By Alyssa A. Lappen
FrontPageMagazine.com | July 18, 2005

When billionaire sheik Khalid Salim a bin Mahfouz uses the London courts to attack his critics, there is little most people can do. In dozens of cases to date, reporters and newspapers have apologized, settled or backed off completely from stories critical of bin Mahfouz. But one truth-seeker isn’t backing down.

In December 2004, investigative reporter and American Center for Democracy director Rachel Ehrenfeld bucked a dangerous trend and responded to a preposterous allegation with her own U.S. lawsuit. In Rachel Ehrenfeld v. Khalid Salim a bin Mahfouz, the author seeks a declaratory judgment that her assailant could not prevail against her in the U.S. on libel charges arising from her 2003 book, Funding Evil. The case was assigned to Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Casey, who is also handling the bulk of the 9/11 lawsuits.
Ehrenfeld’s attorney, Daniel Kornstein, considers her suit as important as New York Times v. Sullivan—the 1964 case in which the courts decided for the first time “the extent to which the constitutional protections for speech and press limit a State’s power to award damages in a libel action brought by a public official…” Continue reading “Libel Wars” →

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