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.
|
|||||
   This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.  |
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. Please note that the arraignment for Colleen (Fatima) LaRose will be on the 18th at 10:30 am. It’s a good idea to show up early, I have a feeling that there will be a lot of press there. United States District Court Philadelphia, PA 19106-1797 (map)
If you are able to attend, please do, and please email me at via “Contact Me” in the upper left hand section of this page. Thanks in advance! By Andy Worthington To coincide with the publication of my article, “What Torture Is, and Why It’s Illegal and Not ‘Poor Judgment,’” in which I revisited the scandalous whitewash of the Justice Department report into the conduct of John Yoo and Jay Bybee (the lawyers who sought to redefine torture in the notorious “torture memos” of August 2002), I reproduce below a transcript of the statements made by the “high-value detainee” Abu Zubaydah during interviews with representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, following his transfer to Guantánamo from secret CIA prisons in September 2006. Abu Zubaydah’s testimony comes from the leaked ICRC report on the 14 “high-value detainees” who arrived in Guantánamo in September 2006, which was published last April by the New York Review of Books (PDF), and I’m posting it here because it complements the main themes of my article: that torture cannot be redefined, that what took place was demonstrably torture, that John Yoo deliberately ignored evidence that contradicted his agenda, and that hundreds of prisoners — both in Guantánamo and secret prisons — were subjected to some variation on the “enhanced interrogation techniques” that were approved for use on Abu Zubaydah in the “torture memos” written and approved by Yoo and Bybee. I also believe that it’s clear from the chronology established by Abu Zubaydah that his torture began long before the memos were issued on August 1, 2002, through prolonged sleep deprivation if nothing else, and would like to point out that, during this period, approval for the techniques used on him had to be personally approved at the highest levels of the administration.
 Leave a comment | | | There is a legality issue with GITMO. Can any country in the world can escape its local laws, such as the British law allowing a maximum of 28 day preventive detention, by incarcerating people for ever on a remote island or occupied territory? If not, why would Guantanamo qualify as a safe haven for US scofflaws. It appears like we have made Guantanamo a Cayman Island for law evasion. This is where we have & will stash away potential criminals for “prolonged detention”. Sounds like a “deluxe gulag” to me? Why are the citizens of this “Land of the Brave” quaking in fear of detainees from GITMO coming to US prison system? Answer is rather simple. Right wing GOP members of Congress are spreading fear among their constituents. Following a circular logic, they claim that they are just listening to their constituents. Where is “Voting the Conscience” and providing leadership based on convictions and a respect for decency? My my such unprincipled politics just to get reelected! First spread fear and than show the people how you want to protect them. Since hypocrisy crosses party lines, some conviction free Dems are following the same path so they do not lose election to a more right wing Republican. As for the GOP, Senator Chambliss laid out a “Save our Communities Act”, an example of chicanery and fear mongering described above. Pre-1965 the same fear mongers and cowering fools would have liked to pass a similar act to protect their communities from some other undesirables. I wonder if the fear virus carried by our esteemed representatives is probably more serious then the radicalization virus a detainee might be harboring. In order to serve their own political ambitions, they will stop at nothing. In the globally connected world today they bring shame and dishonor to our country. These clueless dupes do not have a clue that spreading fear on this “Land of the Brave” does not make the nation more secure.
Continue reading GITMO, NIMBY, Land of Brave and Unhelpful Allies But Mother Says Family Feared the Woman Had Been Radicalized By JOHN HENDREN and CLAYTON SANDELL Colorado mother Jamie Paulin-Ramirez was released from custody in Ireland after being arrested in a plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist who angered many Muslims by portraying Mohammed with a dog’s body. Authorities are still holding three other suspects in that alleged plot, including Paulin-Ramirez’ husband and Colleen Larose, who allegedly called herself “Jihad Jane” online. Though Paulin-Ramirez was released, her mother said in an interview with ABC News that the 31-year-old woman had been troubled for years, was taunted as a child over a hearing problem and the family was concerned that she had become radicalized.
On Friday, March 12, members of the Tarek Mehanna Support Committee attempted for the second time to meet with a representative of the Massachusetts US Attorney’s office. Again we were told to fill out a complaint form–there was no one at the office who could speak to us. We asked whether it was the explicit policy of the new US Attorney not to meet with concerned members of the public. The “Administrative Specialist” insisted that this was not the policy of the office, but couldn’t explain why our calls, faxes and our formal complaint remained unanswered. This time we left a written statement and directed the administrative assistant to bring it to the attention of the US Attorney. We were told, once again, that someone would contact us on Monday. Many of us had thought that the former Massachusetts US Attorney Michael Sullivan had set a low water mark for unresponsiveness to community concerns. It seems that the new holder of the office, Carmen Ortiz, may lower the bar still further.
A Leadville woman is in custody in Ireland, arrested as part of an investigation into a conspiracy to kill a Swedish cartoonist who made fun of the Prophet Mohammed, according to her family and Leadville police. Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, 31, was arrested Tuesday in Waterford, Ireland, the second American woman to be grabbed in an apparent plot to kill the Swede, who incited the Muslim community with anger after his parody cartoons. The other woman is Colleen R. LaRose, 46, of suburban Philadelphia, known on the Internet as “JihadJane.” She also remains in custody. Paulin-Ramirez was traveling with her son, Christian, 6, who has not been heard from since his mother’s arrest on Tuesday. Paulin-Ramirez’s mother, Christine Holcomb, said Friday night that she had spoken with her daughter and her grandson Monday but hasn’t been able to reach them since. “I’m angry with her,” Holcomb told The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the story online. “I’d just like to choke her, but I’m worried about her too.” Holcomb’s husband of 14 years, George Mott, was more direct Friday night. “I’m so mad. All I want right now is to find our grandson.”
Continue reading Leadville woman held in Ireland in alleged terrorism plot A senior advisor to the former US President, George Bush, has defended harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, saying he was proud of the intelligence the US gained from using them. Karl Rove was often referred to as President Bush’s brain and as a senior political strategist is credited with Mr Bush’s electoral successes. In January last year President Obama barred the use of waterboarding after defining it as a form of torture. He also released memos from the Bush period which showed that waterboarding had been sanctioned by Bush administration lawyers. However, Mr Rove is unrepentant. He has just written a memoir defending Mr Bush’s two terms, which of course included the US-led invasion of Iraq.
NEW YORK — An alleged Al-Qaeda agent and US citizen involved in a bloody shooting in Yemen five days ago was revealed Friday to have worked for a US nuclear power plant company between 2002 and 2008. Sharif Mobley, said by a source close to the police in Yemen to hold both US and Yemeni citizenship, was employed by PSEG Nuclear in New Jersey as a laborer, company spokesman Joseph Delmar said. Mobley, whose name in Yemen is spelled Mobayli, worked “mainly during refuelling outages for several weeks at a time” when he was employed by PSEG, the company said in a statement. “While working here, he did routine labor work carrying supplies and assisting maintenance activities. He also worked at other nuclear plants in the region.” The revelation highlighted US security officials’ greatest challenges — keeping tabs on militants holding American passports and the ultimate fear of an attack involving a dirty bomb or inside a nuclear power station. Continue reading Alleged Al-Qaeda man worked at US nuclear power plant FD Editors Note: I dunno, seems to me that if this huge network existed the way they are telling us it did… we’d all be toast by now. Our Constitution certainly is.. Sources Tie Nuke Plant Worker to Yemeni Cleric Called ‘a Fixture of Jihad 101′ A New Jersey nuclear plant laborer arrested in Yemen with 10 other suspected al Qaeda members was in contact with the same radical Yemeni-American cleric tied to Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, federal law enforcement officials told ABC News. The New Jersey man, Sharif Mobley, was detained by Yemeni security forces earlier this month and taken to a hospital for medical treatment. He allegedly tried to escape from the hospital over the past weekend by grabbing a security guard’s gun and engaging in a gunfight that killed one of the guards. Mohammed Albasha, a spokesman for the Yemeni embassy in Washington, told ABC News that details of Mobley’s case “will be clearer in a couple of days.” Asked about Mobley’s apparent connections with the cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, Albasha said he was not surprised because radicals and extremists in Yemen seek Awlaki out. “He is a fixture in jihad 101,” Albasha said of Awlaki. Before fleeing the United States, Awlaki taught at a Virginia mosque visited by 9/11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Hani Hanjour. Since then, Awlaki has become a prominent influence with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and is believed to be in Yemen. He also was in contact with Hasan, accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009. Continue reading N.J. Terror Suspect Sharif Mobley Tied to (alleged) Radical Yemeni Cleric Anwar al-Awlaki
Mainstream news sources are all abuzz, falling over themselves with the news of the case of Colleen (Fatima) LaRose). It seems that within just 48 hours, every talking head and so-called expert on “terrorism” claimed to be expert on this case, though the indictment was only unsealed on Tuesday. They are no more expert than any of us are who’ve read the indictment ourselves. They all have an agenda. Lars Vilks is no doubt getting a big kick out of this – to him it means more publicity. It’s worth noting that he claims his right to express his views, yet those same rights were used against Ms. LaRose. Supporters of the Patriot Act most assuredly like it, on February 25th it passed for another year – with barely a whisper. It’s a sad state of affairs when the American public allow themselves to be manipulated into a state of fear – enough that they are willing to give up their civil liberties, to the point of willingly changing the Constitution of the United States . The same people call themselves “Patriots,” yet they are willing to manipulate everything this country stands for. So much for “freedom” – at least if one is Muslim. Whether you think Ms LaRose is guilty or not is not at issue. In America we’re supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. If we value our constitutional rights, we should be concerned about this case. This is one among many cases that have been tried “in the press” rather than in the courts.
|
  |
|||
|
Copyright © 2010 freedetainees.org - All Rights Reserved |
|||||
