Civil Rights Activist Convicted of "Aiding" "Terrorists"

Whoops, I forgot I don't work for Reuters. Let's try that headline again.

"Civil Rights" "Activist" Convicted of Aiding Terrorists

Much better that way, I think:

NEW YORK (AP) -- A veteran civil rights lawyer was convicted Thursday of crossing the line by smuggling messages of violence from one of her jailed clients -- a radical Egyptian sheik -- to his terrorist disciples on the outside.

The jury had deliberated 13 days over the past month before convicting Lynne Stewart, 65, a firebrand, left-wing activist known for representing radicals and revolutionaries in her 30 years on the New York legal scene.

Stewart faces up to 20 years in prison on charges that include conspiracy, giving material support to terrorists and defrauding the U.S. government.

Minutes before the verdict was read, Stewart said she felt ``nervous. I'm scared, worried.'' When she heard the pronouncement, Stewart began shaking her head and wiping her eyes. The courtroom was filled with her supporters, who gasped. She will remain free on bail, but must stay in New York, until her July 15 sentencing.

The trial focused attention on the line between zealous advocacy and criminal behavior by a lawyer. Some defense lawyers saw the case as a government warning to attorneys to tread carefully in terrorism cases.

Ummm, tread carefully, New York Times? It's a simple rule: Don't illegally smuggle messages from one terrorist to another.

It's not exactly a rule fraught with vagueness, you stupid silly assholes.

Stewart was the lawyer for Omar Abdel-Rahman, a blind sheik sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for conspiring to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and destroy several New York landmarks, including the U.N. building and the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels. Stewart's co-defendants also had close ties to Abdel-Rahman.

Prosecutors said Stewart and the others carried messages between the sheik and senior members of a Egyptian-based terrorist organization, helping spread Abdel-Rahman's venomous call to kill those who did not subscribe to his extremist interpretation of Islamic law.

What a peach.

And yet there are those who maintain there's no Fifth Column of anti-American, terrorist-sympathizing traitors in this country. Everyone is free to form their own "allegiances of conscience."

The hell with that. Lock this ugly whore away for the maximum. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Thanks to See-Dubya.

Ward Churchill Update: From later in the report:

But she also testified that she believed violence was sometimes necessary to achieve justice: "To rid ourselves of the entrenched, voracious type of capitalism that is in this country that perpetuates sexism and racism, I don't think that can come nonviolently."

Ms. Stewart, you're about to go to a place where getting that third helping of pudding won't come nonviolently, either, you horrid evil cow.

posted by Ace at 05:04 PM

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