MAYBE I OWE JOHN STEMBERGER AN APOLOGY

What was reported 3 days ago about Rifqa Bary's parents reneging on their end of the deal may not be as bad as it sounded. As the Jawa Report now tells:

The Ohio court overseeing Rifqa Bary's case convened yesterday to hear an emergency motion by CAIR attorney Omar Tarazi attempting to circumvent a counselor's finding that Rifqa should be allowed to talk with the Florida couple, Blake and Beverly Lorenz, who took her in last summer after her flight from an allegedly abusive home in Ohio. The counselor recommended that Rifqa be allowed unsupervised telephone contact with the Lorenzs.

Notwithstanding the hyperventilating by the amateur legal strategists over at Atlas Shrugs yesterday, this is yet another legal win for Rifqa and deals a stunning setback for CAIR attorney Omar Tarazi. The magistrate allowed Rifqa to have supervised conversations with the Lorenzs until Judge Gill can rule on the counselor's recommendation on Feb. 16th. The magistrate also expressed skepticism at Tarazi's attempt to back out of the deal made last month that would allow Rifqa to remain in state custody until she turns 18. The magistrate made it clear during the hearing yesterday that it is highly unlikely that Judge Gill is going to reverse her previous order securing Rifqa's dependency deal. Is it possible that the judge is going to undo everything she put into place just two weeks ago to try to salvage Tarazi's crumbling media narrative? As with any case before a judge, it is possible, but doesn't seem likely. Apart from the hearings to address the recent flurry of bizarre motions by Tarazi, who is under considerable attack from his CAIR overlords for effectively losing this case, the next regularly scheduled hearing in Rifqa's case is August 10th - Rifqa's 18th birthday.

So as this tells, things are far from being as bad as told in the prior reports from a few days ago. What this means then is that, while Stemberger may not be without flaws, he too has done a sufficiently good job, and nowhere near as bad as what Atlas may have argued. In that case, we probably do owe Stemberger an apology, and hope he'll continue to do as good for the next few months. Of course, the magistrate and judge are surely the ones to whom we owe the most thanks if they understand that the approach the parents/lawyer are using is dishonest.

For now, I'm hoping there'll be more info available on any charges Tarazi may be facing for his role in the theft of Blake Lorenz's mail by Brian Smith and 2 cohorts. What surely needs to be done, is to file motions requiring Tarazi to testify.