Although its old news now, it was interesting to discover that Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, a subcontractor of Church World Services located in East Tennessee, joined an ACLU lawsuit challenging the Patriot Act in 2003.
Bridge’s involvement stemmed from an incident in which the FBI sought information on Iraqi refugees that the resettlement agency had settled in East Tennessee. Mary Lieberman, then Executive Director of the agency, stated that she was heartbroken that the government did not respect the privacy of these persecuted refugees.
The suit filed in US District Court, Eastern District of Michigan was the first challenge to the Patriot Act.
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MUSLIM COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION OF ANN ARBOR, et al., Plaintiffs, v. JOHN ASHCROFT, in his official capacity as Attorney General of the United States,
et al., Defendants. |
In addition to Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, the groups participating in the lawsuit are Muslim Community Association of Ann Arbor, which operates a mosque and school in Ann Arbor, Michigan; American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, a national civil rights organization based in Washington D.C.; Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services, a human services organization based in Dearborn, Michigan that operates a medical clinic as well as a center for refugees and torture victims; Council on American-Islamic Relations, a grassroots membership organization based in Washington D.C.; and The Islamic Center of Portland, Masjed As-Saber, which operates a mosque and school in Portland, Oregon.
That is quite a rogues gallery for a kind-hearted enlightened refugee resettlement group to be associating with.
The ACLU withdrew the case in 2006.
To read more go to: http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/16820prs20030730.html
http://www.aclu.org/FilesPDFs/affidavit_lieberman.pdf
http://www.aclu-tn.org/release073003.htm