US Supreme Court affirms LTTE ban
Philip FERNANDO
Giving a decisive blow to all terror groups, the US Supreme Court
upheld its government’s decision to bar terror groups like the LTTE on
Monday. In a majority decision six to three the Court affirmed the
Federal Law that bars ‘’material support’’ to foreign terrorist
organizations, rejecting a free speech challenge from humanitarian aid
groups.
It said that US may prohibit all forms of aid to designated terrorist
groups, even if the support consists of training and advice about
entirely peaceful and legal activities. Material support intended even
for benign purposes can help a terrorist group in other ways, Chief
Justice John Roberts said in his majority opinion.
Most of those cases involved money and other substantial support for
terror groups. Some LTTE supporters had been found guilty under this
law. The pro-LTTE group had protested that banning the terror supporting
groups was an infringement of free speech. The high court rejected that
notion.
Besides the LTTE, the groups involved had trained people in Turkey on
how to bring human rights complaints to the United Nations and assisted
them in peace negotiations, but suspended the activities when the US
designated the Turkish outfit a terrorist organization in 1997.
Nearly four dozen organizations are on the State Department list,
including al-Qaida, Hamas, Hezbollah, Basque separatists in Spain and
Maoist rebels in Peru.
The humanitarian groups, including the Humanitarian Law Project;
Ralph Fertig, a civil rights lawyer; and Dr. Nagalingam Jeyalingam, a
physician, want to offer assistance to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in
Turkey or the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka.
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