But Ahmad is not accused of sending money or weapons to LeT, or aloof out targets for the group. What had Ahmad allegedly done? Uploaded a "propaganda video to YouTube on account of LeT" that showed "so-called jihadi martyrs and armored trucks exploding afterwards accepting been hit by improvised atomic devices," according to the Justice Department. Ahmad allegedly had announced to the son of an LeT amount about authoritative the video.
The case is an archetype of prosecutors' advancing use, in the decade afterwards Sept. 11, of the preexisting law that confined accouterment "material support" to clearly appointed agitator groups. In a battleground case endure year, the Supreme Cloister accustomed the government's ample estimation of the material-support law in a way that critics say criminalizes speech.
The broadcast use of the material-support law is an important allotment of the bequest of 9/11 and the acknowledged administration erected in acknowledgment to the attacks. To apprentice added about the history and use of the material-support statute, I batten with Hina Shamsi, the administrator of the Civic Security Project at the American Civil Liberties Union.
What does the material-support law say, exactly?
It gives the government the ability to baptize non-U.S. groups as adopted agitator organizations based on actual ample criteria. That includes whether the accumulation has acclimated or threatened to use a weapon adjoin claimed property; whether the group's activities attenuate our civic defense, adopted relations or bread-and-butter interests. What is a lot of ambiguous about the law, though, is "material support" has been interpreted so broadly. It is acclimated behindhand of whether the provider has the absorbed to abutment terrorism, or whether any specific act of agitation has taken abode or is getting planned, and even to cover authentic accent and advocacy.
How and how abundant has this statute been acclimated in the decade aback Sept. 11?
The material-support law is the statute prosecutors a lot of use in doubtable agitation cases, including not just in our federal courts but aswell in aggressive commissions. It is now the a lot of extensive statute prosecutors use in doubtable agitation cases. Its use, and its use accurately in this Lashkar-e-Taiba case, shows just how the grave the implications are for Americans' chargeless accent rights. That's how it is that what appears to be absolutely Aboriginal Amendment-protected action actuality is getting criminalized.The government has a accepted and acute absorption in attention the nation from agitation and in endlessly actual abutment that in actuality furthers actionable and agitated acts.
Is this a post-9/11 law?
No, the law existed pre-9/11. But its ample estimation both by the government and the courts has broadcast dramatically. The Supreme Cloister captivated in a 1969 case alleged Brandenburg v. Ohio that even advancement of abandon can be criminalized alone if it is advised to aftereffect in approaching bent conduct and if it is acceptable to aftermath approaching bent conduct. That reflects the accent of Aboriginal Amendment protections to our capitalism -- that accent the government may disagree with is about allotment of the exchange of ideas, the acceptance that advancement and accent itself can serve as a assurance valve for the announcement of dissent, and the axiological actuality that the government cannot and should not criminalize behavior and ideology, although it can and should criminalize agitated conduct.
But in a Supreme Cloister case endure year which has emboldened prosecutors, the cloister captivated for the aboriginal time anytime that the government can in actuality criminalize speech, including accent that advocates alone allowable activity, in allotment on the approach that accent ability legitimize a agitator group. This is the case of Holder v. Altruistic Law Project. The broader association of this cardinal is that it thwarts the efforts of animal rights and altruistic groups to actuate agitated actors to abdicate abandon or cease animal rights abuses. As a result, a law that is aimed at putting an end to terrorism, in actuality threatens peaceful advancement groups.
What were the facts of that Holder v. Altruistic Law Project case?
A animal rights alignment and nonprofit groups capital to abetment the Kurdistan Workers' Party in Turkey and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka by teaching them how to accompany animal rights claims in the United Nations. The plaintiffs capital to advise all-embracing law and irenic agency to advance peace. Afterwards the U.S. appointed the Kurdistan Workers' Party and the LTTE as adopted agitator organizations, that affectionate of advancement from animal rights and added nonprofit groups became a crime, according to the government. What the plaintiffs went to cloister to say was, 'We would like to advice advance peaceful resolutions.' The cloister came aback and said, accomplishing so in affiliation with a adopted agitator alignment would breach the material-support law.
I wrote beforehand this anniversary about a accessible relations attack on account of the Iranian accumulation the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), aswell a appointed adopted agitator organization. Some of the humans complex in that agitation altercate the actual abutment is getting activated in a selective, politicized way, depending on the blazon of supporters a accustomed agitator accumulation has. What do you think?
That absolutely appears to be accident now, and that's allotment of the crisis of criminalizing accent and advancement in this way. It allows the government to aces and accept whose accent and whose advancement it favors.
Is this all a acclimatized amount of law at this point, or is anyone planning any challenges?
We're acutely anxious about the after-effects of the Altruistic Law Project decision, and we are afterward what's accident and searching to see what challenges ability be brought if the government moves to criminalize authentic speech. Especially I anticipate if it seeks to do so with account to calm organizations.
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