On Tuesday May 22, 2012 at the Union League Club in New York City, the Center for Security Policy bestowed the 2012 Freedom Flame Award to the Honorable Michael B. Mukasey, former Attorney General of the United States. Mr. Mukasey's myriad accomplishments in American jurisprudence and law enforcement epitomize the commitment to freedom and the practice of "peace through strength" that the Freedom Flame was created to recognize. Mr. Mukasey served from 2007 to 2009 as the eighty-first U.S. Attorney General following his appointment to that position by President George W.Bush. From 1988 to 2006, he was a federal judge in the Southern District of NewYork, becoming that court's Chief Judge in 2000. Michael Mukasey rendered a singular public service as the presiding judge in the successful prosecution of Omar Abdel Rahman (the "Blind Sheik") and nine other co-conspirators convicted of the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. The prosecutor in that same case, Andrew C. McCarthy, had the honor of introducing Judge Mukasey. Subsequent to the trial and to his time as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Mr. McCarthy has become one of America's insightful writers on national security and Constitutional issues; his new book, Spring Fever: The Illusion of Islamic Democracy, addresses many of the points he made in paying tribute to Mr. Mukasey. Mr. Mukasey's Freedom Flame acceptance speech that night was an eloquent assessment of the threat from the doctrine of jihadist Islam from the 1993 World Trade Center attacks to the present day, providing a systematic analysis of the enemy's ideology. Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., the Center for Security Policy's President noted that "Judge Mukasey's acceptance remarks provided a characteristically thoughtful, articulate and compelling indictment of shariah law and the Muslim Brotherhood-and those in the U.S. government who are wittingly or unwittingly enabling their insinuation into this country." We at the Center believe future readers will find much wisdom in Mr. Mukasey's words that night in New York City; his remarks-and those of Mr. McCarthy, introducing him-form this monograph.
About the Author: Michael B. Mukasey served as Attorney General of the United States from November 2007 to January 2009. He is a partner at the international law firm Debevoise & Plimpton. From 1988 to 2006, Judge Mukasey served as a district judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, becoming Chief Judge in 2000. From 1972 to 1976, Judge Mukasey served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and as Chief of the Official Corruption Unit from 1975 to 1976. His practice consisted of criminal litigation on behalf of the government, including investigation and prosecution of narcotics, bank robbery, interstate theft, securities fraud, fraud on the government and bribery. From 1976 to 1987 and from 2006 to 2007 he was in private practice. Judge Mukasey has received numerous honors, including the Federal Bar Council's Learned Hand Medal for Excellence in Federal Jurisprudence. He served as chairman of the Committee on Public Access to Information and Proceedings of the New York Bar Association from 1984 to 1987. He served on the Federal Courts Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York from 1979 to 1982 and its Communications Law Committee from 1983 to 1986. Judge Mukasey was also a part-time lecturer at Columbia School of Law from January 1993 to May 2007, teaching trial advocacy. He received his LL.B. from Yale Law School in 1967 and his B.A. from Columbia College in 1963.