A Call to Human Rights Action from Educators for Civil Liberties:
Syed Hashmi is a Muslim American citizen being held in a federal jail on two counts of providing material support—and two counts of making a contribution of goods or services—to Al Qaida. The conditions of Mr. Hashmi’s detention are draconian. He is in solitary confinement and subject to a regime of severe deprivation. Under the SAM imposed by the Attorney General, Hashmi must be held in solitary confinement and may not communicate with anyone inside the prison other than prison officials. Family visits were not granted for many months and are now limited to one person every other week for one and a half hours, and cannot involve physical contact. Mr. Hashmi may write only one letter (of no more than three pieces of paper) per week to one family member. He may not communicate, either directly or through his attorneys, with the news media. He may read only designated portions of newspapers - and not until thirty days after their publication - and his access to other reading material is restricted. He may not listen to or watch news-oriented radio stations and television channels. He may not participate in group prayer. He is subject to 24-hour electronic monitoring and 23-hour lockdown, has no access to fresh air, and must take his one-hour of daily recreation - when it is given - inside a cage. While the Attorney General claims that these measures are necessary because "there is substantial risk that [Hashmi's] communications or contacts with persons could result in death or serious bodily injury to persons," he was held in a British jail with other prisoners for eleven months without incident. Nor have there been any incidents while Mr. Hashmi has been held in MCC prison.
The SAM threatens Mr. Hashmi’s mental state and ability to testify on his own behalf. Moreover, it violates the spirit of the U.S. Constitution which provides for due process, prevents cruel and unusual punishment, and protects the right of speech and association. The government’s ability to impose these Special Administrative Measures, established in 1996, was dramatically expanded in October 2001. Now imposed for a year, the standard for when they can be imposed and how they are renewed has been significantly relaxed.
We are calling on all concerned people to ask the Attorney General not to renew the SAM against Syed Hashmi. The SAM against Mr. Hashmi expires after one year and must be renewed in late October. We are asking that you contact Attorney General Michael Mukasey and ask him to lift the SAM on Mr. Hashmi. You can email the Attorney General using the following form (Noam Chomsky has also signed here)
Here
OTHERS SPEAK OUT
NAT HENTOFF, a top, highly-respected writer on civil rights for decades, on the confinement, torture and more experienced by Fahad in a very recent article, November 2008 - Go
Here
Professor Corey Robin, Political Science, Brooklyn College:
What was interesting to me about Fahad as a student was that he had very strong views of his own. But unlike many other students who have their own points of view, who tend to segregate themselves with, with their own groups, what I always saw Fahad doing — particularly after class when there was a very heated discussion about some question of constitutional law or American foreign policy — what I always saw Fahad doing was reaching out to other students - I always saw him speaking with students of other faiths, of other ethnic backgrounds, and certainly other polictical beliefs - One of the sad things about this is that it is precisely these qualities that are now bringing Fahad under suspicion, and that’s something that I think educators in particular ought to be concerned about.
From Michael Ratner, Attorney, CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS (go here to find out much more about related cases and upcoming hearings)
Fahad was a well known activist, a well known spokesperson on, with regard to Muslim ideas, radical ideas according to some, but ideas. And… And the problem is when a government goes after ideas, um, is that, that’s clearly contrary to the first amendment...are they targeting this guy because he’s a Muslim? Because he’s a strong spokesperson? Because he wasn’t actually born in the United States as a US citizen? Because of who his friends are? But what you can almost for sure say is they are not targeting him because he was in any way involved in an act of terrorism, or aiding and abetting terrorism, or knowingly having anything to do with terrorism... Fahad’s case, as I said, is a very, very sympathetic case for anyone who chooses to examine it. So the first thing I would do, I would tell anybody go to web sites, put in his name, examine what you see here.
My Memories of Fahad Hashmi by Omar Khyam
Fahad Hashmi (an American Muslim) was studying in the UK for a master's degree. Due to the dubious testimony of supergrass Junaid Barber, Fahad was arrested at Heathrow airport on 6th June 2006 on terrorism charges. He spent 11 months as a category A prisoner in HMP Belmarsh before being extradited to the US in May 2007. Fahad is currently being held in solitary confinement at the Metropolitan Correction Center in Manhattan, NYC. Omar Khyam has written the following account for al-istiqamah of his memories of Fahad whilst they were at Belmarsh together. GO
Here
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Transcript from Video on this case:
[Michael Ratner, Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights]
Our society should not have ideological prisoners. We should not have prisoners who have no — even in their indictments — no overt connection with any kind of terrorist act. We should not have those people in prisons, and we should have not have them in prisons that are essentially secret, incommunicado practically prisons without any access to genuine representation.
[Narrator]
Fahad Hashmi was born in Karachi, Pakistan, in 1980. He immigrated with his family to America when he was 3 years old.
[Anwar Hashmi, Fahad’s Father]
So we came to this country [mumbled] basically, for our kids to have a good education and the opportunity here in United States. As they say it’s the American Dream; that was the dream for us, and, and I gave good education — I tried to give a good education to my both kids. And that’s, that’s the reason we came in this country.
[Narrator]
Fahad’s family settled in Flushing, Queens. He became a United States citizen in 1991, when he was 11 years old.
[Anwar Hashmi, Fahad’s Father]
He’s a very lovable person. And he, basically, he dared among his peers to help others. He was very friendly; he was very friendly. You know I mean it is in our blood. It’s in our blood, that to help others. That’s why we are — that’s how Fahad is.
[Narrator]
Fahad earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Brooklyn College in 2003. And a Masters Degree in International Relations from Metropolitan University in London, in 2006.
[Professor Corey Robin, Political Science, Brooklyn College]
What was interesting to me about Fahad as a student was that he had very strong views of his own. But unlike many other students who have their own points of view, who tend to segregate themselves with, with their own groups, what I always saw Fahad doing — particularly after class when there was a very heated discussion about some question of constitutional law or American foreign policy — what I always saw Fahad doing was reaching out to other students.
I always saw him speaking with students of other faiths, of other ethnic backgrounds, and certainly other polictical beliefs.
One of the sad things about this is that it is precisely these qualities that are now bringing Fahad under suspicion, and that’s something that I think educators in particular ought to be concerned about.
[Newscaster, “Terror Trail Arrest” in inset]
Officials say an American student who was arrested in London as he prepared to board a flight to Pakistan has been indicted in New York on terrorism charges. 26 year old Syed Hashmi is accused of providing military gear to Al Qaeda to be used against US forces in Afghanistan.
[Newscaster, “Web of Terror” in inset]
The arrest of an American, picked up by police in London — he is accused of helping an Al Qaeda plot to stage a series of spectacular attacks.
[Anwar Hashmi, Fahad’s Father]
You know, that the 6th of June, 2006, my American Dream… became a… American Nightmare. It was just the worst day in my life. Everything is shattered.
[Arifa Hashmi, Fahad’s mother]
(In English:) It is a very bad feeling. I have no words. (In Urdu:) There are no words. Even now I have the same feeling… what I felt the first day, until now, even now this feeling has not left me.
[Sean Maher, Fahad’s attorney]
What we’ve been able to discern from the government’s case, so far, is that back in 2004 Fahad was living in London; he was a graduate student at the time. And around February or March of 2004, someone who Fahad knew was in the town, in London, and stayed in Fahad’s apartment for about two weeks. That person left after two weeks.
Two years later, in 2006, Fahad was at the airport, Heathrow Airport, going to Pakistan when he was arrested, and essentially charged with being a terrorist in the United States.
The charges, though, go back to that, that trip, that person that he knew took back in 2004 and stayed in Fahad’s apartment. Supposedly this person kept a suitcase or luggage containing raincoats, ponchos, and waterproof socks. That person then, the government alleges, took those waterproof socks and ponchos to the number three leader in Al Qaeda, who is at that point, supposedly, based in South Waziristan, Pakistan, and leading the insurgency in Afghanistan.
So the charges are not that Fahad is a member of Al Qaeda, not that Fahad gave any money to Al Qaeda, not that Fahad gave any military weapons to Al Qaeda.
The charge is that he knowingly allowed a person to keep ponchos and waterproof socks in his apartment that then were going to go to Al Qaeda. All told, Fahad faces 70 years in a federal prison.
[Michael Ratner, Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights]
When you actually read what the government is trying to claim in the case, how do you call this a terrorism case?
He’s not accused of any act of terrorism. Even what he supposedly did has no relationship to any act of terrorism. It had a relationship of supposedly holding something, something innocuous like a raincoat that might or might not have been given to an organization that the United States designates as a terrorist organization.
[Narrator]
There is no allegation that Fahad is a member of Al Qaeda. Or that he ever personally gave or helped to give anything to any member of Al Qaeda.
[Michael Ratner, Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights]
So you have to ask yourself what’s going on here? Is this the best they can do, and call this a terrorist case? And it makes you question the entire motives of the prosecution and whether or not there isn’t something else going on here, and something else going on in Fahad’s case.
Fahad is a strong spokesperson. He’s an activist on Islamic issues. And so what it makes you think, the first thing is, are they targeting this guy because he’s a Muslim? Because he’s a strong spokesperson? Because he wasn’t actually born in the United States as a US citizen? Because of who his friends are?
But what you can almost for sure say is they are not targeting him because he was in any way involved in an act of terrorism, or aiding and abetting terrorism, or knowingly having anything to do with terrorism.
[Narrator]
Fahad is an integral part of the Flushing Muslim community. After September 11, Fahad was active in protecting the rights of Muslims. He was also an open critic of US foreign policy and the decision to go to war.
[Michael Ratner, Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights]
Fahad was a well known activist, a well known spokesperson on, with regard to Muslim ideas, radical ideas according to some, but ideas. And… And the problem is when a government goes after ideas, um, is that, that’s clearly contrary to the first amendment.
[Imam Siraj Wahaj]
In this country we almost, um, idolize our ability as Americans to have free, freedom of speech. It’s in our Constitution. And it seems as if Fahad is yet another Muslim that’s being prosecuted only because of his articulation of his belief.
[Professor Corey Robin, Political Science, Brooklyn College]
Everybody — I can’t think of a person in this country who ought not to be concerned when, um, those kinds of beliefs, statements, and activities that are ordinarily protected and constitutional become evidence in the mind of a government of some of kind a criminal sensibility or inclination.
We fought long and hard in this country to get to the point where the Supreme Court and the judicial system understood that just because you say something, and just because you believe something doesn’t mean you’re going to commit an act of violence.
[Michael Ratner, Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights]
If you’re a Muslim citizen in this country, and you come out on the line and say “stop this war, oppose this war” — speak at a demonstration on a platform, you’re going to have FBI all over you. And that’s a pretty sad comment about the First Amendment.
[Imam Siraj Wahaj]
When I look at Fahad: young, intelligent, young man; Fahad had never been arrested, never been in trouble in his life with the law, and that this man is facing all these years in prison… What? What are you talking about? Do you know this man?
[Narrator]
Fahad has been vilified in the media. And his political beliefs have been treated as evidence of a crime.
[Professor Corey Robin, Political Science, Brooklyn College]
I think that, in the minds of many people, just by virtue of being Muslim and male, you are — if not a terrorist now — fast on your way to becoming a terrorist. So I think the… the presumption of guilt is automatic in that case.
And I think all of us, and I mean all of us in our, in our own hearts and minds, have to work very carefully to make sure that we are not making that leap.
[Narrator]
After being held for a year as a “Category A” prisoner in Britain’s notorious Belmarsh Prison, Fahad became the first United States citizen to be extradited from Britain to the US on terrorism-related charges.
In the United States, Fahad was placed in solitary confinement in the special housing units of the Metropolitan Correction Center in Manhattan, where he has been since June 2007.
[Sean Maher, Fahad’s attorney]
Right now, Fahad is under what are called Special Administrative Measures. These are extraordainary measures meant to cut off a person in federal detention from basically any contact with the outside world.
[Michael Ratner, Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights]
It’s essentially a barbaric way of keeping human beings. And to think that we’re keeping people in a barbaric way right now, with all of what goes along with it, in breaking down the human personality is something that should not be stood for.
The fact that he has been in custody for almost two years is something that should be unacceptable for any caring human being. It’s certainly unacceptable from a legal and moral and political point of view.
Fahad is 27 years old. I mean, he’s a smart, interesting person. And he’s being kept in a situation to break a personality.
[Professor Corey Robin, Political Science, Brooklyn College]
The concern I have with this case against Fahad is that it, if it goes forward, in the manner in which I fear it may go forward, we will be undoing the 20th century. And I think that’s something that, all of us who care about civil rights and civil liberties in this country ought to be concerned about.
[Michael Ratner, Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights]
Well, Fahad’s case, as I said, is a very, very sympathetic case for anyone who chooses to examine it.
So the first thing I would do, I would tell anybody go to web sites, put in his name, examine what you see here.
[Imam Siraj Wahaj]
Become familiar with the facts of the case. I think that’s important. Number two, we should come to the court hearings when they begin. Number three, financially.
[Arifa Hashmi, Fahad’s mother]
(In Urdu) People can help us in this way, they can come to court. They can raise their voices. He needs help with money, they can help with money. Prayers for him, our faith is based on prayer. Make prayers for him, as much as can be done. And most important, come to the court and raise your voices.
[Anwar Hashmi, Fahad’s Father]
In whatever capacity they want to help us, they come forward and they… I request them to come and to help us.
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[To See/Hear a Video about his case - courtesy of FreeFahad dot com - Go
Here Also see this link for a petition, updates on the case and more...
NOTE again: Fahad Hashmi’s hearing has been postponed until January 8, 2009. The human rights community is asked to be present in large numbers.
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