Beach-based group sues for defamation

VIRGINIA BEACH

A Virginia Beach-based political advocacy organization has sued a California radio station for defamation, saying a broadcast wrongly linked the group to a bombing at a Florida mosque.

ACT! for America alleges that on May 17, a journalist for the Pacifica Foundation Inc. said during the broadcast that police and the FBI were investigating allegations that the group was responsible for a pipe bomb that was set off outside a mosque in Jacksonville, Fla.

No one was injured in the incident.

The journalist, Sonali Kolhatkar, also described the organization as "an anti-Muslim hate group that has been harassing members of Florida's prominent Muslim community," according to the lawsuit.

The suit names the Pacifica Foundation; its radio station, KPFK 90.7 FM, and website, UprisingRadio.org; Kolhatkar; and another employee who edited the broadcast. The organization is seeking $70,000 in damages.

Act! for America made news in June when Beach Councilman Bill DeSteph used language from the organization's Web site in a letter he sent to New York City officials opposing a Muslim community center near the World Trade Center site.

The group was founded by Brigitte Gabriel. A Lebanese immigrant, Gabriel is the author of "They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It" and "Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America."

The pipe-bombing incident in Jacksonville is still under investigation, said Special Agent Jeff Westcott, a spokesman with the Jacksonville FBI field office.

"We haven't identified any suspects publicly," he said. He would not comment on whether the FBI is investigating ACT! for America in connection with the incident.

Gregory P. Bergethon, an attorney for ACT! for America, said the FBI has never contacted anyone associated with the group.

He wrote in an e-mail that the organization is not under investigation and is not responsible for the bombing of the mosque.

"I am pleased to know there is an ongoing investigation because my client, ACT! for America, wants whoever committed this heinous act to be apprehended and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," he wrote in the e-mail.

A person who answered the phone at a Pacifica office in Berkley, Calif., gave a fax number where the lawsuit could be sent to Pacifica. The Virginian-Pilot then faxed a copy of the suit Wednesday.

Pacifica Executive Director Arlene Engelhardt was out of town, the person said. Messages to Engelhardt's e-mail address and left on her voicemail were not returned.

Jen McCaffery, (757) 222-5119, jen.mccaffery@pilotonline.com