Two Very Interesting Stories at Stop the ACLU

First, as many of you know, the ACLU does get government cash when they sue cities and schools, etc. and win. Their attorney and court fees are paid by that city or school. Thus, it is government funding, as much as they would like to deny it. But Stop the ACLU and the American Legion, among others, would like to help get this stopped.

Indiana's John Hostettler is trying for the fifth consecutive Congress to prevent the American Civil Liberties Union from receiving government funds when it succeeds at legal challenges to public expressions of religion.

This year, the Republican representative has more hope than before thanks to the American Legion. The country's largest veterans organization, with about three million members, has aggressively thrown its influence behind Hostettler's bill, and the persistent congressman is encouraged at his proposal's prospects.

Hostettler's measure, the Public _Expression of Religion Act (PERA), H.R. 2679, is designed to close what he considers a loophole in federal law that has allowed organizations such as the ACLU to collect attorneys' fees when they win lawsuits challenging religious symbols on public land or religious groups' use of government property.

Second is the bombshell that Moussaoui dropped in court today:

Al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui testified Monday that he and would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid were supposed to hijack a fifth airplane on Sept. 11, 2001, and fly it into the White House.

Moussaoui's testimony on his own behalf stunned the courtroom as he disclosed details he had never revealed before. It was in stark contrast to Moussaoui's previous statements in which he said the White House attack was to come later if the United States refused to release a radical Egyptian sheik imprisoned on earlier terrorist convictions.

Moussaoui testified Monday he lied to investigators when arrested in August 2001 because he wanted to let the attacks of Sept. 11 go forward.

"Yes, you can say that," Moussaoui said when the prosecution asked if that was why he misled them. The statement was key to the government's case that the attacks might have been averted if Moussaoui had been more cooperative following his arrest.

He told the court he knew the attacks were coming some time after August 2001 and bought a radio so he could hear them unfold.

Specifically, he said he knew the World Trade Center was going to be attacked, but asserted he was not part of the plot and didn't know the details.

Taking the stand in his own defense in his death-penalty trial, Moussaoui said he declined to become a suicide pilot in some future attack when asked by a senior al-Qaida official in 1999.

You just never know what's going to come out of this guy's mouth!

Tags: ACLU, American Legion, Moussaoui, 9/11