Shutting Up Terror Investigations: A Family Affair
I hope you checked out the Hot Air interview with Rachel Ehrenfeld I mentioned the other day. It was a great introduction to how Islamists use libel law to suppress investigation into terror financing. Not only have they succeeded in harassing and stopping particular writers about Islamic terror financing--they've also succeeded in chilling the publishing industry to shy away from future publication.
On a wild hare I started checking into the libel lawsuit against Dr. Ehrenfeld to see who represented this billionaire Saudi banker in the United States. I confess that I figured a fabulously wealthy Saudi might have retained one of the Gitmo lawyer firms I've written about quite a bit. No dice.
For Khalid Salim A Bin Mahfouz, Defendant: Geoffrey St. Andrew Stewart, Law Office of Geoffrey S. Stewart, New York, NY.
Now there are two Geoffrey S. Stewarts who deal with criminal matters in New York. One of them is a respectable fellow who handles Internet crime and works at top-shelf law firm Jones Day.
The other is convicted terrorist abettor Lynne Stewart's son. When she went off to the poky, she handed the family business over to young Geoffrey. (Which is already causing some problems among their colorful client list.)
So Sheikh Mahfouz could probably hire anyone he wants at Jones Day. But which Geoffrey S. Stewart do you think he hired?
Why, Geoffrey St. Andrew Stewart. The one at the address (scroll down) where the Lynne Stewart Defense Fund is headquartered.
Proves nothing new. Lynne Stewart was always a famous a mob lawyer and a proud defender of all stripes of terrorists. No one should be surprised that her firm was in Mahfouz's rolodex and it was the first place he turned when Dr. Ehrenfeld countersued. Lynne Stewart was so useful in getting terrorist messages out, so maybe her son would be useful in getting terrorist criticism shut down as well. I'm not sure whether Ma Stewart would approve, though:
On the other hand, I do believe in a free marketplace of ideas. I have a big problem with government repressing that kind of exchange…But when Sheikh Mahfouz showed up with his checkbook, asking for a little help shutting up this troublesome reporter, apparently the Law Offices of Geoffrey S. Stewart decided the "free marketplace of ideas" took second place to the free marketplace.