A Victory For Free Speech

May 11, 2008

THE Wa****ngton Times Editorial

One of the most powerful weapons Islamists have is the threat to use
the courts to silence people who get in their way. That's why it was
so heartening to learn that on April 30, New York Gov. David Patterson
signed into law the Libel Terrorism Protection Act, which is
critically im****tant in protecting the First Amendment rights of
persons who re****t factually about terrorism. The legislation is
commonly referred to as "Rachel's Law," named after Rachel Ehrenfeld,
director of the New York-based American Center for Democracy. Miss
Ehrenfeld, a scholar who has dedicated her professional life to the
study of terrorism, ran afoul of Saudi billionaire Khalid Salim bin
Mahfouz. Miss Ehrenfeld (who has been published numerous times in this
newspaper) wrote in her book "Funding Evil" that Mr. bin Mahfouz was
involved in financing Hamas and al Qaeda; Mr. bin Mahfouz denied that
he had knowingly donated to either group.

Instead of suing Miss Ehrenfeld in the United States, where she lives
and publishes her work, Mr. bin Mahfouz sued in Britain. Neither Mr.
bin Mahfouz nor Miss Ehrenfeld live there, but it is much easier to
prove libel there than in the United States because British law places
the burden of proof on the defendant rather than the plaintiff. That's
why people known as "libel tourists" look for the smallest connection
to Britain in order to obtain a pretext to file suit there. In this
case, Mr. bin Mahfouz cited the fact that a small number of copies of
her work had been purchased in Britain using Amazon.com, and the fact
that a chapter of the book appeared on the Internet where it may have
been seen by British readers. In May 2005, a British judge ruled that
Miss Ehrenfeld must apologize to Mr. bin Mahfouz, pay more than
$225,000 and destroy copies of her book. It would be difficult to
imagine a ruling more detrimental to the First Amendment.

But Miss Ehrenfeld is nothing if not a fighter, so she sought relief
from the ruling in state and federal courts in the United States =97
with mixed results. In one case, New York state's highest court ruled
that it could not protect Miss Ehrenfeld from Mr. bin Mahfouz's
British lawsuit judgement. But Miss Ehrenfeld won a victory in the 2nd
Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 8, 2007, when the court ruled
that her case against Mr. Mahfouz's libel verdict was valid and that
she could appeal to relief from American courts in order to stop the
British court verdict from being enforced here. Lost in the libel
debate was the revelation last summer (re****ted on this newspaper's Op-
Ed page last year by Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer), that a
September 13, 2001, note from France's foreign intelligence agency
said that in 1996 Mr. bin Mahfouz was one of the architects of a
banking scheme constructed for the benefit of Osama bin Laden =97 a
point that makes the British libel verdict against Miss Ehrenfeld
appear even more ridiculous.

Rachel's Law would declare overseas defamation judgements
unenforceable in New York courts unless the foreign defamation laws
provide the same guarantees provided pursuant to the U.S.
Constitution. "New Yorkers must be able to speak out on issues of
public concern without living in fear that they will be sued outside
the United States, under legal standards inconsistent with our First
Amendment rights," Mr. Patterson said in signing the legislation into
law. Last week, Sens. Joseph Lieberman, Connecticut Democrat, and
Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican, along with Rep. Peter King,
New York Republican, introduced legislation that would in essence
extend "Rachel's Law" protections to residents of all 50 states.
That's something Congress should begin carefully considering right
away.

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-C-