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Soros funded Stewart defense
NRO.com ^ | 10-16-06 | Byron York

Posted on 10/16/2006 3:22:36 PM PDT by veronica

The anti-Bush billionaire supported lawyer who aided terrorists.

Billionaire financier George Soros, whose opposition to President Bush's conduct of the war on terror caused him to pour millions of dollars into the effort to defeat the president, made a substantial donation to the defense fund for radical lawyer Lynne Stewart, who last week was found guilty of giving aid to Islamic terrorists.

According to records filed with the Internal Revenue Service, Soros's foundation, the Open Society Institute, or OSI, gave $20,000 in September 2002 to the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee.

In filings with the IRS, foundation officials wrote that the purpose of the contribution was "to conduct a public education campaign around the broad civil rights implications of Lynne Stewart's indictment."

Answering questions by e-mail, Amy Weil, a spokeswoman for the Open Society Institute, said the foundation contributed to Stewart's fund because "it appeared to us at that time that there was a right-to-counsel issue worthy of our support."

Stewart's legal troubles stemmed from her defense of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, sometimes known as the Blind Sheikh. Rahman led an Egyptian-based terrorist organization known as the Islamic Group.

In 1996, Rahman was sentenced to life in prison for his involvement in the first attack on the World Trade Center, in 1993, and for his part in failed plots to blow up the United Nations building and the Lincoln and Holland tunnels in New York.

After his conviction, Rahman's followers threatened a series of terrorist attacks against American targets unless he were released. In 1998, the U.S. government reportedly had intelligence that Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda were plotting to hijack aircraft in the United States in order to demand freedom for Rahman and other convicted terrorists.

Because of those threats, the government issued a special order that the imprisoned Rahman not be allowed to communicate with his followers, to prevent his inciting them to further violence. He was allowed to communicate only with his wife and with his lawyers, who were not allowed to relay his wishes to his followers.

Stewart promised to abide by those rules. But at her trial, the government produced evidence showing that Stewart and two codefendants on a number of occasions used their privileged access to Rahman to help transmit Rahman's orders to his followers in the Islamic Group.

On February 10, Stewart was convicted on two counts of providing material aid to terrorists and three counts of lying to federal investigators. She is planning to appeal.

Before the verdict, officials of the Open Society Institute characterized Stewart's work as that of a "human rights defender." In an October 2004 speech in Norway, Gara LaMarche, head of OSI programs in the United States, said, "The right to counsel, and its erosion in the United States since September 11, strikes with particular force at the role of human rights defenders. One troubling trend has been the arrest and prosecution of lawyers and other defenders as 'material witnesses' to terrorism. These include Lynne Stewart, attorney for Sheik Abdel Rahman..."

At one point, Stewart's Defense Committee website, lynnestewart.org, bore the notation, "This website is made possible by the generous support of the Open Society Institute."

Amy Weil told National Review that while the Institute initially underwrote Stewart's defense, the foundation's commitment was not open-ended. "More recently, OSI was asked for additional funding and we turned down that request," she said.


TOPICS: Extended News; Front Page News; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: alqaeda; democrats; lynnestewart; shadowparty; soros; terrorism
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To: Hildy
"Do you remember not too long ago how evil Richard Mellon Scaiffe was? He was the puppetmaster, funding all things Conservative. It's funny how he was portrayed as opposed to this real evil monster, Soros."

Good point; the MSM and Dems never tired of portraying Scaiffe as a sinister figure with a finger in every conservative pie, even when he didn't. (The idea that Kenneth Starr was his protege was a complete myth; the two men never met.) And the critique of big money in politics never extends to Soros.
21 posted on 10/16/2006 3:51:42 PM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: Hildy

Great point!

And I'm not just saying that because you are my cousin. :)


22 posted on 10/16/2006 3:57:16 PM PDT by veronica (Angry kook location: In a house, on a street, in a town, soon to be posting from the loony bin...)
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To: SmithL

Yeah and as lenient as it was, it sounds like Soros paid for her sentence too.


23 posted on 10/16/2006 3:59:46 PM PDT by Let's Roll ( "Congressmen who ... undermine the military ... should be arrested, exiled or hanged" - A. Lincoln)
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To: Arizona Carolyn
Someone should send this to Neil Cavuto. He told O'Reilly Soros is a kindly old grandfather type and harmless (after Soros came on Cavuto's show for a one-on-one interview).

I sent Cavuto an E mail after that interview and asked him when he started interviewing convicted felons. Up to that point, I thought Cavuto had credibility.

24 posted on 10/16/2006 4:01:14 PM PDT by Ben Hecks
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To: veronica
The time is fast approaching where the country will need a privately run and lethal "Star Chamber"...

There are simply too many "enemy within" for the "system" to deal with.

Semper Fi
25 posted on 10/16/2006 4:01:22 PM PDT by river rat (You may turn the other cheek, but I prefer to look into my enemy's vacant dead eyes.)
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To: All

People are so stupid and have no idea how dangerous and evil Soros is and how a vote for the demoncrats is like a vote for evil.


26 posted on 10/16/2006 4:02:23 PM PDT by LegalEagle61 (You have 2 choices vote republican or whine about how bad the country is when the liberals take over)
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To: Ben Hecks

Cavuto, one of the many weird sheeple.


27 posted on 10/16/2006 4:03:08 PM PDT by LegalEagle61 (You have 2 choices vote republican or whine about how bad the country is when the liberals take over)
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To: veronica

Goldfinger + Blofeld = Soros.


28 posted on 10/16/2006 4:06:19 PM PDT by isom35
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To: veronica

the donation should be taxable income


29 posted on 10/16/2006 4:06:32 PM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. Foley is why we don't allow queers to be Scoutmasters.)
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To: LegalEagle61

I have a question....is he an American citizen? If not, how does he get away with this s**t?


30 posted on 10/16/2006 4:06:35 PM PDT by surrey
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To: Mamzelle

What a freakin' creep.


31 posted on 10/16/2006 4:07:13 PM PDT by veronica (Angry kook location: In a house, on a street, in a town, soon to be posting from the loony bin...)
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To: Ben Hecks

I was very disappointed in him and felt O'Reilly really put it back into his face about the interview, Cavuto tried to cover up, but I think OR hit a nerve... the next night OR got email saying he was being "mean" in his comments about Soros.


32 posted on 10/16/2006 4:07:44 PM PDT by Arizona Carolyn
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To: onyx

Liberals support terrorists and their lawyers

I'm seeing a Champaign Ad here


33 posted on 10/16/2006 4:09:06 PM PDT by Mo1 (SUPPORT FREE REPUBLIC - BECOME A MONTHLY DONOR)
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To: Mo1; Grampa Dave


I forgot to ping Grampa Dave to this!


34 posted on 10/16/2006 4:11:18 PM PDT by onyx (We have two political parties: the American Party and the Anti-American Party.)
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To: Ben Hecks
I dunno--I think that kind of thing happens to a lot of people. The little ole lady in your church goes to hear Janet Reno speak, is impressed, Reno shakes her hand--suddenly Reno is "just the nicest person you'd ever want to know."

Propinquity--

And I am of the belief that celebrity turns everything it touches into something bad--it just takes longer with some people. Sort of like what happens to every Repub Senator we send--he gets a sense of Lord Wisdom and Mercy and starts patronizing, condescending, and otherwise acting like an ass.

35 posted on 10/16/2006 4:12:59 PM PDT by Mamzelle
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To: MadIvan
Hey, he's an American citizen!! And who said Yanks were smart?
36 posted on 10/16/2006 4:16:17 PM PDT by Mamzelle
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To: MadIvan

>>>Amazing how he seems to be financing evil wherever he goes.<<<

George Soros is a secular Jew, as is Schumer, Feinstein and Lautenberg. Seldom will you find anyone in the world more evil than a secular Jew. Everything they do is in opposition to God.

For a good understanding of secular Jews, read Rabbi Daniel Lapin's book, "America's Real War". The following is part of a review:

"Countering the rampant chillul Hashem and widespread misconception that liberal Jews somehow speak for Judaism (chapter forty-four, "The Redefining of Judaism"), Rabbi Lapin demonstrates that a true Jewish outlook is infinitely closer to that upheld by the conservative wing of the Republican Party." - http://robtshepherd.tripod.com/real-war.html


37 posted on 10/16/2006 4:24:06 PM PDT by PhilipFreneau ( Don't be a sucker for the MSM smear campaign. Vote GOP!)
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To: veronica

No surprise here at Sorry's hand in this.


38 posted on 10/16/2006 4:27:53 PM PDT by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country. What else needs to be said?)
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To: veronica

If the GOP doesn't make an issue of this in some crafty ads then they're STOOPID!


39 posted on 10/16/2006 4:29:42 PM PDT by demkicker (democrats, terrorists, Powell, McCain, Graham & Collins are intimate bedfellows)
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To: shrinkermd
What are his hobbies?
40 posted on 10/16/2006 4:31:44 PM PDT by Big Horn (The senate is loaded with scum-baggers)
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