United Way Funding Terrorists?

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 the Communist Party," has indeed been the prime legal champion of terrorists in the courts.

Other grants from the September 11th Fund that should be cause for investigation include $56,000 given to Asian Americans for Equality (AAE) and $30,000 to the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF). The groups' names may sound relatively benign to the uninformed, but both organizations have extremely radical records. The AAE is a split-off branch of the Communist Workers Party. Among the veteran revolutionaries serving on the board of directors of AAE is Spring Wang, the owner of a large construction company specializing in HUD construction and renovation contracts. Ms. Wang, who lives in a mansion in fashionable Scarsdale, New York, has been involved in radical circles for many years, including the terrorist Black Panthers, of which her former husband was a member. She remains active with Red Chinese front groups and maintains close contacts with Beijing officials. The extremists who staff the AALDEF have included among their ranks hardcore Reds from the Chinese Progressive Association (C PA), which, like the AAE, is a spinoff from the Communist Workers Party. These CPA loyalists call themselves "Red Guards" and "Boxers" and have distinguished themselves as street thugs in roughing up anti-Beijing demonstrators. They have also been visibly associated with China's consulate and UN officials in New York City.