Sept. 11 Charity Gave Money to Group Defending Terror Suspects By Marc Morano CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer November 08, 2001

1st Add: Includes September 11 Fund news release statement.

(CNSNews.com) - A charity fund established to help victims of the Sept. 11th attacks made a grant of $171,000 to a group defending eight individuals being held in connection with the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.

A grant of $171,000 from the September 11th Fund, which is affiliated with the United Way, was given to the Legal Aid Society, a group that is aiding in the legal defense of eight suspects detained in Brooklyn, N.Y. as a result of the government's investigation into the terrorist attacks.

"Instead of helping out the victims, they're actually helping out potentially suspected terrorists," said Dan Rene of the legal watchdog group National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC).

"With all the questions about the fund-raising on behalf of victims, this is a very shocking development," said Rene. "I think a lot of people will be very outraged."

One official with the September 11th Fund refused to comment, and other officials did not immediately respond to inquiries.

In its Oct. 3rd announcement, the September 11 Fund stated the grant to the Legal Aid Society will be used to "provide immediate direct legal services to the thousands of lower-income individuals working in or near the World Trade Center (including cleaning staff, waiters, messengers, vendors, etc.) who were directly affected by the terrorist attack."

According to Rene, the September 11th fund announced on October 3 the $171,000 grant to the Legal Aid Society was ostensibly to "provide emergency civil legal assistance to low-income attack victims."

Ken Boehm and Peter Flaherty of the NLPC wrote in a letter today to the September 11th Fund, "At a time when the public is questioning why so few of the victims have received aid they desperately need from groups that have raised hundreds of millions of dollars, it is disturbing that the Legal Aid Society rushed to provide free civil help to the detainees."

The letter continued, "We believe the public will be outraged, and justifiably so, to learn that funds from the September 11th Fund are going to support a group which is apparently providing civil legal help to those jailed on violations of immigration law in the wake of September 11 terrorist attacks."

The government has not released the identity of the eight men being detained on immigration violations. The men are in solitary confinement in the Special Housing Unit of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

The United Way and Hollywood celebrities have come under fire in recent days because of questions regarding the financial distribution of the September 11th Fund. Actress Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, who participated in fund-raising efforts, have previously called for a greater accounting of where the money has gone.

-- Anonymous, November 08, 2001

Answers

We just completed our annual United Way (of Massachusetts Bay) fundraising campaign here at work last week. I refused to participate this year. It's not quite the same United Way, but I have to assume there are similar management policies. I'll find other ways to spend my cats' inheritance.

-- Anonymous, November 08, 2001

I hope someone the likes of Bill O'Reilly gets hold of this story and makes a HUGE stink. This is just pure-D BS. Good hearted people, thinking they are doing the right thing by donating to these mega- charities will hopefully think twice and do some investigating of where their money actually goes as a result of of not only this story, but how the ARC has handled their 9/11 money funds.

-- Anonymous, November 08, 2001

I am still stunned at the news that only 20% of the monies collected by the Red Cross for the Liberty Fund, said to be specifically for the 9/11 victims, will actually go to the victims. A very big part of the remainder will go for future disasters. O'Reilly is bound to have an update on the situation--I hope he's had some mail attacking the childish behavior of George Clooney.

-- Anonymous, November 08, 2001

Let's hope that the days of celebrities being asked for their opinion and actually listened to are waning. Who gives a flip about what George Clooney or any other overpaid "make believe artisté thinks, really?? Anyone paying any sort of credence to an opinon of a celebrity (even those who might rarely even mirror my own) marks themselves as an idiot, in my book. I'm hoping the days of people like Clooney, Streisand, Baldwin, et al, being given a spotlight with 'assumed credibility' are over. Since Bush doesn't seem to feel the need to constantly surround himself with the glitterati, let's hope so.

-- Anonymous, November 08, 2001

Brooke, you spoke my mind. Your average entertainment celeb has a totally average IQ, does not bother to keep up with what is really happening, and has an ego which tells him that whatever pops into his uninformed mind is just wonderful. Plus the extremely strong impulse for trendy posing.

How refreshing it would be if one of them publicly confessed "Hey, my career has taken up all my time and energy, and I can't speak with any authority on these issues."

-- Anonymous, November 08, 2001

"A very big part of the remainder will go for future disasters." Where the Red Cross is concerned, I'm increasingly skeptical about that outcome as well.

I recall the definition of a seagull manager - someone who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and takes off (without having accomplished much). That's my opinion of ARC.

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2001

Seagulls also fly inland at the first sign of bad weather and parasitize strip parking lots and landfills :)

I'll never forget when a flock invaded our backyard in Norfolk. The cats thought I had put an Alfred Hitchock movie outside the window.

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2001

Criticism Mounts for Charity Fund Defending Possible Terror Suspects By Marc Morano CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer November 09, 2001

(1st Add: Includes comments by Russell Bergeron, spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.)

(CNSNews.com) - A spokesman for a New York victims' rights groups Friday said it is "reprehensible" that a portion of the charity funds aimed at helping the victims, is instead being used by a group defending individuals who have been detained by the U.S. government in connection with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

According to Joe Diamond of the Center for The Community Interest in New York City, "the thought of donations for the victims of September 11th being used to help those detainees is reprehensible."

A $171,000 grant was awarded to the Legal Aid Society out of money donated to the September 11th Fund, which was created by the United Way and the New York Community Trust.

Diamond described Legal Aid as a "champion of criminals."

"Why the hell would the United Way be giving them money in the first place? I would demand my donation back immediately."

Diamond also said his group is offering "pro-bono representation" to any individuals who wish to get their donations returned by the September 11th Fund.

Legal Aid is funded through a combination of government and private grants. Last year, the state of New York gave Legal Aid $2.3 million in state funds.

Sol Stern, a writer with the City Journal in New York City, has investigated the Legal Aid Society and its ideology. "I am shocked, I don't understand the connection between helping the victims of September 11th and giving more money for the group's social advocacy programs," Stern said.

In Stern's 1995 report, titled 'The Legal Aid Follies,' he pointed out that the group's choice of Daniel Greenberg as executive director "strengthened legal radicalism that has been the organization's signature since the 1960s."

Stern wrote that the Legal Aid Society has been "the driving force behind many of the endless court mandates that have multiplied the [New York] city's social pathology and caused its welfare costs to skyrocket."

His article quoted Michael Letwin, president of the union representing the Legal Aid Society's lawyers, as saying, "Almost by definition, Legal Aid tends to attract radical sixties types."

Stern said the grant from the September 11th Fund could have been more wisely spent.

"There are other ways to give to more neutral lawyer groups," he said.

The Legal Aid Society's Steven Banks told CNSNews.com the allegations against the group are "utterly irresponsible." Banks also defended his group's actions on behalf of the individuals detained by the government.

"Because an immigrant has been detained subsequent to September 11th... does not mean that they are being investigated or have any relationship to the horrible events of 9-11," he stated.

The men are being held in isolation on immigration violations at the Special Housing Unit of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. But, Banks pointed out that they have been "detained, not charged." Immigration and Naturalization Service detainees are not entitled to government appointed counsel unlike people actually charged with a crime.

However, Russell Bergeron, spokesman for the INS told the Wall Street Journal, "The fact that they're charged only with immigration violations at this point in time shouldn't be looked upon as some form of clearance in terms of their involvement in this investigation."

Ken Boehm of the watchdog group, The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) countered. "I am certain families and victims don't want the money going to them. The money is not going out fast enough to help families."

Boehm alleged that Legal Aid used "bad judgment to provide limited resources as opposed to helping the real victims" and added that "donors wanted to help the victims of September 11th, they didn't want to help people who were picked up on immigration law violations.

"The victims should have first claim on these resources," Boehm said.

The spokeswoman for the September 11th Fund, Jeanine Moss, told the Washington Times the grant money has a "very narrowly defined focus... and they report back to us on a regular basis on who they helped and in what amount."

Boehm disagreed, saying the funds awarded to the Legal Aid Society are "fungible" and there is no accountability for the group. "Who is going to know? Who can go into the Legal Aid Society and see timesheets? All their records are protected by attorney-client privilege," he stated.

Banks said the $171,000 grant from the September 11th Fund was used to help "more than 500 men, women and children with the funds that were provided to us."

Daniel Greenberg, Legal Aid's executive director told the New York Law Journal that the grant from the September 11th Fund was earmarked for training lawyers who volunteered to help victims of the attack. Greenberg also said the Legal Aid Society is awaiting approval for continuous grants from the September 11th Fund.

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2001