USA Federal Court Dismiss the Bush's Terror List 'PKK is no longer in the terror list'

Judge deals blow to key parts of Bush anti-terrorist order

By DAN EGGEN
Washington Post

A Los Angeles federal judge ruled that key portions of a presidential order
blocking financial assistance to terrorist groups are unconstitutional,
further complicating the Bush administration's attempts to defend its
aggressive anti-terrorism tactics in federal courts.

U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins, in a ruling released late Monday, found
that two provisions of an executive order signed Sept. 23, 2001, are
impermissibly vague because they allow the president to unilaterally
designate organizations as terrorist groups and broadly prohibit association
with them.

The ruling marks a victory for the Humanitarian Law Project and other
plaintiffs who seek to provide support for the "lawful, nonviolent
activities" of two groups designated terrorist organizations by the U.S.
government: the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkey and the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), also known as the Tamil Tigers, in Sri Lanka.

They argue that federal anti-terrorism laws put charities and individual
donors at risk of prosecution for providing benign assistance to foreign
groups put on the government's terrorism list.

David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor helping represent the
plaintiffs, said the executive order and a related federal statute
improperly allow Bush to create "blacklists" and engage in "guilt by
association."

The ruling is the latest legal setback for the administration's terrorism
and detention policies, in lower courts and at the Supreme Court. In August,
a federal judge in Detroit ruled a warrantless wiretap program run by the
National Security Agency was unconstitutional. The government appealed the
ruling.

Justice officials said it was too early to say if the government will
appeal.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...s/4365941.html