DHAFIR

Take a look at the Syracuse Post Standard's Sunday editorial on Rafil Dhafir, here. Here's a taste:

Gov. George Pataki unfairly smeared a Central New York doctor Thursday when he linked Rafil Dhafir and his charity for Iraqis to terrorist organizations. Pataki's public remarks seemed to confirm what Dhafir and his supporters have been saying all along - that the federal case against Dhafir is a political prosecution as well as a criminal one.

Dhafir, 56, is the Manlius oncologist who was charged in February 2003 with violating U.S. sanctions by sending humanitarian aid to Iraq without a license. He also faces charges of diverting some of the $5 million he raised for Help the Needy for his own purchases of properties in Syracuse, plus counts of Medicare fraud, tax evasion, mail fraud and wire fraud.

But prosecutors have been careful not to allege that Dhafir, who was born in Baghdad, or his charity assisted terrorist organizations.

That didn't stop Pataki, a loyal Bush Republican eager to point to successes in the War on Terror. When a federal sting operation busted two men in Albany Thursday for their alleged willingness to aid in a fabricated terrorist plot, the governor stepped up and proceeded to undermine Dhafir's right to a fair trial.

Whatever you think about this administration's approach to international terrorist organizations, this is a case that deserves your scrutiny. There is a big difference between committing fraud, evading decade-old sanctions for apparently humanitarian reasons, and supporting terrorist organizations. One of the lessons of the Iraq war should be that the public needs to demand very high standards of accuracy from politicians in national security matters. It seems to me that if the administration is going to claim that there are terrorists among us, they will have to provide more convincing evidence than the Dhafir case . . . at least more convincing than the facts and allegations that the government has made public so far.