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Crime Of Compassion
Muslims like Dr. Rafil Dhafir should be celebrated as the
outstanding humanitarians they are, not turned into convenient
props in the War on Terror.
By Katherine Hughes
01/23/06 "ICH"
-- -- On October 27, 2005, after being detained 31 months and
being denied access to his own records, Dr. Rafil Dhafir, an
oncologist from Upstate New York, was sentenced to 22 years in
Federal prison.[1] A man of Iraqi descent and Muslim faith, he
lived in the U.S. since 1974 and has been an American citizen
for almost 30 years. As a direct response to the humanitarian
catastrophe created by the Gulf War and U.S. sanctions Dhafir
founded the charity Help the Needy (HTN). Despite many
difficulties, including the U.S. embargo and a brutal
dictatorship in Iraq, HTN got food and medicines to millions of
starving Iraqis for 13 years.[2] Without HTN aid the UN
statistic of 5,200 preventable deaths per month of children
under the age of five would undoubtedly have been much higher.
On February 26, 2003, the day that Dhafir was arrested, Attorney
General John Ashcroft announced that ³supporters of terrorism
had been apprehended.² Since that day senior government
officials have continued to paint Dhafir as a terrorist, and
Judge Norman Mordue denied Dhafir bail on four occasions. Yet
local prosecutors successfully lobbied Mordue to prevent the
charge of terrorism from being part of the trial. This ruling
turned into a brick wall that the defense kept hitting during
the proceedings: prosecutors could hint at more serious charges,
but the defense was never allowed to follow this line of
questioning. Despite denying Dhafir the right to address the
charge in court, Mordue allowed prosecutors to bring the charge
to his sentencing.
Although the government continues to characterize Dhafir as a
criminal supporting terrorism, the only context in which this
case makes any sense is the overwhelming humanitarian crisis
created by the brutal U.S. sanctions on the country of Iraq.[3]
Kathy Kelly of Voices in the Wilderness (VITW), speaking about
mainstream U.S media coverage before the Iraq War had begun,
said, ³I try to point out to the mainstream journalists that
they have succeeded enormously in informing the U.S. public
about the horrors committed by the current regime in Iraq while
for the most part neglecting the horrors the United States has
committed. That the regime here has used chemical weapons,
engaged in torture, and violated the political and civil rights
of Iraqi civilians is repugnant to all who cherish human rights.
And yet, what the U.S. public doesnıt understand and will
possibly never comprehend is that the greatest violations of
human rights in Iraq since the Gulf War have happened as a
result of U.S.-led UN economic sanctions against Iraq.²[4]
Indeed, three senior UN officials living and working in Iraq
resigned because they considered the sanctions to be a
³genocidal² policy.[5]
Talking about her return to the U.S. after a 1998 visit to Iraq,
Kelly said, ³Upon our return to the U.S., customs agents turned
my passport over to the State Department, perhaps as evidence
that, according to U.S. law, Iıve committed a criminal act by
traveling to Iraq. I know that our efforts to be voices in the
wilderness arenıt criminal. Weıre governed by compassion, not by
the laws that pitilessly murder innocent children. Whatıs more,
Iraqi children might benefit if we could bring their story into
a courtroom, before a jury of our peers.²[6]
IRAQ UNDER SANCTIONS
During the course of the proceedings the government did its
utmost to prevent any discussion of the state of Iraq under the
sanctions from being part of the trial. Government employees,
including Susan Hutner, of the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC),
testified to having no knowledge of the effects of the
sanctions. As the government attorney addressing the situation
in Iraq, she helped draft the initial legal documentation to
implement the sanctions and then worked on the sanctions for 12
years. When the defense attempted to question Hutner about the
Oil for Food program, the court ruled the line of questioning
irrelevant.[7]
Several government witnesses of Iraqi descent broke down on the
stand when they began to talk of the effects of the sanctions on
their families.[8] Each time this happened the prosecution
immediately interrupted the testimony.[9] The only newspaper
reporting on the proceedings, the local Syracuse Post-Standard,
failed to address the sanctions as they pertained to the case.
Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait on August 1, 1990, and on August
2, U.S. sanctions against Iraq were put in place. On January 17,
1991, the first bombs of the Gulf War were dropped on Baghdad.
Before this war the people of Iraq had a standard of living
comparable to many Western countries. Although a brutal
dictatorship, the government provided universal healthcare and
education including college for all its citizens. There was
virtually no illiteracy and the education system and health
system were the best in the region.
The result of the war was total devastation: more bombs were
dropped on Iraq in a six-week period than were dropped by all
parties together in the whole of World War II. Taken together,
these bombs are at least six times more powerful than two atomic
bombs. Many types of bombs were used including ones containing
depleted uranium (DU), the waste matter from nuclear plants;
hundreds of tons of DU ammunition now lie scattered throughout
Iraq. The DU dust has entered the food chain through the soil
and the water, and as a result many formerly unknown diseases
have become prevalent in Iraq. Many pregnant women are
delivering their babies as early as six months, and many babies
are born with terrible deformities. Cancer rates have
skyrocketed, and if current trends continue 44% of the
population could develop cancer within the next ten years. [10]
All major bridges and communication systems were bombed, making
any communications both inside and outside the country extremely
difficult. The water purification system was bombed and the UN
has never allowed it to be repaired; as a result 15 years of raw
sewage has piled up in the streets. This has been the cause of
much disease and death, particularly among the young and very
old. Hospitals and schools were not spared and, as a result of
the bombing and the sanctions, the health and education systems
in Iraq went from being the best in the region to being the
worst. [11]
Robert Fisk in his new book about the Middle East says, ³There
was one final scourge to be visited upon the Iraqi people, a
foul cocktail in which both our gunfire and our sanctions played
an intimate, horrific role, one that would contaminate Iraqis
for years to come, perhaps for generations. In historical terms,
it may be identified as our most callous crime against the
Middle East, against Arabs, against children. It manifested
itself in abscesses, in massive tumours, in gangrene, internal
bleeding and child mastectomies and shrunken heads and
deformities and thousands of tiny graves.²[12]
In 1998 Denis Halliday, Assistant Secretary General of the
United Nations resigned from the UN after thirty-four years of
distinguished service. At the time he was serving as the
humanitarian coordinator in Baghdad, and his resignation was a
direct result of the conditions he witnessed. He said, ³I had
been instructed to implement a policy that satisfies the
definition of genocide: a deliberate policy that has effectively
killed well over a million individuals, children and adults. We
all know that the regime, Saddam Hussein, is not paying the
price of economic sanctions; on the contrary, he has been
strengthened by them. It is the little people who are losing
their children or their parents for lack of treated water. What
is clear is that the Security Council is now out of control, for
its actions here undermine its own Charter, and the Declaration
of Human Rights and the Geneva Convention. History will
slaughter those responsible.²[13]
Hans Von Sponeck succeeded Denis Halliday as humanitarian
coordinator in Baghdad and, and in early 2000 he too resigned
from that position. Von Sponeck, talking about the Oil for Food
program, said that it was impossible for each person to live on
the $100 per year that was being allocated, especially because
of the conditions prevalent in Iraq at the time. He said, ³Set
that pittance against the lack of clean water, the fact that
electricity fails for up to 22 hours a day, and the majority of
sick people cannot afford treatment, the sheer trauma of trying
to get from day to day, and you have a glimpse of the nightmare.
And make no mistake, this is deliberate. I have not in the past
wanted to use the word genocide, but now it is unavoidable.²[14]
And in a report to the UN Secretary General, Professor Marc
Bossuyt, an authority on international law, stated that the
³Ssanctions regime against Iraq is unequivocally illegal under
existing human right law and could raise questions under the
Genocide Convention.²[15]
WHAT HELP THE NEEDY DID
Over the course of 13 years, from 1990 until 2003, HTN sent food
and medicines that reached millions of starving Iraqi civilians.
The aid was first sent to Maher Zagha in Jordan. Zagha is a
former Onondaga Community College and Utica College student who
lived in the Upstate New York area for several years before
returning to Jordan.[16] He is listed as a co-conspirator with
Dhafir on the indictment.
On the day of Dhafirıs arrest, Zagha was arrested in Jordan and
then held in solitary for 21 days. The Jordanians interrogated
him and released him and since then he has gone about his normal
life, including traveling internationally. After Dhafirıs
conviction in February 2005 the remaining HTN money in Jordan,
$138,564.53 was confiscated along with $25,000 of Dhafirıs
personal money.
Throughout the period of the sanctions container loads of good
were shipped by HTN from Jordan to Iraq. Receipts from the
purchase of food were shown in court. For example, an invoice
from January 29th, 1997, showed the purchase of 25 tons of
Thailand rice, 35 tons of flour and 2000 cans of cooking oil.
Invoices from other days and years list tons of; American rice,
Turkish sugar, Iranian flour, chickpeas and Iraqi lentils. Tea
and tomato paste was also shipped. Zagha sent the aid into Iraq
using the correct official channels required by the Jordanian
authorities. When he was unable to comply, he gave the aid over
to the authorities. In 1990 when Dhafir sent 900 kilograms of
medicine to Zagha without the correct paper work, Zagha had to
give the medicine to the Iraqi embassy in Jordan. It was the
only way to get the medicine into Iraq and he could only hope
that it would reach the people for whom it was intended.[17]
From 1996 through 2003 Zagha sent money to Iraq and local
exchangers were used because there were no banks operating at
that time. The money was sent to Dhafirıs brother Najim in
Baghdad (also a physician) and two other men, Mustapha and Ammar.
By getting money into Iraq from Jordan HTN was able to provide
starving civilians with meat protein. The three men in Baghdad
bought animals at the open markets surrounding the city, and
these purchases usually coincided with the major holidays of the
Muslim faith. For example, in January 2003, for one of the most
holy of Muslim holidays, Eid, Zagha sent four lots of money
totaling $285,000. This money bought about 4,000 lambs and cows
which were sacrificed, and the food was distributed to the
needy.[18] Looking at the quantities of aid provided to Iraqi
civilians by HTN, it is easy to believe that they were indeed
feeding more people in Iraq than all the other aid agencies put
together.[19]
An email read in court showed that Dhafir believed that the U.S.
government was not opposed to Iraqi civilians receiving
humanitarian aid of the form that HTN was supplying. HTN and
other groups, like VITW, openly advertised that they were
sending aid to civilians. They did this through leaflets,
websites and fundraising events. For 13 years the government
took little action against people who sent aid to Iraqi
civilians, and this tacit approval must have helped confirm
Dhafirıs belief.[20]
Since the day of his arrest, using unfair tactics and innuendo,
the government has managed to transform Dhafir from a
compassionate humanitarian into a crook and supporter of
terrorists. They have done this with the aid of a complicit
press and a willfully ignorant public.
THE GOVERNMENT APPROACH
From the outset in this case the approach of the government has
been one of circumambulation. Michael Powell of the Washington
Post said, ³There is a shadow-boxing quality to the terror
allegations lodged against Dhafir. In August [2004], Gov. George
E. Pataki (R) described Dhafir's as a Omoney laundering case to
help terrorist organizations . . . conduct horrible acts.ı
Prosecutors hinted at national security reasons for holding
Dhafir without bail. But no evidence was offered to support the
allegations.²[21]
In April 2004 the U.S. government brought new charges against
Zagha to Interpol, and Zagha had to give up his passport. It was
returned so that he could make a business trip to Syria, but on
December 20, 2005, the authorities again took his passport.
To this day no evidence has been offered to link Dhafir to
terrorists. And yet, on November 15, 2005, the government
presented a lecture at Syracuse Universityıs law school
entitled, ³A Law Enforcement Approach to Terrorist Financing,²
in which Dhafirıs case was highlighted. [22] The three
prosecutors from the case, Michael Olmstead, Greg West and Steve
Green were present along with Jeff Breinholt, Deputy Chief,
Counterterrorism Section United States Department of Justice who
was the main speaker.
Breinholt asserted that the Dhafir case had been ³under
prosecuted,² this despite the fact that the government brought
60 counts against Dhafir and gained conviction on 59. He cited
HTNıs use of tax exemption numbers other than its own as an
example of how charities functioned in their criminal activity.
Many of Dhafirıs convictions on tax evasion and fraud charges
are based on the assumption that people who gave money to HTN
used the tax exemption number of another charity and therefore
did not pay tax. The government is holding Dhafir responsible
for this lost tax revenue.
One of the two numbers Dhafir used was from a charity that is
the Saudi Arabian equivalent of the American charity United
Way.[23] The use of another charityıs number is not an uncommon
practice. What is uncommon is the fact that it resulted in a
criminal prosecution. Barrie Gewanter, Director of the Central
New York ACLU, has explained the normal procedure for this type
of situation in numerous interviews about the HTN case.
Ordinarily the state government intervenes and shuts the charity
down until the situation is sorted out to their satisfaction.
When and if this is achieved, the charity continues its
work.[24]
The governmentıs philosophy in prosecuting this case was made
clear in the course of the lecture. Olmstead, the head
prosecutor of the Dhafir case, cited the philosopher Emmanuel
Kantıs imperative, ³To obey the law because it is the law.² He
added that ³if you break the law, you must pay the price,²
apparently regardless of the unfairness of the law and the
humanitarian nature of the act. Compassion comes with a very
high price.
Dhafir is undoubtedly paying the price of breaking the genocidal
policy of U.S. sanctions against Iraq. However, the government
was unwilling to prosecute him for this without the attendant
obfuscation and cover provided by the laundry list of charges
that he faced. A clear message is being sent that humanitarian
acts like this will not be tolerated and will be punished
accordingly.
By hosting this lecture on terrorist financing, Syracuse
University Law School provided the government with a platform
that gives credence to an accusation that is wholly lacking in
evidence. They have become the most recent government
accomplice. The ³shadow boxing² continues with the media, public
and the local law school as willing participants in the charade.
The journalist John Pilger writes, ³It is not enough for
journalists to see themselves as mere messengers without
understanding the hidden agendas of the message and the myths
that surround it²[25] It is also not enough for citizens in a
democracy to see themselves as mere receptors of information. As
citizens in a democracy we have an obligation to seek justice
for each other. In this case it means actively going beyond the
governmentıs obfuscation and seeking hard facts and other
sources of information. If this can be achieved, Dhafir and the
other HTN defendants will be vindicated; but it is no easy task.
ACHIEVING JUSTICE
Many people are reassured by the fact that Dhafir can appeal
against his conviction and sentencing. But most have no idea
what this means in terms of practicalities. Under the best
possible circumstances the chances of a successful appeal are
slim.
Seven government agencies investigated this case for five years.
The prosecutors presented the case in minutia over the course of
the seventeen weeks of proceedings. What was expected to be a
6-week trial turned into a
17-week trial and the three defense lawyers have received a
fraction of their fee. Due to this lack of finances a request
for transcripts was made at the beginning of the trial.[26]
Judge Mordue denied this request and so one of the three defense
lawyers typed the proceedings on his laptop.
But official transcripts are essential to an appeal and even if
ordered today, it would take two years to get the transcript in
full. The cost would be around $60,000. before any lawyer fees
or other costs are taken into account.
Dhafir has been bankrupted by this course of justice and has no
money for an appeals lawyer. His only hope is that people who
care about compassion and justice will be able to raise enough
money for him to have a viable chance of a successful appeal.
Katherine Hughes is a potter and a voracious reader of
history and current events. She responded to a request from the
ACLU for court watchers and attended virtually all of the Dhafir
trial. To find out more about this case, please visit her
website:
www.dhafirtrial.net <
http://www.dhafirtrial.net/ > .
----------------------------
[1] Write to Dr. Dhafir: Rafil Dhafir, 11921-052, FCI-Fairton,
PO Box 420, Fairton, NJ 08320.
[2] We learned in the proceedings that a HTN volunteer was
caught and killed
by Saddam Husseinıs regime.
[3] The first 15 counts of Dr. Dhafirıs 60-count indictment
involve
violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA),
commonly known as the sanctions. The full indictment is
available on my
website:
http://www.dhafirtrial.net/static/indictment.pdf
[4] Kathy Kelly, "Other Lands Have Dreams" (Oakland:
Counterpunch and AK
Press, 2005), p.51.
[5] John Pilger, "The New Rulers of the World" (London: Verso
2002), p.54.
[6] Ibid, Kelly. P.37.
[7] From my witness of the proceedings and official transcript
of Susan
Hutnerıs cross examination by the defense, November 10, 2004.
[8] One witness broke down on the stand when testifying that his
mother had
died because she did not have access to necessary blood pressure
medicine.
[9] A video of an HTN fundraising event was shown early in the
proceedings.
The government intended to play only the first few minutes, but
the defense
insisted that the whole video be shown.
[10] John Pilger, ³The Impact of the Sanctions,² found at
http://pilger.carlton.com/iraq/impact
[11] Information about Iraq under the sanctions can be found on
the Voices
in the Wilderness website: www.vitw.org <http://www.vitw.org/> .
A video of
a fundraising event in which Dr. Dhafir describes conditions of
Iraq using
the Pentagon and UNICEF as his sources is available at the
address below.
The file is 12 MB:
QuickTime version:
http://www.a39.net/Dhafir/Dhafir.html
Flash version:
http://www.a39.net/Dhafir/DhafirFlash.html
[12] Robert Fisk, "The Great War for Civilization: The Conquest
of the
Middle East" (New York: Alfred A. Knopf 2005) p.727.
[13] John Pilger, The New Rulers of the World (London: Verso
2002), p.53.
[14] Ibid, Pilger, p.59
[15] Ibid, Pilger, p.95.
[16] In Syracuse, New York, and Rome, New York, respectively.
[17] From my witness of the proceedings
[18] Maher Zagha sent me pictures of the animals being
slaughtered. A sign
in each photograph shows that the animals were purchased by HTN.
[19] From my witness of the proceedings, correspondence with
Maher Zagha and
Dr. Dhafrirıs sentencing statement to the media.
[20] The governmentıs tacit approval in this case reminds me of
the way that
people are granted dual-citizenship: this is achieved by taking
the Oath of
Allegiance (and swearing away their original citizenship) and
keeping the
country of origin passport. This is the ³accepted² practice and
the media
write freely about ³dual-citizens.² But what if the government
decides to
prosecute this action in years to come?
[21] Michael Powell, ³High-Profile N.Y. Suspect Goes on Trial:
Arrest Was
Called Part of War on Terrorism, but Doctor Faces Other
Charges,² The
Washington Post, October 19, 2004.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43278-2004Oct18.html
http://Www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43278-2004Oct18.html
[22] The lecture was advertised by the ³Institute For National
Security and
Counterterrorism², INSCT, which is hosted by Syracuse University
Law School:
http://insct.syr.edu/Research_SWP0506.htm
A photograph of Greg West can be seen at this site. It was taken
during the
lecture and IEEPA violations are chalked on the blackboard
behind him.
[23] Elaine Cassel, The War on Civil Liberties: How Bush and
Ashcroft Have
Dismantled the Bill of Rights (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books,
2004). See the
chapter, ³Guilt by Association: The Islamic Charities,² pp 87 -
105
[24] See WCNY Public Television, ³Access² with George
Kilpatrick. This
program aired on Wednesday, 26th October at 11pm, the night
before
Dr.Dhafirıs sentencing. I was part of a three-person panel with
Barrie
Gewanter (ACLU) and Julienne Oldfield, another of the Dhafir
trial court
watchers.
[25] John Pilgerıs Homepage:http://www.johnpilger.com//
[26] Pages that need to be transcribed cost $5.75 each, and
already
transcribed pages cost 50c a page.
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