Posted by Nineve from HSE-Montreal-ppp3471564.sympatico.ca (65.92.210.46) on Saturday, July 05, 2003 at 3:27PM :
In Reply to: Hasan Hasan, Imprisoned under the Patriot Act posted by Esarhaddon from accel12.nyc.untd.com (64.136.27.22) on Saturday, July 05, 2003 at 2:17PM :
:
: Come and Support Hasan Hasan (Member of Long Beach Action
: Peace Network and the ANSWER Coalition) in his upcoming
: court appearance.
: Monday, July 7th.
: Time: 1:00 pm.
: Place: INS Court House 606 S. Olive St., 15th Floor
: (At the corner of 6th St. and Olive St.)
: Los Angeles 90014
: Imprisoned under the Patriot Act:
: "Some of those detained under the provisions of the
: October 2001 USA Patriot Act have been immigrants with
: green cards or here on work or student visas. One such
: person is Hasan Hasan.
: After emigrating to the United States in 1996 to study
: English at California State University, Long Beach, Hasan
: immersed himself in campus civic and left-leaning
: political affairs and as well in the community. At the
: same time, Hasan completed his graduate studies in
: Mathematics"
: --"In These Times Magazine"
: After abruptly losing his job as a teacher, federal
: authorities instituted deportation procedures against him.
: Hasan has continued to fight for his rights and against
: political repression.
: Come support him in his court appearance on Monday, July 7
: at 1:00 pm at the INS Court House, 606 S. Olive Street,
: 15th Floor.
:
: The following is the radio show archive page
: on Hasan Hasan :
: Thurgood Marshall wrote that, "History teaches that grave threats to liberty often come in times of urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure." Recent surveys indicate that 66% of whites and 71% of African-Americans support the ethnic profiling of people who look to be of middle-eastern descent.
: We also know that violence against middle eastern people and members of California's sikh community, often mistakenly thought to be Arabs, spiked sharply in the weeks after the September 11th attack. There are currently 150 open federal hate crime investigations for incidents following the September 11th attack.
: Let us ask ourselves whether we will simply stand by and watch this legal and illegal repression of our fellow human beings.
: A case of police and INS repression against an Orange County man, one of thousands across the country who have been detained after September 11th. We’ll take a look at Hasan Hasan on the Morning Show.
: TOPIC: Long Beach repression
: GUEST: James De Maegt, and Guillermo Suarez, attorneys for Hasan Hasan.
: In the weeks following September 11, federal, state and local law enforcement officials focused their investigations upon foreign nationals from middle eastern countries. Last December, federal investigators began interviewing more than 5,000 young middle eastern men who entered the United States within the last two years from countries that were allegedly linked to terrorism. Federal officials have contacted administrators at more than two hundred colleges and universities to gain information about students from middle eastern countries. What are their majors? Where do they live? How often do they miss class? They have followed up these efforts with unannounced visits and interviews with the students.
: In California, by September 25th of last year, the governor and attorney general along with the Highway Patrol and the Office of Emergency Services formed the California Anti-Terrorism Information Center. The Center is created to analyze and process the thousands of tips and leads of suspicious activity that began pouring into state law enforcement agencies in the days following September 11th. In just January and February of this year, 1,615 subjects were reported to the database. Significant information continues to be received by the Center every day reporting the conduct of males of apparent middle east extraction that hardly qualifies for the designation of suspicious or dangerous activity. Many have face charges of violating immigration laws. Much secrecy shrouds the detention of the 1000s of men since September 11th.
: The first time Hasan was arrested in early 2001, he was wrongly accused by the head of the Cal State Long Beach Police of making a bomb threat. There was no evidence against him, and eventually the case was dismissed. But that did not prevent campus police from repeatedly detaining him and ordering him to stay away from the campus-even as he was defending his Masters Thesis.
: Long Beach police held Hasan in the college parking lot until INS agents showed up. The INS agents told him that he was under arrest for not working, even though he had just finished teaching a class that morning. The INS agents and the Long Beach police took him to his apartment, which they searched, and then Hasan was taken to the Long Beach jail, and later transferred to Mira Loma Center in Lancaster, an INS prison. He was finally released on May 10, after a total of eighteen days in custody.
:
: GUEST: Russell Rosetto, friend of Hasan Hasan, also arrested with Hasan.
: We contacted the Long Beach Police Department yesterday. Their only comment on the case was confirmation that Russell Rosetto bailed out - his arraignment for misdemeanor charges going to be July 29th. Hasan Hasan is in jail on $100,000 bail, with felony charges of terrorist threat according to Sec 422 of the Penal code. The officer said that there has been no formal complaint by Rosetto that inappropriate force was used. Are you going to file a complaint?
: Based on a report in Turning the Tide, a publication of Anti-Racist Action, INS agents questioned Hasan’s possession of Christian religious materials and a donation he made to a Jewish group, since he is adviser to a Muslim student group on campus. The INS agent said to him, "As an advisor of a Muslim club, you must teach them to hate Jews and Christians."
: This is an issue that spans the country. One other example of a case very similar to Hasan’s is that of Ahmed Bensouda in Illinois. Bensouda, who graduated with a political science degree from the University of Illinois last month, was recently arrested by men who identified themselves as FBI agents who gave no explanation for the arrest. Friends said Bensouda was questioned by the INS about a week before, with the agents asking him questions about September 11. Bensouda is an activist involved in human rights and anti-racism issues. He's a member of a campus group called the Democratic Solidarity Committee, and has been involved in rallies and protests in solidarity with Palestinian civilians. The good news is that after an intense campaign by friends and supporters of Ahmed, and the community in general, the INS reversed its claim that Ahmed was a "national security concern" and released him on bond.
: GUEST: James Simmons, attorney for Matthew Lemont
: There are still many people in jail under similar circumstances. However, in Orange County, the issue of police repression is not new as regular listeners of the Morning Show may remember the coverage we have done on cases of youth incarcerated as a result of last year’s May Day march including Sarah Roberts who is currently under house arrest, and Robert Middaugh who is serving time. Police repression for political reasons does not simply affect people of Middle Eastern descent.
: Matthew Gordon Lamont, an anarchist activist in CopWATCH and Food Not Bombs, was arrested in La Habra CA when he was pulled over by two Long Beach detectives who had followed him. He now faces a bail of $100,000 also.
: Lamont's car was searched and detectives found a container of gasoline, arrested the two men and took them into custody. The juvenile was taken to the Orange County Juvenile Detention Center in Orange, CA. He was charged with transportation of a destructive device, and pled out. Matthew Lamont is being held on high bail in Orange, CA. and was originally charged with several felony counts of possession of a destructive device, transporting of a destructive device, the use of a destructive device, and the possession of materials/instructions to make a destructive device.
: The U.S. Congress, in the days following September 11th, passed The USA Patriot Act, a bill containing numerous reforms to federal criminal procedure, laws relating to foreign intelligence surveillance, wiretaps and interception of electronic communications, laws relating to the gathering of documentary evidence, and DNA and immigration laws. In a very general sense, the Act makes it easier for federal investigative agencies to obtain wiretaps on multiple electronic devices, and procure electronic and documentary evidence from sources like internet service providers and cable and telephone companies. It also relaxes prohibitions on the sharing of information obtained in investigations by different federal agencies. While the latitude afforded law enforcement activities under the act and relaxed standards for information sharing may give rise to concern for the protection of civil liberties, the provisions most relevant to our discussion today are in the area of immigration and naturalization.
: Section 412 of the Patriot Act permits the attorney general of the United States to detain aliens he certifies as threats to national security for up to seven days without bringing charges. The standard to establish grounds for detention is the familiar reasonable suspicion standard enunciated by the Supreme Court in Terry. The certification by the attorney general must set forth that he has "reasonable grounds to believe" the person being detained will commit espionage or sabotage, try to overthrow the government, commit terrorist acts, or otherwise engage in acts that would endanger national security. At the conclusion of seven days, the detention may continue in the event the alien is charged with a crime or violation of visa conditions. But if circumstances prohibit the repatriation of a person for an immigration offense, the detention may continue indefinitely so long as certified by the attorney general every six months. Under the USA Patriot Act, the prospect exists that a person who is confined for a violation of conditions of entry into the US, but cannot be deported to his or her country of origin, may be indefinitely confined here without criminal charges ever filed against them
-- Nineve
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