RW ONLINE:Under Siege in America\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nUnder Siege in America\r\nThe secret persecution of Middle Eastern and Muslim immigrants\r\n<\/p>
By Alan Goodman<\/p>\r\n
Revolutionary Worker #1129, December 2, 2001<\/i>, posted at rwor.org \r\n<\/i><\/p>
On November 13: Asif Kazi, a 39-year-old accountant and Pakistani immigrant, \r\nis in his home in Chester, Pennsylvania. His wife, Palwasha Jalawam, is cooking \r\nbreakfast. Suddenly, 30 FBI agents and a hazardous materials team kick down the \r\ndoor and hold Palwasha at gunpoint. <\/p>\r\n
The FBI claimed Kazi was seen dumping a \"suspicious substance, a cloudy white \r\nliquid\" in \"mysterious material.\" They ask him about his job, his knowledge of \r\ncomputers, and U.S. history. Kazi explains he was fixing a clogged sink, and \r\ntook a silver-colored canister with leftover food in it, and used it to dump \r\nsoapy water in his backyard. The FBI serves Asif Kazi with a subpoena to appear \r\nbefore a grand jury in Philadelphia. <\/p>\r\n
\"This is a young investigation, a new investigation,\" FBI spokeswoman Linda \r\nVizi says. \"We do not know where it's going to take us.\" Vizi said she \"could \r\nnot deny or confirm that this had anything to do with the events of September \r\n11.\" <\/p>\r\n
\"I haven't had a parking ticket in my life. I'm shaking,\" said Kazi. \"We \r\nwatch The X-Files on television, but we never thought it would happen \r\nhere.\"<\/i><\/p>\r\n
In the wake of September 11, a wave of raids, detentions, disappearances, \r\ninterrogation and marginalization has been unleashed against large sections of \r\nMiddle Eastern immigrants in the United States.<\/p>\r\n
Many people have left for work in the morning and never come home--picked up \r\nand detained in secret with no criminal charges. While Bush tells everyone to go \r\nabout their normal business, thousands are being targeted and terrorized by the \r\nFBI, fired from their jobs, faced with the possibility of the death penalty in \r\nsecret military courts, attacked by vigilantes, or detained in prison \r\nindefinitely without any criminal charges.<\/p>\r\n
It's important to understand the full picture of what's going on, spread the \r\nword, and mobilize resistance to this whole repressive and fascist-like \r\natmosphere.<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
Ongoing Detentions<\/p>\r\n
As the RW <\/i>reported in the article \" 'Disappeared' in the USA\" \r\n<\/i>(11\/11\/01), it \r\nis known that over 1,100 people have been detained by the federal government, \r\nalmost all of whom are not suspects in, and have no involvement with, the events \r\nof September 11.<\/p>\r\n
Authorities continue to spread disinformation--suggesting people are being \r\nreleased, while refusing to disclose any facts about those detained. On November \r\n8, the Justice Department announced they would no longer provide a tally of the \r\nnumber of people who have been rounded up--the last figure provided was 1,182 \r\npeople locked up since September 11. White House propaganda chief and \r\nspinmeister Ari Fleischer said in early November that \"the lion's share\" of \r\ndetainees had been released, but later admitted he had no numbers to base that \r\non.<\/p>\r\n
On October 29, a group of civil liberties, human rights, Arab American, \r\npublic access and legal groups filed a demand under the Freedom of Information \r\nAct (FOIA) for an accounting of those detained. Kate Martin, who signed the FOIA \r\nletter, said, \"The secret detention of more than 800 people over the past few \r\nweeks is frighteningly close to the practice of 'disappearing' people in Latin \r\nAmerica.\"<\/p>\r\n
Attorney General John Ashcroft has justified these roundups saying, \"Foreign \r\nterrorists who commit war crimes against the United States, in my judgment, are \r\nnot entitled to and do not deserve the protections of the American \r\nConstitution.\"<\/p>\r\n
Who is deciding who these \"foreign terrorists\" are, and how? Who are these \r\npeople who have been demonized, swept up, and held in secret with no access to \r\nthe most basic legal protections? According to the LA Times<\/i>, \"Nine weeks \r\nafter the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, federal authorities said Thursday that \r\nthey have found no evidence indicating that any of the roughly 1,200 people \r\narrested in the United States played a role in the suicide hijacking plot.\"<\/p>\r\n
Two men from India, who the NY Times<\/i> said were the focus of much \r\nscrutiny, were arrested on an Amtrak train simply for possessing box cutters \r\n(!). Their other \"suspicious\" activities were that they paid for a train ticket \r\nwith cash, had hair dye, and wired what authorities called \"large amounts\" of \r\ncash to India.<\/p>\r\n
Another man in Minnosota, described in the press as a French Algerian man, \r\nwas detained because his computer had references to crop dusting and chemical \r\ndispersal. It was widely reported that this man had told flight instructors at a \r\nMinnesota school that he only wanted to learn to fly a plane, not take off or \r\nland--it was the flight school that turned him in to the FBI. Later, FBI \r\nDirector Robert Mueller admitted that the man had actually told the flight \r\nschool officials just the opposite--<\/i>that he wanted to take off and land \r\njets, not fly them.<\/p>\r\n
An ex-FBI counter-terrorism chief said, \"I'm sure they've investigated these \r\nguys back to the day they were born: records checks, interview with everybody \r\nthat knew them, going back to old neighborhoods and co-workers\"--including \r\ninvestigations in the home countries of the detainees. But in all these cases, \r\nsources identified as \"involved in the investigation\" said \"to date there are no \r\nconnections\" between these men and the Sept. 11 events. But \"they act suspicious \r\nand you don't know why--it sends flags up.\" So these men remain imprisoned as \r\n\"material witnesses.\"<\/p>\r\n
The San Jose Mercury <\/i>told the story of Samer Bishawi, who overstayed \r\nhis visa while living in San Leandro. He was detained on his way home to Nablus, \r\non the Palestinian West Bank, where his mother is gravely ill. He was questioned \r\nfor 19 hours with his feet cuffed to a chair. He told the Mercury<\/i>, \"I \r\nasked them what did I do? The official told me, 'You did nothing--your people \r\ndid.'\" Bishawi has already lost 50 pounds in jail because he was not able to \r\nfollow his Muslim diet. Bishawi's lawyer represents eight other men--from Yemen, \r\nEgypt, Palestine, Jordan, Tunisia, Syria and Israel--who overstayed work or \r\ntourist visas and were picked up and remain in jail.<\/p>\r\n
An immigration attorney in New Jersey who represents several men who were \r\nquestioned and are now jailed on immigration charges said investigators asked \r\nquestions like, \"What do you think of American civilization\" and \"Why do you \r\npray five times a day?\"<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
Secret Tribunals...and Bush's Appointed \r\nExecutioners <\/p>\r\n
On November 13, Bush announced the U.S. plan to conduct military tribunals \r\nfor some of the accused. He alone will decide who should come before these \r\ncourts. Military prosecutors and judges who decide the cases will report to him \r\nas \"commander in chief,\" and will not be bound by any normal legal procedures. \r\nCases will be heard in secret. Hearsay and other illegal evidence may be \r\nallowed. The \"jury\" will be appointed by Bush, and conviction will require only \r\na two-thirds majority. These courts can impose the death penalty, and there is \r\nno right of appeal.<\/p>\r\n
Right wing columnist William Safire--who has called for executing bin Laden \r\nto avoid the complications of a trial--wrote, \"Not content with his previous \r\ndecision to permit police to eavesdrop on a suspect's conversations with an \r\nattorney, Bush now strips the alien accused of even the limited rights afforded \r\nby a court martial. His kangaroo court can conceal evidence by citing national \r\nsecurity, make up its own rules, find a defendant guilty even if a third of the \r\nofficers disagree, and execute the alien with no review by any civilian \r\ncourt.\"<\/p>\r\n
Alan Brinkley, a historian at Columbia University, said, \"Habeas corpus is \r\ngone, trial by jury is gone. This is one of the most extraordinary assaults on \r\ncivil liberties, albeit not of citizens, in our history.\" Many legal experts \r\nhave interpreted Bush's order--which states that \"any individual subject to this \r\norder shall not be privileged to seek any remedy...in any court of the United \r\nStates, or any state thereof\"--as a formal suspension of habeas \r\ncorpus.<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
5000 Racially Profiled \"Interviews\"<\/p>\r\n
Along with the announcement about military tribunals, the FBI disclosed plans \r\nto \"interview\" 5,000 Arab and Muslim men, ages 18 to 33, who entered the U.S. on \r\ntourist, student, and business visas since Jan. 1, 2000. NONE of these men are \r\nsuspects in relation to the 9-11 attacks. They are being singled out solely \r\nbecause of what country <\/i>they came from. Eight hundred of the targeted men \r\nare living in Michigan, most in the Detroit area.<\/p>\r\n
The vice president of the Arab American Students Association at the \r\nUniversity of Texas at Austin said this is \"racial profiling at its most \r\nfundamental level.\"<\/p>\r\n
The FBI has asked local police to help conduct some of these \"interviews.\" \r\nPolice in the U.S. are widely known for practicing routine racial profiling, \r\nbrutality and murder. But after widespread exposure, and protest against, \"DWB\" \r\nstops and other racial profiling, even some police departments are objecting to \r\nthis kind of massive interrogation of people based on nothing other than \r\nnationality. The (acting) Police Chief of Portland, Oregon, who is Black, told \r\nthe FBI and press, \"The law does not allow us to go out and arbitrarily \r\ninterview people whose only offense is immigration or citizenship, and it \r\ndoesn't give them authority to arbitrarily gather information on them.\" Charles \r\nGorder, an assistant United States attorney in Portland, told the NY Times \r\n<\/i>the interviews would be completed, with or without help from local \r\npolice.<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
Restrictions on Travel<\/p>\r\n<\/i>
Two Pakistani-American students are flying back to the University of Florida \r\nfrom Boston on November 13. As they settle into their seats, a Delta Air Lines \r\nemployee approaches one of them and asks for his identification and passport. \r\nThe student shows the Delta employee his driver's license and says, \"I am a U.S. \r\ncitizen.\" The Delta employee then asks where he was born. He replies, \r\n\"Connecticut.\" The employee then asked both students where their parents<\/u> \r\nwere born. Moments later both students are told they would not be allowed on the \r\nplane because they had engaged in \"suspicious behavior.\" What was the \r\n\"suspicious behavior\"?--changing seats!<\/p>\r\n
There have been many other instances of FWA (flying while Arab) racial \r\nprofiling in airports and on planes--putting travel restrictions on Middle \r\nEastern immigrants (see \"Fear of Flying,\" RW <\/i>#1121).<\/p>\r\n
In another of many such incidents, the Oakland Tribune <\/i>recounted the \r\nstory of a Sikh man who was not allowed on a flight because National Airlines \r\nclaims, \"The pilot saw him make an obscene gesture.\" The man was taken from the \r\nairline's ticket counter and questioned for two hours. \"They treated me like I \r\nwas a criminal when all I did was show them my ticket.\" He was surrounded by \r\nSFPD and a police dog and repeatedly searched. And, in violation of his faith, \r\nhe was asked to take off his turban.<\/p>\r\n
The Council for American Islamic Relations said it has had more than 90 cases \r\nof racial profiling and harassment of airline passengers reported since \r\nSeptember 11. The Sikh Media Watch and Resource Task Force says it has had so \r\nmany calls about racial profiling at airports that it added a link at its web \r\nsite to automate the process of documenting these abuses.<\/p>\r\n
One Pakistani-American is suing United Airlines after the airline refused to \r\nlet him fly from San Francisco to Philadelphia on September 22. The man was told \r\nthat a United crew member saw him have \"suspicious communications\" with another \r\npassenger--he used his cell phone to call his wife and a company representative \r\nto straighten out a ticket mix-up.<\/p>\r\n
Even a Republican congressman from California with a Lebanese last name--who \r\nwas on official Congressional business--couldn't get on an Air France plane. \r\nAccording to the Associated Press, Congressman Darrell Issa, whose grandparents \r\nwere Lebanese, was denied a seat on a flight from Washington, DC to Saudi Arabia \r\non October 4.<\/p>\r\n
Muslim and Arab people have also been targeted when traveling by bus or \r\ntrain. On 9\/12, an Amtrak train in Providence, RI was stopped by local police \r\nwho boarded the train and arrested a Sikh passenger for looking \"suspicious.\" On \r\n9\/18, a Pakistani student was taken off a Greyhound bus by INS agents, detained, \r\nbeaten by inmates while guards stood by, and not taken to a hospital until his \r\naunt paid his $5,000 bail.<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
Foreign Students Targeted<\/p>\r\n
Since September 11, law enforcement authorities have contacted university \r\nadministrators across the country to get academic and other records of foreign \r\nstudents. A 9\/28 AP story revealed what many students had been reporting: \"The \r\nBush administration is asking for access to student files of suspected \r\nterrorists at American universities; as it turns out, schools contacted by the \r\nFBI have already turned over files saying safety trumps privacy.\"<\/p>\r\n
Meanwhile, California Senator Dianne Feinstein proposed legislation that \r\nwould suspend all foreign student visas for six months. According to the \r\nArizona Republic<\/i> this would have \"turned away an estimated 120,000 \r\nforeign students\" from U.S. schools. Feinstein cited an incident where one of \r\nthe hijackers involved in the 9-11 attack reportedly once registered at a \r\nCalifornia college but never ended up enrolling. Later Feinstein modified her \r\nproposal and introduced the Visa Entry Reform Act of 2001. According to \r\nactivists, among the provisions of the bill is a moratorium on student visas \r\nfrom Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Syria, Cuba, and North Korea, as well as other \r\nrestrictions on student visas and more intrusive surveillance of the activities \r\nof foreign students.<\/p>\r\n
On November 8, the Berkeley Stop the War Coalition held a protest at \r\nFeinstein's office against the attacks on foreign students. One student, whose \r\nfamily had been denied the ability to study in the U.S. because they are from \r\nIran, said, \"By denying visas, they are denying certain groups of people an \r\nopportunity for higher education and once they take away our rights, they can \r\ntake away all of our rights.\"<\/p>\r\n
Another protester exposed the SmartVisa cards element of the Feinstein bill, \r\nwhich would encode a foreign student's biometric information, along with other \r\npersonal information. The protester told AsianWeek<\/i>, \"By making \r\nimmigration information automated, [the government would be] setting up a way of \r\ncontrolling political dissidents...\"<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
Calls for a Nation of Snitches<\/p>\r\n
Official calls to spy on and report any \"suspicious\" activities, along with \r\nall the government measures to target and persecute Middle Eastern immigrants, \r\nhave unleashed vigilante attacks. These attacks include the overtly racist \r\nmurder of at least one Sikh man, and several suspicious deaths of other Sikh men \r\nsoon after September 11. The following are just a few incidents from a list \r\ncompiled by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund:<\/p>\r\n
On 9\/15\/01, a gunman drove to a Mesa, AZ gas station and fired three shots, \r\nkilling the station's owner, a Sikh man named Balbir Singh Sodhi. In a wild \r\nrampage, the gunman drove to another gas station and shot at the \r\nLebanese-American owner, and then fired shots into the home of an Afghan family. \r\n<\/p>\r\n
9\/18\/01, police found the body of an elderly Sikh man in an irrigation canal \r\nin Ceres, CA. His turban was gone, but his wallet was found on his person and no \r\nmoney was taken.<\/p>\r\n
9\/16\/01, a Bridgeport, CT mosque was vandalized, phone lines were cut, and \r\n\"You will all die\" was written on the building.<\/p>\r\n
9\/16\/01, a Pakistani man and friends were stopped by police after they left a \r\nBurger King in North Brunswick, NJ. Police told them, \"You guys look like \r\nterrorists.\"<\/p>\r\n
9\/16\/01, a Sikh grocery storeowner on Long Island, NY was shot and \r\nkilled.<\/p>\r\n
9\/15\/01, a Pakistani grocer in Dallas, TX was slain, police have not \r\ndetermined a motive.<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
Japanese Americans: We've seen this before \r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/i>
\"I cannot forget that in World War 2 our people were struck. In the 1940s, \r\n120,000 Japanese Americans were evacuated and put away in internment camps in \r\nisolated areas because of war hysteria, racism, and distrust. Today the same \r\nthing is happening to new targets: the Arabs, the Muslims, the South Asians or \r\nthose who look like them. We must protect our Middle East and South Asian \r\nfriends and neighbors.\"<\/p>\r\n
Yuri Kochiyama, activist and former detainee
in a \r\nconcentration camp, speaking at this year's
October 22 National Day of \r\nProtest
to Stop Police Brutality, in Oakland<\/p>\r\n<\/i>
\"As we move forward toward an uncertain future, we remind you to not forget \r\nour Arab, Sikh and Muslim American brothers and sisters. We shall not forget the \r\nracism, ignorance and hatred that have been perpetrated on us. We remember the \r\nfear of standing out and being identified as the 'enemy'.\" <\/p>\r\n
Letter from the San Francisco Japanese American
Citizens \r\nLeague (JACL) <\/p>\r\n
JACL members in northern California have visited the Afghani district of \r\nFremont, CA to express solidarity with people being persecuted, and have \r\ndiscussed their experiences in detention with Muslims in northern California \r\nmosques.<\/p>\r\n
San Francisco Poet Laureate Janice Mirikitani, who was in a concentration \r\ncamp with her family during World War 2, told the NY Times <\/i>that when she \r\nreads that the government is detaining immigrants she says, \"Oh, no. Not again. \r\nFor me, and other Japanese-Americans, what we immediately felt was a great \r\nconcern about what could happen to Afghan Americans or Arab Americans. It made \r\nus want to speak out and say, 'Never again.' \"<\/p>\r\n
Paul Osaki, executive director of the Japanese American Cultural and \r\nCommunity Center in San Francisco, whose parents were interned, told the NY \r\nTimes<\/i>, \"We need to be vocal about it. We need to be reminders to America \r\nthat this kind of thinking can get out of hand...\" The Center has been showing \r\nan exhibition on the Japanese, German and Italian internment camps in the U.S., \r\nand is organizing outreach programs.<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
Then they came for...<\/p>\r\n
A question for those who are watching their neighbors get rounded up and \r\nthinking that perhaps this is providing them with some security.<\/p>\r\n<\/i>
Where do you think all this is going?<\/p>\r\n
A NY Times <\/i>reporter interviewed people in Chattanooga, TN about what \r\nrights they were ready to give up after 9-11. Of those who supported some of the \r\ndraconian attacks coming down on Arabs and Muslims, the reporter noted that \"the \r\nmood changed when those interviewed were asked about proposals to issue national \r\nidentification cards and give the authorities greater power to use electronic \r\nsurveillance.\"<\/p>\r\n
An engineer said, \"If government accessed information on people's private \r\nlives and made it available, I'd have a problem.\" And a 53-year-old warehouse \r\ndriver said, \"I understand where Bush is coming from, given what happened, but I \r\nthink somewhere down the line that will be taken advantage of and they'll get \r\ninto people's business.\"<\/p>\r\n
Pastor Martin Niedemeyer's quote from Germany is even more relevant \r\ntoday:<\/p>\r\n<\/i>
\"First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a \r\nCommunist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a \r\nJew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I \r\nwasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up \r\nbecause I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was \r\nleft to speak up.\"<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
<\/p>\r\n
Among the sources for this article:<\/p>\r\n
\"5,000 Immigrants May Be Questioned,\" Newsday<\/i> 11\/14\/01<\/p>\r\n
\"Arabs Question Justice Dept. Plan,\" AP 11\/16\/01<\/p>\r\n
\"Ban on Student Visas Opposed by Educators,\" Arizona Republic \r\n<\/i>10\/4\/01<\/p>\r\n
\"Bush to Subject Terrorism Suspects to Military Trials,\" NY Times<\/i> \r\n11\/14\/01; \"A Travesty of Justice,\" NY Times <\/i>11\/16\/01; and \"Despite Some \r\nConcerns, Civil Liberties are Taking a Back Seat,\" NY Times<\/i> 11\/18\/01<\/p>\r\n
\"FBI raids homes in Chester in probe,\" Philadelphia Inquirer<\/i>, \r\n11\/14\/01<\/p>\r\n
\"None Jailed Appear Linked to Attacks,\" LA Times <\/i>11\/16\/01<\/p>\r\n
\"Pakistani Man Barred from Flight Sues Airline\"--SF Chronicle<\/i> \r\n10\/30\/01<\/p>\r\n
\"Some Call Feinstein Legislation 'Racist,' \" and \"Is It Safe to Fly?\" \r\nAsianWeek<\/i> 11\/22\/01.<\/p>\r\n
\"Visa Crackdown Leaves Detainees in Legal Limbo,\" SJ Mercury News<\/i> \r\n11\/5\/01<\/p>\r\n
\"World Trade Center and Pentagon Attacks: The Anti-Asian American \r\nBacklash\"--compiled by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund \r\nwww.aaldef.org<\/p>\r\n
ACLU web site www.aclu.org<\/p>\r\n
Organizations including the ACLU and the National Lawyer's Guild have \r\nprepared \"Know Your Rights\" brochures, advising people to refuse to say anything \r\nto agents to attempt to \"interview\" them. The NLG's Know Your Rights pamphlet is \r\navailable, including in Arabic, at www.nlg.org.<\/p>\r\n
\r\n<\/p>
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker \r\nOnline
rwor.org
Write: Box 3486, \r\nMerchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654
Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: \r\n773-227-4497
(The RW Online does not currently communicate via email.) \r\n<\/p>\r\n\n","contact":"","link":"www.rwor.org","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"In the wake of September 11, a wave of raids, detentions, disappearances, interrogation and marginalization has been unleashed against large sections of Middle Eastern immigrants in the United States. Many people have left for work in the morning and never come home--picked up and detained in secret with no criminal charges.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2001\/12\/rw_onlineunder_siege_in_america.htm","filesize":"22.7 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2001\/12\/13311.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}