Reflections on Independence Day: Justice in America
Justice Denied
Five founders of the Holy Land Foundation, once the nation's largest Muslim
charity, have received prison terms of up to sixty-five years on charges of
supporting the Palestinian group Hamas. The five were never accused of
supporting violence and were convicted for funding charities that aided
needy Palestinians. The government's case relied on Israeli intelligence as
well as disputed documents and electronic surveillance gathered by the FBI
over a span of fifteen years.
. . . the United States government, through USAID, continued to give money
to the same charities for years after Holy Land was closed.
European prosecutors are likely to investigate CIA and Bush administration
officials on suspicion of violating an international ban on torture if they
are not held legally accountable at home.
The Justice Department claims that the "centerpiece" of its case against
Hashmi is the testimony of Junaid Babar. According to the government, in the
beginning of 2004, Babar, also a United States citizen, stayed with Hashmi
at his London apartment for two weeks. In his luggage, the government
alleges, Babar had raincoats, ponchos and waterproof socks, which Babar
later delivered to the third-ranking member of Al Qaeda in South Waziristan,
Pakistan. It was alleged that Hashmi allowed Babar to call other
conspirators in terror plots, using his cellphone. Babar, who was arrested
in 2004 and has pleaded guilty to five counts of material support for Al
Qaeda, faces up to seventy years in prison. While awaiting sentence, he has
agreed to serve as a government witness in terror trials in Britain and
Canada, as well as in Hashmi's trial. For his cooperation, Babar will be
rewarded with a reduced sentence.
Arrested in 2003, Al-Arian went on trial in late 2005 on charges that he
used an Islamic think tank and a Muslim school and charity as a cover for
raising funds to finance "terrorism." In 2006, after a six-month trial
costing taxpayers a reported $50 million, a Florida jury refused to find
Al-Arian guilty on a single one of the 17 counts he was charged with. The
jury acquitted Al-Arian of eight charges, including the most serious, and
deadlocked on nine others; 10 of 12 jurors reportedly favored acquittal on
all counts. . . .
But the nightmare was only beginning. Against even government prosecutors'
recommendations, Judge James Moody sentenced Al-Arian to the maximum
allowable sentence.
Bush Administration Exploited Terror Plots For Political Gain
On Thursday night's "Countdown" Keith Olbermann presented an impressively
detailed timeline he called "The Nexus of Politics and Terror," in which he
chronicled the Bush administration's exploitation of terror threats for
political gain. Olbermann's exhaustive account weaves from each revelation
of an intelligence failure or a Democratic political victory to an almost
immediate orange alert or "new threat" from al Qaeda.
. . . a decision by a federal judge in New York, I'm no longer confident
that I can be so reassuring. Dismissing a case challenging the detention of
Arab and Muslim foreign nationals in the weeks after Sept. 11, U.S. District
Judge John Gleeson ruled that it is constitutionally permissible to round up
foreign nationals on immigration charges based solely on their race,
religion or country of origin. What's more, he said they can be detained
indefinitely, even after they have agreed to be removed to their home
countries.
In essence, he authorized a repeat of the Japanese internment -- as long as
the internment is limited to foreign nationals charged with visa violations
(a group that at last count numbered about 11 million people).
The Orwellian named Patriot Act has destroyed habeas corpus. The executive
branch has gained the unaccountable power to detain American citizens on
mere suspicion or accusation, without evidence, and to hold Americans
indefinitely without a trial.
According to Amnesty International, about 40 nations in all had either
passed or drafted similar legislation by mid-2002. . . .
The example of the Patriot Act also seems to have given foreign governments
a fresh pretext for strengthening their hand against domestic critics.
Authoritarian countries, in particular, leapt at the chance to align their
own repression of political opponents or minorities with the global war on
terror -- either expanding penalties for "terrorism" or simply applying the
concept without bothering about law. . . .
Enver Masud, "The War on Islam,"
India Research Press; 4th edition (July 1, 2008)
Enver Masud, "9/11 Unveiled,"
The Wisdom Fund (September 11, 2008)
[Then-Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft violated the rights of U.S. citizens in the
fevered wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks by ordering arrests on
material witness warrants when the government lacked probable cause, a
federal appeals court said in a scathing opinion Friday.--Carol J. Williams,
"Ashcroft can be sued over arrests,
appeals court rules," Los Angles Times, September 5, 2009]
[ . . . in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 the US government undertook
the "preventative detention" of about 5,000 men on the basis of their
birthplace and later sought a further 19,000 "voluntary interviews". Over
the next year, more than 170,000 men from 24 predominantly Muslim countries
and North Korea were fingerprinted and interviewed in a programme of
"special registration". None of these produced a single terrorism
conviction.--Gary Younge, "The war on terror has been about scaring people, not
protecting them," Guardian, January 3, 2010]
