The Peace Movement’s Mumia Connection

National Review ^ | January 28, 2003 | Byron York

[conservativecorner]

Why do antiwar contributions go to Mumia Abu-Jamal’s defenders?

two-page advertisement against war in Iraq that appeared in Monday's New York Times directed donors to send money to a foundation that for years has been devoted to the defense of convicted murderer Mumia Abu-Jamal.

The ad, which features an antiwar statement signed by more than 100 well-known Americans, including the actors Ed Asner, Martin Sheen, and Susan Sarandon, writers Kurt Vonnegut, Alice Walker, and Barbara Kingsolver, and musicians Graham Nash, Bonnie Raitt, and Pete Seeger, was created by the group Not In Our Name, which has purchased similar ads in other papers around the country. A box at the bottom of the ad asks readers to send donations to an organization called the Bill of Rights Foundation. "We suggest a $200 contribution," the ad says, "but all contributions large or small help to make the goal possible." The Bill of Rights Foundation is a New York-based group that has for years devoted nearly all of its funds to the defense of Abu-Jamal, who shot and killed a Philadelphia police officer in 1981. Abu-Jamal's guilt has been upheld during decades of appeals, but his case has become a cause célèbre among some on the Left, who maintain that he was unfairly convicted.

Statements filed by the Bill of Rights Foundation with the Internal Revenue Service for the year 2001, the most recent available, show that the foundation spent a total of $102,152 that year, of which $95,737 went for legal fees (the rest went for assorted administrative expenses). The documents show that $66,874 of that amount went to Leonard Weinglass, who was at the time Abu-Jamal's lead attorney. Abu-Jamal changed lawyers that year, and the documents show the foundation also paid $21,730 to his new lawyer, Marlene Kamish.

Weinglass told National Review Online Monday that the money he received from the foundation was for work on the Abu-Jamal case. Altogether, the foundation paid Weinglass and Kamish $88,604 in 2001.

In the year 2000, the Bill of Rights Foundation listed $75,956 in total expenses, of which $57,722 was for legal fees. The entire amount went to Weinglass for the Abu-Jamal defense.

In 1999, the foundation listed $155,547 in total expenses, of which $139,126 was for legal fees. That amount, too, went to Weinglass for the Abu-Jamal defense.

The Bill of Rights Foundation is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charity, which means that all contributions to the foundation — and therefore contributions to Abu-Jamal's legal representation — are fully tax-deductible.

It is not immediately clear what the two causes, Abu-Jamal's legal defense and opposition to a war in Iraq, have to do with each other. In a brief interview, Bill of Rights Foundation president Judith Levin told NRO that "the connection was the violation of civil rights of people in this country." The message on Not In Our Name's answering machine in New York seems to support that contention, saying the group's purpose is "to build resistance to this war, to say no to the detentions and roundups of immigrants, and to stop police-state restrictions."

The Not In Our Name ads have raised a significant amount of money. An article on the group's website says, "Our biggest problem in managing the statement has been keeping up with the deluge of e-mail and checks. Well over 4,000 people have contributed for the publication of the statement, with over $300,000 received so far." A spokesman for Not In Our Name said that money sent to the Bill of Rights Foundation in response to the Times ad will be "used exclusively for the purpose" of publishing the Not In Our Name statement in other publications.

[anymouse]

And wonders why the Anthrax was mailed from across the river from Philly? I long suspected that Mumia supporters collaborated with al Qaeda in sending out the Anthrax letters. Who would suspect a black person walking up to a mailbox in West New Jersey or even a post office and dropping off a letter? Given the demographics of postal workers it wouldn't be a stretch to find some Mumia supporters working at some sensitive places within the USPS.

[fporretto]

In Roger Kimball's excellent Tenured Radicals, he makes explicit note of the syndrome he calls "Left Eclecticism" -- the tendency for leftists to adopt any and every anti-American, anti-individualism, anti-capitalism position making the rounds and wrap them all up in one huge package deal. Thomas Sowell's The Vision Of The Anointed provides a brilliant analysis of the psychological reasons for this reflexive adoption of seemingly unrelated causes and mascots, stemming from the Left's need to see itself as morally superior to the rest of the world.

One way or another, it means that to adopt even one Left-aproved position will result in having to keep company with a huge number of unsavory types whose agendas bear no relation to one's own. That goes a long way toward explaining why the Left is almost entirely composed of the vulgar, the unwashed, and the generally unacceptable. They can bear one another; others are more particular.

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit The Palace Of Reason:
http://palaceofreason.com

[Drango]

My "FRY MUMIA" sign at a recent counter FReep, infuriated the protesters/anarchist/maggots beyond belief...

[F16Fighter]

"The tendency for leftists [is] to adopt any and every anti-American, anti-individualism, anti-capitalism position making the rounds and wrap them all up in one huge package deal.

To further add insult to injury the Left then demands its fecal "package" be wrapped up in an American Flag.

[dyed_in_the_wool]

Seriously, they should free Mumia. Give him a 10 minute head start...

[hellinahandcart]

hmmm...

[hellinahandcart]

From my personal experience, most Mumia-worshippers are lily-white and do not work in a post office.

Or seem to work for a living at all, for that matter.

I hate to have to agree with otabc, but there you have it...

[DrNo]

Seriously, they should free Mumia. Give him a 10 minute head start...

Wasn't he in one of the Super Bowl Budweiser commercials?

(The guy with the Scottie on his head.)

[anymouse]

After the first Anthrax letter was discovered (post 9/11), one would think that authorities (and the public at large) would be on the look out for Middle Eastern looking types dropping off a suspicious letter/package at mailboxes/post offices in the W. NJ vacinity that the Anthrax letters were traced to. Radical Muslim fellow travelers like Mumia supporters would have gone unnoticed, had they been the source/couriers of the Anthrax.

[John H K]

one would think that authorities (and the public at large) would be on the look out for Middle Eastern looking types dropping off a suspicious letter/package at mailboxes/post offices

None of the anthrax letters were "suspicious looking" to anyone more than 1 foot away from them, and how can one be on the "lookout" for a routine-looking letter dropped in a street mailbox, of which there are tens of thousands in a single state, by ANYBODY?

[anymouse]

I'm not ruling out white Mumia supporters (except that those usually seem to be so blinded by Marxism that they couldn't bear getting a job, let alone at a quasi-Federal institution like the USPS.) My only hypothisis is that it was likely a non-ME radical Muslim sypathizer that couriered the Anthrax letters. There racial/ethnic make up is secondary to their radical support for radical Islam. Also in the area that the Anthrax was sent, a black person would go less noticed than either a white, asian or ME type.

[jiggyboy]

That was a howler. Our SF group needs to make sure somebody has one in every protest, and be ready with the camera to watch them steal it again.

[piasa]

It would be nifty is someone held up a Fry Mumia sign in the background window during the FOX morning show.

[palmer]

having to keep company with a huge number of unsavory types whose agendas bear no relation to one's own

Back when I protested against the bombing of Serbia I would get asked if I was going to the next protest (e.g. a Free Mumia protest). I kept wondering then how the increased numbers of protestors weighed against the dilution of the anti-war message. It depends on the situation, in that case it made some sense to have a left-right coalition against the center-left warmongering president.

[anymouse]

It was determined that all of the Anthrax letters were mailed from mailboxes in a particular region (zip code) of W. NJ. Even without more descriptive details you bet every postal worker and cop in the area was watching every mailbox in that area with some suspicion. Maybe not very effective, but human nature makes people warry of bad past experiences (don't touch a hot stove cause it hurts when you get burned.)

[hellinahandcart]

They go batsh!t when they see that sign. It's really funny.

Better yet, Doctor Raoul and abner may still have some Fry Mumia t-shirts. You can annoy marxists even at the grocery store, the post office or the laundromat, and best of all, if you get a large size you can sleep in it too.

They're a "good thing"...

[Doctor Raoul]

Go to anberjones.com for your Mumia shirt. Before the nice police officers buy them all.