The head of the company that published Muslim Mafia says that the Council on American Islamic Relations is engaging in “economic terrorism” against the book’s cash-strapped author, who can’t afford to fight CAIR in court.
The comments by Joseph Farah, editor and CEO of WorldNetDaily, parent company of WND Books, are buried in a profile of Martin Garbus, one of the lawyers defending Muslim Mafia author Dave Gaubatz, and his son, Chris, who went undercover as an intern at CAIR.
In response to Gaubatz’s decision to accede to CAIR’s demand that he return thousands of pages of documents and electronic files taken by Chris Gaubatz, Farah said:
“But, remember, what is being returned to CAIR are documents that were headed for CAIR’s shredder. Once CAIR was eager to dispose of them. Now, suddenly, the group is treating them like they are the crown jewels. Go figure.”
Which makes sense, if you assume for some reason that private organizations are fine with the publication of documents sent to the trash.
Farah adds:
“Further, ultimately, there is only one reason the defendants didn’t decide to fight CAIR in the courtroom as a matter of principle. That’s because the cost of their defense would have been so high it would have wiped them out financially. That’s the sad truth of American justice. An extremist group with foreign backing can press litigation against American citizens with impunity. It’s an example of economic terrorism.”
The Gaubatzs have three attorneys representing them against CAIR: Daniel Horowitz, who also represented radio host Michael Savage in a fight with CAIR, New York trial lawyer Garbus, and Bernie Grimm of Cozen O’Connor in Washington. CAIR sued to get back the lifted docs used to write Muslim Mafia, and says it is planning further action.
Garbus told Politico last week that the Gaubatzs would continue the fight CAIR “in the context of the litigation.” But given the financial problems cited by Farah, it’s not clear how the Gaubatzs can afford a high-profile team of three lawyers.
In a brief interview today, Garbus told TPMmuckraker he is not working pro bono, and he isn’t sure where the case is going next.