Posted by Eugene Volokh:
"Why Revoke Tariq Ramadan's U.S. Visa?"
Apropos the story I mentioned [1]yesterday, here's [2]Daniel Pipes'
argument for why revoking Tariq Ramadan's visa was a good idea. (My
post dealt simply with why it's constitutional.) I don't know enough
about the facts to speak to this myself, but I thought I'd pass the
item along; I'll be happy to link to counterarguments, too. Here's an
excerpt:
What's up? The DHS knows much more than I do, but it is not
talking. A review of the press, however, gives an idea of what the
problem is. Here are some reasons why Mr. Ramadan might have been
kept out:
1. He has praised the brutal Islamist policies of the Sudanese
politician Hassan Al-Turabi. Mr. Turabi in turn called Mr. Ramadan
the "future of Islam."
2. Mr. Ramadan was banned from entering France in 1996 on suspicion
of having links with an Algerian Islamist who had recently
initiated a terrorist campaign in Paris.
3. Ahmed Brahim, an Algerian indicted for Al-Qaeda activities, had
"routine contacts" with Mr. Ramadan, according to a Spanish judge
(Baltasar Garz�n) in 1999.
4. Djamel Beghal, leader of a group accused of planning to attack the
American embassy in Paris, stated in his 2001 trial that he had
studied with Mr. Ramadan.
5. Along with nearly all Islamists, Mr. Ramadan has denied that there
is "any certain proof" that Bin Laden was behind 9/11.
6. He publicly refers to the Islamist atrocities of 9/11, Bali, and
Madrid as "interventions," minimizing them to the point of
near-endorsement.
And here are other reasons, dug up by Jean-Charles Brisard, a
former French intelligence officer doing work for some of the 9/11
families, as reported in Le Parisien:
Intelligence agencies suspect that Mr. Ramadan (along with his
brother Hani) coordinated a meeting at the H�tel Penta in Geneva for
Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy head of Al-Qaeda, and Omar Abdel Rahman, the
blind sheikh, now in a Minnesota prison.
Mr. Ramadan's address appears in a register of Al Taqwa Bank, an
organization the State Department accuses of supporting Islamist
terrorism. To return to the legal question (and I stress again that I
don't know enough about the factual issues to comment on them), if one
thinks that aliens should have a right to enter the U.S., and should
be barred based only on proof in court of criminal conduct rather than
based simply on suspicion of connections with terrorists, then these
allegations might not be enough. But U.S. law has not generally taken
such a view, and I think it has been right not to take such a view.
References
1. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2004_08_21.shtml#1093540604
2. http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2043
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