veiled4allah

outrageous

Angry Desi points to this very strange and I think very, very troubling story:

For years, the father said, he watched as his daughter, now 16, became more and more drawn to the family's Muslim religion. At 14, she began wearing a full-length veil and teaching religion classes at mosques around the city. A year ago, she withdrew from her Manhattan high school because, a school official said, she felt uncomfortable with typical teenage banter. She told her family she wanted to go to an Islamic all-girls school, and when they could not afford to send her, she chose to study at home. The father, a Bangladeshi watch salesman who describes himself as far more devoted to American education than to prayer after 13 years as an immigrant illegally in the United States, said he pushed for his daughter to return to public school. Then last fall, the daughter he also describes as loving Bollywood soap operas and shopping with girlfriends startled him and her mother by seeking their approval to marry a young American Muslim man they had never met and whom she barely knew. The father refused the marriage overtures, which were made by the young man's father in a call from Michigan. A few months later, when the teenager stayed out overnight for the first time, the father, fearing an elopement, went to the police for help. It is a decision he regrets deeply. His daughter and another 16-year-old girl are now described by the government as would-be suicide bombers and are being held in a detention center for illegal immigrants in Pennsylvania. He is sure that his visit to the police set off the F.B.I. investigation that led to a chilling assertion, in a government document, that the girls are "an imminent threat to the security of the United States based on evidence that they plan to be suicide bombers." Family and friends call that absurd. The document, provided to The New York Times by a federal agent on Wednesday, did not describe the nature of the evidence. Yesterday, after repeated inquiries, officials from several agencies involved in the investigation, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the F.B.I. and the New York Police Department, would not comment on the case.

Where did this "suicide bomber" claim come from? Since none of the people involved have been allowed to see the evidence against them (um? Is this American?), no one can be sure. However, this editorial suggests where:

The police and federal immigration officials searched her belongings and are reported to have found an essay on suicide. According to the family, the essay says suicide is against Islamic law. But detectives went on to question the girl about her political beliefs before arresting her.

AngryDesi comments:

So maybe you're feeling a little depressed and write something in your journal about how you're feeling a little suicidal. Suicidal Muslims apparently cannot be anything other than suicidal Muslim bombers.

And the story doesn't even stop there because a second girl is caught up in this too. From the news report:

Little is known about the second 16-year-old. The mother of the Bangladeshi girl, conveying her daughter's account, said the two girls met for the first time at 26 Federal Plaza after her daughter's arrest. But when the other girl, a Guinean who was facing deportation with her family, noticed her daughter's veil, she gave her a traditional Muslim greeting, and federal agents seemed to think they were friends. The second girl ended up in the Pennsylvania detention center, too.

AngryDesi again:

I would have thought that the FBI would by now have figured out that when Muslims greet one another, even with ones whom are total strangers, they often say "As sala'amu alaikum" (peace be upon you) and the generally expected reply is "walaikum as sala'am" (and unto you also, peace). This is no different, from a familiarity perspective, than saying 'hello' to someone you see on the street.

What the hell is this? Just pick up some random Muslim who happened to be there and lock her away too? The girls, their families, and their lawyers need to be able to see the evidence against them. They need to be given a fair trial where they are allowed to exercise their rights according to the Constitution. Not this:

There are no firm time limits on immigration detention, so the burden is on the girls to prove that they are not potential suicide bombers, rather than on the government to prove they are. Indeed, the evidence is withheld from the girls and anyone who represents them under a "protective order" that F.B.I. investigators obtained from the immigration court, according to an April 1 motion to continue the secrecy, signed by Jeffrey T. Bubier, assistant chief counsel for the Department of Homeland Security in Philadelphia. "The F.B.I. has an important and substantial interest in safeguarding the information," Mr. Bubier's motion stated, "to protect national security law and enforcement interests." To release it, he said, "places investigative strategies and methods at substantial risk." The girls have no right to a court-appointed lawyer, and according to the government document that described the Guinean girl, her family had not retained one.

As the editorial concludes (rather mildly):

If the evidence isn't there, the arrests are very disturbing. The government will have taken 16-year-olds from their families, branded them as would-be terrorists and put them into a frightening legal limbo for no good reason.

Is that what America stands for these days? Update: Jeanne d'Arc has more and points to bookofdays and a blog set up about the case, Detain This. Update 2: The second girl has been released. The first has not been charged with anything but immigration violations and her family have agreed to leave the country. So now what exactly was the threat here? Update 3: The New York Times has an update on this case. And more from bookofdays and Pacific Views.

justice for Captain Yee at last

So it comes to this. When Captain James Yee, the Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo, was arrested last September there was practically hysteria from some quarters, ranting about "fifth columns" and "enemies within". Today, all charges against Yee were dropped. Those people who rushed to judge him guilty, and by extension all Muslim Americans, ought to be ashamed of themselves. But I doubt they will be. Who wants to let the facts get in the way of their Islamophobia? Via Laura J in the comments

Prosecutors Say It's Unclear Papers Chaplain Carried Were Classified

And for this, he was kept in shackles in maximum security solitary confinement and villified as a spy. Can you say "witch-hunt"?

it gets more farcical by the minute

The latest news on Yee:

Mishandling of classified information by the legal staff at America's prison for terrorism suspects undermines the military's case against a Muslim chaplain charged with security breaches, his lawyer said Wednesday. Army Capt. James Yee had been scheduled to face the military version of a preliminary hearing Tuesday at Fort Benning, Ga., on charges he mishandled secret information at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But the hearing was postponed after prosecutors discovered that legal staff at Guantanamo had mistakenly included a classified document in investigation packets delivered to Yee's attorney and the hearing officer, Army Lt. Col. Bill Costello of the U.S. Southern Command said Wednesday. Yee's attorney, Eugene Fidell, said the development shows the government case should be dismissed. "I am wondering how they can with a straight face persist in prosecuting him when they don't themselves know what's classified and what isn't," he said. (source)

Yes, the same violation for which Yee was kept in chains and manacles in maximum security solitary confinement for a month, now the government prosecutors have committed it too. This case is a joke. It needs to be dismissed now.

hopefully, this won't lead to mass arrests again like it did last year in L.A.

Re-Registration Reminder- The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) reminds all foreign national men who are currently in the United States and submitted to special call-in registration that the one year re-registration requirement is still in effect. Men who registered with US immigration authorities, during the special call-in registration program initiated in 2002, must return to their local immigration office to comply with the one-year re-registration requirement. You must re-register with the local immigration office within ten days of the day you initially registered. For example, if you registered on November 15, 2002 you must report to the local immigration office between November 5, 2003 and November 25, 2003. This re-registration applies to men who are in the US and remained in the US for the entire year without leaving the country. According to materials distributed by the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) and obtained by ADC, those who left the US and returned at some point during the year, or those who are currently visiting the US and were registered at a port of entry, fall within the port of entry registration requirements. These requirments call for re-registeration between days 30 and 40 of their re-entering the US as well as at the one year anniversary of their re-entry registration. For example, if you returned to, or arrived in, the United States on October 10, 2003, you should appear at an immigration office between November 8, 2003, and November 18, 2003. Additionally, according to BCIS (previousley INS) , if you remain in the US for the entire year, you would be required to re-appear at an immigration office between October 1, 2004 and October 20, 2004. It is also important to remember that anyone who has been registered with immigration authorities, either domestically or at a port of entry, is required to go through a departure interview with an immigration officer at a designated point of departure when leaving the United States. All registration instructions and requirements (including designated ports of departure) are available at: http://www.immigration.gov/graphics/shared/lawenfor/specialreg/srprocl.htm Please also note that all foreign nationals (including permanent residents holding a "green card") living in the US, or visiting the US for longer than 30 days, are required by law to notify the local immigration office of any change of address within ten days. Notification should be done by using form AR-11, see instructions at: http://www.bcis.gov/graphics/formsfee/forms/ar-11.htm It is important to consult with an immigration attorney if you have any questions about your immigration status or if you have questions about the issues raised in this message. Additional information may be obtained by reviewing the information located at: http://www.immigration.gov/graphics/shared/lawenfor/specialreg/srprocl.htm or by contacting the ADC Legal Department via telephone: 202-244-2990, fax: 202-244-3196, or via email to: [email protected] . ----------------------------------------------------- American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) Legal Department 4201 Connecticut Avenue Suite 300 Washington, DC 20008 phone 202-244-2990 fax 202-244-3196 [email protected] http://www.adc.org

a lot of sound and fury, signifying... not much, it appears

After all the hysteria over Muslim military chaplain James Yee, it appears that there wasn't much to it after all:

Army investigators are leaning toward filing slap-on-the-wrist charges against a Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo Bay who was investigated on suspicion of espionage, a military source told the Daily News on Wednesday. The "handful" of minor charges against Capt. Yousef Yee could be leveled by next week and are not expected to include the more serious allegations of spying, sedition or aiding the enemy, according to the source familiar with the probe. "It's very weak," the military source said, saying the charges are likely to be related to dereliction of duty and disobeying a general order. "It's nothing compared to espionage or anything like that"... ...Several military sources said that although many questions remain in the larger espionage investigation, there is no indication a spy ring operated inside the camp.

Update: It's true. Yee has been charged only with two counts of mishanding classified material. Next time before we start a witch-hunt, can we wait until the facts are in?

U.S. Army Muslim chaplain arrested

CNN reports:

A Muslim chaplain in the U.S. Army has been arrested and is being investigated on suspicion of espionage and possibly treason, officials familiar with the case told CNN. Army Capt. James Yee was taken into custody by U.S. military authorities September 10 at the naval air station in Jacksonville, Florida, while in possession of classified documents "that a chaplain shouldn't have," an official told CNN, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The official said the documents included "diagrams of the cells and the facilities at Guantanamo [Bay, Cuba]" where about 600 al Qaeda and other "enemy combatants" are being held by the military. Yee also was carrying lists of detainees being held there as well as lists of their interrogators, the source said. In addition to the classified documents, Yee is "believed to have ties to [radical Muslims in the U.S.] that are now under investigation," the source said. He said he could not elaborate on the basis for that belief. Although no charges have been filed, the U.S. military is "investigating whether [Yee] may have [been involved in] espionage or treason," the official said. "There are a series of things that would lead a reasonable person to believe that something" was out of line, the official said. Army officials with the U.S. Southern Command, which controls the Guantanamo facility, told CNN that they could not comment on the status of the investigation but acknowledged that Yee had been taken into custody and said he is a 1990 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. They said he became an air-defense artillery officer and left the Army some time later. The Southern Command official said Yee then converted to Islam and returned to the Army as a Muslim chaplain and had been assigned to the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in November 2002. Yee is one of about a dozen Muslim chaplains in the U.S. military, according to officials. U.S. government sources contacted by CNN said that after leaving the Army, Yee moved to Syria, where he lived for four years studying Islam and was married, apparently to a Syrian woman. A State Department document available on the Internet confirms Yee's time in Syria, saying he "spent four years studying Arabic and Islam in Damascus, Syria." In the same document, Yee is quoted as saying, "An act of terrorism, the taking of innocent civilian lives, is prohibited by Islam, and whoever has done this needs to be brought to justice, whether he is Muslim or not." According to the AP, Yee is being held at a military brig in Charleston, South Carolina -- the same place officials are holding Yaser Esam Hamdi, an American-born Saudi accused of fighting with the Taliban, and Jose Padilla, a former Chicago, Illinois, gang member charged with plotting to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb." Yee has been interrogated by Army and Navy law enforcement officials, and by the FBI. Justice Department officials contacted by CNN confirmed that they had participated in some of the interrogations but said the lead agencies in the investigation are military. There are between 4,000 and 10,000 practicing Muslims serving in the U.S. armed forces.

Update: See later entries on Yee (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). End result: there was nothing at all to this story and an innocent man went through a lost of misery and had his good name permanently shadowed because of modern-day McCarthyism.

secret detentions are unAmerican

You've probably already seen this but I wanted to link to it anyway, since everybody's doing it. Jim Henley is in top form discussing a recent decision by a federal appeals court that the government may withhold the names of the people it is detaining. Some great lines:

What has the appeals court authorized? Secret detentions. Please say those words aloud. "Secret detentions." Now use them in a sentence: The US government engages in the practice of secret detentions. The US government has broadly asserted its right to engage in the practice of secret detentions. A federal appeals court has affirmed that the US government may engage in secret detentions. ... I've said it before and I'll say it again. The question is not "Do terrorists deserve the same rights as ordinary criminals?" The question is "Are terrorist suspects terrorists?" That's exactly congruent with the question "Are criminal suspects criminals?" We have centuries of experience on what can go wrong trying to answer that question, and developed an elaborate system of rights and procedures to minimize the potential for disaster - depriving the innocent of the liberty, property and even lives. We know that politicians, bureaucrats, law enforcement agents and intelligence operatives are human and fallible - that such people have lied, bungled, covered up lies and bungling, been gripped by a fever of wrongheaded enthusiasm and arrogance. From LA to Tulia to Boston, these human actions have devastated innocent people, in the case of Tulia an entire innocent town. We can be absolutely sure that terrorism investigations will lead to similar incidents and likely already have.

It's writing like this that keeps me going back to Jim's blog again and again.

if you don't hear from me again...? part two

About three weeks ago, I posted an entry about suggestions by some pundits that Muslim-Americans should be put in internment camps if there's another terrorist attack. Now the idea is in the news again because of a Congressman who suggested that internment of Japanese-Americans was justifiable because it was to protect them. Here's a bunch of excellent reads on this: Eschaton, Procrastination, Is That Legal? (1 and 2), Pandagon, Talk Left, Counterspin Central, and Orcinus (1 and 2). David Neiwert of Orcinus asks in his second post the same question I did three weeks ago: do we mean Arab-Americans or Muslim-Americans? If we mean Muslim Americans does that include converts like me? And if we mean only Arab Americans, how would this protect America from Jose Padilla or Richard Reid? This chills me to the core. Update: Is That Legal? continues to provide extensive coverage of this issue. Other blogs on the story include The Mountaintop, Lean Left, A Clever Sheep, ReachM High Cowboy Network Noose, and The Liquid List

challenging the government over your detention

We have a new assignment in my Legal Research class. This time the topic is what's known as a "Personal Restraint Petition" (PRP). The PRP is a particular method designated by state law here to file a habeas corpus petition.

What the habeas corpus petition and the PRP do is allow someone to challenge the imprisonment (i.e., personal restraint) of an individual. The prisoner can do so himself, or someone on his behalf. What they actually do is petition the court to issue a writ of habeas corpus, in which the court demands that the imprisoning authority (such as the state or federal government) appear before the court and justify why the prisoner is being held.

This is a hot issue today because the federal government is holding a large number and wide variety of detainees as part of the "war on terrorism" without having to file charges against these individuals, explain why they're being held, or even give out information on who they are. This is one of the aspects of the "war on terrorism" that is particularly disturbing to me and quite frankly it's something that I never thought would happen in this country.

There's another use for the PRP, however, and that's for a prisoner to appeal his conviction. Under state law, defendants have one opportunity to appeal through the courts. However, even after having used up their appeal, they can file a PRP and attempt to get a second review of their case. This is the aspect of the PRP that my assignment actually deals with (although we discussed the other issue in class). The assignment involves researching a legal question about what types of issues can be raised in the PRP and writing a memo on it.