Courtroom of the absurd

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, profiled this past weekend in Canada’s National Post, is a young Israeli attorney who’s been capturing a lot of headlines lately with her courageous campaign to defend Israel against terrorism through the courts. She’s sued the European Union for continuing to fund the Palestinian Authority despite clear evidence their contributions are being used to support terrorism. More than once, she has attempted (unsuccessfully) to provide representation for palestinians accused of “collaboration with Israel” in order to assure that they would receive a fair trail. And she obtained a monetary verdict against the PA on behalf of the family of one of the two IDF soldiers lynched in Ramallah in October, 2000. Even more impressive, the court agreed to place a lien on funds owed by Israel to the PA to secure payment of that judgment. Darshan-Leitner has scored some impressive victories and I’ve watched her progress with enthusiasm.

But she's also been involved in causes that are more problematic, most especially her efforts to prevent the extradition to America (she was successful) and Canada (she wasn’t) of two teenaged murder suspects who fled to Israel to avoid prosecution at home.

Today, her office distributed this press release announcing her intention to sue the State of New Jersey and Amiri Baraka.

Israeli attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner has written to New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey demanding that he fire the State's poet laureate, Amiri Bakara [sic], or she will initiate legal proceedings against his office. The Tel-Aviv lawyer, who heads Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center, represents five young Israelis who were detained by Federal authorities for visa violations after the 9/11 attack. The five allege that the New Jersey poet's controversial poem, "Somebody Blew Up America" implies that they knew in advance that the World Trade Center would be attacked and has grievously defamed their reputation.

Baraka’s offensive and ridiculous poem notwithstanding, something’s very wrong with this picture. And it paints Darshan-Leitner as someone who has no understanding of American law as well as someone who doesn’t bother to read the news (hardly likely). For example, it’s fairly common knowledge that McGreevey has asked for Baraka’s resignation but doesn’t currently have the legal power to “fire” him. Moreover, Baraka’s poem arguably only asks a question:

Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion, And cracking they sides at the notion.

While we could certainly debate the status of this gibberish as "poetry," I can't see how it qualifies as "defamation." And Baraka’s hobby horse, of which this poem was only one manifestation, has consistently been that Israel, along with George W. Bush and most of the rest of the world, knew about the attacks before they happened – not that they perpetrated them. Not to mention that Baraka was only one in a long procession of morons who have made sinister suggestions regarding the five Israelis who were spotted filming the WTC fire. Perhaps Darshan-Leitner should also sue David Duke and Edgar J. Steele, among others. Or ABC News, which reported in detail on the speculation.

Despite the denials, sources tell ABCNEWS there is still debate within the FBI over whether or not the young men were spies. Many U.S. government officials still believe that some of them were on a mission for Israeli intelligence. But the FBI told ABCNEWS, "To date, this investigation has not identified anybody who in this country had pre-knowledge of the events of 9/11."

Sources also said that even if the men were spies, there is no evidence to conclude they had advance knowledge of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. The investigation, at the end of the day, after all the polygraphs, all of the field work, all the cross-checking, the intelligence work, concluded that they probably did not have advance knowledge of 9/11," Cannistraro noted.

Finally, I can’t generate too much sympathy for these guys, who had apparently overstayed their visas and were working illegally in New Jersey at the time they made a spectacle of themselves filming the destruction of the Twin Towers. I’d also guess that any damage to their “reputation” was done more by the FBI, who detained them for 71 days before deporting them, than by a whacked-out "poet" who didn’t even refer to them by name. And I would expect that Nitsana Darshan-Leitner has better things to do than harass Governor McGreevey, the good people of New Jersey or even Amiri Baraka who, after all, has already made a big enough ass out of himself without any help.