- Sami Al-Arian is one of many dozens, likely hundreds,
of political prisoners in the US today but is noteworthy because of his
high-profile status and as an especially egregious example of persecution
and injustice in post-9/11 America with its climate of state-induced fear
and resulting repression with special targeting of Latino immigrants and
all Muslims characterized as "Islamofascists" because of their
faith and ethnicity. One of them is Dr. Sami Al-Arian - Palestinian refugee,
scholar, academic, community leader, civic activist and advocate for freedom
and justice for his people imprisoned since February, 2003 on trumped up
charges explained below even after a jury exonerated him on eight of the
false 17 charges against him, all the ones relating to violence and terrorism,
and remained deadlocked 10 - 2 in favor of acquittal on the other nine.
More on this below.
-
- Al-Arian is a Kuwaiti-born son of Palestinian refugees
forced to flee Palestine during the 1948-49 Nakba catastrophe when the
new state of Israel's "War of Independence" ethnically cleansed
and willfully slaughtered 800,000 Palestinians, desecrated their sacred
holy sites, and seized their lands. The final master Plan D (Dalet) was
for a war without mercy against defenseless people in which unspeakable
atrocities were committed while destroying 531 Palestinian villages, 11
urban neighborhoods in cities like Tel-Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem, thousands
of homes and vast amounts of crops. Al-Arian's parents were lucky to escape
the carnage and destruction alive.
-
- Al-Arian came to the US in 1975, was denied citizenship,
and taught computer science as a distinguished professor at the University
of South Florida (USF) from 1986 until the worst of his ordeal began in
February, 2003. It was because of his public, passionate and effective
advocacy for human and civil rights and the liberation of his people long
oppressed for six decades.
-
- Al-Arian is a man of great distinction. He's a devout
Palestinian Muslim, imam of the Islamic Community of Tampa, and a respected
and admired man of principle who helped empower the Muslim community through
his dedicated hard work and personal relationships with other civic, political
and religious leaders in Florida and across the country in spite of having
to do it in a post-9/11 environment when all Muslims became suspect and
were viewed as possible "terrorists."
-
- Post-9/11, USF president Judy Genshaft consorted with
Florida Governor Jeb Bush suspending Al-Arian on September 28 with pay
on phony grounds of campus safety. She then tried firing him falsely claiming
he supported terrorists and damaged the university's reputation even though
he was a respected award-winning tenured professor guilty of no crime but
his faith, ethnicity and courageous activism encouraging other Muslim Americans
to act likewise. Earlier in August, 1996, USF placed Al-Arian on paid leave
pending the outcome of a FBI investigation into whether organizations he
was involved with fronted for terrorist groups allowing him to resume teaching
two years later when it uncovered nothing.
-
- Days before his arrest, indictment and imprisonment in
February, 2003, sensing what was to come after months of rumors, Al-Arian
wrote: "I am crucified today because of who I am: a stateless Palestinian,
an Arab, a Muslim and an outspoken advocate for Palestinian rights, but
more a persistent defender for civil and constitutional rights on the home
front." This was from a man Newsweek magazine called the premier
civil rights activist in America for his efforts to repeal the use of secret
evidence that became HR 2121 that only got as far in the 109th Congress
as a favorable vote in the House Judiciary Committee, and it's now up to
the 110th Congress to take further action.
-
- Earlier, Al-Arian cofounded the Tampa Bay Coalition for
Justice and Peace, a local organization opposing unconstitutional use of
secret evidence and other civil rights violations as well as slanderous
media attacks against Muslims and Arabs. He also cofounded the National
Coalition to Protect Political Freedom, the nation's leading organization
challenging the use of secret evidence serving as its first president in
2000. Because of his efforts, Al-Arian advised members of Congress and
was invited to briefing meetings at the White House personally meeting
Presidents Clinton and Bush.
-
- Genshaft initially failed to remove him but acted summarily
on February 26, 2003, a week after Al-Arian was arrested and indicted on
charges from which no conviction later resulted. Genshaft then announced
he was fired because his (entirely legal) non-academic activities and indictment
conflicted with university interests meaning Genshaft sacrificed her integrity
to serve the interests of the Bush administration's imperialist Global
War on Terrorism directed against all Muslims unfairly targeted.
-
- The Free Sami Al-Arian.com web site details the timeline
ordeal he went through early on.
-
- -- He endured 11 years of FBI investigations, half a
million phone wiretaps, searches and other harassment costing many tens
of millions of dollars for his political activism and support of civil
rights. During his trial, the government alleged he was connected to Islamic
groups designated "terrorist" organizations meaning they supported
freedom and justice for Palestinians and others and that Al-Arian advocated
effectively for them.
-
- -- Investigations culminated on February 20, 2003. His
family watched in horror as FBI agents and Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF)
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers stormed his home at 5:00
AM guns drawn menacingly. They arrested him and three others separately
on charges of supporting terrorism, conspiracy to commit murder, racketeering,
giving material support to an outlawed group, extortion, perjury and other
offenses later proved spurious in court. He was detained at a local jail
where he went on a hunger strike to protest his politically-motivated incarceration.
-
- The charges against Al-Arian falsely alleged he supported
organizations claimed to be fronts for Palestinian Islamic Jihad on a US
"terrorist" watch list. They were also made against two other
organizations he cofounded - the Islamic Committee for Palestine (ICP)
involved in raising awareness of the plight of Palestinians and World Islamic
Studies Enterprise think tank (WISE) affiliated with USF, a research and
academic enterprise promoting dialogue between Muslims and the West. Also
cited was the Islamic Academy of Florida Al-Arian also founded that's one
of the nation's top full-time Islamic schools with over 300 students from
preschool through high school. These organizations have nothing to do
with violence or terrorism. In fact, two years earlier, federal immigration
Judge Kevin R. McHugh ruled "there is no evidence before the Court
that demonstrates (WISE and ICP were) front(s) for the (Islamic Jihad).
To the contrary, there is evidence in the record to support the conclusion
that WISE was a reputable and scholarly research center and the ICP was
highly regarded."
-
- The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) is as well
which Al-Arian helped establish in 1981 and now is the largest grass roots
Muslim organization in America contributing "to the betterment of
the Muslim community and society at large....representing Islam, supporting
Muslim communities, developing educational, social and outreach programs
and fostering good relations with other religious communities, and civic
and service organizations."
-
- -- USF President Judy Genshaft ignored Al-Arian's impeccable
credentials and remarkable record of community service and achievements
disgracefully firing him on February 27, 2003 acting as a stooge for the
Bush administration.
-
- -- At his bail hearing on March 20 lasting four days,
the government provided no evidence, no witnesses, and failed to show Al-Arian
and his co-defendants were flight risks or threats to national security.
Still, he and defendant Sameeh Hammoudeh were denied bail. The others
got it.
-
- -- On March 27, Al-Arian and Hammoudeh were incarcerated
in the maximum-security federal penitentiary in Coleman, Florida. They
were placed in solitary confinement under atrocious conditions in what's
called the "Special Housing Unit" or "Shoe Unit" for
the most dangerous convicted prisoners and held there and at other federal
prisons for two and a half years until his first trial. Al-Arian was denied
basic privileges convicted murderers have, wasn't allowed contact with
or family visits, didn't receive adequate materials to work on his case,
got limited access to counsel, and was subjected overall to harsh punitive
treatment including strip searches and other indignities.
-
- -- Al-Arian was unable to raise needed funds for his
defense, received court-appointed attorneys, later was allowed to fire
them for lack of progress and acted as his own attorney with help from
the National Liberty (civil rights) fund (NLF) taking up his case and organizing
events across the country in his behalf.
-
- -- Al-Arian remained in prison until his trial in Tampa
Federal District Court in June, 2005. Before it began, the American Association
of University Professors (AAUP) condemned the University of South Florida
for violating his rights to due process and academic freedom. In addition,
Amnesty International wrote the Federal Bureau of Prisons condemning the
conditions under which Al-Arian was held saying his pre-trial detention
"appeared to be gratuitously punitive (and) the restrictions imposed
on (him) appeared to go beyond what were necessary on security grounds
and were inconsistent with international standards for humane treatment."
-
- Amnesty spoke out in this case while in others of equal
importance it fails to or doesn't go far enough when it does, especially
when they involve US government-committed abuses. Al-Arian's case is one
of the latter as nothing about his treatment shows "appearance."
It was and continues to be an egregious example of willful, vindictive
injustice against a courageous, distinguished man who, like all other state
repression victims, is no match for the power federal prosecutors can marshall
against him with intent to destroy him and make him suffer maximally throughout
his ordeal.
-
- In Al-Arian's case, it began with 11 years of investigations
and harassment with trumped up charges leading to his incarceration and
trial. While in prison, he endured a 23 hour lockdown in a rat and roach-infested
cell; was denied religious services; got no watch or clock; and was held
in a windowless cell in which artificial light never went off. He was
also shackled hands behind his back and feet whenever outside his cell.
When conferring with his lawyers, he was forced to make a long walk to
reach them uncomfortably balancing his law files on his back because prison
officials refused to help. During this time, Al-Arian also underwent a
hunger strike for 140 days losing 45 pounds and endangering his life as
he's diabetic.
-
- -- After three months of self-representation, Al-Arian
hired respected Washington, DC attorney William Moffitt and local attorney
Linda Moreno to represent him. Later it was learned federal authorities
destroyed key evidence along with deliberately committing other injustices
against him and stalling tactics delaying his trial nearly two and a half
years following his arrest. All the while, he remained incarcerated under
harsh conditions.
-
- Al-Arian's Prison Odyssey Nightmare - February 20, 2003
to the Present
-
- Dr. Al-Arian has been imprisoned since his arrest February
20, 2003 and initially placed in temporary confinement at Orient Road jail
in Tampa, Florida. From there till today, his imprisonment odyssey was
as follows:
-
- -- March 27, 2003: Maximum Security US Penitentiary,
Coleman, Florida.
-
- -- February 9, 2005: Orient Road Jail, Tampa, Florida.
-
- -- May 4, 2005: Federal Correctional Institution, Tallahassee,
Florida.
-
- -- June 8, 2006: Maximum Security US Penitentiary, Atlanta,
Georgia
-
- -- June 22, 2006: Medium Security Federal Correctional
Complex, Coleman, Florida
-
- -- September 20, 2006: Maximum Security US Penitentiary,
Atlanta, Georgia.
-
- -- September 21, 2006: Federal Transfer Center, Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma.
-
- -- September 25, 2006: Northern Neck Regional Jail, Warsaw,
Virginia.
-
- -- January 3, 2007: Maximum Security US Penitentiary,
Atlanta, Georgia.
-
- -- January 17, 2007: Federal Correctional Institution,
Petersburg, Virginia.
-
- -- January 18, 2007: Alexandria Regional Jail, Alexandria,
Virginia.
-
- -- January 19, 2007: Northern Neck Regional Jail, Warsaw,
Virginia.
-
- -- February 14, 2007: Federal medical prison, Butner,
North Carolina.
-
- Al-Arian's Travesty of a Trial
-
- The trial began in June, 2005, following 11 years of
government hounding and three years preparing for it. It went on for six
months costing prosecutors an estimated $50 million all in vain in the
end, but then again maybe not as explained below. The prosecution called
over 70 witnesses including 21 from Israel. It used portions of hundreds
of phone calls selected from over a half million recorded from over a decade
of harassing surveillance as well as claimed evidence from intercepted
faxes, emails and what was seized from hours of intrusively searching the
Al-Arian home. It also used phony evidence from Al-Arian's activist speeches;
lectures; conferences, events and rallies he attended; articles he wrote;
books he owned; magazines he edited; and other publications he read and
more amounting to nothing other than his constitutional rights to speak
freely, assemble in public and read whatever he chose in a country where
those rights should mean something - but don't for Muslims and others targeted
in the age of George Bush.
-
- The defense responded to the witch-hunt prosecution calling
no witnesses and presenting no evidence resting its case solely on Al-Arian's
First Amendment rights. US District Judge James Moody denied Al-Arian's
right to defend his activities based on Israel's theft and repressive occupation
of Palestinian lands that led to his entirely legal activism against it.
-
- Despite throwing the book and piles of taxpayer cash
at him, the jury exonerated Al-Arian on December 6, 2005 after 13 days
of deliberation as explained above. But this didn't end things as it never
does when government prosecutors are out to frame and get someone targeted
like Sami Al-Arian. Realizing his ordeal would continue unless he could
reach accommodation with the government, he agreed to a plea agreement
on March 2, 2006 to bring his case to a close not realizing it would not
as hostile government prosecutors never let up on their targets till they
convict, bankrupt, break or kill them, even though things don't always
go as planned.
-
- The Plea Agreement
-
- Nonetheless, the written plea agreement stipulated the
following:
-
- -- That Al-Arian engaged in no violent acts and had no
knowledge of any in the US or Middle East.
-
- -- That he would not be required to "cooperate"
further by providing information to prosecutors.
-
- -- And that he would be released for time served and
voluntarily agreed to be deported.
-
- In the meantime, the agreement was delivered to Judge
Moody on April 17, 2006, and sentencing was scheduled for May 1, 2006 with
Al-Arian forced to remain in custody pending his sentence and deportation
even though as a Palestinian he's a man without a country unless one accepts
him.
-
- Under agreed terms, prosecutors abandoned their charges,
and Al-Arian pled guilty to one watered-down count of providing services
to people associated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The Statement
of Facts in the agreement include:
-
- -- Hiring an attorney for his brother-in-law, Mazen Al-Najjar
(an adjunct professor at USF at the time) during his deportation hearings
in the late 1990s. FBI agents arrested Al-Najjar May 19, 1997 using secret
phony evidence to imprison him (largely on a minor immigration charge),
hold him without charge for three and one half years before a federal judge
ordered his release. He was then arrested again November 24, 2001 and
finally deported August 21, 2002 ending a long court battle in another
case of an innocent man denied his constitutional rights because of his
Muslim faith and ethnicity.
-
- -- Filling out immigration forms for a resident Palestinian
scholar from Britain.
-
- -- And, not disclosing details of associations to a local
reporter.
-
- In return, the prosecution agreed to dismiss the remaining
jury-deadlocked charges and not charge Al-Arian with other crimes. It
also asked for no fine and recommended "the defendant receive sentence
at the low end of the applicable guideline." It further acknowledged
Al-Arian committed no violence, and there were no victims. For his part,
Al-Arian was forced to agree to an expedited deportation which he decided
was worth it for his freedom and to be reunited with his family and bring
his ordeal to an end.
-
- It didn't happen even under a plea agreement Al-Arian
was led to believe would involve a sentence of no more than time served.
Judge Moody had other ideas sentencing Al-Arian to the maximum 57 months
in prison, giving him credit for time served but leaving a balance of 11
months to be followed by deportation scheduled for April, 2007 now extended
to October, 2008 from his new contempt charges explained below as his ordeal
continues without end.
-
- Last October, assistant prosecutor Gordon Kromberg, subpoenaed
Al-Arian to testify before a grand jury investigating an Islamic think
tank violating his plea agreement stipulating it was "to conclude,
once and for all, all business between the government and Dr. Al-Arian."
His defense attorneys filed a motion supporting his right not to testify
explaining he never would have agreed if he remained subject to be called
in further government investigations. Doing so might entrap him in possible
or interpreted perjury leaving him vulnerable to endless government opportunities
to harass and reincarcerate him.
-
- Judge Moody ruled against Al-Arian, and on November 16,
he was brought before the grand jury and held in civil contempt for refusing
to testify. A month later, the grand jury expired, and a new one convened
with Al-Arian again subpoenaed to testify. Again he refused, was held
in contempt which increases his sentence 18 more months without mitigation,
in what's clearly the government's attempt to renege on its deal to keep
Al-Arian locked up forever even though he committed no crimes and was exonerated
by a jury in his trumped up trial.
-
- Al-Arian is appealing his contempt sentencing and government
violation of his plea agreement and is now represented by William Mitchell
College of Law professor and past President of the National Lawyers Guild
(1993 - 1997) Peter Erlinder as his lead attorney. In the meantime, he's
still in prison while his ordeal continues. Erlinder's task is daunting
against a government determined to resist and prosecutors ready to file
new charges to keep Al-Arian imprisoned as long as the Justice Department
wants him there.
-
- With Al-Arian now being held on contempt charges, his
original criminal sentence is not running concurrently. In addition, with
two contempt charges, his initial 18 month add-on sentence could be extended
to 36 months under "civil contempt" and much longer if the prosecution
charges him with "criminal contempt." It means despite the government's
plea agreement to release him based on time served, George Bush's Justice
Department, under rogue Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who flaunts the
law, lied and Al-Arian can be held imprisoned for years without end as
an innocent man guilty of no crime.
-
- That's even clearer after a three-judge panel of the
Fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously and "contemptuously"
affirmed his civil contempt ruling March 23 saying his plea agreement "contains
no language which would bar the government from compelling appellant's
testimony before a grand jury" even though it clearly does in plain
English stated above. So much for justice from right wing courts in the
age of George Bush where there's none for administration targets like Al-Arian.
-
- In the meantime, Al-Arian protested the only way he can,
and news of it is prominently reported in the alternative media like this
article, a growing number of others and in on-air interviews with his wife,
family and others. He again went on a water-only hunger strike January
22 leaving him very weak, unable to walk or stand on his own, and needing
to be confined to a wheelchair. It lasted two months but was ended at
the urging of his family after losing 55 pounds or one-fourth of his body
weight. His wife, Nahla, reports he's now slowly regaining his strength.
In Al-Arian's case, continuing a fast is life-threatening because he's
diabetic and should be ingesting regular sustenance to avoid serious health
problems.
-
- It took its toll earlier causing Al-Arian to collapse
after which he was moved to a federal prison medical facility in Butner,
North Carolina where he's too weak to walk and is now subjected to the
shoddy kind of medical care everyone imprisoned gets. It's poor, indifferent
and sure to be even worse for anyone in prison for political reasons any
time but especially in the age of George Bush where justice is an illusion,
and Sami Al-Arian's fate is at stake. His ordeal continues without end,
but alternative media writers and commentators won't be silent about it
or about others like him enduring the same ordeal of injustice for noble
principles and a just cause people of conscience everywhere support and
admire. Today, what happened to Sami Al-Arian can happen to anyone. Under
George Bush rule, we're all Sami Al-Arians.
-
- Secret US Prison Program for Muslims and Middle Eastern
Prisoners
-
- On February 16, 2007, lawyer and legal analyst, academic,
author and journalist Jennifer Van Bergen disclosed the US has a secret
new illegal prison program targeting Muslims in an online article in The
Raw Story. It's designated for claimed "high-security risk"
Muslim and Middle Eastern (Arab) prisoners to severely limit or cut them
off entirely from contact and communication with the outside world violating
federal law prohibiting such action according to Prison Legal News editor
Paul Wright. He told Van Bergen "segregating prisoners based on their
race, national origin or language directly contradicts the recent US Supreme
Court ruling in Johnson v. California which held that the racial segregation
of prisoners was illegal." Van Bergen also reported "Religious
discrimination is (also) prohibited by Prison Bureau regulations."
They stipulate "staff shall not discriminate against inmates on the
basis of race, religion, national origin, sex, disability, or political
belief (including) administrative decisions (involving) access to work,
housing and programs."
-
- The rule of law means nothing to the Bush administration
that flaunts it including in its new covert program illegally instituted
in December, 2006. It's called the special "Communications Management
Unit" (CMU), and is presently (as far as known) only at the Terre
Haute, Indiana Federal Correctional Institution but may also be intended
for other federal prisons as well in an age of mass incarcerations in a
nation with the largest prison population in the world growing by over
1000 new prisoners daily.
-
- Van Bergen asserts the CMU program violates the Federal
Administrative Procedures Act explicitly requiring all prison regulations
comply with this law. As of mid-February, it housed 16 prisoners but was
expected to be rapidly expanded to 60 - 70 and might end up with many more
ahead in Terre Haute and elsewhere.
-
- One of the Terre Haute prisoners is Dr. Rafil Dhafir,
a Muslim American of Iraqi descent and practicing oncologist until his
license was suspended. He was convicted in a politically motivated Department
of Justice (DOJ) "kangaroo court" trial of violating the Iraqi
Sanctions Regulations (IEEPA) using his own funds and what he could raise
through his Help the Needy charity to bring desperately needed essential
to life humanitarian aid to Iraqi people unable to get it because of the
US/UN-imposed punitive sanctions from 1990 - 2003. For his "Crime
of Compassion" (see dhafirtrial.net, Katherine Hughes), he was convicted
of violating the sanctions and a total of 59 of 60 trumped up charges including
tax fraud, money laundering, and mail and wire fraud resulting in a 22
year prison sentence he's currently serving in Terre Haute far from his
family in Syracuse, New York. He wasn't charged with or convicted of "terrorism"
or any act of violence, is not a "high-security risk" and yet
is being treated like one because he's a Muslim. He's also, like Sami
Al-Arian, a "trophy" in the Bush administration's phony "war
on terrorism" against Muslims demeaned and persecuted everywhere because
of their faith and ethnicity.
-
- People of conscience aren't being quiet, and a small
group of them in Dhafir's home city Syracuse, New York protested former
US Attorney General John Ashcroft's presence on campus and speech at Syracuse
University March 27. Ashcroft led the administration's 2001 campaign for
the passage of the repressive USA Patriot Act (written and on his desk
before 9/11) used to convict and imprison men like Dhafir and Al-Arian
unjustly. He was likely personally involved in orchestrating the government's
efforts to railroad two esteemed Muslim community members chosen for high-profile
prosecutions, convictions, imprisonments and extra-harsh treatment under
maximum security conditions and restrictions used only for the most dangerous
criminals allowed more privileges behind bars than these pillars of their
communities denied justice.
-
- Muslim Witch-Hunt Harassment and Persecution In An Age
of "Terrorism" and Endless Imperial Wars
-
- In the wake of 9/11, all Muslims have been in the Bush
administration crosshairs targeted with abusive harassment and persecution
including mass roundups, detentions, prosecutions and deportations in an
age of state-induced phony terror to scare the public enough to allow the
government to get away with anything. It took full advantage and continues
doing it today with a greatly enhanced Department of Homeland Security/Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (DHS/ICE) campaign going after vulnerable undocumented
Latino workers along with targeted Muslims and others designated threats
to national security in an age when anyone is suspect if federal agencies
say so. Who'll object if it's in the interest of "national security."
-
- It began shortly after the 9/11 attacks with the Bush
administration declaring a permanent state of preventive war against claimed
threats to national security, especially targeting Muslims abroad and at
home. It resulted in two wars of illegal aggression without end and mass
witch-hunt roundups at home in which constitutional and international laws
are flaunted along with fundamental principles of human rights and civil
liberties. In an atmosphere of state-induced fear trumpeted by the dominant
media, the FBI swung into action in mass sweeps and detentions affecting
many thousands of mainly Muslim immigrants, citizens and visitors picking
the wrong time to be here.
-
- Even before 9/11, the Clinton administration and Republican-controlled
Congress legalized these activities in the 1996 Immigrant Responsibility
Act (IIRAIRA) and Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penality Act (AEDPA).
They're harsh repressive laws denying targets their rights of due process
and judicial fairness. Today they allow DHS/ICE agents the right to conduct
wiretaps and searches (the Bush administration does without required warrants),
conduct proceedings in secret courts with permanently sealed rulings, detain
immigrants and other targets called "terrorists," deny them bail,
deport them without discretionary relief, restrict their access to counsel,
deny their right to appeal, and throw the book at them even for minor offenses.
-
- The consequences for those targeted are devastating.
It affected 5000 Muslims in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 with only three
of them being charged with an offense and not a single "terrorist"
nabbed to show for it even the 9/11 (whitewash) Commission admitted. Yet,
those swept up then and now are generally detained on non-criminal administrative
charges, often without their families' knowledge. They're kept in degrading
and inhumane conditions - locked in cells 23 hours a day where lights never
go off, kept in hand and leg shackles whenever outside them, harassed and
abused without redress, and denied telephone calls and family visitations.
-
- Many are dragged from their homes in the middle of the
night or before dawn in paramilitary-style raids while others get picked
up in the wrong place at the wrong time or for willingly coming forward
as aliens when asked to and being punished for it. In the case of Rafil
Dhafir, his door was broken down about 6:00 AM February 26, 2003 when 85
law enforcement agents showed up to arrest him including 15 from the FBI,
five of whom held guns menacingly to his wife Priscilla's head traumatizing
her from the experience as it would anyone. This is how things are done
in a police state where victims have no choice but take the punishment
or get shot or pummelled "resisting."
-
- Innocent people like these undergo unspeakable humiliations
and treatment even though most committed no crimes and the few who have
only get charged with minor offenses with exceptions like Sami Al-Arian
and Rafil Dhafir getting the book thrown at them because of their high-profile
status even though they're innocent of any crimes. Virtually no one's been
found guilty of terrorist-related offenses or violence, yet those rounded
up are forced to undergo degrading indignities like strip searches, and
are beaten and sexually abused for their race, faith, country of origin
and immigration status because they're Muslims or impoverished Latinos
here for jobs in an age when the rule of law is null and void and human
rights and civil liberties are just artifacts from another era.
-
- Early on, the Justice Department boasted it successfully
deported hundreds of targeted individuals connected to 9/11 investigations.
Estimates since from human rights groups, Muslim community leaders and
organizations, peace groups and lawyers show the numbers skyrocketed amounting
to many thousands more plus tens of thousands of others fleeing the country
in fear after having been surveilled, interrogated and detained or arrested
in a systemic reign of state terror pattern of abuse leaving scars that
won't ever heal. Those here only as visitors won't ever return or have
faith in this country again. All affected are devastated by the experience.
It harms individuals, communities and families, tearing them apart and
leaving them to wonder how they'll recoup after being through so much.
This is the state of America today with horrific cases like Sami Al-Arian's
and Rafil Dhafir's highlighting it.
-
- Early on, those targeted were caught up in the post-9/11
FBI witch-hunt mass sweep called PENTTBOM involving 4000 agents and 3000
support staff investigating 96,000 tips from the public in the first week
alone after the attacks. By January, 2002, the ACLU claimed the FBI received
half a million citizen calls with tips and leads resulting in investigations
affecting 100,000 Muslims and brown-skinned people if only 20% of them
were followed-up on.
-
- Add to these what's gone on till today. Then highlight
Muslims (like Al-Arian and Dhafir) targeted for supporting Islamic charities
and organizations banned for their phony claimed links to "terrorist"
groups, others for their activism, anyone with a police record even for
minor indiscretions, and overall all Muslims under suspicion, potentially
being watched and always fearing a pre-dawn knock on their door or the
thud or crash of it being broken in and facing menacing FBI agents with
guns drawn.
-
- It never ends with the Washington Post reporting March
25 "thousands of pieces of intelligence information from around the
world arrive (daily) in a computer-filled office in McLean (Virginia),
where analysts feed them into the nation's central list of terrorists and
terrorism suspects." It's called the Terrorist Identities Datamart
Environment (TIDE) storing data about individuals the intelligence community
thinks might harm the country. It's massive in size, includes foreigners
and US citizens, ballooning from under 100,000 files in 2003 to about 435,000
now and growing daily in volume enough to overwhelm people assigned to
manage it. Once put on the list, it's forever and can lead to thousands
of horror stories of mixed-up names and unconfirmed information. It's
part of what's going on today as part of a nightmarish Kafkaesque matrix
of control in the age of George Bush where everyone is suspect, and no
one is safe from a pre-dawn visit from law enforcers from which there's
no return, guilty or innocent, if they want it that way.
-
- Also instituted after September 11, 2002 was a program
called the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) affecting
24 Muslim or Arab countries plus North Korea. It's administered by DHS/ICE
today to keep track of over 35 million people entering and leaving the
country annually for any reason but only targeting Muslims for registration
with further interrogation, photographing, fingerprinting, and denial of
Sixth Amendment right to counsel and Fourth Amendment right to privacy
for those singled out. The program is sweeping and expensive while being
near worthless as a security measure, but its cost to Muslim communities
in loss of dignity, unspeakable abuse, and overall punitive repression
has been huge and devastating.
-
- Drs. Sami Al-Arian and Rafil Dhafir are stark examples
of its most egregiously harmed victims with no redress for them so far
as their painful ordeals continue without end. This country prides itself
on being a nation of laws respecting and protecting the rights of everyone.
Untrue now or ever before and wiped from the books without pretense in
the age of George Bush. What's happening to targeted Muslims and Latino
immigrants today may be aimed at us ahead in an effort to silence all dissent
and go after perceived enemies of the state including US citizens no longer
safe at a time we're all "enemy combatants" if the Chief Executive
says so.
-
- Witness the case of Jose Padilla, a US citizen seized
at Chicago's O'Hare Airport May 8, 2002 on a material witness warrant connected
to the 9/11 attacks. He had no weapons on his possession at the time but
was later charged, without evidence, with being part of a terrorist plot
to detonate "dirty bombs" inside the country and declared by
the president an "enemy combatant." He was then held in military
confinement from May, 2002 till January, 2006 till the Department of Justice
(DOJ) took over custody while his lawyers argued his case in New York district
and appellate courts winning rulings in his favor to no avail.
-
- The Bush administration challenged them getting the Supreme
Court to agree in Rumsfeld v. Padilla 5 - 4 in June, 2004 dismissing the
case as improperly filed and ruling for the administration subsequently
in a follow-up decision on the Padilla case effectively giving the president
the right to seize anyone, accuse them without evidence, and keep them
interned anywhere, as long as he wishes, under any conditions on his say
alone. And if district and appellate courts overrule the president, they
don't count even when US citizens are arrested and held interminably with
no evidence in degrading and inhuman conditions like those discussed above.
-
- In the Padilla case, his attorneys argued they included
abuses like Al-Arian and Dhafir endure including five years of solitary
confinement as well as sensory deprivation, other periods of extreme noise,
no right of counsel for two years, beatings, injections with mind-altering
drugs, and denial of medical treatment all of which destroyed a human being
making him unfit for trial and further punishing incarceration.
-
- But that's not how US District Judge Marcia Cooke, and
likely most others on the federal bench today, saw things. After nearly
five punishing years of incarceration based on nothing more than charges
filed with no corroborating evidence, she ruled on March 23, Padilla is
competent to stand trial even though he's been turned to mush and likely
is innocent of all charges. Jose Padilla along with Sami Al-Arian and
Rafil Dhafir are today's examples of what Pastor Martin Niemoller warned
about in Nazi Germany when the state targeted enemies removing them while
no one protested.
-
- Today in America, our turn may be next sooner than we
think, and when it comes there may be no one left to help unless people
of conscience act en masse in outrage and protest. In the age of George
Bush, no one is safe, and a nation once proud is slipping much closer to
passing from democracy to tyranny the way Chalmers Johnson explained it
happened in the rise and fall of earlier empires.
-
- Citing ancient Rome, he wrote in his new book, Nemesis
- The Last Days of the American Republic, we "are approaching the
edge of a huge waterfall and are about to plunge over it" with other
notable figures believing we already have failing to heed Jefferson's words
that "All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience
to remain silent" or Edmund Burke who said "The only thing necessary
for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Hopefully
there's still time to act. Are we paying attention? Do we understand
today we're all Sami Al-Arians, Rafil Dhafirs and Jose Padillas.
-
- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
-
- Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen each week to The Steve Lendman News and Information Hour on The
Micro Effect.com Saturdays at noon US central time.
|
