Al Qaeda defense lawyer is counsel in anti-Blackwater lawsuit

A lawyer who defended a group that supported Osama bin Laden and funneled money to Al Qaeda is a counsel in the October 11 lawsuit against Blackwater.

Joining him is a militant activist lawyer the core of a decades-long operation to support terrorists through the legal system.

Egyptian-born Shereef Hadi Akeel of Birmingham, Michigan, is listed as a counsel to the plaintiffs in the anti-Blackwater suit. Akeel has also been involved in support for reputed terrorist organizations. In 2004, Akeel provided legal defense for the Islamic American Relief Agency, an arm of a Sudan-based group that US officials say funneled charitable donations to al Qaeda. According to the US Treasury Department, Akeel's client supports Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. A US district court in Washington, DC upheld an earlier decision in February to permit Treasury to freeze the organization's assets based on its support for terrorists.

Michael Ratner, head of the Center for Constitutional Rights, is also listed as counsel to the plaintiffs on page 17 of the legal complaint against Blackwater. Ratner's politics are so extreme that he supports the communist Fidel Castro regime in Cuba and openly admires Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Under Ratner's leadership, the CCR and its attorneys have provided legal support to a variety of terrorists and terrorist groups, from the FALN and Macheteros of Puerto Rico to Hamas and al Qaeda. (See item below.)

In the complaint against Blackwater, the legal team alleges at the bottom of page 8, "Blackwater actions harm the United States."