CAIR STEPPED INTO SOME MIGHTY BIG CRAP
The unidicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorist finance trial, has a mighty big gun trained his way, as New York lawyer Martin Garbus has agreed to defend P. David Gaubatz in a lawsuit action filed by the Muslim Brotherhood front group, CAIR, againt the co-author. This indeed is going to get interesting, and let the chips fall where they may. KGS
Widely regarded as a “legendary” First Amendment advocate who has represented the likes of Ronald Reagan, Nelson Mandela and Andrei Sakharov, New York lawyer Martin Garbus has agreed to defend the co-author of “Muslim Mafia” and his son in a lawsuit brought by the controversial Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Garbus, who has appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court along with trial and appellate courts in more than 100 cases, told WND he’s defending co-author P. David Gaubatz because his case is a “continuation of a struggle being carried out throughout the world” to guard freedom of speech.
“I think a book has a right to be out there, and any attempt to stop the book, I think, would be violating the First Amendment,” he said.
Garbus has been in the thick of numerous ground-breaking and highly controversial First Amendment cases over the past five decades, from Daniel Ellsberg’s battle over the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War and Lenny Bruce’s famous obscenity charges to radio host Don Imus’ lawsuit against CBS after he was fired for his remarks about the Rutgers women’s basketball team.
Other clients have included activist Cesar Chavez, actor Robert Redford, actor Al Pacino, director Spike Lee, writer Samuel Beckett and Czech playwright Vaclav Havel. Later, when Havel became president of the Czech Republic, Garbus was invited to help write the nation’s constitution.
One of his many seminal cases was Ashton v. Kentucky, in which the Supreme Court ruled in 1966 that libel could no longer be criminally prosecuted.
As WND reported, CAIR alleges Gaubatz’s son, Chris Gaubatz, who served as an unpaid volunteer for CAIR in a daring undercover operation, obtained access to the D.C.-based Muslim group’s property under false pretenses, removed internal documents and made recordings of officials and employees “without any consent or authorization and in violation of his contractual, fiduciary and other legal obligations to CAIR.”
[…]
My client had this material for a long time, and I presume during that long time other people saw it,” Garbus said. “So whatever use is being made of the document, I presume has already been made.”
CAIR contends the documents were stolen, but Garbus believes that’s “not an issue with respect to whether or not the book should be published. David Gaubatz insists the research described in his book, including securing the documents, “was conducted professionally and legally” in cooperation with law enforcement officials. Relevant material is in the hands of the FBI, he said.
“The agreement to return the documents is hardly, as CAIR officials have irresponsibly suggested publicly, an admission the material obtained in this investigation was stolen. We believe the documents and recordings were all obtained legally,” said Joseph Farah, editor and chief executive officer of WND, the parent company of WND Books, which published “Muslim Mafia.” “Many of those documents have already been turned over to law-enforcement authorities – not typically the practice of those interested in ‘stealing’ things. I know the defendants in this lawsuit would prefer to see all the material handed over to law enforcement for review before being returned to CAIR.”
Farah added: “But, remember, what is being returned to CAIR are documents that were headed for CAIR’s shredder. Once CAIR was eager to dispose of them. Now, suddenly, the group is treating them like they are the crown jewels. Go figure.”
