As the Libel Terrorism Protection Act makes its way through the New York State legislature, author Rachel Ehrenfeld waits to find out what her future will bring. The bill has run into a snag in the Assembly, as an advisory committee is now questioning its constitutionality. The Chicago Tribune spoke with her recently:
Rachel Ehrenfeld writes about terrorism for a living. But now she is the one who feels targeted.Her modest midtown Manhattan apartment is filled to the ceiling with books, most having to do with global terror networks and Mideast conflict. Sitting at her desk, she gazes out at the Hudson River. She says she has a hard time placing her work. She says she has been blacklisted. If she travels to England, she fears she will be arrested.
"I feel like a leper," she said.
Ehrenfeld faces a $225,000 judgment obtained in a British court in a libel suit brought by a former banker to the Saudi royal family, billionaire Khalid bin Mahfouz. "That's the Damocles sword effect. He's holding it above my head to intimidate me and others," she said.
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And last month a New York court ruled that state courts could not block bin Mahfouz. Ehrenfeld was surprised by the outcome, which led to the effort in the state Legislature to pass a bill to protect her and other writers from foreign judgments.
"She is the example right now," said state Sen. Dean Skelos, who co-sponsored the bill.
The bill passed the state Senate unanimously but has run into trouble in the Assembly. An advisory committee to the state court administrator opposes the bill, saying it may be unconstitutional.
So Ehrenfeld sits in her apartment and awaits news from Albany.
And if she can force bin Mahfouz into an American court, she will seek the answers she has been chasing for years. "If I get this law, I will ask the court to depose him," she said. "This is really why I started this whole thing."
Tick tock.