Funding Evil - 2011 Updated Edition

Get it hot off the presses, Rachel Ehrenfeld's 2011 updated edition of Funding Evil:  How Terrorism Is Financed - And How To Stop it. - The book the Saudis don't want you to read. - "The Book That Freed Americans From Libel Tourism".   I highly recommend this book.  I have followed Dr. Ehrenfeld's writing, her fight for free speech, and her ultimate victory for all writers and have great respect for her.  Until a few years ago most Americans probably had no idea what Libel Tourism (lawfare) is and the danger it is to free speech. Rachel Ehrenfeld found out the hard way.  She did not back down.  In fact, she fought against lawfare, and she won.

I don't command an army, have vast wealth, or hold political office.  Instead I write independently, telling it straight, exposing the enemies of freedom and democracy.  To win the war that the global Islamist movement is waging on the free world, it is important to expose it's financial lifeline and strategies.  Recognizing that intimidation of free speech is yet another weapon in the arsenal of the global Islamist movement, I devoted six years of my life to stop the use of "libel tourism" to silence the American media.²

Over the years, England, in particular, has developed a libel suit industry which caters to the wealthy plaintiffs from anywhere in the world.  Even those with the most tenuous links to England are able to obtain a judgement against writers from other countries, no matter how carefully the work in question has been documented.  Known as "a town called Sue," London has become the Mecca for libel tourism.³

Shortly after September 11, 2001, Saudi and Middle Eastern financiers of al-Qaeda and other radical Muslim organizations began to systematically exploit plaintiff-friendly British libel law in order to silence and intimidate criticism in the Western media.  Their tremendous wealth and Britain's speech-suppressive legal framework created and double-edged weapon, successfully used against the American and Western media, bullying major news outlets and publications into retractions and apologies, effectively chilling further exposes on Saudi and Gulf funders of terrorism.  Not surprisingly, the media refrained from reporting on this new form of "lawfare" that forced them to abandon their mission to inform the public, and concede to forces determined to destroy Western freedoms.  The public and policy makers were kept ignorant of this insidious threat. [snip]

I was personally faced with such exploitation of British libel law in 2004, when I was threatened with a libel suit in London by the Saudi billionaire Khalid bin Mahfouz, who is named in this book.  Despite the fact that I am a U.S. citizen, living and working in New york, and that the book was published and marketed only in the U.S., Mahfouz chose to sue me in London.  Justice David Eady, who presided over most of Mahfouz's many libel suits, awarded him jurisdiction over me because 23 copies of this book apparently had been purchased online in Britain, and an excerpt from this book had been posted online for a short time by an American television channel.  I was one of more than 40 writers an publishers, including many Americans, sued, or threatened to be sued, by the Saudi in London's High Court.⁵  My refusal to recognize British jurisdiction over me resulted in a 2005 judgement by default, and from London, Justice Eady ordered me, in New York, to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines, as well as Mahfouz's legal expenses.

Mahfouz was named as a funder of al-Qaeda in most of the 9/11 lawsuits,⁶ but later, like other Saudis named in these suits but not designated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury as funders of terrorism, his name was dismissed from the suit.  While Mahfouz was not designated as funder of terrorism, nonetheless Yasin al-Qadi,⁷ the director of Mahfouz's personal charity, the Muwafaq Foundation, was designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT), for funding al-Qaeda (at the time of this writing, he remains on the list).⁸  Clearly, Mahfous would have had an extremely difficult time proving libel under U.S. law.

Since my work focuses on exposing the means used to suppress our freedoms, I was determined to stop this form of oppression.  My actions following the Saudi suit in London led in May 2008 to the New York Legislature's passage of the "Anti-Libel Terrorism Protection Act."  Also known as "Rachel's Law," it protects New York State-based authors and publishers in print and online against the scourge of libel tourism.⁹  Mahfouz died in Saudi Arabia the following year.¹⁰

Rachel's Law served as the basis for similar legislation in seven other states,¹¹ as well as for the federal SPEECH (Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage) Act.¹²  (Funding Evil Afterword excerpt)

In Funding Evil  Rachel Ehrenfeld pulls no punches.  She believes that if we are to prevail in this war we must identify the enemy by name and identify where they get their funding and stop that funding.  The enemy is clear, Islamists.  We must also stand up each time freedom of speech is attacked no matter where or from whom that attack comes.  She had done just that.

Funding Evil  is simple, easy to read, with numerous maps, charts, Palestinian documents, references and more.

Funding Evil draws a road map on how terrorist organizations—especially Islamist terror groups—are funded, who funds them, and how they use their money and Funding Evil sparked a landmark free speech controversy that changed the law in America and produced what the New York Times hailed as ‘A Victory for Writing.’”  

I call Funding Evil a victory for Americans, a victory for freedom of speech.

Buy Funding Evil today.

Comments

[R.J. Godlewski]

I highly recommend this book as I have referenced the previous edition many times, including within my forthcoming article for AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE JOURNAL on financial counterintelligence in asymmetrical warfare.

[Always On Watch]

Here's what really worries me....

Many of this in the blogosphere know about this book and its significance.

But people usually in the know remain totally ignorant of it.

[Always On Watch]

Um, "this" should read "us." Sorry.

[KG]

Thanks for the heads up Debbie--I'll get hold of a copy.

[Dana]

Thank you so much for that

[Tammy Swofford]

Also recommended reading:

"Freedom For The Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment", by Pulitzer Prize Winner Anthony Lewis.

Tammy