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Posted on 11/26/2001 4:19:34 PM PST by blackbag

Attorney Calls on Justice Dept to Close Hate Site By Lawrence Morahan CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer November 26, 2001 (CNSNews.com) - A prominent First Amendment lawyer called on the U.S. Justice Department to conduct an immediate investigation of an Internet site that advocates "a horrible death by any means" for people who oppose homosexual activism.

The web site, usqueers.com, is in violation of state and federal law for advocating the murder of specific individuals, including former President Ronald Reagan and Sen. Strom Thurmond, First Amendment attorney John B. Thompson said.

"This is clearly left-wing domestic terrorism which Justice [Department officials] and the FBI must move on immediately with a shut down of the site and an arrest of B. Allen Ross, who operates the site from San Diego," Thompson said in a Nov. 25 letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft.

"If immediate action is not taken, then there will be a legitimate concern about the FBI's resolve to do something about domestic terrorists, regardless of ideological bent," he added.

The web site says: "Ronald Reagan, ex-president, deserves to experience a horrible death soon, and is getting what he deserves" (Alzheimer's disease).

Other "het [erosexual] supremacists" who "deserve" a "horrible death" include Sens. Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond, Pat Robertson, Beverly LaHaye of Concerned Women for America, Peter LaBarbera, Gary Bauer, Paul Weyrich, Rev. Lou Sheldon, James Dobson, and other religious and conservative leaders, the web site says.

The site also publishes a "disclaimer," which states, "usqueers.com does not authorize, ratify or directly threaten acts of violence toward the people or organizations on this list."

But a note immediately below the "disclaimer" solicits information on its targets, including home address, home phone, office address, office phone, studio address, church address, girlfriend's/boyfriend's address, favorite hangouts, family members, details about automobiles - "just about anything which could be useful in spotting these dangerous het[erosexual] supremacists when they are wandering around loose."

Thompson said this was not First Amendment-protected speech, "and to say that these are people you want dead, and to die painfully, and then to say you're not responsible for anything that might happen basically is an admission that you are responsible.

"And when he says we aren't directly encouraging someone to do these things, then he's admitting they're indirectly encouraging them to do so," he said.

People on the list find themselves in a position similar to that of people targeted by an anti-abortion web site called the Christian Gallery, publishers of the so-called Nuremberg Files.

This site, which is run by Neal Horsley, listed abortion providers, clinic workers and abortion rights supporters, and has been the subject of intense legal action.

Critics have said the files were a de facto hit list from which clinic stalkers have drawn names of future targets. When one of the abortionists was injured in an attack, his name appeared in gray. If he was killed, his name was crossed out.

Last year, a U.S. circuit court of appeals overruled a federal court that awarded $109 million in damages to employees and activists whose names appeared on the site.

The court ruled that the possibility of someone being harmed as a result of information obtained from the site should not supercede the publisher's right to freedom of political expression.

But there has been no final disposition in the courts of the Nuremberg Files case. The entire federal circuit court of appeals has agreed to hear the case, so there has been no legal vindication of Horsley.

In a phone interview, Ross said he stands behind the content of his web site.

But he added: "It's certainly open to legal change if somebody points out that you're crossing the line here and legally you're saying, go out and do this, because we don't want anybody to go out and do this. The whole idea here was to say that they deserve to die for what they've done.

"I'm not standing behind calling for the death or murder or anything like that of anybody on this list at all. Or anybody listed on our web site. We do not call to murder anybody or hurt them or even touch them," Ross said.

"If we believed in magic, then our web site might have danger, but there isn't any magic and our wishing that these people would die soon of a horrible death is going to have no effect because there is no magic going to make it happen just because we wish it," he said.

"Just saying you wish somebody would die is not illegal and it doesn't make them die," Ross added.

Peter LaBarbera, one of those targeted on Ross' list, said it was ironic that Ross' web site also provides a section for the reporting of hate crimes.

"They can do this to people, then turn around and cry about hate crimes," LaBarbera said.

He and others on the list said they were looking to see what legal action they could take to protect themselves.

"I'm all for free speech but when you go around threatening people and their families, that's another matter," LaBarbera said. "This is a truly bizarre movement we're up against."

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