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Defending Freedom – Or Terrorists? The ACLU’s Greatest Hits
The ACLU is unpopular and an obstacle to national security, but thanks to skilled PR, it is still considered respectable.
You’ve got to give it to the ACLU. It has run one of the most effective PR machines in America for nearly a century. Founded by a communist subversive, today’s ACLU has honored its founder’s vision by carrying the torch as the nation’s pro bono Fifth Column.
The ACLU is the most unpopular organization in America, but that hasn’t translated into its demise. The ACLU not only maintains a mega-million-dollar support base and an army of Useful Idiots, but, maddeningly, is still viewed as respectable in many elite circles. Even so, every time the ACLU acts according to its seditious nature, my hope is renewed that all Americans will shake themselves awake, recognizing that the image of the ACLU as a “defender of freedom” is a carefully cultivated deception. But I’m not sure what it’s going to take. The evidence against the ACLU is already decisive – given a chance, the ACLU never fails to take the side of the enemy, especially since September 11.
A small sampling of the ACLU greatest hits:
Want to put New York City commuters and tourists at risk by suing to halt perfectly constitutional, common sense policies? The ACLU does.
Want to cripple America’s intelligence gathering capability? Want overseas terror suspects to be able to communicate freely with contacts in the United States? You’ve got a friend in the ACLU…even if you have never been subject to surveillance!
The ACLU has launched an initiative called the “John Adams Project.” The unmitigated gall in defaming one of history’s greatest Americans seems suspiciously flavored by the recent success of the HBO Adams miniseries. Yes, the PR machine hums along, no matter how laughable a stretch it is for the ACLU to link itself with great men. What is it? In a nutshell, the ACLU has assembled a “Dream Team” of attorneys with an $8.5 million budget to defend terrorists currently held at Guantanamo. Who’s the primary object of the ACLU’s affection? Khalid Sheik Mohammed.
The ACLU, true to form, impugns the professionalism and competence of men and women of infinitely more honor than their accusers by referring to tribunals as a “kangaroo courts.” But could the ACLU really be so scandalized that this mass murderer will stand before a military tribunal? Could the ACLU truly be standing up for his “fundamental rights?”
What is the true purpose of a multi-million-dollar campaign to get KSM off the hook?
The ACLU explains: “The ACLU chose to focus on Mohammed’s defense, Romero said, because he appears to be “the government’s top priority in the prosecution. And whether or not they are able to convict Khalid Sheik Mohammed under these rules may well determine the fate of the almost 300 other men who are detained at Guantanamo.”
So that’s it. The ACLU wants to set KSM and 300 other terrorists free or at least make it impossible for the tribunals to serve their function. Because KSM is the worst of the worst, because he is the terrorist in custody most responsible for 9/11, the ACLU is his champion.
This PR stunt can only serve to undermine American credibility by creating the illusion – sure to be propagated by the mass media – that mass killers are somehow being denied “justice.” Think our enemies don’t appreciate the ACLU’s efforts on their behalf – on both legal and the PR fronts? Clearly, this will leave America more vulnerable to attack.
Admittedly, the ACLU is right at times when it defends individual free expression. But even in many of these cases it can’t resist defending evil. The ACLU has defended a thrice-convicted child rapist’s “right” to cruise parks for his next victim. It argues that child porn distribution can’t be disrupted lest the First Amendment’s fraying thread snap.
So even if you argue that the ACLU has done some “good,” the logical outcome of its body of work is the destruction of the ideals upon which this nation was founded. And what replaces the America we know in the ACLU’s perfect world? An America dominated by an extremist, internationalist agenda, ripe for the terrorists’ picking.
If the ACLU had a good faith interest in finding solutions to the tough questions we now face as a nation, it would have approached the Bush Administration, offering itself as a resource. Instead of being a partner for freedom and security, the ACLU has set itself as, at best an obstacle to national security, and at worst, a valuable tool for the enemy.
Hopefully, not even good PR will save the ACLU this time.
John Stephenson blogs at Stop the ACLU
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31 Comments
1. Weasels of the First Order , An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings:[...] Defending Freedom – Or Terrorists? The ACLU’s Greatest Hits by John Stephenson [...]
May 5, 2008 - 5:44 am 2. Javelin:Typical right wing drivel from a cheap fanatic for his fellows. By the way, what percentage of prisoners in Gitmo are totally innocent of any connections 2%, 3%? Hasn’t our system of justice always been slanted towards the rights of the defendent? Or should we empower cretins like you and other enemies of civil rigths with arbritary power?
“So even if you argue that the ACLU has done some “good,” the logical outcome of its body of work is the destruction of the ideals upon which this nation was founded. And what replaces the America we know in the ACLU’s perfect world? An America dominated by an extremist, internationalist agenda, ripe for the terrorists’ picking.”
Would you like to explain that?
Funny how pigs like Limbaugh rant about the ACLU, yet who came to bail out his hypocritical drug using butt? ANd this is the website that is sending the MSM down the river how, by providing crackerjack commentary for crakpots that they can find on a hundred other crackpot websites.
May 5, 2008 - 5:53 am 3. Alan:bag searching on the subway is a common sense policy?
I certainly don’t think so. I think its part of a gradual process where overzealous protectors of the public are slowly turning the country into one giant airport screening process, known as a police state in some circles. Its also a nuisance, If they searched us going into the subway where I live, I’d use the bus a lot more.
I don’t understand how you can so quickly dismiss the anti-warrantless wiretapping cases as “[Crippling] America’s intelligence gathering capability.” Indeed, the Chinese, Cuban, and North Korean intelligence communities can now point their fingers and laugh at their poor crippled American counterparts. What a shame!
I disagree with their decision to take up the KSM case, but its as though your trying to misunderstand their rationale. The point is not to set 300 terrorists free, its to force the military to let them have criminal trials. I agree with the military’s position, that they are foreign combatants and not protected by the bill of rights. Even so, I consider it a good thing that a court will have to rule on this.
May 5, 2008 - 6:58 am 4. Saltherring:The greatest of the “useful idiots” is the so-called mainstream media, a conglomeration of anti-American Marxists bent on destroying all this nation has stood for. Millions of Americans still rely on TV network news and newspapers for information, or are so totally indoctrinated by leftist rantings, that they wouldn’t believe the truth if it slapped them in the face. Wake up, fools, the ACLU is the enemy of all Americans.
May 5, 2008 - 7:09 am 5. Chet Lemon:Alan– what folks like you fail to mention every time the issue of “warrantless wiretapping” comes up is that the surveillance in the case referenced was limited to overseas contacts with terror suspects. There’s a big difference between that and arbitrarily eavesdropping on calls between two innocent Americans within our borders. Big difference.
Javelin — you ask the author to “explain that.” Read the piece. It’s explained pretty well.
Overall, this piece makes a strong case that the last thing on the ACLU’s collective mind is protecting “American civil liberties.” Nice work John. I will be visiting his blog more often.
May 5, 2008 - 7:51 am 6. Bill Perron:I am a caucasion heterosexual conservative christian male, the ACLU couldn’t care less if I lived or died, because to them I am the cause of all the evil in the world today.
May 5, 2008 - 9:12 am 7. kender:Javelin, since when does American Civil Rights apply to citizens of other countries not held by American Civilian Authorities?
May 5, 2008 - 9:56 am 8. ACLU: Defender of Terrorists : Stop The ACLU:[...] out our article on the ACLU at Pajama’s Media. Leave a comment there too, cuz the moonbats are already going to town on [...]
May 5, 2008 - 10:13 am 9. RegularRon:As always John, you do a hell of a job pointing out whats wrong with this Marxist tool.
But, I see why they are calling this project, the “John Adams Project”. John Adams did defend some shady people (like the ACLU), as well as signed into law the first assault on the First Admendment (we know their record on this), the Ailen and Sedition Act. I don’t find him to be one of the “Greatest Americans” by any means, he’s the proto-type Democrat, and new Conservative in my eyes.
But, I agree with Kender, someone who is NOT an American citizen, should NOT have the same protections granted by the Constitution. And I mean no-one. That also includes people who hold dual citizenship.
May 5, 2008 - 10:57 am 10. 45 ACP:When will the ACLU start defending the right of the people to keep and bear arms? Or do they prefer Adolph, Joe & Mao’s method?
May 5, 2008 - 10:58 am 11. John Samford:“ANd this is the website that is sending the MSM down the river how, by providing crackerjack commentary for crakpots that they can find on a hundred other crackpot websites.”
Speaking of crackpots.
The ACLU once defended the constitution, now it defends socialism. The ACLU is just one small step away from being Brown Shirts. They wage lawfare instead of warfare, but that is only because they are physical cowards and economic bullies. They will eventually work up the courage to take that small step.
May 5, 2008 - 12:11 pm 12. Panday:Then, to paraphrase, we will have ‘One small step for man, a giant leap for Fascism’.
Javelin,
Typical comment from a cheap left-wing fanatic.
Why is the US obliged to gift the prisoners in Gitmo any rights at all? They’re already eligible to be summarily shot for fighting as partisans, without uniforms, according to the Geneva Convention.
You leftist pansies should be happy these animals are still alive. Perhaps we should just follow the Convention, line them up against a wall, shoot them, and then bury them in a mass grave.
May 5, 2008 - 3:19 pm 13. Panday:Actually, on second thought, I agree with javelin. The Gitmo inmates should be released under the following program:
1) Sedate all inmates when they arrive
May 5, 2008 - 3:27 pm 14. kender:2) While they are sedated, implant a GPS chip deep into their pelvis or head somewhere.
3) When an inmate gets released back to the wild, monitor his movements.
4) When they return to their terrorist buddies, launch a cruise missile at the GPS coordinates.
Panday, you’re brilliant
May 5, 2008 - 3:43 pm 15. Anonymous:The ACLU has done nothing worthwhile in the last ten years. My attorney (also my elk hunting buddy) used to defend them. Forty years ago he did some work for them. He finally had to admit that I was right- they are worthless. The only people they defend are terrorists, murderers, child molesters, and others who have no place in a decent society. I say if the ACLU thinks the 300 are people worth saving, put them in the same compound and let them live together.
May 5, 2008 - 4:25 pm 16. Javelin:Civil liberties apply to all, even non citizens.
May 5, 2008 - 4:40 pm 17. Panday:Hey Panday, you fascist cretin, I am not a leftist panysy, you juvenile sadist. Not all of the Gitmo prisoners were even fighters, many of them were rounded up by Pakistani authorities with no evidence what so ever. Some of them might have been justr defending their village and family against outsiders, not trained sappers, But you are so paranoid and brutal, you’d kill them all, you sadist.
It’s good to see all the usual right wing cretins show their utter contempt for the not only the principles of civil liberty our country was founded on, but the principles or mercy, love and kindness that Christianity is founded on. Keep up the insults and accusations and keep demanding blood, all you prove is that Pajaman Media panders to the same level of cretins as Michael Savage or LGF.
Javelin,
I’m sorry, you’re not a leftist pansy. You’re a leftist loser, typing in his parents’ basement in between pizza delivery gigs.
Today must be hug a Gitmo Terrorist Day.
May 5, 2008 - 5:33 pm 18. RegularRon:Civil Liberties apply to all? Under what Authority? Not under U.S Law.
I do agree with you that some of the people in Gitmo were picked up on bogus charges, I do agree with that. But, to say that they deserve the same due process that you and I have here in the U.S., that’s moronic to say the least.
Let’s be honest here Javelin, if these prisoners were sent back to Pakistan, or some other Third World country, they’d be either tortured or killed. But in Gito, atleast they are alive. That’s something the Human (UN One World Government)Rights loons never point out.
May 5, 2008 - 5:56 pm 19. Cao:Ad hominem: the famous and reliable leftist counterpoint.
May 5, 2008 - 6:03 pm 20. kender:Ok javelin, usually the name calling in my gig, but I refrain from it on PJM. Since you responded so vehemently to being called a “cheap left wing fanatic” (which is a tame “insult”-more of a title you should be proud of) and went on to spew “fascist cretin”, “juvenile sadist”,(twice) and “right wing cretin” I just want to say that the level of discourse you have shown here is exactly what I have come to expect from the folks on your side. Your insistence that our civil rights apply to someone held by military personnel outside of the jurisdiction of our civil authorities boggle my mind, and I sincerely wish to know if you believe that people in other countries (say for example someone that bombed the USS Cole) held for attacking our military should be subject to our laws also? If we follow your wish of applying our civil rights to others held in gitmo then applying them around the world is the next logical step.
I also want to say that you are in need of a glass belly button, (otherwise known as a Silica Umbilicus-invented for those suffering from Cranial Rectalitis, or RectaCranial Inversion Syndrome) and if you wish I happen to have one here that I would be glad to donate to you and even pay for shipping (but you must pay for installation) as I am certain were you able to see clearly what is happening in the world, as opposed to watching your innards churn, you would certainly have a different outlook on life.
May 5, 2008 - 6:23 pm 21. Sonnabend:No they do NOT. Your Constitution and its laws mean jack shit outside your borders. US law is not universal and is not binding in any other nation.
And non citizens are not entitled to the same rights as a US citizen, were that the case, then I, as an Australian, could walk into the US and start working with no approval and no visa.
You and I know that I cant do that, and that I as a non citizen must go through god knows how many procedures to be able to work in the US.
I find it scary that I know more about your law than you do.
(Hey Panday, you fascist cretin, I am not a leftist panysy, you juvenile sadist. Not all of the Gitmo prisoners were even fighters, many of them were rounded up by Pakistani authorities with no evidence what so ever.)
Oh?
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/story/518419.html
He was a suicide bomber. He was released and now more people are dead because of him…and because of bleeding hearts who are more concerned with the rights of the terrorist.
Better them than me.
Prisoners in Gitmo get three hots, a cot, halal food, prayer mats, Korans, advocates, lawyers
Prisoners taken by terrorists get a shallow grave sans head.
What part of this dont you get?
LGF are the ones who brought Dan Rather crashing to earth. She may have been a Mapes, but she was no friend to Shai-Hulud….
Javelin: when faced with a rabid dog
You do not reason with it.
May 5, 2008 - 6:55 pm 22. Rosemary:You do not argue with it.
You do not pat it.
You take a .45 cal auto with hollow point cartridges, you put the gun to its head and you fire.
I spit on all of them.
May 6, 2008 - 8:14 am 23. Defending Terrorists: The ACLU’s Greatest Hits | THE HOT JOINTS:[...] Stephenson over at Pajamas Media wrote a good piece that looking at the most dangerous organization in America, better known as the [...]
May 7, 2008 - 1:22 pm 24. nationality:[...] today??s ACLU has honored its founder??s vision by carrying the torch as the nation??s pro bono Fihttp://pajamasmedia.com/blog/defending-freedom-or-terrorists-the-aclus-greatest-hits/IMMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY ACT – Updated 11/1/96Any reference in law to section 241 or a [...]
May 12, 2008 - 10:36 am 25. Mabel:Sonnabend,
You put it brilliantly. And yes, it is sad that those of us that are not Americans sometimes feel like we understand and care more about this country than some natives. Maybe it is because we have actually experience life outside the American bubble and therefore value it more.
As for me, I know what it’s like to live with bombs going off in the night, and I am willing to make the sacrifices, which to me are very, very small (bag searches, airport security, eavesdropping on my non-important calls…so meaningless) in order to live in peace.
May 14, 2008 - 8:09 am 26. torch of freedom:[...] today??s ACLU has honored its founder??s vision by carrying the torch as the nation??s pro bono Fihttp://pajamasmedia.com/blog/defending-freedom-or-terrorists-the-aclus-greatest-hits/COCORI Complete Costa Rica-Torch of FreedomCocori Complete Costa Rica – A Costa Rican Hero. The [...]
May 22, 2008 - 9:04 am 27. founders of the aclu:[...] today??s aclu has honored its founder??s vision by carrying the torch as the nation??s pro bono Fihttp://pajamasmedia.com/blog/defending-freedom-or-terrorists-the-aclus-greatest-hits/HereACLU Founder Roger Baldwin admitted as much, saying for the record that ???Civil liberties, like [...]
Jun 4, 2008 - 9:55 am 28. jw:The ACLU before the 1960s supported equal rights under the 14th Amendment, and so the rights of Negroes in the segregated south. After the segregation laws were struck down, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights of 1965, the ACLU reversed its position to support government-enforced racial discrimination (euphemistically called “affirmative action). I then ceased to be a member of the ACLU.
Jun 7, 2008 - 9:15 am 29. Mary Stella:So far as I know, the ACLU, ever so vigilant against any appearance of religion in public institutions, has done nothing about Islam being taught and enforced in public schools, e.g. in California and Minnesota.
I believe that terrorist Bernadine Dohrn (and wife of terrorist William Ayers) is now on the Board of Directors of the ACLU.
When the ACLU will defend the right of an average American?
Dec 10, 2008 - 4:43 pm 30. ACLU pops corks with Al Qaeda as Obamanable Admin gives “shout out” KSM : Stop The ACLU:Where was and is ACLU, while Joe the Plumber’s civil rights in Ohio was violated?
ACLU, only specialty is defending the rights of terrorists, and pedophiles.
[...] in making sure KSM and Da Boyz get sprung, although the MSM seems to be ignoring the ACLU role. Jay wrote last year at PJM about the execrable “John Adams Project” that undoubtedly played a lead role in [...]
Nov 14, 2009 - 9:21 am 31. ACLU Instrumental in Bringing 9/11 Trials to New York « Palmetto Conservative:[...] sprung, although the mainstream media seems to be ignoring the ACLU’s role. I wrote last year at Pajamas Media that the “John Adams Project” would undoubtedly play a role in securing three hots and a cot [...]
Nov 17, 2009 - 12:24 pm