[Peace] Emergency: Palestinian UIUC student detained by FBI

[David Green]

The following message is from Hadeel Assali, a
Palestinian former student at UIUC. I will be calling
Stan Levy and Richard Herman before I leave town later
this morning.

David

__________________________________________________

Dear everyone:

A dear friend of mine and many of ours, Ahmed
Bensouda, has been detained by the FBI.

We have no idea where he is being held and may need to
hire a lawyer which means raising funds and whatever
else this entails.

Please, if ANYONE has dealt with anything like this
before, if anyone can help PLEASE call me at 

217-766-5907
or
Raana at 217-201-1547
or 
Matthew at 773-680-0376

There are more details below. everyone, this is VERY
VERY serious. 

Thank you,
Hadeel

--- m-quest at northwestern.edu wrote:
> Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 16:37:01 -0500 (CDT)
> From: m-quest at northwestern.edu
> To: core at uofidivest.org, fboyle at law.uiuc.edu,
> droedige at uiuc.edu
> Reply-to: m-quest at northwestern.edu
> Subject: UIUC Student Detained BY FBI
> CC: k-cuno at uiuc.edu, s-foote at uiuc.edu,
> ssawhney at staff.uiuc.edu,
>         m-booth1 at uiuc.edu, westgard at uiuc.edu,
> m-bowen1 at uiuc.edu,
>         l-ray at uiuc.edu, skassali at uiuc.edu,
> rahmed at uiuc.edu, fawdhawi at yahoo.com,
>         hadeelassali at yahoo.com, jmschltz at uiuc.edu,
> davedash at uiuc.edu,
>         amlove at uiuc.edu, tc-shaw at staff.edu,
> sankaran at uiuc.edu,
>         j-yuh at northwestern.edu,
> a-green at northwestern.edu, VOuma at colgate.edu,
>         redblack at ziplip.com, amlove at uiuc.edu,
> jmschltz at uiuc.edu,
>         m-quest at northwestern.edu
> 
> Dear Friends: 
> 
> I greet you with an emergency request for help for a
> comrade.  Some of you may 
> know Ahmed Bensouda. He is of medium height with
> dreadlocks and has a slight 
> British accent. 
> 
> Ahmed Bensouda, who just graduated this month from
> the UIUC polisci program 
> with his BA, an international student from Dubai,
> U.A.E., a crucial member of 
> The Israel Divestment Campaign, the Democratic
> Solidarity Committee, and 
> Urbana-Champaign Unity & Struggle, needs are
> assistance. 
> 
> I was informed by a friend that he was picked up and
> arrested from his 
> apartment in Urbana today by the FBI at 2:30 pm. 
> Recently, the INS came to his 
> home to do what is now the standard interview for
> young Arab and Muslim 
> visiting student males.  Ahmed is a secular
> anti-authoritarian, and all answers 
> to the questions they asked, despite him being a
> community activist, were 
> answered honestly and accurately, as he does not fit
> their Islamicist profile.  
> He was not "happy" after Sept. 11, he has no
> military training, no experience 
> with explosives, flying lessons, etc.-you know the
> drill. 
> 
> We don't know if these agents will return him
> tonight or sometime soon.  We 
> don't know the nature of his being detained.  Some
> of these feds may have their 
> Arab and Muslim student activists mixed up.  On the
> other hand they may be 
> targeting the Palestine solidarity movement which
> has been among the most 
> strong at the UIUC campus the past two years.  Some
> of us were scheduled to 
> travel shortly to visit the occupied territories. 
> 
> **IMPORTANT** 
> 
> 1) There will be a meeting tonight at 8pm at UIUC to
> start a local based 
> solidarity committee, call ahead for the location
> TBA.   For now that contact 
> is Rana, who can be reached at rahmed at uiuc.edu  and
> 217-201-1547.  I will 
> coordinate any Chicago based efforts.  I can be
> reached at 773-680-0376 and 
> m-quest at northwestern.edu 
> 
> 2)   We need help in securing the services of a
> lawyer immediately.  Preferably 
> a progressive one who is familiar with immigration
> law.  This lawyer will have 
> to confirm Ahmed's whereabouts and why the feds have
> detained him. 
> 
> 3) With this information we can organize the
> appropriate type of protest 
> campaign on a local and national level. 
> 
> Please forward to as many folks who can show their
> solidarity in any way. 
> 
> Matthew Quest 
> M.A. African Studies 
> UIUC graduate 2001 


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com