This post has only one purpose, and that purpose is to note that Faisal Gill has respectable and eloquent defenders. The reason this post is needed, if at all, is because the blog attacks on Gill have continued. These attacks have come two blogs, BVBL and GoodbyeJim.
If anything, the attacks from BVBL have more silly. In its latest assault, BVBL attacked Gill for taking immigration cases. BVBL based this assault solely upon the services advertised by Gill’s legal firm (see here). Essentially, BVBL is arguing that it is a sin for a lawyer to advertise. Because Gill’s firm offers legal help with immigration law, Gill must be in favor of illegal immigration. If we take his proposition to its logical conclusion, we would have to say that a lawyer specializing in criminal law promotes theft and murder.
Commenting on the BVBL post, Charles had this to say (The link to Charles’ comment is here):
There are people who come to America to escape persecution. We know this is true, that is why we passed a law which allows such people to obtain legal asylum in our country. But to do that, you need a lawyer — it is nearly impossible (unless you are a Cuban) to get asylum without going to court.
Gill’s law office provides that service to those who are being persecuted in their own country. For example, you might be a convert to Christianity from Pakistan. Fearing getting your head chopped off, you would come to America, probably “illegally” because you would like to keep your head.
Our country doesn’t automatically grant asylum to Christians. But Gill’s law firm will assist our fine Christian brethren to obtain legal status, so they aren’t deported back to Pakistan to have their head chopped off.
Why Greg L. and Jonathan Marks think that we should send good men and women back to hellish countries where they will be tortured and killed is beyond me. IT’s not a Christian value, or a Republican value.
It’s one thing to argue that Gill supports terrorists. If it was true, it would actually be important to know. As it is false, and the issue is raised with no evidence, it’s just sleazy, but at least it is an issue.
But to say that a person can’t be a candidate for office if they also provide legal services to help people avail themselves of the laws of this country which protect them from torture and death in their home countries is simply absurd.
This will be the first, and the last, thing I will say about this. Except this — when the other candidate enters the race, I will ask Greg to ensure that THAT candidate issues a specific statement on his/her position about people seeking asylum.
If the other candidate opposes asylum, I will campaign against them. Opposition to asylum is antithetical to conservative, and humanitarian, principles.
When Faisal Gill’s campaign web site came on-line, BVBL promptly copied Gill’s picture and defaced it, behavior more suited to grammar school. Because BVBL has on occasion posted in more respectable literature, Tom Kopko, Chairman of the Prince William Republican Committee apparently thought it worth his trouble to chastise Greg for posting such tripe. Here is his comment (The link to Tom Kopko’s comment is here).
Tom Kopko said on 28 Jan 2007 at 2:19 am:
Greg,
I know that in one sense you feel you are doing the GOP a favor by dredging up all the old (and fully discredited) stuff about Faisal. If it’s going to come out, it certainly is better that it come out now rather than later. However, that jihad picture on this thread isn’t “getting it out now”. It is slanderous and ugly and I can’t defend you and more importantly the GOP regarding it.
Your credibility regarding Faisal is now gone, Greg. It has convinced me that your baggage with him and the bvbl/Chapman suit has made it a personal vendetta for you. As you know, I don’t think it was you so I am not sure why you’re still a part of it anyhow.
But, please, let your vendetta stay in court where it belongs and let this two week tirade be over.
Why? Because as much as you built upon previous comments of yours and other mostly bloggers, you should have as frequently reminded readers that DHS publicly stated that they and the FBI have found nothing wrong in Faisal’s background, including AMC and Alamoudi which were the exact issues at the time.
This DHS exoneration of Faisal is the most relevant fact of any yet was almost universally ignored.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,128826,00.html
It was over and done with for DHS and the FBI on August 12, 2004 in their exonerating statement. You may have begged to differ three years later but you could not seriously have thought that you knew better than DHS and the FBI when it comes to personnel security clearances then and even now.
Grover Norquist’s arm twisting trumping the FBI and DHS on a terrorist operative inside DHS was simply ludicrous yet it was the linchpin of any argument against Faisal. That’s why the past two weeks has been ludicrous, as several have tried to point out, in vain.
Further, you so easily dismissed DHS’s judgment on security clearances as wholly flawed but turned around and ordained as a flawless foregone conclusion every one of their pending deportation case, so as to label Faisal as a defender of illegal immigrants. That logic gap was too wide and too convenient for credibility. Innocent until proven guilty…you, too, are a defendant claiming your innocence.
And what of Faisal’s work with Norquist for conservative causes in DC as well as Chairman of the Pr Wm Taxpayer’s Alliance, plus as spokesperson for the Marriage Amendment? What about his support from Dick Black whom we miss, our great Sen. Cuccinelli, and our staunch conservatives Bolling and Stewart? Short shrift.
So, please, it’s time for this tirade to end and to not embarrass ourselves, the party of Lincoln, any further.
As GoodByeJim just keeps repeating the same discredited nonsense over and over and over, nobody has bothered to comment and refute the latest post.
