The Long Ordeal of Sami Al-Aran

The Long Ordeal of Sami Al-Arian - Civil and Human Rights Advocate and

Political Prisoner

By Stephen Lendman

Created Apr 5 2007 - 9:16am

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.

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"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their

spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their

government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are

suffering deeply in spirit,

and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public

debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have

patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning

back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at

stake."

-Thomas Jefferson