[1448] in peace2
Muslim Arab detained for 2 months w/o charges
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Arjun Mendiratta)
Tue Feb 12 15:21:44 2002
Message-Id: <200202122021.PAA21140@buzzword-bingo.mit.edu>
To: peace-list@MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 15:21:41 -0500
From: Arjun Mendiratta <arjunm@MIT.EDU>
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Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 15:26:30
Subject: [no2wef] CALL NOW: Detained by US Government
From Rabih Haddad, Detained by the US Government
The following is a letter sent by Pastor Rabih Haddad from his cell at
the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in downtown Chicago. Haddad
is well known in the Ann Arbor/Detroit area as an ecumenical leader and
assistant Imam of a local mosque. He is co-founder of the Global Relief
Foundation, the second largest Muslim charity in the U.S., which has had
its assets frozen since December 14th, even though the government has
yet to produce any evidence against it.
Haddad, along with thousands of others, has been racially profiled by
our government for being Arab and Muslim. He has been locked up in
solitary confinement since December 14th, without criminal charges,
denied bond, without the government releasing any of the alleged
"evidence" against him. The Detroit Free Press, Detroit Metro Times,
Congressman John Conyers and the ACLU have sued Atty General Ashcroft to
open the heretofore closed court hearings, which even his family, let
alone the rest of the public and press, have been barred from. For more
information, please go to the following URL:
http://chicago.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=7428&group=webcast
While Mr. Haddad's letter is initially addressed to one member of the
Chicago Coalition Against War & Racism (CCAWR), it's really to all who
are working defend civil liberties and end racial profiling.
Travis Morales <tmorales@laresistencia.org>
Feb 8, 2002
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jan. 27, 2002
Dear Mr. Thayer,
Thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful letter of Jan. 22. I do
greatly appreciate your interest and efforts for my release. Please
extend my regards and gratitude to all members of CCAWR.
I am sorry to say that I was not able to see the protests because the
window in my cell is "Whited out" to allow light in but not for me to
see anything out. I was able, however, to hear about it from other
inmates who own small radios and heard it on the news.
Allow me to take this opportunity to bring you slightly into my world
here at MCC Chicago. I am in a 6' x 9' solitary cell that seems to have
been designed for extremely violent or extremely troublesome inmates.
The bed is situated in the center of the room with about a foot and a
half on either side of it to the wall. The bed is a metal slab with
four legs bolted to the floor and fitted on all four corners with
special fittings to hold straps if it should become necessary.
I have a camera fixed on me right outside my door that has completely
deprived me of any kind of privacy since that door has a small window
which allows them to check and see if I'm still there around the clock.
It's for my safety, they say.
I am allowed one 15 minute call to my family every 30 days. My food is
handed to me through a slit in the door 2-1/2" x 12". The same opening
is used to put the cuffs on me before the door is opened for any
reason. I am allowed 3 showers a week for which I have to be cuffed to
walk 10 paces to the shower that has a door similar to my cell's door.
I'm only un-cuffed after I'm inside and the door is locked.
I also get 1 hour of recreation 5 days a week, and what a joke that is.
I am led, cuffed, from my cell to a cage (literally) just down the hall
which is the same size as my cell. In it is a homemade stationary
bicycle that has no resistance and thus is worthless for exercising. I
have to wait until the cage is empty because I cannot be put in there
with anyone else, for my own safety, they say.
I have made numerous pleas to the warden and others to let me speak with
my family once a week, but my pleas have fallen on deaf ears. I have
been under these conditions for the past month and a half, which can
drive a person to the extreme limits of his/her mental, emotional, and
psychological capabilities.
Where do we draw the line between justice and oppression? Between
prosecution and persecution? Is due process supposed to serve society or
is society supposed to be enslaved by "due process"? Many people on this
side of the fence, I'm sorry to say, have become Pavlovic dogs of sorts
when it comes to "due process." I have been treated like the worst
criminal you can imagine when I have not even been charged with a crime,
save overstaying my visa, which I was in the process of remedying.
All of this has done nothing but harden my will and strengthened my
resolve to overcome and persevere. Your efforts and the efforts of
others are like torches of hope that light my way in this deep and dark
tunnel that I've entered and I am eternally grateful for that.
Please convey my warmest greetings and thanks to all those who planned,
participated or supported your efforts. May God bless you all.
Sincerely,
Rabih Haddad
P.S. Please forgive my spelling. I did not realize how dependant I've
become on my computer's spell-check until now.
P.S.2 I forgot to mention the waves of cockroaches that invade the
cell at night and crawl all over everything, including me.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
PLEASE TAKE ACTION NOW:
Join a solidarity protest at the Immigration & Naturalization
headquarters in downtown Chicago at 12 noon next Tuesday, Feb. 12 -- 10
W. Jackson Blvd. On this same date in Detroit, Haddad's wife, Salma
al-Rushaid, faces a deportation hearing along with three of their four
small children. The family's attorneys believe such action is virtually
unprecedented in a case such as theirs, and points to a retaliatory
motivation for the government's actions. As al-Rushaid is from Kuwait,
and Haddad is from Lebanon, a successful deportation could permanently
break up the family.
You can also help support Rabih Haddad by sending a letter to him at the
following address:
Rabih Haddad
#30189-039
Metropolitan Correctional Center
71 W. Van Buren Street
Chicago, IL 60605
As several letters sent to him have not delivered by the prison
authorities, we strongly recommend that you send letters via certified
mail, return receipt requested. Please consider enclosing a money order
made out to him also. In order for him to mail stuff back, he needs to
purchase stamps from the MCC commissary. That's also the only way he
can get all but the most basic toiletries and other goods - nothing can
be sent in from the outside, aside from reading materials.
Write/call/fax the following officials and demand that they stand up for
fair treatment for Rabih. No prisoner should be treated this way. MCC
officials claim he is in solitary confinement "for his own protection,"
but then why the punitive visitation policies? Why the humiliating
shackles? ...all for a man who has no criminal charges. Address
messages of protest to:
Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney, Northern District,
Illinois
219 S. Dearborn St., 5th Floor, Chicago 60604. Phone: (312) 353-5300
Fax: (312) 353-2067
Metropolitan Correctional Center, 312-233-0567. Push option 4 for "staff
directory," and ask the operator if you can speak with Mrs. Kenner, the
warden's secretary. Fax: 312-322-0565
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