AFDI Files Motion asking Federal Court to Order King County to Run Anti-Terrorism Bus Advertisement Picturing 16 Muslim Terrorists

Today my law firm, the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC), on behalf of AFDI, filed a motion asking the federal court in Seattle, Washington, to order the King County transit authorities to run our anti-terrorism advertisement.

“forthwith” because the County’s refusal to run the advertisement is an unconstitutional prior restraint on free speech. AFLC is requesting that the court force the County to display the advertisement immediately, pending the outcome of the litigation. Read more here.

The link to the motion is here. “So, posting the images of wanted terrorists is now the business of hatemongers and those who defend said terrorists are freedom’s champions.” (Walid Shoebat)

The lawsuit, filed by AFLC in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington at Seattle on behalf of Geller, Spencer, and their organization, the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), alleges that King County refused to run an AFDI anti-terrorism advertisement that displayed photographs of global terrorists from the FBI’s most wanted list.  According to the complaint, in June of this year, King County displayed an advertisement submitted by the federal government that depicted the “Faces of Global Terrorism” in an effort to “stop a terrorist” and “save lives.”  The advertisement offered an “up to $25 million reward” for helping to capture one of the FBI’s most wanted terrorists.

The terrorists identified in the advertisement are also found on the FBI’s most wanted global terrorists list, which is posted on the FBI’s website.  This list includes pictures and “wanted posters” for thirty-two terrorists.  Of the thirty-two listed terrorists, thirty are individuals with Muslim names or are wanted for terrorism related to organizations conducting terrorist acts in the name of Islam.

According news reports at the time, the federal government terminated its “Faces of Global Terrorism” advertisement campaign after receiving complaints from politicians and advocacy groups that took offense that the list of wanted global terrorists pictured in the advertisement appeared to include only Muslim terrorists.

 

Shortly after the government pulled the advertisement, Geller and Spencer, on behalf of AFDI, submitted an advertisement to King County that included the same pictures, names, and message as the government’s earlier display.

David Yerushalmi, AFLC Co-Founder and Senior Counsel, commented: “Our government’s incessant desire to appease Islamic terrorist apologists like the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Hamas-Muslim Brotherhood front group operating here in the United States with impunity, is literally placing all American citizens at serious risk.  Consequently, if the government won’t identify our enemy, we will make certain our clients can.”

Despite having previously accepted the federal government’s “Faces of Global Terrorism” advertisement, on August 15, King County rejected AFDI’s advertisement, claiming that it contains (1) “material that is or that the sponsor reasonably should have known is false, fraudulent, misleading, deceptive or would constitute a tort of defamation or invasion of privacy”; (2) “material that demeans or disparages an individual, group of individuals or entity”; and (3) “material that is so objectionable as to be reasonably foreseeable that it will result in harm to, disruption of or interference with the transportation system” in violation of the County’s Transit Advertising Policy.

AFLC has represented Geller, Spencer, and AFDI successfully in federal lawsuits across the country, most notably in New York and Washington, D.C., where the courts have ordered the transit authorities to run AFDI’s anti-terrorism advertisements.  In both of those cases, the transit authorities were forced to pay substantial legal fees to AFLC.  Earlier this year, the Chicago transit authority initially refused to run an AFDI “anti-jihad” advertisement, only to capitulate after stating in a letter that while the transit authorities considered the advertisement “morally reprehensible,” they were aware of AFLC’s successful litigation in New York and Washington.  In that case, Yerushalmi commented, “the CTA has capitulated grudgingly, apparently, to the First Amendment of the Constitution.”

AFLC Co-Founder and Senior Counsel Robert Muise remarked upon filing the motion: “King County’s prior restraint on our client’s speech is not only wrongheaded, it is clearly unconstitutional.  Under the First Amendment, the government is not permitted to impose special prohibitions on speakers who express views on disfavored subjects or on the basis of hostility towards the messenger or the underlying message expressed.”

Yerushalmi added: “It is quite evident, based on the fact that King County initially accepted the federal government’s advertisement only to have the feds pull the ad for fear of offending Muslims, that King County is now suffering from the quite debilitating disease of political correctness.  And there is little doubt that King County officials also dislike the messenger—our clients—who are doing a great service by alerting all Americans to the dangers of sharia and its followers.”

The federal judge presiding over this lawsuit is the Honorable Richard A. Jones, who is highly regarded as a jurist by the lawyers who appear before him.  As reported by the Seattle Times in a 2007 article, he is the half-brother of the well-known musician, Quincy Jones.

Why is Pamela Geller suing King County? By Shoebat Foundation on October 10, 2013 in Blog, General

Some might remember that as Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) was telling Tea Party groups they should expect to be profiled by the IRS, he was also demanding that the FBI pull down its bus ads that identified Islamic terrorists. The FBI relented and pulled down the ads, apparently agreeing with McDermott that terrorists shouldn’t expect to be profiled.

That leads to Pamela Geller. She has attempted to put the same, exact bus ads up on the same buses in Seattle, with one omission – the FBI logo. King County Metro rejected Geller’s ads, which are the same ads that the FBI had originally posted.

Via KIRO 7 in Seattle:

The FBI took the ads down after Rep. Jim McDermott and Muslim groups complained that they perpetuated stereotypes about Muslims as terrorists and unfairly made them targets in the community.

Shortly after the FBI ad disappeared from buses, AFDI, run by Pamela Geller, responded by trying to buy a similar ad with the same headline and the same photos.

Metro rejected it, citing policies against ads that are disruptive to the transit system, false or misleading, or demeaning or disparaging.

“Why is it demeaning now?” Geller told KIRO 7. “It’s the same ad without the FBI logo.”

Muslim activist Jafar Siddiqui, who was credited with helping McDermott successfully twist the FBI’s arm, actually said:

“Freedom of expression is the fig leaf that most hatemongers hide behind these days.”

So, posting the images of wanted terrorists is now the business of hatemongers and those who defend said terrorists are freedom’s champions.