Action Alert: Al-Arian Collapses on 23rd Day of Hunger Strike

Dr. Sami Al-Arian, the political prisoner who is being unlawfully detained by the US government, has collapsed in prison in Virginia and was subsequently transferred to a medical facility in North Carolina. Just this week, I wrote about the hunger strike that Al-Arian began about 23 days ago in protest of his continued detention despite a plea agreement with prosecutors. Read my last post to find out more about the broadcast interview with Al-Arian and the details of his case.

More importantly, national Muslim organizations such as MAS and CAIR have called on all people of conscience to fax letters to the judge in charge of Sami's case. Please see the links to the action alerts below and consider taking a few minutes to type up a letter and fax it to the judge. The least we can do is speak out against this injustice.

From MAS Freedom Foundation:

WASHINGTON, DC - Feb. 15, 2007 (MASNET) Due to the severe health concerns of Dr. Sami Al-Arian, who collapsed on the twenty-third day of his Hunger Strike for Justice, the Muslim American Society (MAS) Freedom Foundation has organized an emergency fax campaign to Judge Gerald Lee of the Virginia Eastern District Court.

Dr. Sami Al-Arian embarked upon a hunger strike to protest his legal treatment, incarceration, and current eighteen month jail sentence for his refusal to testify testifying before a grand jury. This verdict was rendered against him despite a plea agreement he had with the government, which included a no-cooperation clause.

Given the fact that sending letters to Judge Gerald Lee will take a long period of time, MAS Freedom Foundation is urging individuals to send faxes directly to Judge Lee's chambers today. Additionally, everyone is encouraged to contact at least 10 other individuals and request that they send faxes and contact others as well. Please be polite and respectful when writing to Judge Gerald Lee. Send your fax to the Honorable Judge Gerald Lee at: (703) 299-3339. Below is a sample fax highlighting key points to address.

SAMPLE FAX:

To the Honorable Judge Gerald Lee

Your Honor,

Dr. Sami Al-Arian is currently on a hunger strike in federal detention to protest his treatment by U.S. authorities. Family members have reported that Dr. Al-Arian collapsed on the twenty-third day of his fast and has been moved from Virginia to a medial facility in North Carolina. He began his hunger strike more than 3 weeks ago after refusing to testify before a grand jury in Virginia. His attorneys have indicated that an earlier plea agreement freed him from further cooperation and that the government's actions amount to a form of harassment. On humanitarian grounds I respectfully request that Dr. Al-Arian's sentence for civil contempt be removed.

NOTE: It is critically important to indicate that you are requesting the removal of the 18 month sentence for civil contempt. Judge Lee only has jurisdiction over the civil contempt portion of Dr. Al-Arian's sentence, thus he cannot release Dr. Al-Arian. However, Judge Lee can remove the 18 month civil contempt sentence making Dr. Al-Arian eligible for release in April.

Please don't forget to join MAS Freedom Foundation and thousands across the United States on Wednesday, February 21st as we unite in solidarity with Dr. Al-Arian's Hunger Strike for Justice and for a national press conference in front of the Department of Justice at 11:00am.

Please write to the following individuals to ask for an immediate end to Dr. Al-Arian's suffering:

1- Honorable Judge Gerald Lee

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia

401 Courthouse Square, Alexandria, VA 22314

2- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Justice

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530-0001

Fax Number: 202- 307-6777

BY E-MAIL:

E-mails to the Department of Justice, including the Attorney General,

may be sent to askdoj@usdoj.gov

3- The Honorable John Conyers, Jr

2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515

202-225-2072 Fax

John.conyers@mail.house.gov

4- Senator Patrick Leahy

433 Russell Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

(202) 224- 4242 Fax

senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov

Fact sheet on Sami Al-Arian's case
Action Alert from CAIR

Justice: 2, War on the Innocent: 0

Another win today for the American justice system: jurors found Dr. Abdelhaleem Ashqar and Muhammad Salah not guilty of charges the US government brought against them in 2004 claiming they were tied to terrorism. Accused of funneling money to the Palestinian group HAMAS, a designated terrorist organization by the US, the two men had maintained that they had only provided money to fund social and humanitarian services for their fellow Palestinians. After a 3 month hearing, and two weeks deliberating, the 12 jurors proved once again that there is hope for truth and justice to be upheld in the United States, no matter how elusive they may seem these days.

These men and women were smart enough to see through the misrepresentation of Ashqar and Salah's actions by the government prosecutors who went as far as claiming they were responsible for the death of an American teenager who was killed by a suicide bombing in Israel. The government tried to convince the jurors by calling Israeli agents to testify against the two men. These were the same agents that knew that Mr. Salah was severely tortured in Israeli prisons to the point where he confessed to anything they told him to. They heard that the FBI had wanted to ask Dr. Ashqar to become an informant for them, indicating that they did not deem him a terrorist threat. The inconsistencies and lack of concrete evidence against the men was detected by the jury which in the end returned a not guilty verdict on the major changes.

This verdict comes as a major blow to the "Justice" Department's efforts at trying so-called terrorists. More than a year ago, a jury similarly acquitted Dr. Sami Al-Arian of charges that he was funneling money to Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian group on the US terror list. I wrote several posts about Dr. Al-Arian's case, who is still in jail today despite being acquitted by the jury in his trial. Unfortunately, the US government is going after minor charges and attempting to find ways just to keep him jail. He has been on a hunger strike protesting his detainment for 11 days so far (more about his case).

My faith in the American judicial system has not been completely restored, because cases like these should not have been brought to surface in the first place. Dr. Ashqar and Dr. Al-Arian have been wronged, and not even an acquittal can alleviate the suffering their families have endured for years and the emotional pain of being wrongly charged and incarcerated. The Muslim and Arab communities from which these individuals come in Virginia and Florida, respectfully, have also endured a heavy toll, being portrayed as supporters of terrorists and consistently targeted for simply practicing their rights as citizens of this country.

I would love to see that smirk on your face once again, Mr. Ashcroft, as you were so proud when you announced their indictment more than two years ago. Please, don't be disappointed now that the American people have, unlike you, chosen truth and justice above all else.

Thank you to the jurors who took their responsibility seriously and did their job by scrutinizing the evidence and showing the public that such cases are indeed nothing but witch hunts against the innocent men and women who dare to speak out against the injustices inflicted upon their Palestinian brethren. I hope the judge will follow suit and not allow these men to suffer anymore than they already have. Two points for justice, none for the War on the Innocent.

It is also worth noting that most major media networks did not headline the verdict. In previous cases where similar charges were brought forth, and the jury returned convictions, the verdicts made headlines within minutes of the news. When their indictments were announced, every major news station dedicated the first reports to images of Ashcroft reading the charges. Had these men been found guilty, I assure you that CNN, Fox, CBS, and every other online, print, and tv media outlet would have emphasized the news beyond imagination. I waited to see if anything would make the CBS or ABC evening news reports, and my suspicions were confirmed. The verdict did not make it to the CNN homepage either, but was buried in the "law" section. If THIS is the type of media you rely on, you'd better think twice before tuning in again.

More:
Federal Jury Acquits Two Men of Terror Charges for Hamas Links
US Jury Acquits Two Men of Hamas Conspiracy
American Muslims Call Al-Arian Imprisonment 'Double Jeopardy'
Free Sami Al-Arian website
Free Dr. Ashqar website

Senator Rips Gonzalez on Extraordinary Rendition

What you will see in the video below is the best example for why we need to have a Democratic majority in Congress when we have a Republican in the White House. This is the way our system of checks and balances should ideally work. Knowledgeable representatives questioning those in power and defending the rights of the citizens they represent.

I've previously blogged about the case of Canadian citizen Maher Arar who was arrested while traveling through the US, unjustifiably suspected of terrorist involvement, and subsequently flown to Syria, his country of birth. There, Syrian officials tortured him for months on end without any proof that he had been even remotely involved in "terrorist activity." The US sent him to Syria knowing fully well that he would be tortured there. They did so under an American policy known as extraordinary rendition, where suspected terrorists are sent to countries to be questioned using illegal torture methods, some of which are Egypt, Syria, Morocco, and some Eastern European countries. You can read more about the this reprehensible policy in my previous posts. Maher was finally flown back to Canada, where the government opened an investigation into the rendition. The results of the investigation showed that Maher Arar was completely innocent of the claims the US had made, that he should not have been sent to Syria, and that the Canadian intelligence officials had wrongly indicated he may have been involved in terrorist activity. The Canadian government apologized to Arar, and today announced that he would receive $10.5 million for his ordeal. The Canadian government also asked the US to start its own investigation into why he was sent to Syria.

"I wish I could buy my life back," he [Arar] lamented Friday after Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the money and formally apologized for his hellish ordeal in a Syrian prison. "That's my biggest wish." Arar said no amount of cash can compensate for the 10 months he suffered in a tiny concrete cell, the agonizing torture sessions he endured, or the years he struggled under the damning label of suspected terrorist.

During a Senate Judiciary Hearing this week on Justice Department Oversight, Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy grilled Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez on the reasons why the US sent Arar to Syria instead of Canada, indicating that the US knew that he would be tortured there. Gonzalez fumbled a lame answer telling the senator that he would provide him with more information on the case in a week, privately. Senator Leahy did the right thing to question the Attorney General on this policy which he said has put our relations with close allies at risk.

Thank you, Senator, for speaking truth to power, for being the voice of many Americans who are against this dispicable policy, who are against torture in all forms, who are against the Bush administration's policies that place our lives at risk, and that taint the America that we all would hope is a beacon of freedom and justice instead of a safe haven for repression. You have given us hope that such injustices cannot go on forever without someone speaking out against them.

Below is the full video of the exchange between the senator and the attorney general. There is a shorter CNN clip here. Also, the strong statement Senator Leahy made before the questioning can be found here.


You can write a note thanking the Senator for his strong words and defense of our civil rights by clicking here or sending an email to senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov.

[Technorati tags: Leahy, Gonzalez, Maher Arar, extraordinary rendition]

Jordanian Student 'Not Guilty' in 9/11 Perjury Case

I first heard of this case Monday from Democracy Now's Amy Goodman who interviewed Osama Awadallah, the Jordanian student who was detained a few days after 9/11. After long hours of questioning and mistreatment over a couple of weeks, Awadallah was presented to a Grand Jury as a "material witness". When they asked him about his knowledge of one of the hijackers involved in the 9/11 attacks, Awadallah could not answer. He had, however, given the FBI all the information they asked for and answered all of their questions just days before. But one can imagine that after days in solitary confinement, questioning by four agents more than 8 hours at a time, someone might just not be ready to give testimony to a grand jury. He was then charged with perjury and was recently found not guilty on all 27 charges by the jury. This is an excerpt of the interview he had with Amy Goodman:

AMY GOODMAN: Did you have a lawyer present?

OSAMA AWADALLAH: No, I didn't have a lawyer. They told me it was going to be a short time, you don't need anyone to be with you. You're going to be fine. Just a few questions and then you will go home. I said that's fine. Remember, at that time, I'm 20 years old, you know? My English at that time was not like I'm speaking to you now. It's completely different. Its been only 2 years in the country, or year and a half...

AMY GOODMAN: Was there an Arabic speaker there?

OSAMA AWADALLAH: No. There wasn't an interpreter there, nor an Arabic speaker. They questioned me all day until 10:00, 11:00, midnight. And I was so exhausted I just wanted to go home. I even was going to answer whatever they wanted in order to just get home and rest. My family didn't know where I am. Everyone was worried. My community was looking for me. And I came at 11:00 and I went to my brother's and there, I told them what happened with me and the second day, the FBI. -- well, actually, on that day, on September 20th, they asked me that they want to come the next day to continue questioning me. I said I just said everything that you want, that I have. Why this other day? They said well there's a couple questions we need to verify. I said ok.

And the second day at 6:00 in the morning, they came to my apartment and I drove with them. I told them it was a Friday—Friday, the Friday service and I told them I had to catch my Friday service. So I hope this won't take much time. They said no, no problem. Then we went there. They started confronting me with things more, you know, in a more high-tone than the previous day and they start to jump on me, this time, there are four people asking me questions not like one. It's like you have a person there and you have four people asking you questions at the same time. So you have to answer. All this pressure and stress that you know, they came in and then at the end, they said you know what? I guess we’re going to go to New York right now. Right now, we’re going to put you on a plane and ship you to New York just--just like this. From there, continued, went to MCC Jail and then to Oklahoma—uh I think San Bernardino Sheriff Jail, then they took me to Oklahoma Jail and then ended up in New York. And until then, that's all that happened.

Read the full interview, watch it or listen to it here.

BREAKING NEWS: Rumsfeld Resigns

From the AP:

President Bush said Wednesday Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is stepping down and former CIA Director Robert Gates will take over at the Pentagon and in prosecuting the war in Iraq.

Rumsfeld, architect of an unpopular war in Iraq, intends to resign after six stormy years at the Pentagon, Republican officials said.

The development occurred one day after midterm elections that cost Republicans control of the House, and possibly the Senate, as well. Surveys of voters at polling places said opposition to the war was a significant contributor to the Democratic victory.

Bush described Rumsfeld as a "superb leader" in a time of change, but said his defense chief recognizes the value of "fresh perspective." He said Rumsfeld is a "trusted adviser and friend," and that he's "deeply grateful" for his service to the country. Bush said he and Rumsfeld agreed that "the timing is right for new leadership" at the Pentagon.

American politics is so entertaining!

A Journalist in Guantanamo: The Story of Sami al-Haj

Nicholas Kristof's writes an excellent op-ed in the New York Times today shedding light on the story of Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj who has been imprisoned by the US for the past five years. The article speaks for itself, and you can read the full text below as it is only available on the web for NYT Select members.

More details about Sami's ordeal can be found in this report by the Committee to Protect Journalists as well as Reporters Without Borders. I first learned about Sami's case through Al-Jazeera which occasionally shows a short piece quoting letters from Sami in prison and images of his son which are truly heartbreaking.

Freedom of the press, huh? Just goes to prove that the US and UK are guilty of intentionally targeting Al-Jazeera headquarters in Iraq and killing their reporter Tariq Ayub.
---

Sami's Shame, and Ours

by Nicholas D. Kristof

October 17, 2006

There is no public evidence that Sami al-Hajj committed any crime other than journalism for a television network the Bush administration doesn't like.

But the U.S. has been holding Mr. Hajj, a cameraman for Al Jazeera, for nearly five years without trial, mostly at Guantanamo Bay. With the jailing of Mr. Hajj and of four journalists in Iraq, the U.S. ranked No. 6 in the world in the number of journalists it imprisoned last year, just behind Uzbekistan and tied with Burma, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

This week, President Bush is expected to sign the Military Commissions Act concerning prisoners at Guantanamo, and he has hailed the law as ''a strong signal to the terrorists.'' But the closer you look at Guantanamo the more you feel that it will be remembered mostly as a national disgrace.

Mr. Hajj is the only journalist known to be there, and, of course, it's possible that he is guilty of terrorist-related crimes. If so, he should be tried, convicted and sentenced.

But so far, the evidence turned up by his lawyers and by the Committee to Protect Journalists -- which published an excellent report on Mr. Hajj's case this month -- suggests that the U.S. military may be keeping him in hopes of forcing him to become a spy.

Mr. Hajj, 37, who attended university and speaks English, joined Al Jazeera as a cameraman in April 2000 and covered the war in Afghanistan. He was detained on Dec. 15, 2001, and taken to the American military prison in Bagram, Afghanistan.

''They were the longest days of my life,'' Mr. Hajj's lawyers quoted him as saying. He told them he was repeatedly beaten, kicked, starved, left out in the freezing cold and subjected to anal cavity searches in public ''just to humiliate me.''

In June 2002, Mr. Hajj was flown to Guantanamo, where he says the beatings initially were brutal but have since subsided somewhat.

At first, interrogators said Mr. Hajj had shot video of Osama bin Laden during an Al Jazeera interview, but it turned out that they may have mixed him up with another cameraman of a similar name. When that assertion fell apart, the authorities offered accusations that he had ferried a large sum of money to a suspicious Islamic charity, that he had supported Chechen rebels, and that he had once given a car ride and other assistance to an official of Al Qaeda.

One indication that even our government may not take those accusations so seriously is that the interrogations barely touched on them, Mr. Hajj's lawyers say.

''About 95 percent of the interrogations he went through were about Al Jazeera,'' said one of the lawyers, Zachary Katznelson of London. ''Sami would say, 'What about me? Will you ask about me?' ''

He added, ''It really does seem that the focus of the inquiry is about his employer, Al Jazeera, and not about him or any actions he may have taken.''

Mr. Katznelson also says that interrogators told Mr. Hajj they would free him immediately if he would agree to go back to Al Jazeera and spy on it. He once asked what would happen if he backed out of the deal after he was free.

''You would not do that,'' Mr. Hajj quoted his interrogator as saying, ''because it would endanger your child.''

The Defense Department declined to comment on Mr. Hajj's case, saying that in general, it does not comment on specific detainees at Guantanamo.

While Mr. Hajj is unknown in the U.S., his case has received wide attention in the Arab world. The Bush administration is thus doing long-term damage to American interests.

Mr. Hajj's lawyers say he has two torn ligaments in his knee from abuse in his first weeks in custody, making it exceptionally painful for him to use the squat toilet in his cell. The lawyers say he has been offered treatment for his knee and a sitting toilet that would be less painful to use -- but only if he spills dirt on Al Jazeera. And he says he has none to spill.

And while Defense Department documents indicate that he has been a model inmate at Guantanamo, he protests that he has been called racial epithets (he is black) and that he has seen guards desecrate the Koran.

When Sudan detained an American journalist, Paul Salopek, in August in Darfur, journalists and human rights groups reacted with outrage until he was freed a month later. We should be just as offended when it is our own government that is sinking to Sudanese standards of justice.

This doesn't look like a war on terrorism, but a war on our own values.

[technorati tags: Aljazeera, media, war on terror, Guantanamo, torture, Bush]

More News on Attempts to Kill Habeas Corpus

Here are some more articles and commentary on the military commissions bill being debated in the Senate right now. If you haven't called your Senator today to ask them to defend the writ of habeas corpus, please do so ASAP because the vote will likely take place today. See my earlier post for more details.

Molly Ivins: Habeas Corpus, R.I.P. (1215 - 2006)

Boston Globe: Legal Residents' Rights Curbed in Detainee Bill

LA Times: Don't Suspend Habeas Corpus

WP: Rights Groups Decry US Senate Bill on Detainees

MSNBC: Specter to Press for Detainees' Habeas Corpus Rights

Znet: Indefinite Detention and Torture: A Political and Moral Mistake

[technorati tags: writ, habeas, corpus, Bush, civil rights, senate]

Stirrings on Guantanamo Bay & Extraordinary Renditions

I wanted to share a few articles that I came across recently which should put the recent debates on Guantanamo Bay prisoners and secret prisons into perspective for all of us. Let us not forget that we are speaking of individuals who have not been convicted and most have no evidence against other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time, as Abu Bakker Qassem writes in a New York Times Op-Ed yesterday.

I have been greatly saddened to hear that the Congress of the United States, a country I deeply admire, is considering new laws that would deny prisoners at Guantánamo Bay the right to challenge their detentions in federal court.

I learned my respect for American institutions the hard way. When I was growing up as a Uighur in China, there were no independent courts to review the imprisonment and oppression of people who, like me, peacefully opposed the Communists. But I learned my hardest lesson from the United States: I spent four long years behind the razor wire of its prison in Cuba.

I was locked up and mistreated for being in the wrong place at the wrong time during America’s war in Afghanistan. Like hundreds of Guantánamo detainees, I was never a terrorist or a soldier. I was never even on a battlefield. Pakistani bounty hunters sold me and 17 other Uighurs to the United States military like animals for $5,000 a head. The Americans made a terrible mistake.

Also is the news recently is a similar type of secret imprisonment, extraordinary rendition, which I blogged about before regarding the case of Canadian Maher Arar. Extraordinary rendition occurs when "terror suspects are transferred from U.S. control into the control of foreign governments, so that interrogation methods that are not permitted under U.S. law may be applied to the suspects."

Outlawed is a new documentary film that addresses the issue of rendition by telling "the stories of Khaled El-Masri and Binyam Mohamed, two men who have survived extraordinary rendition, secret detention, and torture by the U.S. government working with various other governments worldwide." Democracy Now's Amy Goodman highlighted this documentary film on her show last week which is produced by the international human rights organization Witness. [You can read the transcript or download the episode here.] This is an excerpt from the interview:

BINYAM MOHAMED: [read by his brother] “I refused to talk in Karachi until they gave me a lawyer. I said it was my right to have a lawyer. The FBI said, ‘The law has changed, there are no lawyers. You can cooperate with us the easy way or the hard way.’ On the first day of the interrogation ‘Chuck’ said, ‘If you don’t talk to me you are going to Jordan. We can’t do what we want here. The Arabs will deal with you.’”

CONDOLEEZZA RICE: The United States has not transported anyone and will not transport anyone to a country when we believe he will be tortured. Where appropriate, the United States seeks assurances that transferred persons will not be tortured.

BINYAM MOHAMED: [read by his brother] “They would say, ‘There is this guy who would say you are a big man in Al Qaeda.’ I would say, ‘It is a lie.’ They would torture me. I would say, ‘OK it is true,’ they would say, ‘OK tell us more.’ I would say, ‘I don’t know more,’ they would torture me again. The guards would say, ‘America’s really pissed off at what happened, and they have said to the world, “either you are with us or against us.” We Moroccans say, “We are with you,” so we will do whatever they want.’”

You can watch the full length film which is available on Google Video. I recommend that everyone watch this brief film to get a realistic perspective on the issue. Imagine being abducted while on vacation, taken half way across the world, tortured, and forced to confess to a crime that you have nothing do with. Your family has no idea where you are. They move out of your home and back to their country. The full story with all of the gruesome details are in the film.

Fortunately, some of our senators have come to realize the dangers and risks involved in this type of criminal and inhumane activity and have recently protested the passage of legislation endorsed by President Bush with regards to the rights of detainees. Many Americans are speaking out in support of these senators as they still have a conscience and still believe in the rule of law [see these letters to the editor].

Most of these congressmen will be up for re-election in a few weeks, and this issue should be a top priority for every American that cares about the freedoms which this country was founded upon and cares about the reputation of the US in the international community. We cannot continue to promote democracy and freedom in parts of the world while secretly jailing innocent and not-yet-proven-guilty suspects and allowing the governments of third world countries to torture them indefinitely on our behalf.

[technorati tags: Guantanamo Bay, Bush, terrorism, war, torture, torture, human+rights, Outlawed, Witness]

Thoughts and Images from the DC Anti-Torture Protest

I managed to make it this morning to the 24-hour vigil organized by the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition that I wrote about yesterday. The turnout was not huge, but that was mainly due to the heavy rain fall and thunderstorms that have been hitting the DC area. The offices of TASSC were flooded last night so that affected the whole day's program. In front of the White House, attendees passed out informational flyers, held up banners and signs, chanted anti-torture slogans, and half a dozen people got arrested after a civil disobedience session.

I met an old Peruvian man who was wearing a picture of his son who was tortured to death in 1993 by the Fujimori government. He was an innocent university student who was arrested, tortured, and then burned to death by the authorities. I met an American nun who was tortured by the government in Guatemala during a period of civil unrest until she escaped. These and other governments in Latin and South America were supported by the US; some of the torturers were even trained by Americans.

I met a young Jordanian-American woman whose brother was tortured in Saudi Arabia at the behest of the US government. Ahmed Abu-Ali is an American citizen who languished in a Saudi jail for 20 months without being charged, was tortured by the "Mabahith" (secret police), and then finally sent back to the US where the government sought to get revenge from him and his family by making frivolous charges against him. He was convicted by a jury based on confessions he made while being tortured. Yes, you heard me right, they took the statements he made while his body was whipped and his nails were pulled off, and used that as evidence against him. (Please recall my earlier post about Maher Arar who was rendered by the US to Syria where he said, "I was terrified, and I did not want to be tortured. I would say anything to avoid torture.")

The effects of torture on an individual cannot be erased. I could tell while speaking to these survivors that this was not something easy to do, to reopen the wounds and recall the painful memories. But they were brave enough to do it because they realize that innocent people like themselves are facing the same type of oppression, and as survivors of torture, they want to put an end to it. From Guantanamo to Syria to Guatemala to China, prisoners around the world in more than 150 countries are being tortured as we speak.

The burden is on us to make a difference, to change the policies, to lobby for change, to ask for justice.


Here are some pictures of the event (click to enlarge):

"zero tolerance for torture"

"All religions honor human dignity. Torture seeks to destroy it."

Police truck driving off with the 6 arrested protestors as the crowd waves

the elderly Peruvian man in the orange shirt with his dead son's picture on his chest

the crowd in front of the White House

A man dressed as a Guantanamo Bay inmate with a sack on his head, like the victims of Abu Ghraib. His poster reads "No exemptions for Bush. Ban all torture now."

This wasn't part of the event. The white tent is the home of an old woman who sleeps there in protest, I guess. Her signs, addressed to the White House, read: "Live by the bomb, die by the bomb" and "Ban all nuclear weapons or have a nice doomsday".
[previous posts on torture: Extraordinary Rendition; Torture in Israel]

[technorati tags: torture, activism, DC,international law, human rights, campaigns, torture awareness month]

Extraordinary Rendition: The Case of Maher Arar

As I mentioned at the start of the month of June, I will be writing a few posts about torture in honor of Torture Awareness Month and the corresponding campaign started by some bloggers. I haven't forgotten about this commitment, however, I have been overwhelmed in my search for what to discuss. Yes, unfortunately, there have been too many torture scandals in the past few years that I could not decide which to choose.

So I decided to address a topic related to torture, one that is not a one time scandal, but an ongoing political tactic used by the government of the United States. Extraordinary rendition occurs when "terror suspects are transferred from U.S. control into the control of foreign governments, so that interrogation methods that are not permitted under U.S. law may be applied to the suspects."

Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen, was one of those "suspects". A graduate of the prestigious McGill University and an engineer by training who was on a business trip to the US in 2002 found himself detained, chained, and flown to Syria where he would be imprisoned and tortured for the next 13 months.

Arar was vacationing with his family in Tunis when he had to fly back to Montreal for business on September 26, 2002. His trip included a stop in New York's JFK airport. The nightmare began when Arar was stopped by INS officials for questioning. They told him he was on the CIA's terror suspect watch list, and began asking him for detailed answers to their questions. His request for a lawyer was continuously rejected. It soon became clear to him that the reason he was being questioned was that he had worked with the brother of a man named Abdullah Almalki who was also suspected of "terrorist activity". He told them that he had met with his brother a few times on work related issues. Members of the FBI and the NYPD had questioned for hours on end without providing any food for him, nor giving him a decent place to sleep.

Arar was then asked to volunteer to go to Syria, and then forced to sign a document that he was not allowed to read. Arar tried to refuse telling his captors that he knew the Syrian government was known for torturing its prisoners. He was then transferred to a detention center in New York, where he was later allowed to make a 2 minute phone call to his mother-in-law. He asked her for a lawyer. The Canadian consul visited Arar and assured him that he would not be deported and that they would arrange for a lawyer. He met with the lawyer once who advised him not to sign any papers, and was then taken to another late night questioning session. The next morning he was told that he will be deported to Syria.

At 3 in the morning on Tuesday, October 8th, a prison guard woke me up and told me I was leaving. They took me to another room and stripped and searched me again. Then they again chained and shackled me. Then two officials took me inside a room and read me what they said was a decision by the INS Director.
They told me that based on classified information that they could not reveal to me, I would be deported to Syria. I said again that I would be tortured there. Then they read part of the document where it explained that INS was not the body that deals with Geneva Convention regarding torture.

He was then transported to a jet which to took him to Amman, Jordan. Roughed up by some security forced in Jordan, Arar was then driven by car to Syria. When he arrived to the office of the Syrian military intelligence, new interrogations began but this time with an experienced Syrian colonel who constantly used the threat of torture. Arar was then taken to his "prison cell":

We went into the basement, and they opened a door, and I looked in. I could not believe what I saw. I asked how long I would be kept in this place. He did not answer, but put me in and closed the door. It was like a grave. It had no light. It was three feet wide. It was six feet deep. It was seven feet high. It had a metal door, with a small opening in the door, which did not let in light because there was a piece of metal on the outside for sliding things into the cell.

There was a small opening in the ceiling, about one foot by two feet with iron bars. Over that was another ceiling, so only a little light came through this. There were cats and rats up there, and from time to time the cats peed through the opening into the cell. There were two blankets, two dishes and two bottles. One bottle was for water and the other one was used for urinating during the night. Nothing else. No light. I spent ten months, and ten days inside that grave.

The interrogations continued and the torture began. Arar was beaten with a metal cable on various parts of his body, slapped, and made to sit in a room and listen to other prisoners being tortured.

The cable is a black electrical cable, about two inches thick. They hit me with it everywhere on my body. They mostly aimed for my palms, but sometimes missed and hit my wrists they were sore and red for three weeks. They also struck me on my hips, and lower back. Interrogators constantly threatened me with the metal chair, tire and electric shocks.
They used the cable on the second and third day, and after that mostly beat me with their hands, hitting me in the stomach and on the back of my neck, and slapping me on the face. Where they hit me with the cables, my skin turned blue for two or three weeks, but there was no bleeding. At the end of the day they told me tomorrow would be worse. So I could not sleep.
Then on the third day, the interrogation lasted about eighteen hours.

They asked him to confess to various crimes and that he had been to training camps in Afghanistan. Under the pain of the abuse, Arar confessed to anything they wanted him to.

They kept beating me so I had to falsely confess and told them I did go to Afghanistan. I was ready to confess to anything if it would stop the torture. They wanted me to say I went to a training camp. I was so scared I urinated on myself twice.

The beating stopped for a few days, then Arar was taken to shower and shave. He was escorted into a room with three Syrian officials, an interpreter, and the Canadian consul. He was warned before the meeting not to mention anything about the abused he had faced. Arar cried in the meeting but was too scared to say anything to the consul. The abuse of course took its toll on Arar's body and mind.

On three different occasions in December I had a very hard time. Memories crowded my mind and I thought I was going to lose control, and I just screamed and screamed. I could not breathe well after, and felt very dizzy.

I was not exposed to sunlight for six months. The only times I left the grave was for interrogation, and for the visits. Daily life in that place was hell. When I was detained in New York I weighed about 180 pounds. I think I lost about 40 pounds while I was at the Palestine Branch.

On August 19 I was taken upstairs to see the investigator, and I was given a paper and asked to write what he dictated. If I protested, he kicked me. I was forced to write that I went to a training camp in Afghanistan. They made me sign and put my thumbprint on the last page.

On the final visit by the Canadian consul, Arar decides that he has no hope but to take the risk and tell the consul what he has been through. The consul asks if he has been tortured, and Arar says yes.

A few months later, Arar is taken to a court where a prosecutor reads to him the confession. Arar tries to protest, but to no avail. He is forced to sign the document without looking at it. Arar was not charged. Arar is then taken to an embassy car and driven to the home of the Canadian consul to shower before he takes his flight out of Syria. The date is October 5, 2003.

Upon his return to Canada, Arar made a long statement to the media on November 4, 2003. Here are some excerpts:

I am not a terrorist. I am not a member of Al Qaeda and I do not know any one who belongs to this group. All I know about Al Qaeda is what I have seen in the media. I have never been to Afghanistan. I have never been anywhere near Afghanistan and I do not have any desire to ever go to Afghanistan.

I am a father and a husband. I am a telecommunications engineer and entrepreneur. I have never had trouble with the police, and have always been a good citizen. So I still cannot believe what has happened to me, and how my life and career have been destroyed.

The past year has been a nightmare, and I have spent the past few weeks at home trying to learn how to live with what happened to me. I know that the only way I will ever be able to move on in my life and have a future is if I can find out why this happened to me.

I want to know why this happened to me. I believe the only way I can ever know why this happened is to have all the truth come out in a public inquiry.

My priority right now is to clear my name, get to the bottom of the case and make sure this does not happen to any other Canadian citizens in the future. I believe the best way to go about achieving this goal is to put pressure on the government to call for a public inquiry.

Arar was never charged by the United States, Syria, nor Canada. His case highlights the increase in use of the extraordinary rendition program by US officials in the aftermath of 9/11. In this case, a completely innocent man lost a year of his life, lost his rights and his dignity, due to a complete disregard for American and international laws regarding torture. He has since filed a lawsuit against US government officials who were responsible for his illegal rendition.

According to Jane Mayer who wrote a scathing report on this policy for The New Yorker, there are some laws in the US that protect against this kind of action. However, the Bush administration found ways to bypass noting that 9/11 has caused a shift in policy.

In 1998, Congress passed legislation declaring that it is “the policy of the United States not to expel, extradite, or otherwise effect the involuntary return of any person to a country in which there are substantial grounds for believing the person would be in danger of being subjected to torture, regardless of whether the person is physically present in the United States.”

Mayer adds:

The extraordinary-rendition program bears little relation to the system of due process afforded suspects in crimes in America. Terrorism suspects in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East have often been abducted by hooded or masked American agents, then forced onto a Gulfstream V jet, like the one described by Arar.

Upon arriving in foreign countries, rendered suspects often vanish. Detainees are not provided with lawyers, and many families are not informed of their whereabouts. The most common destinations for rendered suspects are Egypt, Morocco, Syria, and Jordan, all of which have been cited for human-rights violations by the State Department, and are known to torture suspects.

More recently, however, some European countries appear to have been involved in this as well.

A European investigator concluded Wednesday that there are "serious indications" that the CIA operated secret prisons for senior al-Qaeda figures in Poland and Romania as part of a clandestine "spider's web" to catch, transfer and hold terrorism suspects around the world.

Dick Marty, a Swiss lawyer working on behalf of the Council of Europe, the continent's official human rights organization, said at least seven other European nations colluded with the CIA to capture and secretly detain terrorism suspects, including several who were ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing.

President Bush and Condi Rice have not hesitated to deny any allegations of torture or wrongdoing. They claim that the US abides by the highest standards of integrity and does not support any type of torture. At the same time, the Bush administration has found it convenient to create off-shore detention facilities in Cuba, and render terror suspects to undemocratic repressive regimes around the world which are known to have policies that publicly or privately allow prisoners to be tortured.

This will only encourage these countries to continue their policies of abuse and torture and lack of due process for suspects. The Bush administration isn't exporting democracy to the Middle East and Eastern Europe, it's exporting torture. This will definitely come back to hurt the American people, who I believe would not support this type of policy. Unfortunately, not enough people know about these abuses or are willing to take a stand against them. Congress appears to want to take some action, but nothing will come about unless constituents push in large numbers to put an end to this kind of abuse. Terror suspects should be detained and tried in public under the law of this land, and not rendered across the ocean to be tortured without trial.

Detailed Chronology of Maher Arar's Rendition to Syria
The Commission of Inquiry to Investigate the Case of Maher Arar
Jane Mayer's Outsourcing Torture
CBS News- Extraordinary Rendition
Syria, US Torture Center

[technorati tags: Maher Arar, torture, US, Bush, human rights, Syria, Canada, war on terrorism, campaigns, torture awareness month]

Zarqawi, Israel, and Freedom of Expression in Jordan

The Jordanian blogosphere has been up in arms over the actions of a few parliamentarians who are members of the Jordanian Islamic Action Front (IAF) party. The four men visited the family of Zarqawi and mourned his death, calling him a "martyr." Since then they have been attacked by many people in Jordan who believe that showing such public support for a known enemy of Jordan, the man who was behind the Nov. 11th terrorist attacks, is disrespectful and even treasonous. The response has been quick, which resulted in the arrest of the 4 MP's for investigation and possibly facing serious charges.

Today, a protest was held in front of that Parliament headquarters to denounce the actions of those MP's. Fellow blogger Roba is angered by the lack of diversity, large turnout, and organization at the protest.

The death of Zarqawi and the recent Israeli attack on a Palestinian beach goers has dominated the headlines in the Middle East and the rest of the world. Many people in the Arab world found it hard to deal with both events. They lashed out against Israel for the recent atrocity, which they believe could only happen with the support of the US. The killing of Zarqawi was hailed by the US as a huge achievement, but many in the Middle East are hesitant to express their support for US actions in Iraq.

While they may agree that Zarqawi is a cold-blooded murderer, they feel that supporting his capture would indicate support for the US occupation and denouncement of any resistance to such occupation. The latter is a sentiment few in the Muslim world want to express. With all the suffering faced by their fellow Iraqis, the US occupation has become the enemy, and resistance to such occupation is sometimes glorified despite reservations about Iraqi civilians being the target of these "resistance movements".

So what does this have to do with the IAF and freedom of expression in Jordan?

I believe that these spiraling events are connected in a complex web in the Arab and Muslim mind, as well as in the actions of the governments of the Middle East.

Jordanian officials have allowed a protest to be held for citizens to express their anger at a certain event, the IAF fiasco. There is no doubt that the Jordanian government benefits from such public sentiments against the largest Islamic party which also happens to be the main opposition party in parliament. Just because the government benefits from this fiasco, however, I am in no way indicating that there is a government *conspiracy* to make the party look bad. The MP's apparently have no PR skills whatsoever, and do not seem to care that their actions reflect on the whole party, whether the latter agrees or not. And that they are representatives of the people, and not just their party, so their actions are always scrutinized.

Nevertheless, the fact that the government has nurtured this public outcry and allowed the protest would seem to be a positive step in regards to freedom of expression and assembly in Jordan...right?

Not quite.

The government reaction to this outcry appears to be exceptional and exclusive in nature. One would imagine that any other public outcry against any other government action would be welcomed as well, but that is truly not the case. One would imagine that the public is always allowed to express concern over members of government who appear to be supporting a known enemy of the state and the people. But again, that is not the case.

In the aftermath of the Amman hotel bombings, for which Zarqawi claimed responsibility, he has surely become a known enemy of the state of Jordan and the people of Jordan (ideally). Coincidentally, the people of Jordan also consider Israel an enemy, despite the fact that the government does not. Jordanians consider Sharon and Olmert enemies, despite the fact that the government provides them with the red carpet treatment and official state visits.

In a democratic environment, the people would be allowed to protest both of their enemies and anyone who supports those enemies. They would be allowed to protest in front of the Israeli embassy without being attacked by dogs, water pumps, and riot police. They would allowed to have a referendum on peace with Israel. Their consideration of Israel as an enemy would be implemented by law, and their representatives would be able to truly express the sentiments of their constituents. Of course I realize that Jordan is not a democracy, but it is considered one of the more open and reform minded countries in the Middle East.

My concern is not that people who attack Zarqawi should also attack Israel. That is their personal choice. I don't want to connect the Palestinian-Israeli issue to every other issue in the Middle East (although I could). I simply want to point out that all these issues which mean so much to people in the Arab and Muslim world are continuously exploited in various ways by individuals officially in power or others who have a significant amount of influence on the population. A citizen feels anger or happiness, but he cannot express those feelings unless the government agrees with him. Otherwise, any such expression will result in repression.

I want Jordanians and all other Arabs and Muslims to be able to protest the actions of government officials who support an individual, or party, or state that most consider their enemy. No exceptions.

[technorati tags: Zarqawi, IAF, Jordan, Israel, terrorism, democracy, freedoms]