...The trial of Al-Arian is a cause célèbre in the Muslim world. A documentary film was made about the case in Europe. He has become the poster child for judicial abuse and persecution of Muslims in the United States by the Bush administration. The facts surrounding the trial and imprisonment of the former university professor have severely tarnished the integrity of the American judicial system and made the government's vaunted campaign against terrorism look capricious, inept and overtly racist.
Chris hedges commenting on the case of the American Dr.Sami Al-Arian who spent 5 and a half years in prison & is now under house arrest. See below.
From the United States to Canada and Britain there have been many cases of injustice which have become part of the Global War on Terror as crafted by the Bush Regime and Tony Blair . Various countries around the world have used the War on Terror as cover for their own otherwise unjustifiable actions i.e. Israel in Gaza in which Israel used the presence of terrorists to justify massive bombings of civilian populations ; India against its own Muslim citizens to Sri Lankas actions against the Tamil Tigers in which the government is accused of wide spread human rights violations and even War Crimes; or the Chinese governments attempts to justify its on going repression in China and its brutal and criminal actions in Tibet which human rights groups have referred to as at the least Cultural Genocide and the list goes on.
The peculiar case of George Galloway MP being refused entrance to Canada by our government is another case in the hysteria of the War on Terror that makes little sense. The Canadian government claims Galloway is a security risk because he led an aid convoy to Gaza from Britain through Europe and finally into Gaza delivering humanitarian aid . In Gaza Galloway turned the aid supplies and some money over to Hamas which is the party elected democratically to represent the people of Gaza. The thing of it is that the Canadian government has Hamas listed as a terrorist organization. In other words the Canadian government has banned Galloway from speaking in Canada because he has been an outspoken critic of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and has criticized Israel's invasion and slaughter in Gaza. Yet he is still permitted to sit in the British House of Commons and is allowed to go on a speaking tour in the United States.
George Galloway on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos-April 3, 2009
THE HOUR AT CBC
Here's another bit of the insanity which has become part of America's War On Terror : A lawyer on his client's behalf writes a letter to President Obama and because he talks about his client being tortured the lawyer could be charged and imprisoned. So how is the lawyer supposed to get justice for his client. By making everything a matter of security or as a state secret even talking about this case by a media outlet they too might be breaking some obscure law or legalese written under the Bush Regime and now being enforced by President Obama.
" Famed Gitmo Lawyer Facing Six Months in Prison For Writing Letter to Obama Detailing Torture of Client "Comment Is Free. Posted April 2, 2009( AlterNet.org).
Clive Stafford Smith is accused of 'unprofessional conduct' by Pentagon officials who monitor communication between Gitmo prisoners and their lawyers.
Lawyers for Binyam Mohamed face the incredible prospect of a six-month jail sentence in America after writing a letter to President Obama detailing their client's allegations of torture by U.S. agents.
The privilege review team -- officials from the U.S. Department of Defense who monitor and censor communication between Guantánamo prisoners and their lawyers -- have previously been accused of using their powers to suppress evidence of the abuse and mistreatment of detainees.
Clive Stafford Smith, director of legal charity Reprieve, and his colleague Ahmed Ghappour have been summoned to appear before a Washington court on May 11 after a complaint was made by the privilege review team.
Stafford Smith had written to the president after judges in the UK ruled against the release of U.S. evidence detailing Mohamed's alleged torture at Guantánamo. The letter asked the president to reconsider the U.S. position and urged him to release the evidence into the public domain. He attached a memo summarizing the case because his US security clearance gives him access to the classified material. In order to comply with classification guidelines, the memo did not identify individual officers by name or specify locations of the abuse.
Police to probe MI5 torture claims-March 28, 2009
Scotland Yard is to investigate claims that former MI5 officers were complicit in the interrogation and torture of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed, it has been announced.
The Attorney General Baroness Scotland said that she had asked the Metropolitan Police to carry an investigation "as expeditiously as possible given the seriousness and sensitivity of the issues involved".
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "I have always made clear that when serious allegations are made they have got to be investigated. I have also been clear that this government does not tolerate or endorse torture."
Mr Mohamed alleges that an MI5 officer supplied questions to his interrogators when he was held and tortured at a secret site in Morocco following his arrest in Pakistan in 2002.
And so much for Britain and America's wonderful ally Pakistan which is also not so democratic or free after all. But surely just about everyone knows this and one can only conclude that the British and the United States have gone out of their way to cover up human rights abuses including torture taking place in Pakistan with the permission and or guidance of the government of Pakistan.
Three more cases revealed by Reprieve of British citizens tortured abroad
March 18, 2009- British Citizens tortured in Pakistan
Three more cases of torture involving British citizens were revealed in London on Tuesday. The Hussain family, involved in a messy land dispute in Pakistan, said they were arrested and tortured by corrupt Pakistani police and that the British Foreign Office turned a blind eye to the situation. Fareena Alam reports.
Then there is the case of Dr. Al-Arian in the United States who was arrested as a " terrorists " and yet all charges were dropped against him though he spent 5 and a half years in jail and though released last September is now under house arrest. Here is a case where Obama could step in and do what's necessary to get this injustice ended and to have those involved investigated rather than letting them all get out of this without any consequences for their actions. Was it the FBIs fault or the Homeland Security or the Department of Justice or JAG or the Bush administration itself.
There are those who argue quite plausibly that "The real reason Al-Arian was arrested and kept in prison was because he dared to speak out against the War in Iraq. He claimed the conflict was being urged by the Neoconservatives ."
Dr. Sami Al-Arian 2002 anti-war appeal (interview)
Prof. Al-Arian exposed the neo-con cabal and the lies they were concocting to create the 'Clash of Civilizations' and sell the invasion of Iraq. For the crime of pointing out the Zionist agenda, he was indicted and prosecuted, but acquitted; and yet remains in prison. Snowshoefilms interview of Oct. 2002, Washington D.C.
Simply Unbelievable!! Dr. Sami Al-Arian's Struggle for Justice-April 1, 2008
Visit http://petition.freesaminow.com to make your voice heard. Shocking tale of the first major test-case of the PATRIOT Act. An embarrassed Justice Department is still trying to keep Dr. Sami Al-Arian in jail despite being acquitted of charges.
Sami Al-Arian Released After 5.5 Years in Prison-Democracy Now!September 3, 2008
After more than five-and-a-half years behind bars, Palestinian professor and activist, Sami Al-Arian, has been released from prison. Immigration authorities released him on bail on Tuesday after they failed to explain his continued detention pending a trial for refusing to testify before a grand jury about a cluster of Muslim organizations in northern Virginia. But while he is out of prison, Sami Al-Arian is not free. He must remain under house detention at his daughter Laila's residence in Virginia, pending trial. Laila Al-Arian joins us from Virginia.
As Chris Hedges explains in this article about Dr. Sami Al-Arian that the whole case is one of a miscarriage of justice and is tainted by racism and a deep seated hatred and misunderstanding of Islam. But these days there are many in our society claim to be anti-racists and in favor of tolerance and pluralism except when it comes to Muslims, Arabs, Palestinians, Afghans etc. Somehow they are all suspect and all are guilty to a greater or lesser degree of the acts committed on 9/11 or thos committed against US soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan or of terrorists actions committed against America's allies esp. Israel.
Obstruction of Justice By Chris Hedges "TruthDig"March 31, 2009
U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema is scheduled to issue a ruling in the Eastern District of Virginia at the end of April in a case that will send a signal to the Muslim world and beyond whether the American judicial system has regained its independence after eight years of flagrant manipulation and intimidation by the Bush administration. Brinkema will decide whether the Palestinian activist Dr. Sami Amin Al-Arian, held for over six years in prison and under house arrest in Virginia since Sept 2, is guilty or innocent of two counts of criminal contempt.
Brinkema's ruling will have ramifications that will extend far beyond Virginia and the United States. The trial of Al-Arian is a cause célèbre in the Muslim world. A documentary film was made about the case in Europe. He has become the poster child for judicial abuse and persecution of Muslims in the United States by the Bush administration. The facts surrounding the trial and imprisonment of the former university professor have severely tarnished the integrity of the American judicial system and made the government's vaunted campaign against terrorism look capricious, inept and overtly racist.
Government lawyers made wild assertions that showed a profound ignorance of the Middle East and exposed a gross stereotyping of the Muslim world. It called on the FBI case agent, for example, who testified as an expert witness that Islamic terrorists were routinely smuggled over the border from Iran into Syria, apparently unaware that Syria is separated from Iran by a large land mass called Iraq. The transcripts of the case against Al-Arian-which read like a bad Gilbert and Sullivan opera-are stupefying in their idiocy. The government wiretaps picked up nothing of substance; taxpayer dollars were used to record and transcribe 21,000 hours of banal chatter, including members of the Al-Arian household ordering pizza delivery. During the trial the government called 80 witnesses and subjected the jury to inane phone transcriptions and recordings, made over a 10-year period, which the jury curtly dismissed as "gossip." It would be comical if the consequences were not so dire for the defendant.
A jury, on Dec. 6, 2005, acquitted Dr. Al-Arian on eight of the counts in the superseding indictment after a six-month trial in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. On the 94 charges made against the four defendants, there were no convictions. Of the 17 charges against Al-Arian-including "conspiracy to murder and maim persons abroad"-the jury acquitted him of eight and was hung on the rest. The jurors, who voted 10 to 2 to acquit on the remaining charges, could not reach a unanimous decision calling for his full acquittal. Two others in the case, Ghassan Ballut and Sameeh Hammoudeh, were acquitted of all charges.
and he concludes :
Kromberg, like many involved in the case, has also repeatedly made derogatory and insulting comments about Muslims. When Al-Arian's lawyers asked Kromberg to delay the transfer of the professor to Virginia, for example, because of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, they were told "if they can kill each other during Ramadan they can appear before the grand jury." Kromberg, according to an affidavit signed by Al-Arian's attorney, Jack Fernandez, also said: "I am not going to put off Dr. Al-Arian's grand jury appearance just to assist in what is becoming the Islamization of America."
Judge Brinkema, in one of the rare examples of judicial courage during this saga, defied the government to allow Al-Arian out on bail.
The case against Al-Arian, in the eyes of the grand inquisitors like Kromberg, is a battle against a culture and a religion that they openly denigrate and despise. This racism, the driving engine behind the campaign against Al-Arian, mocks the integrity of the American judicial system. Let us hope that in a few weeks we will witness a new era. Justice delayed is better than justice denied. We owe Dr. Al-Arian, and ourselves, a return to the rule of law.
And from the website of Norman G. Finkelstein :Updates on Dr. Al-Arian Sami Al-Arian Subjected to Worst Prison Conditions since Florida 07.27.2008 | FreeSamiNow.com
Despite grant of bail, government continues to hold him
Hanover, VA - July 27, 2008 - More than two weeks after being granted bond by a federal judge, Sami Al-Arian is still being held in prison. In fact, Dr. Al-Arian is now being subjected to the worst treatment by prison officials since his stay in Coleman Federal Penitentiary in Florida three years ago.
On July 12th, Judge Leonie Brinkema pronounced that Dr. Al-Arian was not a danger to the community nor a flight risk, and accordingly granted him bail before his scheduled August 13th trial. Nevertheless, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) invoked the jurisdiction it has held over Dr. Al-Arian since his official sentence ended last April to keep him from leaving prison. The ICE is ostensibly holding Dr. Al-Arian to complete deportation procedures but, given that Dr. Al-Arian’s trial will take place in less than three weeks, it would seem somewhat unlikely that the ICE will follow through with such procedures in the near future.
Not content to merely keep Dr. Al-Arian from enjoying even a very limited stint of freedom, the government is using all available means to try to psychologically break him. Instead of keeping him in a prison close to the Washington DC area where his two oldest children live, the ICE has moved him to Pamunkey Regional Jail in Hanover, VA, more than one hundred miles from the capital. Regardless, even when Dr. Al-Arian was relatively close to his children, they were repeatedly denied visitation requests.
More critically, this distance makes it extremely difficult for Dr. Al-Arian to meet with his attorneys in the final weeks before his upcoming trial. This is the same tactic employed by the government in 2005 to try to prevent Dr. Al-Arian from being able to prepare a full defense.
also see website : FREE SAMI AL-ARIAN: Political Prisoner Since Feb. 20, 2003
and so it goes,
GORD.
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