NORQUIST, TANCREDO, RUMSFELD TO LOSE CITIZENSHIP UNDER TAILGUNNER JOE LIEBERMAN'S NEW LAW?

You know about Joe Lieberman's swell new idea:

"I think it's time for us to look at whether we want to amend that law to apply it to American citizens who choose to become affiliated with foreign terrorist organizations, whether they should not also be deprived automatically of their citizenship and therefore be deprived of rights that come with that citizenship when they are apprehended and charged with a terrorist act," Lieberman, who helms the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said on Fox News.

And you know how it's likely to work:

Lieberman's law would amend an earlier statute that details other things that can cost you citizenship: Serving in the army of a foreign state, pledging allegiance to a foreign state, and so on. In those cases the State Department decides whether your disloyalty merits loss of citizen status. Lieberman's law would add involvement with a foreign terror organization -- as opposed to a foreign state -- to this list....

Who would determine whether you're involved with a foreign terror group? The State Department. It already decides what is and isn't designated as a terror organization. Lieberman's law would also empower State to determine whether you are in league with one of these groups.

The State Department's list of designated foreign terrorist organizations is here. Hmm, let's see ... "involvement," did you say? Why, I notice the State Department list includes Hezbollah:

It’s [Grover] Norquist’s alliance with [Abdurahman] Alamoudi [the founder and former executive director of the American Muslim Council], however, that's raising eyebrows.... Alamoudi ... attended an anti-Israel protest outside the White House on October 28, 2000. Alamoudi revved up the crowd, saying: " I have been labeled by the media in New York as being a supporter of Hamas. Anybody supporters of Hamas here? " The crowd cheered. " Hear that, Bill Clinton? We are all supporters of Hamas ... I wish they added that I am also a supporter of Hezbollah. " (Both groups are on the State Department’s official list of terrorist organizations.)

The list also includes the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK):

John Hawkins: Let me ask you another question, it's Iran related. I heard that you support the National Council of Resistance (NCR), a political arm of the Mujahedin-e Kalq (MEK)...

Tom Tancredo: Yes, I do.

John Hawkins: While they are certainly an anti-Iranian group, the State Department says they are also terrorists. Do you believe that to be the case and...

Tom Tancredo: Well, if you're a mullah in Iran, you definitely view them as a terrorist. They're not a terrorist threat to the United States. They pose absolutely no threat. In fact, they are a great asset.

And he's far from the highest-level advocate for MEK in this country:

Toward the end of the Bush administration, Ambassador Dell Dailey, then the State department’s top counterterrorism official and a former U.S. Army lieutenant general, pushed unsuccessfully to delist the MEK as an FTO [foreign terrorist organization], according to an August 1, 2009, New York Times story....

In June 2004 Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "designated MeK members as civilian 'protected persons' under the terms of the Fourth Geneva Convention," says the Rand report, The Mujahedin-e Kahalq in Iraq, A Policy Conundrum. Rumfeld's "decision controverted [Department of State], International Committee of the Red Cross (IRC), and Office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) recommendations," the report says.

If Lieberman's law passes, I say round 'em up and start the citizenship-stripping proceedings.