NEW YORK—On Thursday Oct. 13 at Brooklyn College in New York City, the daylong event The Civil Rights Crisis in the Federal System Post 9/11, brought together many people who have been working incessantly around issues involving civil-rights violations in the post-9/11 era.
Family members of US terror suspects, professors, lawyers, human rights activists, federal defenders, journalists, writers and former political prisoners exposed the cruelties and the intricacies of a concealed paralegal world – the world of the War on Terror inside the United States.
“We are gathered here today so we can see what we are together, so we can learn from each other,” explained Jeanne Theoharis, a political science professor at Brooklyn College, as she opened the day’s conversations. “Because it is true 10 years after 9/11, that the public debate has to change.”
Jeanne Theoharis has been a fierce advocate for Muslim rights since her former student Syed Fahad Hashmi suffered the same fate that many of the families gathered at the auditorium saw their loved ones undergo.
Theoharis told the crowd who Hashmi was, an outspoken political activist and someone who did not shy away from disagreement, someone who she often saw in the halls deliberating with other students discussing the issues of the day, or denouncing U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and the treatment of Muslims in America.
“On March 5, I was standing outside of the political science office when I heard someone say, ‘Did you hear he was arrested on some kind of terrorism charge?’” she recounted.
Theoharis explained that at that moment, the chair of political science stood up and said, “The administration has instructed us not to say anything,” she paused looking out at the audience. “We were instructed not to say anything. And that has been the message of the past 10 years.”
Theoharis called Hashmi’s lawyer and learned about the conditions of his confinement. She learned that Hashmi was being charged with material support for allowing a friend, Junaid Babar to stay in his apartment in London, and for allowing him to use his cell phone.
Babar was said to be carrying waterproof socks and ponchos to an operative of al-Qaida, and because Hashmi provided him with housing,
Hashmi was put in pre-trial 23-24-hour solitary confinement under strict administrative measures, (SAMs) which severely restricted his contact with the outside world. He remained in his Manhattan Correctional Facility cell for three years, before receiving a 15-year sentence at the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Colorado under similar conditions.
“There is something humbling about teaching someone civil rights and then watching his rights violated,” Theoharis said through tears.
Before continuing with the first panel, she looked out at the audience.
“If there is anyone here from the F.B.I. please identify yourself now,” she said. No one moved. People looked around at each other perplexed.
“I’m serious,” she said still looking.
Throughout the day, people took different measures for protection in light of the sensitive nature of the material presented. Several family members and lawyers explained that because they are held under the SAMs themselves, they cannot speak in detail about the conditions their family members or clients are held under. Other speakers chose to remain to be off the record.
There were speakers representing some of the most high profile terrorism cases in the past years, cases such as those of: John Walker Lindh, José Padilla, Lynn Stewart, the Newburgh Four, Tarek Mehanna and Shifa Sadequee, as well as many others that fit under the umbrella of “national security” and are facing similar legal procedures.
British Lawyer Gareth Peirce, known for representing people with Irish and Muslim backgrounds accused of terrorism in high-profile cases, and most recently Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, explained:
“When you hear the collective experience, you will see that this is not someone misjudging, or making a mistake, it is not an accident, it’s intended.”
All these cases have complex stories, some dating back before the 9/11 decade, however, they all exist under similar legal parameters: prisoners being held in pre-trial detention in 23-24 hour isolation for years; the introduction of secret evidence in court that cannot be reviewed by prisoners or lawyers; testimonies acquired through torture; anonymous juries; strict administrative measures; and the involvement of paid FBI informants who play questionable roles in convictions of hundreds of Muslim men. These elements clearly illustrate the extreme nature of a draconian justice system.
“This is not a criminal justice system,” Perice said. “This is what would happen in what we call a ‘dictatorship.’ And there isn’t a movement against this like there is against the death penalty. And this is why this conference is extremely important.”
Several speakers illuminated the fact that this kind of repression is not a new phenomenon, and that members of other populations have faced similar fates in the past.
“The road that has led us to now, has been built for a long time and has a direct lineage – it wasn’t just 9/11 that sparked this,” said David Fathi, director of the ACLU National Prison Project. “Before the war on terror there was the war on drugs, and the war on people of color. And for the past three decades it has been that way, and for the most part no one said a thing.”
The intention of this group is to make this conversation national. The challenges they face are many: discrimination, Islamophobia and adverse agendas of other human rights groups; but the message that they will continue to disseminate through the stories of abuse, is one of urgency and one that needs the attention of a wider American public.
For more info on this subject, go to:
No to FBI Repression, Islamophobia and War!
Civil Liberties for All!
Friday, Oct. 21, 7 p.m.
Darwin Hall, Room 103
Sonoma State University