The Center for Constitutional Rights

The headlines state that two civil liberties groups have filed lawsuits against the Bush administration. But while nearly everyone is familiar with the ACLU, the sometimes Soros funded Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) isn't nearly as well known outside of political circles. Let's try and change that just a bit.

WASHINGTON - Two civil liberties groups filed separate lawsuits Tuesday to halt the Bush administration's domestic spying program, charging that the interception of Americans' communications without court warrants is illegal and unconstitutional.

The federal court lawsuits brought by the American Civil Liberties Union in Detroit and the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York are the latest and most prominent legal challenges to the spying program, which is run by the super-secret National Security Agency.

Co-founded by the radical attorneys William Kuntsler and Arthur Kinoy. For background only, here's a telling quote from Kunstler while defending the Chicago Seven:

You can crucify a Jesus, you can poison a Socrates, you can hand John Brown or Nathan Hale, you can kill a Che Guevara, you can jail a Eugene Debs or a Bobby Seale.  You can assassinate John Kennedy or a Martin Luther King, but the problems remain.

For more and a bit on Kinoy, see this from David Horowitz writing in 2002:

Stewart’s colleague in defending the teen terrorists, Stanley Cohen, is a lawyer and political advocate for Hamas and a disciple of another Stewart colleague, William Kuntsler, whose Center for Constitutional Rights is a front for leftwing extremists intent on carrying on their own war with America. As an editor for the New Left magazine Ramparts, I remember being visited in 1969 by Arthur Kinoy, who with Kunstler was the co-founder of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Kinoy was carrying with him a draft manifesto for a new "Communist Party" (those were the words in the document) which he intended to organize with Kunstler.

So much for the past. However, one need only look to some of CCR's recent statements and activities to see where they stand today and whose rights, apart from the citizens of America, they really care about most.

[here] When Attorney General Ashcroft declared, "Let the terrorists among us be warned [that] if you overstay your visas even by one day, we will arrest you," CCR characterized his comments as "chilling." When the FBI and other law-enforcement personnel attempted to interview, on a voluntary basis, several thousand Middle Eastern men who were in the United States on temporary visas, cries of "racial profiling" again emanated from CCR.

"If the US government truly wants its people to be safer and wants terrorist threats to diminish," said Ratner, "it must make fundamental changes in its foreign policies... particularly its unqualified support for Israel, and its embargo of Iraq, its bombing of Afghanistan, and its actions in Saudi Arabia. [These] continue to anger people throughout the region, and to fertilize the ground where terrorists of the future will take root."

He explained that as an alternative to war, the US ought to "treat the attacks on September 11 as a crime against humanity, establish a UN tribunal, extradite the suspects, or if that fails, capture them with a UN force, and try them."

And simply being against the Iraq War wasn't enough for the CCR. When the UN Security Council was struggling with the issue, they wanted, in essence, a resolution which would have prevented the United States from taking military action without the expressed consent of the UN. And then there's current CCR President Michael Ratner, who seems to be quite a prominent speaker.

MANHATTAN -- Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, will present the first Dorothy L. Thompson Civil Rights Lecture of the 2004-2005 series.

Ratner will speak on "Guantanamo, Enemy Combatants and Torture: The End of the Rule of Law in America" at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 21, in Forum Hall in the K-State Student Union. The lecture is free and the public is welcome.

CCR has presented an Amicus Brief filed on behalf of so-called "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla. Then there's this from PBS.

The Center for Constitutional Rights has made headlines twice in recent days. CCR has posted the controversial Pentagon "Working Group Report on Detainee Interrogations in the Global War on Terrorism: Assessment of Legal, Historical, Policy and Operational Considerations" from 2003 on its Web site.

On June 10, 2004 the CCR and the Philadelphia law firm of Montgomery, McCracken, Walker and Rhoads filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of detainees in Iraq in federal court in San Diego. The lawsuit alleges that two U.S. corporations conspired with U.S. officials to humiliate, torture and abuse persons detained by U.S. authorities in Iraq. The suit names as defendants the Titan Corporation of San Diego, California and CACI International of Arlington, Virginia and its subsidiaries, and three individuals who work for the companies. It charges them with violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and alleges that the companies engaged in a wide range of heinous and illegal acts in order to demonstrate their abilities to obtain intelligence from detainees, and thereby obtain more contracts from the government.

They've invoked the Voting Rights Act to try and re-secure the vote for convicted felons, while they're currently attempting to charge an IDF Chief with war crimes in America for actions undertaken in Lebanon.

On December 15, 2005, in New York, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) served process papers on Lt. Gen. (ret.) Moshe Ya’alon, former Head of the Intelligence Branch and former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), for war crimes and other human rights violations.  The class action lawsuit is in connection with the hundreds of civilian deaths and injuries in the 1996 shelling of a United Nations compound in Qana, in the south of Lebanon.  The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and process was served on the defendant this afternoon in Washington, D.C.  The charges include war crimes, extrajudicial killing, crimes against humanity, and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

And they even have time for the Arts, supporting this effort by the Rosenberg Fund for Children, Inc. The reading terms enemy combatants currently held in Guantanamo as being Honor Bound to Defend Freedom.

Easthampton, MA- Chained and hooded, more than 600 "enemy combatants" have passed an unintentionally ironic sign reading GUANTANAMO: 'Honor Bound to Defend Freedom' as they've entered the American gulag at the U.S. military base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. If those detainees feel isolated and forgotten, an upcoming event in Northampton, MA will put them center stage. At 2:00 pm on June 19th, 2005, at the Academy of Music Theater in Northampton, the Rosenberg Fund for Children, in conjunction with the Bill of Rights Defense Committee and the Center for Constitutional Rights, will present a dramatic reading of GUANTANAMO: 'Honor Bound to Defend Freedom.

I doubt you'll see any of this in the headlines - and certainly the Center for Constitutional Rights is a legal rights organization. Unfortunately, if you're an average, law abiding, tax paying American citizen, I wouldn't be too convinced it's yours they're dedicated to protecting.

Comments

[ViVi]

Damn Dan! Post much?

[NikName]

Oh, and I forgot to say: Nice work!

[thealamo]

Poor Horowitz. Even though he tries to act like he is a "new person," he always seems to get his facts confused. ( I may be mistaken but we was with the weathermen himself--so he should know)

The Saudis are under attack from Al-Queda. They have every intention of overthrowing the Saudi regime because of its ties with the United States.
He could have gotten the players aligned a litle more in line with reality.

But the move to add this group is an excellent move!
When this group joins with the ACLU gives Americans extra impetus to allow the violation of their rights. (notice: foreigners do not have constitutional rights, and are therefore not subject to due process)

Excellent 1-2 propaganda move, and it will sell. Not a smart move on their part to use Horowitz though, as his credibility is almost nil with those who are aware of what he is really all about.

[thealamo]

Let's counter what the radical left organizations like the ACLU and the CCR are about and get the opinion of one of the top Constitutional attorney in the nation...one from the right...you know...bush's side:

The Imperial President and the Breakdown of the Rule of Law
by John W. Whitehead
1/2/2006

The "accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands"may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."
"James Madison, Federalist Paper No. 47

Links Alamo - it's the Internet. I have no problem with you posting, but briefly excerpt and link to the original site, please.

[thealamo]

Sorry.

Here is the "rest of the story" from a CONSTITUTIONAL ATTORNEY..totally the opposite of what the MSM is reporting..

http://www.rutherford.org/articles_db/commentary.asp?record_id=380

What PEOPLE have to decide is whether they want to support a man, or the United States of America...because that man will very likely be replaced by Hillary Clinton...who is definitely not a fan of the USA...and with unbridled power??

[Dan]

with unbridled power??

You mean she won't wear a bra if elected?? Ewwwww! How gross is that?? ; )

Nite Al

[thealamo]

with unbridled power??

You mean she won't wear a bra if elected?? Ewwwww! How gross is that?? ; )

Nite Al

Posted by: Dan | Wednesday, January 18, 2006 at 12:31 AM

Oh, talk about legal torture? What if she did a nude shot? Hey, they could substitute that for the death penalty? Almost the same thing...

[Michael King]

The Truth About Martin Luther King

[Sgt. York]

Is there such a thing as an "unconvicted" felon?
There are too many felonies.

It's a shame to see a guy who shoplifted an expensive camera, some kid busted for pot, or a drunk driver loose their right to vote for life. Not that shoplifting, doing drugs, or driving drunk are good things, it's just overkill to punish some 20-year-old girl who wrote checks on a closed account by disenfranchising her from ever voting.

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[Gordon]

Hey Stranger! Good post.

Can someone tell me again how Constitiutional Rights are compatable with the Communist Manifesto?

[john Ryan]

No taxation without representation, if you can't vote then you shouldn't have to pay taxes