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Pastimes : Rarely is the question asked: "is our children learning" -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (1421)	12/4/2003 6:06:47 PM
From: John Sladek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2171

03Dec03-Reuters-U.S. Court Strikes Down Part of Anti-Terrorism Law Wed December 3, 2003 08:31 PM ET SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Wednesday struck down part of a 1996 federal anti-terrorism law, saying the government's definition of what constituted "material support" to foreign terror groups was too vague. At issue is a statute that was the first to criminalize offering "material support" to foreign terror groups. That law was the precursor to the controversial 2001 Patriot Act which expanded the government's intelligence-gathering powers and increased penalties for activities classified as terrorist. In their decision, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an earlier preliminary ruling that prohibited the provision of "personnel" and "training" to groups designated by the United States as "terrorist organizations." The court also ruled that before applying the law the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a donor to a group branded as a "foreign terrorist organization" knew of its unlawful activities. "The prohibition on providing "training" and "personnel" is impermissibly overbroad and thus void for vagueness under the First and Fifth Amendments," the court ruled. That "personnel" provision was used to indict "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh and six people in Buffalo, New York knows as the "Lackawanna Six," said David Cole, a lawyer for the Center for Constitutional Rights which brought the case. He added the ruling that covers the Western states in the 9th Circuit could make it tougher for the Bush administration to prosecute individuals charged with aiding designated terrorist groups. "Virtually all of the terrorism criminal prosecutions since 9/11 have relied on this material support statute and many of them have relied on the provision regarding 'personnel." Cole said. U.S. Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said the decision was being reviewed. The case stemmed from a lawsuit brought by a human rights group and two individuals who sought to provide "material support" to the nonviolent humanitarian and political activities of Kurdish and Tamil groups designated as "foreign terrorist organizations" by the Secretary of State. That lawsuit challenged the 1996 law which made it a criminal offense punishable by 10 years in jail to train representatives of "terrorist" organizations in the United States to lobby peacefully for their cause. © Reuters 2003. All Rights Reserved. asia.reuters.com