July 07, 2005

Stop the ACLU! - Just Which Side Are They On, Anyway?

Five Muslim-Americans Detained In Iraq (emphasis mine)

WASHINGTON, July 6 (Reuters) - The American military is holding five U.S. citizens, apparently including a Los Angeles filmmaker, among more than 10,000 detainees in Iraq on suspicion of possible terrorist or other criminal activity, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

All of the five are being held without charges or access to lawyers. Three have dual Iraqi citizenship, one dual Iranian citizenship and a fifth man, arrested late last year in Iraq, dual Jordanian citizenship. Of the four arrested this year, one was taken into custody in April, two in May and another in June.

Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to identify the five. But the New York Times (of course!) on Wednesday identified one as Cyrus Kar, 44, an aspiring filmmaker from Los Angeles who was arrested in Iraq in May.

The newspaper said Kar, a naturalized American born in Iran who had enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1983, traveled to Iraq in mid-May to work on a documentary. He was arrested when he was stopped in a taxi in Baghdad by Iraqi security forces, who found what they suspected what might be bomb parts in the car. Whitman said they included “several dozen� washing machine timers.

Kar’s relatives told the New York Times that on June 14 an FBI agent, John D. Wilson, returned items seized on May 23 from Kar’s Los Angeles area apartment and assured them the FBI had found no reason to suspect Kar. “He’s cleared,� one of Kar’s aunts, Parvin Modarress, quoted Wilson as saying, the newspaper reported.

The Pentagon, however, remained tightlipped. “I’m not going to get into any detail,� Whitman said.“ What I will say is that one of these individuals was believed to have knowledge of planning associated with attacks on coalition forces. Another individual had in his possession possible IED (improvised explosive devices) components. One individual was possibly involved in kidnapping and another was engaged in what was described as ‘suspicious activities.’�

Ahem.  I would think that the reasons noted above would be more than adequate to detain these individuals.  Apparently the ACLU doesn't think so, at least for the, um, "aspiring filmmaker" Cyrus Kar:

Saying Kar is being held unjustly, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the government on Wednesday in an effort to secure his release.

It never fails to amaze me that this pedophile-worshipping, teen-abortion-exhaulting, "poor criminal" advocating group tends to align with the individual(s) who set out to cause harm.  Screw the victim's rights, screw the safety of our troops, screw the facts.  Sure, ACLU, let's release this guy.  While you're at it, why don't you ship him back to Iraq so he can continue on his "filmmaking trip?"  Oh, and why don't you just give him some timers to put in the trunk of his car?  Um, didn't anyone tell you that we are at war with terrorists?  If it looks like a duck, if it talks like a duck, if it is carrying bomb parts in the trunk...

Punta del capello to Little Green Footballs (and to my hubby for pointing this out to me!)