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Exclusive: Harsh Words for Administration At Hearing On State Of American Muslims, Arabs
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| Arab American and Muslim communities face the gravest threats to their rights |
By IOL correspondent, Neveen A. Salem
WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (IslamOnline) - American Muslims/Arabs and national civil rights organizations testified before the Congressional Committee on the Judiciary on Capitol Hill Thursday regarding the constitutional impact of the U.S.’s new terrorism policies, the detention of immigrants and the struggle to combat racial profiling in the face of national security concerns.
The witnesses had strong words for Attorney General, John Ashcroft, and American President, George W. Bush’s administration regarding increasing civil liberty violations and the U.S. sanctioned targeting of people of Muslim/Arab descent.
“While Attorney General Ashcroft has announced that ‘terrorists will be arrested for spitting on the sidewalk,’ he has yet to explain why innocent Americans [Arabs and Muslims] are being arrested. Mr. Ashcroft has offered them no explanation or apology,” Kate Martin of the Center for National Security Studies relayed after providing detailed accounts of hundreds of immigrants and citizens solely on the basis of their ethnicity and/or religion.
Addressing violations of detainees’ constitutionally guaranteed right to due process, Martin went on to state that “the FBI standard is not that these people are guilty, but that they have not been cleared of links to criminal activity. That is a policy that is shameful for the U.S. to adopt, and unconstitutional.”
Also testifying was professor David Cole of Georgetown University Law School, who has successfully defended Arab and Muslim Americans combating the controversial clause in the Effective Death Penalty and Terrorism Act 1996, regarding secret evidence. He told IslamOnline that “what has happened is not that the Administration has not said we are going to sacrifice our civil rights for the sake of national security, but that we will sacrifice the civil rights of others, immigrants, under the pretense of national security.”
“[The Administration] is relying on double standards and refuse[s] to treat all human beings with the same respect they expect for themselves,” he added. “Unfortunately, the Justice Department has not learned that lesson.”
Nadine Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) - the most renowned civil rights group in the U.S. - stated that the most chilling aspect of the new policies is the “shroud of secrecy” under which the U.S. government is operating.
“Violations curbed by past attorney generals are being instituted by our current government, allowing for even more spying on, and harassment of, people who dare to criticize the Administration’s actions,” said Strossen.
“We cannot protect the rights of individuals if we have no information from the government. We are clearly entitled to that information under the First Amendment and the Freedom of Information Act [FOI]. The government has clearly stonewalled these rights.”
The sixteen witnesses testifying before Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee John Conyers (D-MI) and other members of the committee, including Representatives Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Bobby Scott (D-VA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Mel Watt (D-NC) and Arab American Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA), called on Congress to take active steps toward curbing the Administration’s seemingly unchecked power to violate the parameters of the U.S. constitution as regards the civil liberties of non-citizens, as well as citizens of Arab/Muslim descent.
Congressman Conyers also had harsh words for the Bush Administration.
“Since September 11, our nation has engaged in a policy of institutionalized racial and ethnic profiling,” he said. “Not only has the Administration elected to discriminate in granting visas to men of Middle Eastern countries, but it has targeted 5,000 Arab male visitors for intense questioning. Surely in the 21st Century, America can do better than saying that if you are Arab you are a suspect.”
Conyers also specifically slammed Ashcroft for his insistence that those in detention are not entitled to the right of due process under the Constitution.
“In one fell swoop, he [Ashcroft] violated the First Amendment [Bill of Rights] right to free speech, the Fourth Amendment right to privacy, the Fifth Amendment right to due process and the Sixth Amendment right to counsel.”
He also went on to call Bush’s creation of military courts for civilians “the most arrogant step of all,” saying, “Without any consultation or authorization from Congress, President Bush took it upon himself to eliminate nearly all of the due process guarantees in our Constitution.”
Morton Halperin of the Council on Foreign Relations, testified that the U.S. is only helping perpetuate dangerous human rights violations in the rest of the world by protesting military tribunals in other countries, but sanctioning them within its borders.
Halperin asserted that if an American was held in another country and subjected to a military tribunal, the U.S. would go in and demand they be treated according to the laws regarding prisoners of war [POWs] and assert that the holding government comply with the Geneva Conventions regarding the treatment of such prisoners.
He also went on to cite the U.S.’s efforts in ensuring that an American set to be tried before a military tribunal in Peru on charges of terrorism instead be tried in a civil court.
However, the most personal testimonies came from members of the Muslim/Arab American community and their national civil rights organizations.
Vahid Tony Zohrehdvani, Arshad Chowdhury, and Mohamed Ali all provided testimony regarding their experiences with airport racial profiling after the events of September 11.
The three men, all American citizens of Iranian, Bengali and Pakistani descent, respectively, all asserted their condemnation of the terrorist attacks launched on the U.S. before citing the humiliation, harassment and ultimate sense of fear they suffered as a result of three separate pilots from different airlines alerting security to escort the men off the flights because they were “uncomfortable” with the idea of flying with Muslims/Arabs aboard the flight.
Ali, who worked for American Airlines when one of its pilots had him escorted off the plane, and who has been subjected to two separate instances of racial profiling by airlines, stated that he has even tried to find ways to make himself look “less Middle Eastern” so as not to be subjected to the same ordeal again.
Ashraf Nubani, legal counsel to detained Global Relief Foundation founder, Rabih Haddad, said his client is being denied his rights to due process, including the curtailing of his right to have access to his legal counsel.
Haddad has not been charged with any crime and is being held for an immigration violation, which he was in the process of rectifying when the FBI arrested him at his home in Chicago.
According to U.S. immigration laws, individuals in violation of legal immigration status, who are in the process of seeking permanent residency, are not to be detained or deported until such proceedings are completed.
However, Haddad’s wife, Salam al-Rushaid, mother of his American-born children, was handed deportation orders during Rabih’s detention.
“How can we say he is being given his rights if I, as his lawyer, am not even told when he is being moved from one facility to another?” Nubani said. “How can I defend him if he is only allowed to speak to legal counsel for fifteen minutes every month?”
Nubani and Conyers both slammed the Administration for closing the proceedings regarding Haddad’s, and other detainees’ immigration proceedings, to the public, media, family and even members of Congress.
According to U.S. law, deportation hearings may be closed only on the insistence of the alien, who may fear for his security, or if the U.S. government proves that it has classified evidence against the detainee that would endanger national security if revealed publicly. Neither has been the case regarding Haddad.
Haddad’s wife, who also testified, told IslamOnline she has not been able to see her husband since January 8 and that they move him without notifying her.
“I am supposed to at least be allowed to speak to him for 15 minutes a day. Now he is only allowed to use the phone for 15 minutes a month,” she said.
“They arrested him in front of me and the children and taken him away from me when I depended on his love and support, and now they are seeking to deport me as well.”
Jean AbiNader, managing director of the Arab American Institute (AAI), Denyse Sabbagh, a lawyer speaking on behalf of the American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee (ADC), and Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), gave concluding testimonies on behalf of the Muslim/Arab American community.
“Like all Americans, our community was horrified by the terrorist attacks against America. We again repeat our condemnation of these attacks and of all terrorist activities. The Muslim community was doubly pained by these attacks, as they not only struck at our nation, but they also harmed the image of our faith,” Awad began.
“Since September 11, CAIR has registered 1658 cases of discrimination, harassment, profiling, physical assault, and inappropriate law enforcement behavior. This compares with 640 total cases from the previous year...,” he continued.
“Every American has the right to legal counsel, the right to face one's accusers, the right to protection against unwarranted search and seizure, and the right to be assumed innocent until proven guilty.
“CAIR shares the desire for increased security against terrorism. Security will only come through time-tested investigative work, not by scapegoating and profiling vulnerable minorities. Racial and religious profiling, anti-immigration measures, indefinite detention, and political persecution will not make Americans safe, but provide instead a false sense of security while reinforcing racial prejudice and stereotypes.”
ADC spokeswoman Sabbagh gave several descriptions of incidents in which Arab Americans were harassed, profiled or detained following the September 11 attack. She went on to confirm that ADC has validated 560 violent incidents directed at Arab Americans since September 11, including simple assault, battery, arson, aggravated assault and at least six murders.
These serious civil liberties concerns should be alarming to all Americans, but there can be little doubt that it is the Arab American and Muslim communities who are facing the gravest threats to their rights and that these communities will bear he brunt of any major diminution of civil liberties in the United States,” Sabagh told the Members of Congress.
AbiNader also went on to state the concern of AAI regarding the instances of harassment aimed at the Muslim and Arab communities and criticized the Bush Administration for clearly targeting the community despite its calls for tolerance immediately following the terrorist attacks.
“The Administration has sent a mixed message to our community and to the American people. On the one hand, Americans are asked to be tolerant of religious and ethnic differences. On the other hand, the actions taken by this Administration clearly target Arabs and Muslims as the prime suspects in combating terrorism.
“From the round-ups and detentions immediately following September 11 to the various campaigns initiated for the 5,000 ‘voluntary’ interviews and the prioritizing of 6,000 ‘Middle eastern young males’ for entry into the national database, a negative image of Arabs and Muslims is fixed in the minds of the American public,” AbiNader continued.
All of the witnesses - which also included Jim Dempsey of the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), the National Council of La Raza, and the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium - provided Congress with suggestions on how to control the Bush Administration’s abuses of and disregard for the parameters of civil rights as set up by the U.S. Constitution.
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