[Peace-discuss] "It Can't Happen Here"

[Barbara Dyskant]

Hi,  

Here are two articles, detailing the ordeals of two Middle Eastern men, one
form Pakistan and one from Palestine, who are presently being held without
charges against them--- one even had  proof of innocence from a judge!
These are excellent to show to people who claim that "it can't happen
here".  It should be noted that Mr. Al-Najair was a teacher.

IMMIGRANT'S 
JAILHOUSE BLUES 
By JEN VITALE and LEONARD GREENE 
JAILHOUSE
BLUES:
Shaheen Khan speaks to her husband Mohammed, who remains jailed in
New Jersey while his immigration case is examined.
- Rick Dembow  (NY
Post)

December 2, 2001 -- The American dream has turned into a nightmare
for a Hicksville, L.I., family that claims to be an innocent victim of the
FBI's new policy of sweeping arrests in the search for U.S.-based
terrorists. They say eight FBI agents stormed their house on Oct. 23 and
handcuffed Pakistani immigrant Mohammed Khan in front of his three crying
children and his wife, Shaheen. Two hours later, the feds cleared Khan but
handed him over to INS officers, who have suggested to the family's lawyer
that there is an anomaly in their immigration case. Khan has been in
custody in Passaic County Prison in New Jersey ever since. "I am in here
with hardened criminals, and I am terrified," Khan, 35, told The Post in a
telephone interview from jail. "How could this happen? I am a peaceful
man," he said. "I pay my taxes and give to police and firefighter funds.
I've done nothing wrong." The Khans came to the United States in 1991. They
applied for political asylum as they were members of former Prime Minister
Benazir Bhutto's toppled government. The couple had feared for their lives
in Pakistan after the military-backed Nawaz Sharif regime took power there
in August 1990 and won a heated and violent election the following year.
After filing papers with the INS, the Khans were not advised of a court
date for their case until 1998, according to their attorney, Roland Gell.
By that time, the couple had three American-born children. Gell said the
judge rejected their asylum plea in the 1998 hearing, but advised the
family they could appeal the ruling and lodge a motion for their case to be
reviewed. That appeal is still pending, Gell said. INS spokeswoman Karen
Kraushaar would not comment on the specific case. "If the FBI says they're
not interested in an individual, then it's up to the INS to resolve their
pending immigration," she said. An FBI spokesman confirmed Khan was no
longer part of their investigation but would not comment on his arrest.
"This guy's not a threat to anybody," Gell said. "The FBI has no interest
in him, and the INS is just taking the hard line." Meanwhile, Shaheen Khan,
37, is having a difficult time explaining the situation to her three
children - Faryaal, who turns 10 this week, Palvisha, 8, and Daniel, 4.
With her husband's job as a Brooklyn store manager now in jeopardy, the
family also is facing a financial crisis. "Soon I will have to sell the
house and the cars," said Shaheen. 

(New York Times)
It Can Happen Here

December 1, 2001 

By ANTHONY LEWIS

BOSTON 

On the basis of secret evidence, the government accuses a
non-citizen of connections to terrorism, and holds him in
prison for three years. Then a judge conducts a full trial
and rejects the terrorism charges. He releases the
prisoner. A year later government agents rearrest the man,
hold him in solitary confinement and state as facts the
terrorism charges that the judge found untrue. 

Could that happen in America? In John Ashcroft's America it
has happened. 

Mazen Al-Najjar, a Palestinian, came to the United States
in 1984 as a graduate student and stayed to teach at a
university. The Immigration Service moved to deport him for
overstaying his visa - and asked an immigration judge, R.
Kevin McHugh, to imprison him. Secret evidence, the
government lawyers said, showed that Mr. Al-Najjar had
raised funds for a terrorist organization, Palestinian
Islamic Jihad. In June 1997 Judge McHugh issued the
detention order. 

Mr. Al-Najjar's lawyers went to federal court and
challenged the use of secret evidence against him. The
court held that he must at least be told enough about the
evidence to have a fair chance of responding to it. 

Judge McHugh then reopened the case in his immigration
court. In a two-week trial the government's lead witness,
an Immigration agent, admitted that there was no evidence
of Mr. Al-Najjar contributing to a terrorist organization
or ever advocating terrorism. At the end Judge McHugh found
that there were no "bona fide reasons to conclude that [Mr.
Al- Najjar] is a threat to national security." 

Judge McHugh, a former U.S. marine, wrote a 56-page
decision that evidently carried much legal weight. The
Board of Immigration Appeals rejected a government appeal.
And Attorney General Janet Reno, who had the right to step
in, refused to do so. A year ago Mr. Al-Najjar rejoined his
wife and three daughters. 

Last Saturday immigration agents arrested Mr. Al-Najjar
again. The Justice Department issued a triumphant press
release saying that the case "underscores the department's
commitment to address terrorism by using all legal
authorities available." Mr. Al-Najjar, it said, "had
established ties to terrorist organizations." 

That flat, conclusory statement was in direct contradiction
to the findings made by Judge McHugh after a full trial.
And the department did not claim, this time, to be relying
on undisclosed information. It said the detention was "not
based on classified evidence." 

It seems to me shocking that the United States Department
of Justice should state as a fact something that a judge
has found to be untrue. The whole press release had the
ring not of law but of political propaganda. That is not
the department of respected lawyers that I have known over
many years. 

Mr. Al-Najjar is not only back in prison, he is being
treated with exceptional severity, indeed cruelty. He is in
solitary confinement 23 hours a day. He is not allowed to
make telephone calls, and he may not see his family. Only
his lawyer is permitted to visit him. 

Because Mr. Al-Najjar is stateless and no country will
accept him, he probably cannot be deported. So if the
Justice Department view that he is a security risk prevails
- in the teeth of the judge's finding - he could spend the
rest of his life in prison. 

Why is Attorney General Ashcroft using his office to punish
this man so severely? At a time of national anxiety about
Arabs and Muslims, Mr. Al-Najjar is a useful target: a
Palestinian Muslim. More broadly, Mr. Ashcroft has claimed
power to detain non-citizens even when immigration judges
order them released. 

It could be, too, that Mr. Ashcroft wants to use this case
to establish the right to use secret evidence against
aliens. The practice had been all but abandoned by the
Justice Department after several judges frowned on it and
more than 100 members of the House co-sponsored legislation
to prohibit it. 

With all the extreme measures taken by the administration
in recent days - detaining hundreds of people, ordering
thousands questioned, establishing military tribunals - Mr.
Ashcroft and President Bush have assured the country that
they will enforce the measures with care, and with concern
for civil liberties. Their motto is, "Trust us." 

The Al-Najjar case shows that there is no basis for trust.