Tuesday, December 14, 2004

They Got Capone On Tax Evasion

The terrorists have Allah? We have lawyers!

excerpt:
Accountants destroyed Al Capone; it may yet be litigators that shut down Islamic extremism in the United States. Daniel Pipes tells today the story of a lawsuit brought by an American family named Boim against Hamas front organizations in the United States. The Boims' teenage son, David, was murdered in Jerusalem in 1996 as he waited for a bus.

A 1992 law allows Americans injured by a terrorist act to sue any American organization that provided financial support to the terrorist group that committed that act. The Boims used this law to sue three American Hamas fronts. After years of litigation, the Boims last month won a verdict of $156 million.

If upheld on appeal, the Boim verdict will have very large practical consequences. It means that financiers of Islamic terror who have access within the reach of American law must now worry not just about being shut down by the Department of Justice, but about being hauled in front of a jury for massive damages in civil actions.

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