[Nettime-bold] Re: MW-10 & 'Racial Profiling' and Terrorism and the face of anthrax

["Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>]

Miroslav asks:
"How many white men were questioned before the nailed Tim?"

My answer:
Not enough! And the anthrax may be from domestic origins! Don't 
you remember the Larry Wayne Harris (his white face attached to 
this message) case? Check this out:
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991490

Meanwhile, it sucks to be a young, male and Arab these days in 
Texas, doesn't it?

But the example of Israeli-Arab solidarity at the bottom of the 
following article is quite touching. It opens new roads to conflict 
resolution between them: just put them in the US prison together!

-/-

DETAINEES FACE RIGHTS VIOLATIONS 
In the nation's jails, some of the 700 detained in the sweep 
following the Sept. 11 attacks endure beatings, are denied 
access to lawyers and otherwise deprived of their rights, 
according to attorneys and civil rights organizations, the Los 
Angeles Times reported Oct. 15. 

It is unlikely any of the detainees played a role in the 9-11 
attacks, and officials admit only a few are linked to the 
investigation. The vast majority were arrested on visa violations 
or minor local charges, and would normally have been released 
by now. But the government is holding them under emergency 
anti-terrorist powers. Writes the LA Times: "Because of the 
extraordinary level of secrecy surrounding the investigation, it is 
impossible to determine how many individuals may have been 
mistreated. Federal authorities refuse to disclose even the 
number of people in custody... The Times contacted more than 
20 defense lawyers and civil rights monitors. In every case, the 
lawyers complained that their clients were being held too long 
and, almost always, said their clients had suffered some kind of 
mistreatment or undue hardship." 

In Texas, a Saudi Arabian man was deprived of a mattress, 
blanket and a clock to let him know when to recite his prayers, 
his lawyer says. In Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana, immigration 
officials cut off all lawyer visits and phone calls for detainees the 
week following the attacks--a directive authorities now say was 
mishandled. 

Dennis Clare, a lawyer in Louisville, Ky., said 40 men from 
Mauritania were picked up near Cincinnati on immigration 
violations two weeks after Sept. 11. Authorities targeted the 
group because one supposedly was a pilot. Three are still being 
held, and have been moved several times to jails in Indiana, 
Kentucky, Tennessee and Louisiana.  "They don't speak 
English," Clare said. "They are begging to get out of jail." 

Hasnain Javed, 20, a Pakistani student who was picked up 
Sept. 19 at the bus station in Mobile, Ala., on his way back to 
New York from Houston, was repeatedly beaten by inmates at 
the county jail in Wiggins, MS, which houses INS detainees 
under a federal contract. He says guards ignored his pleas for 
help, and has suffered a chipped tooth and partial hearing loss in 
one ear. Released after three days in custody, he told the LA 
Times: "I did not do anything and I don't think anyone had a right 
to treat me the way I was treated." Stone County Sheriff Mike 
Ballard, who runs the Wiggins jail, insisted "we did everything 
we could do" to help Javed, and claimed he "was making 
derogatory comments about the United States." The FBI is 
investigating the incident. 

Egyptian immigrant Mohammed Maddy, a ticket-taker at New 
York's Kennedy Airport, was picked up Oct. 3 and charged 
with sneaking his wife and children past security there.  At a 
federal detention hearing, his attorney, Justine Harris, 
complained Maddy was injured by guards at Brooklyn's 
Metropolitan Detention Center: "The defendant showed me a 
very large bruise which he has on the upper part of his arm, 
which he claims was a result of mistreatment by the guards." 

The Washington Post reported Oct. 16, "an unknown number of 
men with Middle Eastern names are being held in solitary 
confinement" at Manhattan's Metropolitan Correctional Center, 
"locked in 8-by-10-foot cells with little more than cots, thin 
blankets and, if they request it, copies of the Koran... They have 
no contact with each other or their families and limited access to 
their lawyers. Their names appear on no federal jail log available 
to the public. No records can be found in any court docket in 
New York showing why they are detained, who represents them 
or the status of their cases." Asked American Civil Liberties 
Union legal director Steven Shapiro: "How many are being held? 
On what basis? What kind of judicial review is available?" 

Yazeed Al-Salmi, 23, a Saudi student who missed three weeks 
of school and was evicted from his San Diego apartment during 
his 17-day detention, called the experience terrifying. "They 
don't call you by name... They call you [expletive] terrorist," he 
said of guards at the Manhattan facility. Al-Salmi was released 
after testifying for two hours before a federal grand jury on his 
encounters with one 9-11 hijacker. Attorney General John 
Ashcroft told ABC's "Nightline" the government's actions are 
"consistent with the framework of law that we operate under." 

ISRAELIS DETAINED WITH ARABS IN ANTI-TERROR 
SWEEP 
Five young Israelis detained by the FBI Sept. 11 are still being 
held in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center. The men 
were picked up at 6 PM in a van on the George Washington 
Bridge, and the incident may have been the source of 
widespread but false New York media reports that evening that 
a bomb had been found on the bridge. The incident was sparked 
when a New Jersey woman called police to report a group of 
men standing on top of a van near the bridge "speaking in a 
foreign language and hugging each other," reported New York's 
Jewish weekly, The Forward,  Oct. 19. The paper quoted Ido 
Aharoni of the 
Israeli consulate saying they were hugging each other in grief, not jubilation. 
"Obviously, they have nothing to do with the bombing... I think it was just a 
tragic combination of miscommunication and awkward 
coincidence." The men, aged 20 through 27, worked for a local 
moving company, and are being held on visa violations. Their 
attorney, Steven Gordon, protested that they have been 
subjected to blindfolding, forced polygraph tests and a blackout 
of information on their rights. He also said non-Muslim inmates 
"physically threatened" them after Muslim prisoners pressured 
them to join in a hunger strike. 





ivo

Date sent:      	Tue, 30 Oct 2001 23:13:54 -0500
Send reply to:  	International Justice Watch Discussion List
             	<JUSTWATCH-L@LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU>
From:           	Miroslav Visic <visic@PIPELINE.COM>
Organization:   	New World Disorder
Subject:        	Re: MW-10 &  'Racial Profiling' and Terrorism
To:             	JUSTWATCH-L@LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU

How many white men were questioned before the nailed Tim? Did 
they complain about
being questioned for being white? Of course not. If these Arabs did 
nothing
wrong, will go free. Where does FBI have to go for info? Taliban?

Give-me-a-break. This is not little 'political correctness' game 
anymore - this
is a serious struggle against terrorism. It is the terrorists who are 
hijacking
your and mine civil liberties. I know Bush, Aschroft, etc are bad 
and mean men,
but when anthrax is flying around I don't want to be PC. I want to 
be safe.

Margarita Lacabe wrote:

> On Tue, 30 Oct 2001, Miroslav Visic wrote:
>
> > Oh, please. I am disappointed that only 1000 suspects are being questioned.
> > This is not what you in PC jargon call "racial profiling". This is how you
> > fight the terrorism. It's normal and it might not be the cleanes way, but
> > it is the only way. Just as you fight the smallpox with quarantine, you
> > fight terrorism with profiling. Here is how some people see it.
>
> how some people from extreme right that is - who can't see beyond their
> noses and who show a huge degree of racism themselves.  As it has been
> pointed out often, domestic terrorism by the likes of Mc Veigh did not
> lead to the targetting of white, anglo, ex-military men, Waco (or the
> abortion clinic bombings) did not lead to the targetting of fundamentalist
> christians and there is no reason, other than contemptible racism, than
> Sep. 11 should lead to the targetting of Arabs.
>
> Margarita Lacabe - Derechos - marga@derechos.org - http://www.derechos.org/
> ____________________________________________________________________________
>
>                 Do you want to talk about human rights issues?
>             Ask a question in real time?  Log into our chat room!
>                         http://www.derechos.net/chat/

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