Orange County Register

You’re certainly not in Oz anymore when you dive into the rough-and-tumble realm of Irvine politics, but perhaps never so much so as this year, with Irvine attorney and council candidate Todd Gallinger receiving death threats (apparently because of his Muslim faith, not his alignment with the Larry Agran slate) and opponents raising the spectre of international terrorism.

Much of this centers on Gallinger’s legal work on behalf of the Muslim charity KinderUSA. Gallinger sued over what the charity saw as libel in a  Yale University Press book tying KinderUSA to the terrorist group Hamas.  (See the Irvine Tattler’s piece on this.)

And? So?

The Watchdog’s line of inquiry goes like this: 

• The Agranistas have been criticized for conducting public business behind closed doors (especially as it relates to the Great Park).  
• Gallinger stands to become the fourth Agranista (joining Agran, Beth Krom and Sukhee Kang).
• If Gallinger saw fit to try to block a Yale University Press book, what does this portend for transparency and open government if he’s elected to a super-majority on the Irvine City Council?

Gallinger explains to The Watchdog:

“There’s a difference between censorship and defamation,” he says. “if I get up and say someone’s a child molester, that’s not a matter of free speech.”

JUST THE FACTS, MA’AM

In April 2006, Yale University Press published a book called “Hamas: Politics, Charity and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad,” by well-established terrorism expert Matthew A. Levitt.

In Chapter 6 of that book - ”Foreign Funding of Hamas” - Levitt wrote:

“Even after the closure of the Holy Land Foundation in 2001, other U.S.-based charities continue to fund Hamas. One organization that has appeared to rise out of the ashes of the HLFRD is KinderUSA….

“…the formation of KinderUSA highlights an increasingly common trend: banned charities continuing to operate by incorporating under new names in response to designation as terrorist entities or in an effort to evade attention. This trend is also seen with groups raising money for al-Qaeda.”

In July 2006, KinderUSA demanded that Yale University Press retract the statements and discontinue distribution of the book. Yale refused.

So in April 2007, Gallinger filed a libel suit against Levitt, Yale University Press and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, demanding, among other things, $500,000 in compensatory damages. 

According to that suit, statements indicating KinderUSA “funds terrorist or illegal organizations are false and damaging, and constitute libel per se. Such statements subject the organization to unfair scrutiny or suspicion, damage its ability to raise funds and to recruit and retain volunteers for its charitable mission, and cause irreparable harm to its reputation.”

Attorneys for Levitt and Yale asked that the suit be thrown out, under the law allowing for dismissal of “strategic lawsuits against public participation.” The court hadn’t ruled yet when KinderUSA dropped the suit in August 2007. 

Gallinger told the New York Sun that KinderUSA still felt it was unfairly maligned,  but concluded that proceeding would be too costly. “KinderUSA really looked at the amount of resources continuing to fight this could take,” Gallinger told The Sun. “They really buried us in paperwork.”

Author Levitt’s take was different: He said his free-speech rights were vindicated.

TRANSPARENT GOVERNMENT?

So, in light of all this, where does Gallinger stand on the whole open-government transparency thing? (The Watchdog is not a disinterested party here; she has smashed into the occasional brick wall trying to get simple information out of Irvine City Hall). 

“There are things that need to get discussed behind closed doors - pending litigation, personnel matters,” Gallinger said. “But I look at the allegations out there as being political pop.”

Hmm. Not quite the enthusiastic we’re-an-open-book-doing-the-public’s-business! sort of thing The Watchdog was hoping for, but it’ll do for now.

Gallinger says he knew his religion would come up, but wasn’t expecting things to get so nasty. And here The Watchdog invokes Colin Powell, who took Republicans to task for insinuating that Barack Obama is a Muslim, and therefore, somehow aligned with terrorists. (Obama is a Christian.)

“But the really right answer is, what if he is?” Powell said on “Meet the Press.” “Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some 7-year-old Muslim American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, ‘He’s a Muslim and might be associated with terrorists.’ This is not the way we should be doing it in America.”

Gallinger said that his priorities in office would be to preserve funding for education and pursue a sustainable environmental agenda.

If he ascends - this is his first run for office - we hope he pursues said agenda in an avowedly open, transparent way. We’ll be watching.

More Watchdog:

• And the highest-paid city council is…Anaheim’s!
• San Clemente councilman’s failed plan to quash fortune teller’s rights
•  ‘Yes’ to council pay hike in Dana Point; ‘No thanks’ in Cypress
• Property manager tried to ‘ruin’ him, but now he’s boss
• Invisible sponsor of OC wine event: AIG

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