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Kathianne
08-05-2008, 03:54 PM
http://www.investigativeproject.org/article/741


Ex-Presidential Candidate Advocates Stalking Prosecutor

by Michael Fechter
IPT News
August 5, 2008
http://www.investigativeproject.org/article/741

Mike Gravel, a former two-term senator from Alaska and fringe Democratic and Libertarian presidential candidate, urged people to stalk a federal prosecutor and his family in order to get criminal contempt charges dropped against Sami Al-Arian, an exclusive audio tape obtained by the Investigative Project on Terrorism shows.

Gravel, 78, spoke at a forum with Al-Arian's wife and two of their children Friday evening in Washington, D.C. During his remarks, he focused attention at the prosecutor driving the case (Click the play button to the left to hear the clip):

Gravel: "And so what I would say, if there is somebody within the sound of my
voice who has the time to do it, find out where - is it Gordon? Who's
the, what's his name?"

Audience member: "Gordon Kromberg."

Gravel: "Find out where he lives. Find out where his office is. If you've got some chutzpah - which is a word that you don't hear often - if you've really got it, find out where he lives, find out where his kids go to school, find out where his office is; picket him all the time. Call him a racist in signs if you see him. Call him an injustice. Call him whatever you want to call him, but in his face all the time. They can't take the heat; deliver it to them. We have to stop laying down to these injustices."

No one in the crowd of about 70 people challenged Gravel's remarks; to the contrary, Gravel received an enthusiastic ovation when he finished. The forum was held at Busboys and Poets, a D.C. restaurant that describes itself as a "gathering place where people can discuss issues of social justice and peace." The owner donated use of his shop for the event.

"That sounds very, very dangerous and sketchy," said Bobby Chesney, a Wake Forest University law professor who studies national security law. It's fine to criticize the government, he said, but it is an entirely different matter to engage in such aggressive speech targeting the children of a federal employee....

Gaffer
08-05-2008, 09:40 PM
They need to arrest that SOB on incitement charges. What a piece of shit.

Kathianne
08-05-2008, 09:46 PM
They need to arrest that SOB on incitement charges. What a piece of shit.

Yep. Gaffer have you noticed how often you and I agree on something, yet no one else seems to? Are we weird or them? :laugh2:

Gaffer
08-05-2008, 10:43 PM
Yep. Gaffer have you noticed how often you and I agree on something, yet no one else seems to? Are we weird or them? :laugh2:

Me thinks it them. :cheers2:

We seem to visit the same sites too. Great minds think alike.

Kathianne
08-05-2008, 10:44 PM
Me thinks it them. :cheers2:

We seem to visit the same sites too. Great minds think alike.

:beer::salute:

Kathianne
08-06-2008, 06:40 PM
Found a bit more:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121804377826017521.html?mod=Best+of+the+Web+Toda y


...Gravel was the last Democrat elected to the Senate from Alaska. He served two terms, starting in 1969, and lost his renomination bid in 1980. We spent a little time with him in France in 2004, and the thing that struck us most about him was the pride he took in his lone claim to semifame: the time in 1971 when he read extensive portions of the secret Pentagon Papers into the record at a subcommittee hearing.

A federal court injunction was in place against the New York Times, which had published excerpts of the papers. Soon after, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in New York Times v. U.S., that the injunction was an unconstitutional prior restraint. A year later the court held, in Gravel v. U.S., that the Constitution's Speech or Debate Clause immunized Gravel and his aides from prosecutorial action arising from the "legislative act" of putting the papers into the record (although not from their subsequent publication by a private company).

What Gravel did in 1971 was an act of defiance against federal authority, though one calibrated to insulate him from criminal liability. The same may be said of his exhortation at the rally for Al-Arian last week. Although one could construe it as an incitement to harassment or worse, in fact he was careful not to call for any specific action beyond picketing and name-calling.

Nonetheless, Gravel seems to be embarrassed by the incident:


Gravel told FOX News that he doesn't want people to break the law and that he personally wouldn't do the things he's recommended--but that it could be an effective way to change the behavior of U.S. officials.


"How do you deal with this kind of an injustice? I wouldn't protest. I don't believe in protesting. I think it demonstrates the failure of representative government. My answer to that problem is, I want to empower you as a lawmaker. . . . Don't rely on your elected officials," the former senator said.

Even if someone in the audience does harass Kromberg or his family (or, heaven forbid, does something worse), Gravel is legally in the clear: He was merely exercising his First Amendment rights by encouraging others to exercise their First Amendment rights. Under the pertinent Supreme Court case, Brandenburg v. Ohio, even advocating violence is protected by the First Amendment, so long as there is not an imminent threat.

A foul legacy of the 1960s is the prevalence on the left of the notion that cost-free acts of "dissent" are courageous, even patriotic. One can only hope that Gravel's latest antics have pushed this idea beyond its limit.

red states rule
08-07-2008, 08:17 AM
http://www.investigativeproject.org/article/741

Is it me, or do most lefties always side with the damn terrorists; and paint the US as the bad guy?

Kathianne
08-07-2008, 08:33 AM
Is it me, or do most lefties always side with the damn terrorists; and paint the US as the bad guy?

I don't think the Left 'always' does. However for some, like Gravel, if there is a problem, it's the US at fault.

red states rule
08-07-2008, 08:36 AM
I don't think the Left 'always' does. However for some, like Gravel, if there is a problem, it's the US at fault.

I said most of the left

I saw this idiot on the O'Reilly Factor last night and he actually said Al-Arian did not plead guilty; or was convcted; of anything

O'Reilly called him a loon at the end of his rant