of the Law Project was to promote non-violent resolution to the conflict and ruled the Law Project and the others’ efforts would be illegal if undertaken, claiming that such efforts would be “coordinated” with the groups designated as FTOs.
As an indication of how much the government has stretched the definition of “material support” to terrorism, even former President Jimmy Carter criticized the Holder decision, arguing that
“The ‘material support law’—which is aimed at putting an end to terrorism—actually threatens our work and the work of many other peacemaking organizations that must interact directly with groups that have engaged in violence.”
The way the Supreme Court interpreted the law left Carter wondering if he could be prosecuted for his work monitoring elections in Lebanon, since one of the parties in the elections was a group designated as a FTO.
The ACLU filed a brief for the Carter Center, siding with the Humanitarian Law Project. Important institutions joined this brief: Christian Peacemaker Teams, Grassroots International, Human Rights Watch, International Crisis Group, the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at Notre Dame University, Operation USA, and others.
Radical Eyes said
A clarifying article. Thanks for posting.
chicanofuturet said
thanks to Mike E for bringing out this most important issue covered in the article..“Govt’s False & Dangerous Charge: “Material Support for Terrorism””
Today,capitalism finds itself in real trouble-the anarchic and chaotic nature of it’s insane system of profits has created for it many extreme challenges and obstacles it must overcome in order to continue,to maintain stability and credibility.
The ruling class has for the longest time operated behind a veener,a facade of democratic,neutral and fair justice in order to fool and deceive the people.The repressive apparatus of the national security state has always tried to remain stealth and inconspicuous doing it’s dirty work of repression,harrasment,imprisonment and assasination beneath the radar of public scrutiny and attention.
But now due to a great crisis of it’s system- it’s loss of legitimacy,respect and authority from the working class-it by neccessity must throw caution and appearance to the wind.Now we begin see the “iron fist beneath the velvet glove” gradually being exposed to a wider segment of the populace.
The ruling class considers things such as democracy and justice as hindrances and unwelcome necessities ,which if they could, they would gladly throw into the trash can of history.In a time of crisis if they feel threatened and challenged they will absolutely resort to naked tyranny in order to save themselves.
Patriot Acts I&II,Secure Communites Act – just a few of the many and myriad laws the national security state has concocted to repress,terrorize or co-opt the forces in opposition-human rights,peace and justice,progressive,leftists,socialists and communist organizations and individuals.
What were talking about here is the very real possibility of straight-up tyrany of the most dangerous and vicious type.
We’re talkin martial law,storm troopers and brown shirts..kristallnacht,reichstag ,false flag inspired type of events…american style of course..
As a preview of coming attractions just look to the situation undocumented workers face today,things which have become routine everyday parts of their lives.
The Homeland Security agency with it’s Patriots Acts I & II,it’s Secure Communities Act-a private gulag style prison network,stripping away of human and civil rights,a system of calculated torture/de facto rendiition via draconian laws-templates and prototypes being evaluated an tested for wider application on larger populations of activist opponents of the ruling class.
For undocumented workers fascism is not some abstract concept or some remote far off possibility existing in tomorrowland.
It is a fact of life..here today…now..fascism.
Today it exists for them-tomorrow-for the rest of us.
This is not something we should just casually consider-not take seriously.
This is an extremely important matter..and I say this without exaggerating or being alarmist..it is a serious matter of life and death for all those who will dare to go up against the ruling class,the national security state with it’s legions of armed forces,police,courts and snitches.
I believe the worst thing for any of us is to be isolated and alone.this is an invitation to disaster.
We,in order to survive..in order live another day to carry on the struggle must by neccessity network,unite and become members of groups,organizations and parties in order to function politically.
All activists need aid,mutual support,inspiration and guidance from our comrades in order to be effective.No man is an island.
It bears worth repeating -uniting with comrades is a matter of life or death.