“This court of appeals decision is wrong, very wrong. It amounts to encouragement of financial contributions to terrorist organizations.” Yes. And CAIR, not surprisingly, is thrilled. Why is it that this moderate civil rights organization seems to find itself on the wrong side of every terror case?
“$156M Terrorism Damage Award Thrown Out,” by John O’Connor for AP (thanks to all who sent this in):
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) “” A federal appeals court overturned a $156 million award Friday against U.S.-based Muslim activists for their involvement in the terrorist death of an American teenager in the West Bank more than a decade ago.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the judge in the case had failed to require the parents of 17-year-old David Boim to properly show a link between the boy’s death and the fundraising activities of the charities.
Because of that error, it sent the case back for a possible new trial.
Nathan Lewin, an attorney for the parents, Stanley and Joyce Boim, said an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is possible.
“This court of appeals decision is wrong, very wrong,” Lewin said. “It amounts to encouragement of financial contributions to terrorist organizations.”
And from “U.S. Court Overturns Ruling On $156m Payment By Muslim Charities To Family” by Paul Icamina for AHN News:
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a leading U.S. Muslim rights group, welcomed the appeal court’s decision.
“This landmark ruling is a strong rejection of the recent disturbing trend of political lawsuits against American Muslims who have committed no crime other than providing humanitarian aid to Palestinians,” it said in a statement. “CAIR deplores the murder of David Boim and hopes that the actual wrong-doers are brought to justice.”
Uh huh. And here is a statement from the Boim family :
We are disappointed by the decision of the Court of Appeals to remand this case for retrial on purely procedural grounds in the face of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit’s unanimous conclusion that it was “incontrovertible” that the Holy Land Foundation funded Hamas “and its terrorist activities.” But this ruling absolutely should not be read to encourage financial contributions to known terrorist organizations like Hamas. The Court of Appeals has confirmed that those who provide “money and other support to Hamas” are liable for the terrorist acts of those organizations.
The Seventh Circuit now has said that private parties seeking to be compensated for the damage done to them must prove that the funding had a “causal link” to the particular terrorist murder for which compensation is sought. The evidence below established that link and the technical steps engrafted by this opinion on the statutory language reduce the remedy provided by Congress. We strongly believe the manner in which the Seventh Circuit has crafted this test is wrong, will harm other victims of terrorism who are seeking compensation, undermines the fight against terrorism and will be reversed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
As Judge Evans noted in his separate opinion, it would be “particularly absurd” and “nonsense” to conclude that Hamas did not have an opportunity to litigate its responsibility for the murder of David Boim. We trust that subsequent proceedings will reconfirm Hamas” responsibility and afford the courts an opportunity to clarify again that those who fund terrorist organizations will be held financially responsible for the consequences of their terrorist actions.
I hope so.