To: U.S District Court
Tarek Mehanna is a 27 year old Muslim Egyptian American born and raised in the United States. Highly educated, Tarek holds a doctorate in pharmacy from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy. He is a devout and tolerant Muslim who is not only respected in the local Islamic and interfaith communities, but who also gives back to his Islamic community by fulfilling the roles of brother, educator, mentor, scholar, and friend. Tarek is described by those who know him well as humble, reserved, warm, peaceful, intelligent, knowledgeable, reflective, pragmatic, dedicated, and straightforward. He is a person with strong ethical values who refuses to compromise on them regardless of the circumstances. It is unfortunate then that this customarily admirable trait plays a role in his current situation.
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Shaker Aamer is the last London resident being held in Guantánamo Bay. He is a long term British resident, a 42 year old Saudi national, with a British family, including a 7 year old son he has never met. Shortly after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan it is believed Shaker, like hundreds of others, was sold by tribal warlords and during detention suffered vicious torture in the dark Prison in Kabul. He eventually ended up in Guantanamo where much of his time has been spent in solitary confinement. According to David Rose (author and human rights investigative journalist ‘Guantanamo: America’s War on Human Rights’) so many innocent people “ended up there as a result of military-intelligence screening procedures in Afghanistan and elswhere that were flawed and inadequate, made still worse by the use of woefully poor and virtually untrained translators”. Shaker Aamer’s story is a terrible human tragedy. Shaker has a seven year old son he has never met and his oldest child remembers him only from photographs. A family has been ripped apart for no legal or apparent reason and eight years on it is way past time for justice to be done – Shaker needs to be returned home to London. Shaker Aamer has been described by MOAZZAM BEGG (author ‘Enemy Combatant’ & ex-Guantanamo detainee) as a smiling, caring and unforgettable person who was very well-known in the south London area. Shaker has never been tried or charged and yet has been held in solitary confinement for far longer periods than other prisoners. During his time in Guantanamo Shaker Aamer has protested against the injustices at the prison. PENNSBURG — According to neighbors of 427 Main St., Pennsburg, where Colleen LaRose reportedly lived for some time in 2009, there was nothing suspicious or out-of-the-ordinary about LaRose’s appearance. Renee Herbert, who resides in the Main Street building where LaRose lived, said she used to see LaRose sometimes when the two did laundry. “Colleen looked like an everyday housewife,” Herbert said of LaRose. Herbert described LaRose as a middle-aged white woman with blond hair. Herbert said she didn’t talk with LaRose often, only when the two were doing laundry or when they passed one another coming or going.
Continue reading Neighbor: LaRose seemed like ‘everyday housewife’ FD Editor Note: I find it odd that the DoJ is suddenly concerned about “committing murder overseas” when the DoD is already doing that on a daily basis.
The indictment charges that LaRose (an American citizen born in 1963 who resides in Montgomery County, Pa.) and five unindicted co-conspirators (located in South Asia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe and the United States) recruited men on the Internet to wage violent jihad in South Asia and Europe, and recruited women on the Internet who had passports and the ability to travel to and around Europe in support of violent jihad.
Continue reading Pennsylvania Woman Indicted in Alleged Plot to Recruit Jihadist Fighters All the other UK Guantanamo detainees have returned home. President Obama’s pledge to close Guantanamo by January 2010 has not been met but, gradually, detainees are being transferred to countries willing to accept them. They are detainees, cleared for release, who can not return home. Shaker Aamer’s case is different. He has a home in Battersea, wife, four young children and family members waiting for his return. So why is Shaker Aamer still in Guantanamo? Why is he still there after more than 8 years, many of them spent in solitary confinement? In June 2007 the US cleared Shaker for release, without charge. In August 2007, the UK Government requested his release and return and since then, it has “strenuously repeated that request.” Ultimately, the Government says, Shaker’s return is a decision for the US Government. So, the UK points the finger at the US. Neither wants responsibility for his shameful treatment. Is the Government really making urgent demands for Shaker’s return?
A huge hat-tip to Sean Dailey for the link on the Coalition’s Facebook page to this absolutely outrageous pair of video clips from EWTN:
Six former Guantanamo detainees are appealing against a ruling that secret evidence can be used by the government to defend their claim for damages. The UK citizens and residents are suing intelligence agencies and ministers for alleged complicity in their abuse. Dinah Rose QC, representing five of the six, told the Court of Appeal the “closed material procedure” was never intended for use in civil actions. The government denies the claims made in the case at the High Court. The men – Binyam Mohamed, Bisher Al Rawi, Jamil El Banna, Richard Belmar, Omar Deghayes and Martin Mubanga – claim they were mistreated in Afghanistan, Guantanamo and elsewhere. They were held on suspicion of terrorism but deny any involvement.
Continue reading AT WAR: Pakistan Seeks Identity Of American Suspect By Marc A. Thiessen Would most Americans want to know if the Justice Department hired a bunch of mob lawyers and put them in charge of mob cases? Or a group of drug cartel lawyers and put them in charge of drug cases? Would they want their elected representatives to find out who these lawyers were, which mob bosses and drug lords they had worked for, and what roles they were now playing at the Justice Department? Of course they would — and rightly so. Yet U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder hired former al-Qaeda lawyers to serve in the Justice Department and resisted providing Congress this basic information. In November, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee sent Holder a letter requesting that he identify officials who represented terrorists or worked for organizations advocating on their behalf, the cases and projects they worked on before coming to the Justice Department, the cases and projects they’ve worked on since joining the administration, and a list of officials who have recused themselves because of prior work on behalf of terrorist detainees.
Continue reading The ‘al-Qaeda seven’ and selective McCarthyism
The center said Kayed Hassan Hiron, from Nablus, was detained on 1 January 2003 and was sentenced to nine years. The Israeli Prison Service in Meggido prison transfered Hiron to Soroko Hospital, where his cancer diagnosis was confirmed and described as serious. Hiron’s family were allowed to visit him in prison, where they told the center they noticed a deterioration in his health and said he required special treatment, which would only be made available to him upon his release. Pakistani national Aafia Siddiqui, recently convicted in the US in a shocking miscarriage of justice has now been refused all contact with her family and is being held in effect under “incommunicado” detention. She is being denied letters, visits, phone calls or any reading material, on the grounds that it impacts “the security of the nation”. Background Dr Aafia Siddiqui is a Neuroscientist originally from Pakistan and from an educated family. She studied in the United States, gaining a PhD in 2001. She is the mother of three children, and is regarded as an intelligent, practising Muslim woman. Following her disappearance in March 2003, along with her three children, Aafia is believed to have been held in secret prisons at the behest of the CIA, suffering torture and abuse – the full details of which will probably never be known. At the end of this ordeal, she was framed in a shocking miscarriage of justice and accused of the attempted murder of two US army personnel.
Continue reading [ACTION] Restore Visitation and Communication Rights to Dr Aafia Siddiqui |
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