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Israeli forces confiscate land near Hebron

Ma’an – 11/07/2010

Hebron: Israeli soldiers issued orders barring residents of four small villages in the southern West Bank from their land, mayor Suleiman Al-Adam said Sunday.

The orders declared the agricultural land a closed military zone, and ordered farmers and others working on the land to evacuate. The soldiers also confiscated farming equipment, a statement by Beit Ula’s mayor said.

The villagers stand to lose more than 5,000 dunums (five square kilometers) of land, on which more than 60 Palestinian families from the villages west of Hebron depend for their livelihood, the mayor said.

The mayor said farmers were given 45 days to submit an appeal to the Israeli military court, adding that Beit Ula municipal council would help residents with this.

A spokesman for the Israeli Civil Administration said he was not familiar with the reports.

The village land lies on the proposed route of the separation wall.

A recent report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs found that once completed, the wall will annex 9.5 percent of Palestinian land.

Only 15 percent of the wall’s projected route is on the Green Line, the 1967 border with Israel, with the remaining 85 percent cutting inside the West Bank.

Six years ago, the International Court of Justice ruled the wall a violation of international humanitarian and human rights law, and called on Israel to cease construction, dismantle constructed parts and pay reparations to those already materially damaged by it.

Since the ruling, Israel has added approximately 200 kilometers to the wall, OCHA reported.

July 11, 2010 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | Leave a comment

Documentary: “The Rooftops of Hebron”

A day in the life of a Palestinian

By Jasmin | Pulse Media | July 11, 2010

In Hebron, Israel’s continued colonialist expansion on Palestinian land is accompanied by constant verbal, physical and psychological harassment perpetuated by Israeli ‘settlers’ against local Palestinians and human rights activists. Mainstream media has constructed an image of Palestinians as violent and hateful in comparison to Israelis who are almost always portrayed as victims, but the actions of Israeli settlers are rarely reported and provide a different view of the reality on the ground.

In the clip below, an old Palestinian woman shows a documentary crew from the Israeli NGO B’Tselem how she leaves her house each day — by climbing through the rooftops of neighbors’ houses. In 2000 the Israeli army closed the Palestinian populated a-Shahada Street where she lives to Palestinians and sealed the entrances to their homes. Malka Kafisha has likely lived in Hebron all her life but states that “If this continues, we may have to leave this house.”

If Kafisha and her family were to leave their home, the Israelis would get exactly what they want, which is why it requires courage and determination for Palestinians to remain in Hebron with all the obstacles Israeli settlers and the Israeli government put in their way.

According to the Israeli scholar Ilan Pappe, author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, in all dominant definitions of ethnic cleansing there are certain constants, most importantly, the desire of one ethnic group to force another ethnic group to leave an area permanently. Methods vary, all the way from prolonged psychological abuse, to violent, murderous assaults, but the end goal of mass expulsion leading to ethnic homogeneity is the same. Indeed, if intimidation does not force a population to leave, then forced death will.

To get an idea of the kind of intimidation Palestinians are forced to endure, watch the B’Tselem clip below. Note that this is by no means the worst of it.

Documentary: “The Rooftops of Hebron”

Documentary: The Actions of Settlers in Hebron (Tel Rumeida)

Paul Woodward writes:

The settlers, who are quite explicit about their intent to drive their neighbors out, treat them worse than animals — and yet the Palestinians retain their dignity.

The undiluted contempt and arrogance displayed by both settlers and Israeli soldiers reveals their own lack of self-respect. It exudes an utter indifference to how they will be perceived outside their own small tribe. They have, in short, cut themselves off from humanity. They enjoy the comfort of the pariah who has abandoned any hope for human embrace.

July 11, 2010 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | Leave a comment

OCHA And WHO Announce Israel’s Barriers Are Blocking Access To Hospitals

Palestine Monitor | 10 July 2010

On the sixth anniversary of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) demand that the Separation Barrier be re-routed and dismantled where it breaches Palestinian territory, The United Nation’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have issued a new report condemning its impact on health and agriculture. New studies have shown movement restrictions are preventing access to East Jerusalem’s six specialist hospitals for staff and patients. The report also highlighted the difficulties for those living and working in the ‘seam zone’, the areas isolated by the Wall.

Current projections indicate the finished Wall, currently 61% completed, will leave almost 10% of the West Bank on the Israeli side. 85% of the barrier is to be built on Palestinian land, with approximately 7,800 people currently trapped in this ‘seam zone’. That figure is set to treble.

While the report noted that some Israeli measures have reduced movement restrictions in the West Bank, with “the removal of dozens of obstacles” around Qalqilya and Nablus, they are tightening in East Jerusalem. This has been most problematic in terms of access to the six hospitals located there, which provide specialist services not available elsewhere in the West Bank and Gaza, including dialysis and oncology, open-heart surgery, neurosurgery and eye surgery.

At present patients are required to pass through three checkpoints on foot, a policy WHO representatives described as “undignified and often unsafe” when applied to severely ill patients. A further problem has been the lack of access for hospital staff, who until 2008 had been given special dispensation to pass East Jerusalem checkpoints. That ‘privilege’ was then suspended before protests led to it being restored for doctors, but not nurses or support staff, who now face lengthy delays and periodic refusals in attempting to access their workplace. WHO officials say Israeli authorities have given “no clear reason” for this damaging policy which severely impacts on the maintenance of hospital services, and that they are continuing to press for full, unrestricted access.

The problem is more severe for patients. In 2009, almost 50% of patient referrals for specialised care were to East Jerusalem hospitals, which treat around 19,000 patients a year. Since 1993, Palestinians without Jerusalem ID cards are forced to apply for permits in order to receive treatment, a time consuming, unreliable process that leads to costly delays in dealing with urgent health problems. Emergencies are not treated as such. In 2009, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported 440 “denials and delays” of ambulances in the Occupied Territories, “two thirds of which occurred at Barrier checkpoints accessing Jerusalem”. The permit applications department from Augusta Victoria Hospital estimates 20% of patients are refused.

Al-Quds University in Abu Dis is the main training centre for medical students, but the 90% of students from the West Bank require permits to attend their courses. In the last month Al Quds medical school announced 11 students were forced to end their training as they were not given permission.

The report’s other main concern was the increasing difficulty for West Bank farmers in the ‘seam zone’ in accessing their land. Farmers must apply for an Israeli permit proving ‘connection to the land’ and satisfy security criteria. This, coupled with a gate system that only allows workers through at certain times of the day and never at night, has led to a steep decline in production and the abandonment of large tracts of land. UN studies show farmers are wary of submitting personal documents to Israeli security services “for fear they will be used against them” and others refuse to apply out of principle. As a consequence, only 207 of 1,000 farmers in Habla, Qalqilya were issued permits last year, 73 of 1,400 in in Zeita, Tulkarm and 70 of 1,750 in Anin, Jenin.

The presence of barrier gates in the seam zone represents a serious health concern. If an injury, common in rural areas, takes place outside the designated opening hours, the victim cannot receive treatment until the next opening.

Along with the report, OCHA and WHO have issued a short list of demands to the Israeli authorities; 24 hour access through gates around the seam zone to facilitate medical treatment, as well as unhindered access for medical personnel, students and patients to East Jerusalem hospitals. OCHA representatives have as yet received no response.

Read a full OCHA report on their website

July 11, 2010 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

Israel closes case of Silwan shooting

Ma’an – 10/07/2010

Jerusalem: Israel’s attorney general has closed the case of a shooting by an Israeli soldier who was visiting the City of David illegal settlement in the Wadi Helwa neighborhood in Silwan, East Jerusalem.

The soldier was carrying an M16 rifle and opened fire at member of the Wadi Helwa committee Ahmad Qara’een, 40, who was shot in the foot and Ameer Froukh, 13, while he was riding his bike in the neighborhood.

The case was closed due to lack of evidence, the attorney general said.

Ahmad Qara’een said that the outcome was inexplicable as he had submitted witnesses, photos, and medical reports to Israeli officials.

“Meanwhile, they accused me of attempting to snatch a soldier’s rifle, and interrogated my two children Wadee and Ali, who are 11 and 10. That same soldier harshly beat my two sons, and Ameer Froukh was shot in the foot while riding his bike,” Qara’een said.

Ramadan Al-Bana of the Wadi Helwa Information Center said “Israeli soldiers always punish the victim and always look at us Palestinians as criminals. This is what we have come to expect from Israeli soldiers, who turn us into suspects and portray themselves as victims.”

Tensions boiled over Saturday when a group of Israeli settlers accosted members of the At-Taweel family, relatives said, claiming that their home was owned by the King David project and ordering them to leave.

Residents of the neighborhood arrived at the scene but the settlers left before any major disturbances.

July 11, 2010 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

Israeli occupation forces damage more land in Gaza, Zionist settler runs over elderly Palestinian

Palestine Information Center – 11/07/2010

KHAN YOUNIS: Israeli occupation forces (IOF) escorted two military bulldozers 300 metes into eastern Khan Younis, in southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday amidst indiscriminate shooting.

Local sources told the PIC reporter that three army tanks were firing intermittently as the bulldozers damaged Palestinian lands.

IOF troops on Saturday night opened machinegun fire at Palestinian homes and lands east of Rafah, also south of Gaza.

Eyewitnesses said that IOF warplanes were seen flying over the targeted area, no casualties were reported.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank an elderly Palestinian farmer was seriously injured when a Zionist settler ran him over near Khader village, Bethlehem district. Witnesses said that Mahmoud Subaih was on his way to farm his field when the settler hit him then sped away.

Zionist settlers drive recklessly on West Bank bypass roads which Palestinians have come to dub “death roads” as many civilians are killed or seriously injured in such incidents as a result of high speed and indifference to Palestinian lives.

Ma’an reports:

One PRCS paramedic said Israeli Magen David Adom ambulance staff contacted them after they arrived at the scene, as they were unable to transfer the injured to an Israeli hospital because he had a West Bank ID card.

July 11, 2010 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

Salvadorian hit-man extradited to Cuba to answer hotel bombing charges

By Patrick J. O’Donoghue | VHeadline News | July 08, 2010

Venezuela has extradited Salvadorian hit-man, Francisco Chavez Abarca to Cuba where he is wanted for allegedly placing bombs in hotels to destabilize the tourism industry in 1997.

According to Venezuelan government reports and confirmed by Telesur, Chavez Abarca has been singing like a canary, confessing he had been hired to set up destabilizing activities in the run-up to the legislative elections in September.

The Salvadorian is said to be one of Cuban terrorist, Luis Posada Carriles’ henchmen or link-man with Venezuela.

The Venezuelan police have not revealed details about possible associates in the country only to confirm that the investigation into Chavez Abarca’s contacts continues. The Salvadorian tried to enter Venezuela last Thursday using false documents and a Guatemalan passport.

The suspect’s wife has accused the Venezuelan government of having kidnapped her husband in Guatemala and forcibly taken him to Venezuela.

Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said terrorist bands operating inside Venezuela are being monitored and that Chavez Abarca is part of the group trained and financed by the CIA in Central America.

July 10, 2010 Posted by | Aletho News | 1 Comment

10 Ways We Are Being Tracked, Traced, and Databased

Are technological advances infringing on our right to privacy?
Activist Post | July 10, 2010
The war on terror is a worldwide endeavor that has spurred massive investment into the global surveillance industry – which now seems to be becoming a war on “liberty and privacy.”  Given all of the new monitoring technology being implemented, the uproar over warrantless wiretaps now seems moot.  High-tech, first-world countries  are being tracked, traced, and databased, literally around every corner.  Governments, aided by private companies, are gathering a mountain of information on average citizens who so far seem willing to trade liberty for supposed security.  Here are just some of the ways the matrix of data is being collected:
  • Internet — Internet browsers are recording your every move forming detailed cookies on your activities.  The NSA has been exposed as having cookies on their site that don’t expire until 2035.  Major search engines know where you surfed last summer, and online purchases are databased, supposedly for advertising and customer service uses.  IP addresses are collected and even made public.  Controversial websites can be flagged internally by government sites, as well as re-routing all traffic to block sites the government wants to censor. It has now been fully admitted that social networks provide NO privacy to users while technologies advance for real-time social network monitoring is already being used.  The Cybersecurity Act attempts to legalize the collection and exploitation of your personal information.  Apple’s iPhone also has browsing data recorded and stored.  All of this despite the overwhelming opposition to cybersurveillance by citizens.
  • RFID — Forget your credit cards which are meticulously tracked, or the membership cards for things so insignificant as movie rentals which require your SSN.  Everyone has Costco, CVS, grocery-chain cards, and a wallet or purse full of many more.  RFID  “proximity cards” take tracking to a new level in uses ranging from loyalty cards, student ID, physical access, and computer network access.  Latest developments include an RFID powder developed by Hitachi, for which the multitude of uses are endless — perhaps including tracking hard currency so we can’t even keep cash undetected. (Also see microchips below).
  • Traffic cameras — License plate recognition has been used to remotely automate duties of the traffic police in the United States, but have been proven to have dual use in England such as to mark activists under the Terrorism Act.  Perhaps the most common use will be to raise money and shore up budget deficits via traffic violations, but uses may descend to such “Big Brother” tactics as monitors telling pedestrians not to litter as talking cameras already do in the UK.
  • Computer cameras and microphones — The fact that laptops — contributed by taxpayers — spied on public school children (at home) is outrageous.  Years ago Google began officially to use computer “audio fingerprinting” for advertising uses.  They have admitted to working with the NSA, the premier surveillance network in the world.  Private communications companies already have been exposed routing communications to the NSA.  Now, keyword tools — typed and spoken — link to the global security matrix.
  • Public sound surveillance — This technology has come a long way from only being able to detect gunshots in public areas, to now listening in to whispers for dangerous “keywords.” This technology has been launched in Europe to “monitor conversations” to detect “verbal aggression” in public places.  Sound Intelligence is the manufacturer of technology to analyze speech, and their website touts how it can easily be integrated into other systems.
  • Biometrics — The most popular biometric authentication scheme employed for the last few years has been Iris Recognition. The main applications are entry control, ATMs and Government programs. Recently, network companies and governments have utilized biometric authentication including fingerprint analysis, iris recognition, voice recognition, or combinations of these for use in National identification cards.
  • Microchips — Microsoft’s HealthVault and VeriMed partnership is to create RFID implantable microchips.  Microchips for tracking our precious pets is becoming commonplace and serves to condition us to accept putting them in our children in the future.  The FDA has already approved this technology for humans and is marketing it as a medical miracle, again for our safety.
  • Facial recognition — Anonymity in public is over.  Admittedly used at Obama’s campaign events, sporting events, and most recently at the G8/G20 protests in Canada. This technology is also harvesting data from Facebook images and surely will be tied into the street “traffic” cameras.
All of this is leading to Predictive Behavior Technology — It is not enough to have logged and charted where we have been; the surveillance state wants to know where we are going through psychological profiling.  It’s been marketed for such uses as blocking hackers.  Things seem to have advanced to a point where a truly scientific Orwellian world is at hand.  It is estimated that computers know to a 93% accuracy where you will be, before you make your first move.   Nanotech is slated to play a big role in going even further as scientists are using nanoparticles to directly influence behavior and decision making.
Many of us are asking:  What would someone do with all of this information to keep us tracked, traced, and databased?  It seems the designers have no regard for the right to privacy and desire to become the Controllers of us all.

July 10, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | 2 Comments

Turkey warns Israel of ‘sanctions’

Press TV – July 10, 2010

“There is an action, a crime here. Turkey’s demand is rather lucid. Since there is a death, the killing side is acknowledged and an international commission should be formed and make its decision with respect to this fact in the frame of objective provisions of law. If Israel does not want an international commission, then it has to acknowledge this crime, apologize, and pay compensation,” Davutoglu said in an interview published in the Newsweek magazine on July 9.

The top Turkish diplomat made the comments after the recent Israeli attack on the aid fleet seeking to break the siege of Gaza Strip. The deadly attack in the international waters of the Mediterranean Sea claimed the lives of nine Turkish citizens.

“If the international community and the international law do not ask about the causes of these deaths, we, as the government of the Republic of Turkey, have the right to ask. Turkey-Israel relations will never be on a normal footing until we have an answer. And Turkey has the right to one-sidedly apply its own sanctions,” the Turkish top diplomat added.

“If the right steps are not taken (by Israel), the relations would go in the direction of a break-off process. However, I cannot share with you what I have told them behind closed doors. They know what kind of sanctions we would impose,” Davutoglu said.

Asked about Ankara’s “zero-tension policy” with Turkey’s neighbor countries and the recent escalation of tensions with Israel, Davutoglu said: “Zero problems with neighbors is a value. But another equally important value is to establish peace. If any actor blocks peace processes, keeps civilians under blockade, massacres civil people on international waters, the peace value could not be disregarded for the sake of zero problems with neighbors. These policies of Israel are a menace to regional peace. Excusing these policies that go against peace just to develop zero-problem relations is out of the question.”

July 10, 2010 Posted by | Solidarity and Activism | 3 Comments

Noam Chomsky opposes Palestinian-led movement to boycott Israel

By Alison Weir – July 10, 2010

In an interview on the Council for the National Interest internet radio program “Jerusalem Calling,” MIT Professor Noam Chomsky, author of The Fateful Triangle and other books on Israel-Palestine, said that he opposes boycotting Israel.

In a July 8th interview with new CNI President Alison Weir, Dr. Chomsky at first denied that he opposed the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement, calling this an “internet rumor.”

However, when Weir said she had heard him say that he opposed boycott during a lecture at the University of California Berkeley several years ago, Chomsky admitted that he had opposed boycotting Israel then and said that he still did so now. He said that he felt that activists should instead only divest from American companies.

Chomsky claimed that the boycott movement “hurts Palestinians,” because he felt it was “hypocritical to boycott Israel and not the US, which funds Israeli actions.”  Weir pointed out that many authors – among them Donald Neff, George Ball, Stephen Green, Kathleen Christison, Edward Tivnan, Walt and Mearsheimer, and, most recently, Grant Smith – have provided massive evidence that the primary reason the U.S. supports Israel is the Israel Lobby (the most powerful lobby for a foreign country in the US).

Chomsky, who has consistently denied the power of the Israel Lobby, said that AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) would use the charge that the Palestinian support movement is allegedly “hypocritcal” to undermine its effectiveness, and that therefore this boycott would be harmful to Palestinians. While this statement appeared to indicate that Chomsky now acknowledges the power and significance of the Israel lobby, later in the interview he continued to deny the importance of this lobby.

In response to Chomsky’s assertion that the boycott movement allegedly hurts Palestinians, Weir pointed out that Palestinian civil society overwhelmingly calls for such a boycott. She said that over a hundred different Palestinian groups – including farmers’ groups, women’s groups, and others – have asked for an international boycott of Israel.

A caller to the show, long-time Middle East analyst Jeffrey Blankfort, commented that he felt it was highly inappropriate and condescending for Chomsky, a Jewish-American who had lived on a Kibbutz and says that he supports Israel, to tell Palestinians what’s good for them.

During the interview, Chomsky said that he has long favored a binational state. He said that he felt that the call for a “single, secular, democratic state” did not make much sense, suggesting  that calls for one state were “rhetorical” and did not “rise to the state of advocacy” because proponents had not sketched out a path of how to get there. He did not comment on the books on this subject by Ali Abunimah and Virginia Tilley, which advance detailed discussion on this approach.

Because technical problems caused occasional problems during the program, Weir, who is also executive director of If Americans Knew, has invited Chomsky to come on the show again so that he may explain his position further. Chomsky accepted the invitation and will appear again in a few months when his schedule permits.

The interview, in which Chomsky also discusses other aspects of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, can be heard in full on the CNI: Jerusalem Calling section of the WS Radio website. Outgoing CNI President Eugene Bird says that CNI will post a transcript on the CNI website within a few days.

July 10, 2010 Posted by | Deception, Solidarity and Activism | 8 Comments

U.S. Muslim Travelers Warned of ‘Forced Exile’

American Muslims face denial of due process, pressure to become informants
CAIR – 7/9/10

CAIR today issued an advisory to American Muslims — whether citizens, permanent residents or visa holders — warning of the risk of “forced exile” when traveling overseas or attempting to return to the United States. Muslim travelers are urged to know their legal rights if they are placed on the so-called “no-fly list.”

In the past few months, CAIR has received a number of reports of American Muslims stranded overseas when they are placed on the government’s no-fly list. Those barred from returning to the United States report being denied proper legal representation, being subjected to FBI pressure tactics to give up the constitutionally-guaranteed right to remain silent, having their passports confiscated without due process, and being pressured to become informants for the FBI. These individuals have not been told why they were placed on the no-fly list or how to remove their names from the list.

SEE: Cases of American Muslims Barred from U.S. (CAIR)

American Man in Limbo on No-Fly List (NY Times)

U.S. Muslims Facing Problems in Return from Abroad (Wash. Post)

FBI agents have reportedly told a number of individuals that they face being stranded outside the United States longer, or forever, unless they give up their rights to legal representation or to refuse interrogations and polygraph tests. But even those who submitted to interrogations without an attorney or to the “lie detector” tests remain stranded.

CAIR cooperated with the ACLU on its recently-filed lawsuit challenging the lack of due process in placing travelers on the no-fly list.

SEE: ACLU Files Lawsuit Challenging Unconstitutional ‘No Fly List’

“We ask President Obama to review this disturbing new policy that denies American Muslims their constitutional rights and due process of law,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad.

He said American Muslims strongly support law enforcement and the protection of our national security. And as Americans, we also value the civil rights of every individual. All Americans have the constitutional right to due process and to re-enter their own country.

If you know of any criminal activity, it is both your religious and civic duty to immediately report such activity to local and federal law enforcement agencies.

Know Your Rights if Placed on the No-Fly List:

[IMPORTANT NOTE: Before traveling overseas, obtain the cell phone number of an attorney who would be available for consultation if you are barred from returning to the United States. Finding an attorney once you have been stopped or detained is much more difficult. Provide the attorney’s contact information to those scheduled to pick you up at the airport.]

1) Understand that agreeing to an interview with FBI agents is strictly voluntary. You are not obligated under law to answer any questions from law enforcement officers. You must however provide them with a passport or other official identification.

2) You may choose to have an attorney accompany or represent you for any interview or questioning. CAIR strongly recommends that you consult with an attorney before being interviewed by law enforcement agents. CAIR may provide legal assistance or can refer you to an attorney.

3) Stay calm. Do not get into an argument with law enforcement officers.

4) Note that anything you say to an agent or officer can be used against you in a court of law, and that lying to an agent or officer is a criminal offense. Also note that an FBI agent is permitted to lie to you in the course of an interrogation.

5) Should you decide to speak to agents without an attorney despite the risks, note that you may set the conditions of the interview, including choosing when and where the interview is to take place, whether a third party such as a family member is present, which questions to answer, and refusing to sign any documents. You may cancel the interview at any time. Take detailed notes during any interview.

6) Be sure to get the names, agencies, badge numbers and business cards of ALL agents or officers. Similarly, make a note of the name, agency, contact information, and supervisor of any other government employees, including embassy staff.

7) Contact your attorney and CAIR to report the incident and to discuss your next legal steps. If you believe that your civil rights have been or are being violated, you may file a complaint with the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and with the Department of State. CAIR can help you with this process.

8) To file a civil rights complaint with CAIR-PA, please visit: http://pa.cair.com/report/

9) If you have Internet access, file a complaint with DHS TRIP (Traveler Redress Inquiry Program) by going to: www.dhs.gov/trip

10) Have your spouse or other family members contact your elected representatives to seek assistance.

MORE RESOURCES:

“FBI Interview: Knowing the Law Can Protect You,” by Ahilan Arulanantham and Ranjana Natarajan. InFocus News, February 2007.

Video: “Got Rights: Protect Yourself and Your Family at Home and at the Airport,” by Muslim Advocates.

[Please note: The points outlined above are for informational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. Should you have any questions about this material or about a specific case, please consult with an attorney.]

July 9, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Islamophobia | 2 Comments

Six years in jail, no charge: war on terror’s forgotten victim speaks

The Independent – 08/07/2010

Babar Ahmad was left with 73 injuries after his first arrest in 2003. He is presently being held in a small cell

Babar Ahmad, 35, is the longest-serving prisoner held without charge or trial in the UK. In his first media interview since his arrest on a US extradition warrant in 2004, Mr Ahmad tells Robert Verkaik that he is the forgotten victim of the ‘war on terror’. In March 2009, he was awarded £60,000 in compensation after an admission by the UK’s anti-terrorist police that they subjected him to ‘grave abuse, tantamount to torture’ during his first arrest in December 2003. Corresponding via email from a secure isolation unit at Long Lartin prison, he calls on the Government to charge him or release him. Today, the European Court of Human Rights rules on his case.

Can you describe your life in the UK before your arrest?

I was born in the UK and have spent all my life living in south London in the Balham/Tooting area. At the time of my first arrest in December 2003, I was employed full-time as an ICT Support Analystat Imperial College London. My job entailed supporting the software needs of undergraduate academic teaching and postgraduate research. I have always been a devout Muslim and others would describe me as adhering to mainstream Islamic teachings. I have never been charged with or convicted of any criminal offence.

Describe the conditions of your detention.
I have been held in a number of prisons throughout the high-security estate since my arrest in 2004. I have been designated a category A prisoner. Initially, I was held on normal wings in prisons, alongside prisoners of all different categories. I was then moved to a small unit in HMP Long Lartin and held with other men fighting extradition or deportation. Over the last year and a half, the conditions of my detention have deteriorated. I spend all day, every day on a small unit with seven other prisoners. We are isolated from all other prisoners and all our time is spent in the claustrophobic atmosphere of a small unit. If I am extradited to the US, my conditions will deteriorate further. I face the possibility of life without parole in solitary confinement under the harshest of prison regimes in a Supermax prison, far from home, family and friends.

What is the case against you?
The central US allegations against me revolve around a family of websites that provided news in nearly 20 languages on Chechen resistance fighters who were defending their land against the Russian Army’s invasion of Chechnya in the 1990s. According to the US, this was terrorism [The Home Office says Mr Ahmad is accused of providing material support to terrorists]. But according to UK this was, and still is, legal as Chechen resistance fighters have never been proscribed as a terrorist organisation, unlike al-Qa’ida. In fact, the leader of the Chechen resistance has been living in the UK for several years, having been granted asylum.

The US claims jurisdiction because it is alleged that one of the several dozen computer servers on which the websites were hosted was located in the US for approximately 18 months from early 2000. The US accepts that the websites were also hosted on computer servers around the world and that “at all times material to the indictment” I was living in the UK. Other peripheral allegations against me are that a US naval battleship plan document was allegedly seized from me in December 2003. The media raised uproar about this document when I was arrested on the extradition warrant. However, in a letter to Sadiq Khan MP, the former Attorney-General Lord Goldsmith wrote that it could not even be proven that it was in my possession. Another document seized from my parents’ house was a tourist brochure (belonging to my father) of the Empire State Building in New York, which prompted the media to report “al-Qa’ida planned to attack Empire State Building”. That brochure is dated 1973, which is when my father visited New York. What is more incredible is that UK police returned this brochure to my father after I was arrested on the extradition warrant, yet it still forms part of the evidence against me.

How were you tortured in the UK?
On 2 December 2003, I was arrested in a pre-dawn raid by anti-terrorist police officers at my home in Tooting. During my arrest and subsequent journey to the police station, the officers subjected me to a “serious, prolonged and gratuitous attack” and “grave abuse tantamount to torture”, which left me with at least 73 physical injuries including bleeding in my ears and urine. I was held in custody for six days during which my home and office were searched, computers seized and analysed and I was questioned. On 8 December 2003 I was released without charge, after the CPS determined that there was no evidence to charge me with any criminal offence whatsoever. I believe that part of this decision was based on the fact that any future criminal trial would air embarrassing details of the abuse inflicted on me at my arrest.

Following my release I filed a formal complaint against the police and I gave several interviews describing my treatment. My case began to prove highly embarrassing to the Blair government.

When were you re-arrested?
After two months recovering from my injuries, I returned to work in February 2004 and tried to rebuild my life following my ordeal. On 5 August 2004, on my way home from work, I was re-arrested pursuant to an extradition warrant from the US under the controversial, no-evidence-required US-UK Extradition Treaty and taken to a high-security prison where I have remained ever since. To this day I have not even been questioned about the allegations against me.
Why is the US Government so determined to see you face trial there?

The question to ask is why has the Blair/Brown Government been so determined to extradite me? In my case there is documentary evidence to suggest that it is not the US that is really interested in me, but the Blair/Brown Government that has been determined to send me there at any cost. One only has to read the ferocious, lengthy representations that the Foreign Office has made to the European Court of Human Rights urging, almost begging, the Court to extradite me to the US. Their Herculean efforts eclipse those made by the US government itself.

What message do you have for the Coalition Government in respect of your extradition?
I have now been in prison fighting extradition for six years, which is the equivalent of a 12-year sentence. Whilst in prison I have outlived the the Blair/Brown Labour Government. To their credit, both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives have steadfastly opposed this controversial UK-US Extradition Treaty and they have pledged, in their published Coalition Agreement, to modify it.

July 9, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

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