Taliban Lawyer Has A New Client: Sister-in-Law Kamala Harris

Vice President Kamala Harris has a "powerful" new campaign adviser: her brother-in-law Tony West, the former Obama Justice Department attorney who defended a convicted terrorist sentenced to 20 years in prison for fighting with the Taliban and colluding with al-Qaeda.

West claimed "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh was "not a terrorist."

Be informed, not misled.

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Axios reported Friday that West is now "a powerful adviser" to Harris's "new campaign." 

Ironically, this information came on the day we learned that the Biden-Harris Administration had made a deal with the terrorists responsible for 9/11.

I wrote about and talked about that decision both here in this column and on our daily radio program on Friday.

Roughly 20 years prior, West held a different role: attorney for a Taliban terrorist.

West, in 2002, signed on to defend "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh, who was captured in Afghanistan one year earlier and subsequently indicted for providing services to the Taliban and al-Qaeda—and for conspiring to murder Americans. During the trial, West—then an attorney at the San Francisco law firm Morrison & Foerster, which was known for defending enemy combatants detained by the United States—dismissed claims that Lindh was a terrorist.

Now, he has become a close advisor to presidential candidate Kamala Harris. 

He is also married to Harris' sister, Maya, who is not expected to take an operational campaign role like she did in 2020 but will remain a close confidante.

Family ties.

"He is not a terrorist," West said of Lindh during a 2002 Washington Post interview. "He did not go to Afghanistan to kill Americans." Lindh, who also goes by Sulayman al-Faris and Abu Sulayman al-Irlandi, was later sentenced to 20 years in prison. He has refused to renounce his Islamic extremist ideologies.

The content of the Washington Post article has been removed from the US Department of Justice website.

However, the Washington Free Beacon reported this in 2012:

"A lawyer who came to prominence for his full-throated defense of a subsequently convicted terrorist was quietly promoted to the No. 3 slot at the Department of Justice last month, a post that puts him in charge of the administration’s policy regarding Guantanamo Bay detainees."

The Beacon continued, "The move has raised red flags on Capitol Hill and elsewhere among national security stalwarts who argue that the promotion could imperil the country’s longstanding war on terrorism."

"The Obama administration appointee at the center of the debate is Tony West, a longtime Justice Department lawyer who received national attention for his aggressive defense of John Walker Lindh, the so-called American Taliban who is currently serving 20-years in prison for colluding with al Qaeda in Afghanistan and taking up arms against U.S. troops."

The Beacon said this:  "Late last month, President Obama appointed West as the DOJ’s acting associate attorney general, a posting that does not require Senate confirmation. He formally began the job on Monday."

West’s role in the Harris campaign is already driving concerns among Democratic strategists, and it should drive the concerns of every American.

During his time in the Justice Department, West worked to expand the legal privileges granted to enemy combatants captured on the battlefield.

West also helped push policies at the Obama DOJ that enabled detained terrorists to more easily challenge the government’s case against them.

Last Friday, we learned that the Biden-Harris administration struck a plea deal with the masterminds behind the 9/11 terrorist attack on New York City and the Pentagon, allowing them to avoid trial in exchange for life in prison. The deal drew intense Republican pushback and anger from the families of those killed in the World Trade Center strike.

During her 2016 Senate campaign, Harris argued during a speech at a Los Angeles mosque that the American public should no longer use the term "radical Islamic terrorism," saying it "ignores how Muslims have overwhelmingly been the greatest victims of terror."

Really?

She said, "We must have the courage to object when they use that term, ‘radical Islamic terrorism,’ which ignores how Muslims have overwhelmingly been the greatest victims of terror.  "We must also have the courage to reject the term ‘illegal alien.’"

Harris’s remarks, which are available on her Facebook page, are yet another example of her history as one of the most left-wing lawmakers in the Senate as well as a potential electoral liability. Her failed 2020 presidential campaign was predicated on the idea that she was a more palatable alternative to socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.).

Takeaway

Harris is also a longtime critic of America's counterterrorism operations. Following former president Donald Trump's 2020 killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, Harris accused the former president of endangering American troops.

"Soleimani was an enemy of the U.S., but President Trump's actions put more American lives at risk and could lead to a new war in the Middle East—with no plan for what happens next," Harris said at the time. "The Administration must fully brief and make its case to Congress ASAP."

Last Friday, when we learned the Biden-Harris Administration had made a "deal with the devil" letting the facilitators of the 9/11 attack on America off the hook for the death penalty, elected officials, and citizens across the country began to push back.

This past Friday evening Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the plea deals had been revoked.

That came only after significant pressure from the public and our elected officials.

Americans better awaken to what Kamala Harris is all about. 

May God help us.

Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. VOTE. Be Prayerful.