And again, the ACLU proves that not only do they not read or understand the US Constitution, but that they do, in fact, have an agenda:
The United States has used the USA Patriot Act to improperly deny visas to foreign scholars critical of the Bush administration’s foreign policy, the American Civil Liberties Union said in a lawsuit on Wednesday.
The civil rights group sued U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on behalf of a Muslim scholar who was denied entry into America, seeking to overturn as unconstitutional a provision of the USA Patriot Act used to deny his visa.
Plaintiffs in the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, include Tariq Ramadan, 43, a Swiss theologian of Egyptian descent often called Europe’s best-know Muslim intellectual.
Did you catch the part that says he is a Swiss theologian of Egyptian descent? Apparently, I am guessing <sic>, Ramadan is not a United States citizen. Meaning that he is not entitled to the protections of the Constitution. Yet, the ACLU is taking his side over the side of the ACLU’s (supposed) country.
Let’s not forget this part of the article
According to the suit, Ramadan was denied a visa based on a provision of the Patriot Act — an anti-terrorism law set up after the September 11 attacks now being reviewed by Washington lawmakers — that bars entry to anyone endorsing terrorism.
Maybe the ACLU should read this article about Ramadan, which includes:
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In 1995, in the midst of a series of terrorist attacks in Paris perpetrated by the Algerian Islamist terrorist movement, French Interior Minister Jean Louis Debre forbade Ramadan to enter France because of his connections to the terrorist group.
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According to Spanish judge Balatasar Garzón, Ramadan had "routine contacts" with Ahmed Brahim, an Algerian believed to be the financial chief of al Qaeda and the financier of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya.
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According to the French daily newspaper Le Monde, Ramadan is suspected of having links with al Qaeda. He is believed to have organized a 1991 meeting between al Qaeda’s second-in-charge, Ayman al Zawahiri, and Omar Abdel Rahman, who was convicted in the 1993 bombing of the first World Trade Center.
But, he doesn’t have any links to terrorism, eh, ACLU? Perhaps y’all could go back and read that part about him not being a US Citizen. He also isn’t applying for citizenship. So, he is not covered by the Constitution. But, he is linked to terrorism, so, the ACLU just has to take his side. Interesting. And wholly unremarkable for the ACLU.
Today’s Stop The ACLU blogburst post over at STA.
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More: Guess I was so involved with one way of looking at it, I forgot this part. We so often think of the ACLU by its letters that we forget it stands for American Civil Liberties Union. Which, of course, brings me back to the point that Ramadan is not American.
