United Way Funding Terrorists?(terrorism, United States)(Brief Article)

The September 11th Fund, which was established by the New York Community Trust and the United Way to aid victims of the 9-11 terrorist attack on New York City, is coming under close scrutiny for some very troubling fund dispersals. In November, the National Legal and Policy Center, a watchdog group based in Falls Church, Virginia, charged that funds from a $171,000 grant from the September 11th Fund to the Legal Aid Society of New York were being used to provide free legal assistance to Arabs detained after the attack on immigration violations. The Fund emphatically denies the accusation, stating in a November 9th press release: "The claim that The September 11th Fund grant to the Legal Aid Society -- to help victims of the tragedy -- is instead being used to defend those accused of perpetrating the crime is completely false. All September 11th Fund grants are limited to helping the victims, their families and affected communities."

Details concerning what precisely the Legal Aid Society (LAS) has used the funds in question for are still a bit fuzzy. However, in light of the past record of LAS and other grantees who have shared in the Fund's largesse, there is genuine cause for concern. The president and attorney-in-chief at LAS is Daniel L. Greenberg, past president of New York City Chapter of the ultra-subversive National Lawyers Guild (NLG). The NLG, which was identified by a congressional committee as "the foremost legal bulwark of ...