All suited up and no place to go

Stuart Hersh, a U.S. citizen injured in a 1997 suicide bombing in Jerusalem, is claiming money from the Warwick New York Hotel, which will host Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the upcoming annual U.N. assembly, the man's lawyer says. Hersh was in a mall when the Hamas terrorist organization carried out the attack. In 2003, a U.S. District Court awarded Hersh $12 million from the Iranian government, ruling it was responsible for supplying and training the suicide bombers. Hersh says he never received a cent from Iran, so Hersh has now filed a claim against the Warwick hoping to either collect the money that the Iranian government will pay the hotel for the Iranian president's stay, or be granted use of the rooms that Ahmadinejad and his entourage would use. I say give Hersh the rooms and let the Iranian president sleep in the subways like a homeless person. And I also say invite other terror victims to join him and max out room service on Iran's credit card.

Also going to court are the Hells Angels, protesting a federal policy barring the motorcycle club's foreign members from visiting the United States. In a complaint filed in federal court in Washington, the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation, as the group calls itself, said its designation as a "known criminal organisation" by the departments of Homeland Security and State violates immigration law and the group's constitutional rights. Lawyers for the Los Angeles-area-based group describe its membership as composed of loosely associated charters made up of motorcycle enthusiasts who have joined to ride motorcycles together and organise social events, fundraisers, parties, and motorcycle rallies. In other words, the Hells Angels are not a motorcycle gang. That label is best left to their supposed rivals, which go by names such as the Bandidos, the Outlaws, and the Pagans. Sure some of Hells Angels' members have been prosecuted for committing felonies including drug dealing, extortion, and other violent crimes, but as a group, the Hells Angels say that any crimes committed by its members have been done as individual acts and are not representative of the club as a whole.

Founded in 1948 in southern California, Hells Angels claim charters in 35 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, South Africa, Sweden, Turkey, the United States, and Wales. The group is asking for a temporary injunction, allowing foreign members to be granted visas to travel to the United States. In its lawsuit, the group claims the government routinely denies visas to all aliens based solely on their membership in a Hells Angels charter without further analysis into whether or not that individual seeks to enter the United States to engage solely, principally, or incidentally in unlawful activity. This discriminatory rubbish should be saved for real gangs.