Press Release
Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace
May 11, 2006
Tampa-
The persecution of Dr. Sami Al-Arian in the U.S. prison system continues. Last Thursday, May 4, Dr. Al-Arian was hauled from Orient Road Jail in Tampa at 3:45 a.m. to a federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida. He was placed in the Special Housing Unit (SHU), a section of the prison reserved to temporarily house convicted inmates who violate prison rules. Prison administrators said they received a letter, believed to be from federal marshals, which contained the ridiculous allegation that Dr. Al-Arian is a danger to other inmates. This claim was made to justify the torturous conditions under which Dr. Al-Arian has been placed in Tallahassee.
Dr. Al-Arian's family, supporters and all people of conscience would be shocked and outraged by this claim because Dr. Al-Arian is a well-known community leader, respected professor, and political prisoner, who not only has no connection to violence but was acquitted by 12 jurors of any connection to violence after a 6-month trial last December. Even the government conceded in its plea deal with Dr. Al-Arian that he has no connection to violence.
Once again, Dr. Al-Arian is being held in solitary confinement, a constant in his three and a half year imprisonment. Violent, hardened criminals are given more rights and treated more humanely than Dr. Al-Arian. He is clearly being subjected to especially harsh conditions because of his political beliefs, ethnicity and religion. It is further evident that this vindictive treatment is a deliberate attempt to break him physically and psychologically.
Furthermore, as he has no watches or clocks, Dr. Al-Arian feels disoriented and cannot properly carry out the five daily Muslim prayers. He was only able to leave his cell twice in one week for one hour each; the law states that inmates in solitary confinement must be given one hour a day. He was allowed only one phone call with his family, exactly a week after he was moved. His family was extremely worried and distraught when they did not hear from him for a week. Moreover, Dr. Al-Arian was not able to contact his attorneys, nor were they able to reach him to discuss pressing legal issues with deadlines that passed during the week he was deprived from communication.
In the course of his detention and during the critical time preparing for his trial, Dr. Al-Arian spent 27 months in the SHU unit of Coleman Federal Penitentiary. The legal limit of placing regular inmates in the SHU is one year. Again, the stark discrepancy in treatment undoubtedly demonstrates that he is being singled out.
Conscious of the infamously abusive treatment of conditions in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prison, the international community is closely watching the treatment of political prisoners in the United States. The discrimination against Dr. Al-Arian and other political prisoners in the U.S. and their excessively harsh treatment will embolden dictatorships to do the same, and remain a dark spot in this country's human rights record.
--
To write to Dr. Al-Arian:
Dr. Sami Al-Arian (#40939-018)
FCI Tallahassee
Federal Correctional Institution
501 Capital Circle, NE
Tallahassee, FL 32301
--
ACTION ALERT:
To protest the abusive conditions against Dr. Al-Arian:
E-MAIL, CALL and WRITE Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
E-MAIL: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
PHONE: 202-514-2001 and 202-353-1555
MAIL: U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Paul Perez, Chief Prosecutor. Emails can be sent to
steve.cole@usdoj.gov
Ask that it be forwarded to Paul Perez.
Amnesty International, Southern Office:
730 Peachtree Street NE
Suite 1060
Atlanta, GA 30308
phone: (404) 876-5661
fax: (404) 876-2276
1-866-A-REGION
aiusaso@aiusa.org
Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace
May 11, 2006
Tampa-
The persecution of Dr. Sami Al-Arian in the U.S. prison system continues. Last Thursday, May 4, Dr. Al-Arian was hauled from Orient Road Jail in Tampa at 3:45 a.m. to a federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida. He was placed in the Special Housing Unit (SHU), a section of the prison reserved to temporarily house convicted inmates who violate prison rules. Prison administrators said they received a letter, believed to be from federal marshals, which contained the ridiculous allegation that Dr. Al-Arian is a danger to other inmates. This claim was made to justify the torturous conditions under which Dr. Al-Arian has been placed in Tallahassee.
Dr. Al-Arian's family, supporters and all people of conscience would be shocked and outraged by this claim because Dr. Al-Arian is a well-known community leader, respected professor, and political prisoner, who not only has no connection to violence but was acquitted by 12 jurors of any connection to violence after a 6-month trial last December. Even the government conceded in its plea deal with Dr. Al-Arian that he has no connection to violence.
Once again, Dr. Al-Arian is being held in solitary confinement, a constant in his three and a half year imprisonment. Violent, hardened criminals are given more rights and treated more humanely than Dr. Al-Arian. He is clearly being subjected to especially harsh conditions because of his political beliefs, ethnicity and religion. It is further evident that this vindictive treatment is a deliberate attempt to break him physically and psychologically.
Furthermore, as he has no watches or clocks, Dr. Al-Arian feels disoriented and cannot properly carry out the five daily Muslim prayers. He was only able to leave his cell twice in one week for one hour each; the law states that inmates in solitary confinement must be given one hour a day. He was allowed only one phone call with his family, exactly a week after he was moved. His family was extremely worried and distraught when they did not hear from him for a week. Moreover, Dr. Al-Arian was not able to contact his attorneys, nor were they able to reach him to discuss pressing legal issues with deadlines that passed during the week he was deprived from communication.
In the course of his detention and during the critical time preparing for his trial, Dr. Al-Arian spent 27 months in the SHU unit of Coleman Federal Penitentiary. The legal limit of placing regular inmates in the SHU is one year. Again, the stark discrepancy in treatment undoubtedly demonstrates that he is being singled out.
Conscious of the infamously abusive treatment of conditions in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prison, the international community is closely watching the treatment of political prisoners in the United States. The discrimination against Dr. Al-Arian and other political prisoners in the U.S. and their excessively harsh treatment will embolden dictatorships to do the same, and remain a dark spot in this country's human rights record.
--
To write to Dr. Al-Arian:
Dr. Sami Al-Arian (#40939-018)
FCI Tallahassee
Federal Correctional Institution
501 Capital Circle, NE
Tallahassee, FL 32301
--
ACTION ALERT:
To protest the abusive conditions against Dr. Al-Arian:
E-MAIL, CALL and WRITE Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
E-MAIL: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
PHONE: 202-514-2001 and 202-353-1555
MAIL: U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Paul Perez, Chief Prosecutor. Emails can be sent to
steve.cole@usdoj.gov
Ask that it be forwarded to Paul Perez.
Amnesty International, Southern Office:
730 Peachtree Street NE
Suite 1060
Atlanta, GA 30308
phone: (404) 876-5661
fax: (404) 876-2276
1-866-A-REGION
aiusaso@aiusa.org
17 comments:
Very upsetting.
Here's more:
http://www.cageprisoners.com/prisoners.php?pageNum_rsPrisonersList=0&totalRows_rsPrisonersList=50&location=US
Didn't this guy admit links to Islamic Jihad, a designated terrorist organization? Didn't he laugh when people died in suicide attacks?
Why should anyone lift a finger to help him?
thanks for this post! what's happening in american jails is sickening..i'll be writing to Gonzales.. thanks for the info.
I hope this guy rots.
Thanks for info.
I have ties to the U.S.A., a country whose government has violated international law and killed civilians and provokes conflict around the world...I shamefully admit I've given money to this organization, in a form called "taxes." Should I be tried in a court of law?
The Palestinian financial crisis is FAKE
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/1,7340,L-3250038,00.html
The last comment has nothing to do with the post, but I'll respond to it. It's funny how zealous supporters of Israel have such a passionate hatred of Palestinians that they'll defy all logic and reason and believe anything that anybody says, irrespective of reliability and source, that makes Palestinians look bad.
Get over it, world donors have openly cut off aid to the PA, and Israel is illegally withholding moneys collected from Palestinians or owed to the Palestinians.
hope he gets raped and dies a miserable death of AIDS like Arafat
wow, so much hatred here.. what is happening to Dr.Al-Arian is outragous and should be stopped..gr8 blog btw!
An American murdered by Hamas:
http://www.nbc6.net/news/9212835/detail.html
Furthermore, as he has no watches or clocks, Dr. Al-Arian feels disoriented and cannot properly carry out the five daily Muslim prayers.
Well, maybe he should pray to his most merciful, most compassionate god to help assist him carry out the five daily Muslim prayers.
So, he's having a tough go in prison? That sucks.
As it happens, everyone the Palestinian Islamic Jihad has killed is still dead - including the brainwashed suicide bombers, er, martyrs, who will never "properly carry out the five daily Muslim prayers" ever again.
Of course, Al-Arian's kids still get to say "there is no god but god, and mohammed is his messenger" as many times as they want - as anyone knows, these people's level of commitment to their own bullshit only extends beyond their immediate families - or Abdullah and Ali would have been told that it's "their time" to seek "glorious martyrdom" by taking the truest and quickest path to heaven by strapping a bomb on their body and blowing up "zionists."
Always better to send other people's kids, though.
Congrats on picking such a noble role model to shill for.
I especially like the way the French and Germans are legally locking up people w/o charge for openended periods of time. Done it for decades. We put a tiny handful of people in jail and it's a warcrime. Everyone else does it and it's either ignored or cheered.
Elizabeth,
No. You should stop paying taxes and move out.
I hope Sami gets the Jeffrey Dahmer treatment. Squeel like a pig! Yeaaaargh!
Well, at least Israeli prisons are more enjoyable than Palestinian universities:
In desperation, Palestinians seek prison in Israel
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L01568811.htm
"JERUSALEM, May 11 (Reuters) - A growing number of desperate young Palestinian men are deliberately getting themselves arrested at Israeli checkpoints so that they will be sent to Israeli-run prisons, Israeli and Palestinian officials say.
The youths, mostly teenage boys, are taking the dangerous measure in part because they say it is easier to study for exams in an Israeli prison than it is at home in the West Bank. Some also want to escape family hardship and deepening poverty.
Since January, when the phenomenon was first identified, Israeli army officials say at least 80 young men have either turned up at checkpoints and asked to be arrested or else carried knives and other weapons to ensure they are detained.
"It is a growing problem and something that we are concerned about," said a senior officer in the Israeli Defence Force who is dealing with the issue but who asked not to be identified.
"It is a very dangerous phenomenon that we want to stop."
Palestinian civil affairs workers say the number may be far higher than 80 and is on the increase as rumours spread among young men about the potential benefits of being imprisoned.
Hijazi Abdul-Rahman, 18, who lives in a village near Jenin, in the northern West Bank, went to a nearby checkpoint with his friend Malik a month ago in an attempt to be arrested.
Abdul-Rahman carried a small knife and Malik, who would not give his family name, openly carried a badly wired bomb.
They were detained by Israeli security forces and sent to a holding cell but released 25 days later after it emerged under interrogation that they were not a serious security threat.
For Abdul-Rahman it was a grave disappointment.
"I lost my chance," he said, speaking at his home in a village north of Jenin. "I wanted to do my high school exams in prison because it is easier there than at school here."
Abdul-Rahman said his plan had been to go to prison for up to three years, finishing high school and part of university. In Israeli prisons, study groups are provided that allow Palestinians to sit a variety of exams.
Because prisoners usually receive a stipend of around 1,200 shekels ($250) a month, paid by the Palestinian Authority even if detainees are in Israeli prisons, Abdul-Rahman hoped to emerge with a substantial sum of cash to start his own business.
Since the Hamas movement came to power, stipend payments have been frozen, but that wasn't about to stop Abdul-Rahman.
"It's better to spend even your whole life in prison than to be stuck here," he said. "Here we can't even have a sandwich.""
Next you guys will complain that the Jews are oppressing Pals because they won't lock em up and give them a chance at better grades. Why don't we rename Hamastan as Bizarro World.
I can just picture him with a big ass swastika on his chest like American History X.
Why not, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hizballah already use the Nazi salute very comfortably.
Well, at least he is at home where he belongs, with other criminals. I'm just hoping for a real Pony Down finish to him.
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