Defend Rights!
• Step
Up the Struggle Against Government Terrorism
•
FBI Detains Two Young Muslim Women Without Charges or Evidence
• Detain
This! Petition: A Call for the Urgent Release of A. and T. and
Attention to their Civil Rights
• Lawsuit
Counters Border Detentions
• Connecticut
and New Jersey: Government
Holds Largest Terrorism Drill
Step Up the Struggle Against Government Terrorism
Consider the following: A terrorism drill designed to terrorize civilians and drill hospital and emergency personal to submit to federal authorities and a military chain of command. The detention of two sixteen year old youth, with no charges, on the basis of secret evidence, itself said to show simply that one of the young women wrote about suicide bombers. Mass detentions and rampant profiling at the border, including forced fingerprinting. Bills in Congress for a national ID card, with biometric identifiers, required to board planes, enter federal buildings, receive federal funds (like welfare).
All of these and many more examples show that the terrorism people are facing is the state terrorism of the government. Every effort is being made to create an atmosphere where people are afraid to even speak, let alone express their views and protest in dissent. What kind of democracy is it that tells sixteen year-old high school youth that they are not permitted to write about or discuss suicide bombing? that profiles and fingerprints Muslims simply because they are Muslims? It is U.S.-style democracy, showing its thoroughly undemocratic and terrorist character.
There are numerous indications that the U.S. government is preparing an even more reactionary onslaught on the peoples here and abroad. They are acting to show that their brutality has no limits, terrorizing people simply for who they are, be it Muslims, travelers, or 16 year old girls. They are also acting to organize a corps of "citizen soldiers" to act on behalf of the federal government at the local level. Bail bondsmen and their bounty hunters are being given authority to act for the federal government and enforce immigration law and to do so without interference from the courts (see BF #15, April 15). Hospital and emergency workers are drilled to do whatever the military commands, irrespective of actual conditions and the views of local officials. Teachers are supposed to report students expressing an interest in things like suicide bombings.
Fascist arrangements are being put in place all down the line. They are based on executive rule by the likes of Bush, and require foot soldiers. They require a humiliated and terrorized population. They require the crushing of resistance and dissent. These requirements are accomplished using state terrorism and repression and massive disinformation as to who and what are the source of terrorism and reaction on a world scale.
It is U.S. imperialism that is the problem, that is the who and what. Building a bulwark against this reaction means stepping up the struggle against all state terrorism and lending a hand to all those resisting. Every fist raised in resistance, every rejection of profiling, every refusal to be silenced or recruited as a foot soldier, every effort to stand as one to defend rights, is an essential and vital contribution.
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Government Terrorism and Impunity Intensifies
FBI Detains Two Young Muslim Women Without Charges or Evidence
On March 24, two young Muslim women, 16 years-old, living in New York City, were detained and accused by the FBI of being a "threat to national security." One of the young women is of Guinean origin and the other of Bangladeshi origin. According to the government, the FBI claims it found an essay by one of the girls that refers to suicide bombers. No evidence of any crime and no plans for any acts of terrorism of any kind have been revealed. The government insists that the evidence must be kept secret and to reveal it would also be a "threat to national security." They did question the young women about their political and religious beliefs.
Family, friends, teachers and many others have come forward to denounce the detentions and the utter brutality of the government to target young teenage women, detain them and refuse to charge them or provide lawyers. People have offered broad support and emphasize that the accusations are absurd, false, outrageous, and that the youth are innocent until proven guilty. Teachers in particular are opposing the idea that it is now a crime to discuss the issue of suicide bombings or to simply use the words suicide bomber.
Already, simply the reported existence of an essay on the matter is considered enough to paint a young woman as "trying to destroy our way of life," as the FBI puts it. Deleen P. Carr, a speech pathologist and president of the parent-teacher association at Heritage High School in East Harlem, who welcomed the Guinean girl to her house daily and knows her family well said, "I feel like, how dare they? She's a minor, and even if she's not a citizen, she has rights as a human being." Her art teacher, Kimberly Lane, said, "I just can't fathom this." Other teachers responded to youth in the schools who heard rumors of the detentions by telling them that the government would not go after 16 year-old girls. Then everyone learned the government did exactly that. Many have brought out that one aim of the government is to make everyone feel vulnerable by demonstrating that government brutality and impunity knows no bounds.
Despite these efforts to frighten and silence everyone, dozens of people have called the detention center to speak with the youth and to get answers from the authorities. The government refuses to provide any information and callers are not permitted to speak with the girls.
Both teenagers are now being held in a detention-deportation center for illegal immigrants in Leesport, in southeastern Pennsylvania under secret evidence to which they have no access. They are being repeatedly interrogated and threatened. Based on the experience of the thousands of others who have been unjustly detained, they are likely being humiliated, terrorized and pressured to confess to crimes they did not do. The two young women are not eligible for court appointed attorneys and the families so far have been unable to afford them. News reports also indicate that the fathers of both youth have been arrested on minor immigration violations and face deportation, causing extreme hardship on the families.
As part of the opposition to the detentions, a new blog, called Detain This! has been formed by Watching The Watchers.org (one word), a media watchdog group. A petition demanding the immediate release of the young Muslim women and defense of their basic rights has already been launched (see below).
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A Call for the Urgent Release of A. and T. and Attention to their Civil Rights\
In late March, two 16 year-old Muslim girls, A and T, were taken into immigration custody and accused of "terrorism" by the FBI. They are now being held in a detention facility under secret evidence to which they have no access, are being questioned repeatedly and threatened, and will be subjected to closed hearings. As individuals, we are extremely concerned that:
A and T have been unfairly targeted by the US Government based on discriminatory, anti-Muslim motives
A and T are being unnecessarily held and separated from their siblings, parents, families, and communities.
A and T are languishing in detention and experiencing abuse, repeated questioning about charges they do not understand or know nothing of since the evidence is secret, while their civil and human rights are being violated.
Their civil and human rights have been violated since the fundamental guarantee that one knows the reasons they are deprived of liberty is not being practiced as they are (1) being held with secret evidence, and (2) will have closed hearings, which are against all notions of justice in a democratic society.
We, the undersigned, petition and call on your honor and the court to release these two teenagers, reunite them with their families, clear their names, and make public the evidence and hearings.
(To get copies of the petition, send comments or get more information write to: ibeforegplease@yahoo.com)
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Lawsuit Counters Border Detentions
The brutal detention of dozens of Muslims at Buffalo border-crossings in December is being countered by a lawsuit. Five of the dozens of people stopped, repeatedly interrogated, forcibly fingerprinted and detained for hours, are plaintiffs in the suit. Three are women, two young students, and all are Muslims and citizens. On April 20th, a press conference at the Buffalo New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) office announced the suit, brought by NYCLU, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Many of those detained included families and young children as well as elderly people with medical problems. Most were forced to sit for hours and be repeatedly interrogated about their religious and political beliefs. None were guilty of any crime, none were suspected of any crime and none have been charged with any crime, yet all were treated like criminals and forcibly fingerprinted and photographed.
The suit charges that the constitutional rights of those detained were violated and demands a declaration by the court that the government actions were unlawful and that the policies and practices represented in the detentions, including profiling of Muslims and forcible fingerprinting, are unlawful. The suit also demands that the court issue an injunction blocking enforcement of the detention polices and that the fingerprints and photographs illegally obtained be removed from all federal databases.
The NYCLU press release brings out that none of the people detained had done anything illegal and nor was their any suspicion by the government that their documents were not valid. As the complaint filed brings out, those detained were not questioned about their passports or citizenship. Instead they were grilled about attendance at a conference in Toronto, called Reviving the Islamic Spirit (RIS). The government has said that attendance at the conference was the basis for stopping people.
The suit provides detailed information concerning treatment of the five people, which was representative of all those detained. It emphasizes that their First and Fourth amendments rights, to freedom of speech and religion and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure respectively, were violated. Comments from the NYCLU brought out that people of all faiths "have a right to attend religious conferences without having the government detaining and interrogating them and without the government putting their fingerprints and photographs in a database. What the government is doing is wrong and unconstitutional and our lawsuit aims to stop this practice."
The majority of the detentions took place at the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge, with a few also occurring at the downtown Peace Bridge. Area Muslims also report that individuals and families are still being stopped and fingerprinted for no reason.
The lawsuit is being brought against Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Robert C. Bonner, Commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Micheal D'Ambronsio, Director of Field Operations in Buffalo for CBP and Joseph J. Wilson, Buffalo Port Director for CBP.
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Government Holds Largest Terrorism Drill
The largest and longest government terrorism drill ever undertaken in the United States started on Monday, April 4, and lasted all week long in Connecticut and New Jersey. The $16 million, weeklong exercise named "TOPOFF 3" (short for "top officials") was focused on hospitals and emergency personnel responding to large numbers of victims from a mock biological attack in New Jersey and a simulated chemical weapons explosion in Connecticut.
The drills serve to train not only police and government officials to submit to a Pentagon-run chain of command, but also hospital workers, emergency personnel of all kinds and the public at large. The Executive, represented by the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), does not ask permission of any local or state officials to conduct the drills. As well, the drills are monitored by top DHS and Pentagon officials from a command center near Washington and regional centers in New Jersey and Connecticut. The timing of the drill coincided with the 37th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Nearly 300 federal, state and local agencies and a host of private sector companies participated in the drill. All told, more than 10,000 people participated. The terrorism drill also involved officials in Canada and England, though much of their specific role remained secret.
Reflecting that the aim of the drill is to terrify and control people, New Jersey Attorney General Peter Harvey said officials had to answer several crucial questions quickly as part of the exercise: "At what point do we think about quarantine? At what point do we think about isolations or mass dispensation of medication? How do we control the public?" reported the Associated Press.
Taking their stand against the drills, the Mock Terror Attack Task Force, comprised of members from the Southeastern Connecticut Peace and Justice Network, pointed out that the exercise "is in fact an exercise in terror itself: it terrorizes the citizens of New London." The terror exercises "instill fear in our own people, train us to comply with government decisions over which we have no democratic control, and divert much-needed funds from our own and other people's human needs," said the Task Force.
The drills themselves confirm this. As part of the drill, DHS chief Michael Chertoff raised the threat level to "red," or severe, after the mock bioterror outbreak. In New Jersey, Acting Governor Richard J. Codey simulated the closing of New Jersey's borders. Codey said all states need to work on getting federal legislation passed so that a state affected by a biological terrorist attack could qualify as an emergency disaster area, complete with federalized national guardsmen.
In New Jersey the drill began Monday at the Hillside campus of Kean University, with an investigation of a sport utility vehicle suspected of spraying an aerosol form of deadly bacteria from a nozzle sticking out a rear window. In addition, more than 200 officers raided a house in Jamesburg on Wednesday morning (April 6) and arrested five "suspects," including the alleged mastermind of the terrorist plot.
All 21 counties and 82 hospitals in New Jersey played a role, as did state police, hazardous materials teams, emergency management personnel, and police, fire and emergency responders. At Union Hospital, for example, four large, inflatable decontamination tents were set up to treat the dozens of "patients" who had arrived, stricken by the mock pneumonic plague attack. Five of the 64 patients wore black tags, indicating they were "dead."
In Connecticut, federal officials shortly before 1:30 p.m. staged a mock chemical weapons explosion on the New London waterfront, prompting homeland security officials to open an emergency command post at the state Armory. Buses were overturned. Hundreds of volunteers played victims of a suspected mustard gas attack. They wore gruesome makeup to simulate blisters and bloody scars.
Governor M. Jodi Rell opened an emergency operations center at the state armory in Hartford and declared a state of emergency. The simulated attack had "killed" more than 6,500 people as of midday Wednesday, with the toll likely to approach 9,000 by Friday. As part of the drill, New London City Manager Richard Brown said his emergency crews never received word of the "state of emergency."
After the initial response was coordinated, the FBI and state police took a lead role in investigating the mock attacks. The "after action" report is expected in four to six months, said U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials during a conference call with reporters.
As part of preparations for the drill a two day national seminar was held August 25 and 26, 2004 with federal, state and local officials, international experts and representatives of local businesses, including Electric Boat and Pfizer were present. Members of the Mock Terror Attack Task Force asked to participate and were told they could not. They were told that attendance was on a "need to know basis." The protesters said ordinary citizens most definitely need to know about mock terror attacks on their city.
The Task Force emphasized: "We do not believe that evil people from somewhere else _ mainly Muslims, mainly Arabs _ are the real danger to our country. We do not agree that dangerous radicals from somewhere else `hate us because we are free.' This `foreign threat' is being used to justify the greatest expansion in US government control of people's lives, reduction in civil liberties, and militarization of our economy and society in history."