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Sept. 11 Charity Aids Group Defending Terror Suspects Marc Morano, CNSNews.comA charity fund established to help victims of the Sept. 11th attacks made a grant of $171,000 to a group defending eight men held in the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. A grant of $171,000 from September 11th Fund, which is affiliated with United Way, was given to Legal Aid Society, a group aiding in the legal defense of eight suspects detained in Brooklyn, N.Y., as a result of the government's investigation into the terrorist attacks. "Instead of helping out the victims, they're actually helping out potentially suspected terrorists," said Dan Rene of the legal watchdog group National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC). "With all the questions about the fund-raising on behalf of victims, this is a very shocking development," said Rene. "I think a lot of people will be very outraged." One official with September 11th Fund refused to comment, and other officials did not immediately respond to inquiries. In its Oct. 3rd announcement, September 11 Fund stated the grant to the Legal Aid Society would be used to "provide immediate direct legal services to the thousands of lower-income individuals working in or near the World Trade Center (including cleaning staff, waiters, messengers, vendors, etc.) who were directly affected by the terrorist attack." According to Rene, September 11th Fund announced on Oct. 3 the $171,000 grant to Legal Aid Society was ostensibly to "provide emergency civil legal assistance to low-income attack victims." Ken Boehm and Peter Flaherty of the NLPC wrote in a letter Thursday to September 11th Fund, "At a time when the public is questioning why so few of the victims have received aid they desperately need from groups that have raised hundreds of millions of dollars, it is disturbing that the Legal Aid Society rushed to provide free civil help to the detainees." The letter continued, "We believe the public will be outraged, and justifiably so, to learn that funds from the September 11th Fund are going to support a group which is apparently providing civil legal help to those jailed on violations of immigration law in the wake of September 11 terrorist attacks." The government has not released the identity of the eight men detained on immigration violations. The men are in solitary confinement in the Special Housing Unit of Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. United Way and Hollywood celebrities have come under fire in recent days because of questions regarding the financial distribution of September 11th Fund. Actress Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, who participated in fund-raising efforts, have previously called for a greater accounting of where the money has gone. Copyright CNSNews.com
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