An Interview with Laila
al-Arian
"What Did My
Father Do to Deserve Such Treatment?"
By NANCY WELCH
05/08/08 "Counterpunch" -- - Dr.
Sami Al-Arian, one of the earliest victims of the "war on
terror" within the U.S. itself, continues to languish in jail,
where he has been since his February 2003 arrest for the "crime"
of speaking out on behalf of the Palestinian struggle against
Israel's apartheid.
Al-Arian's daughter, Laila
Al-Arian, is the author, with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Chris Hedges, of
Collateral Damage: America's War Against
Iraqi Civilians [1]. A graduate of the Columbia
School of Journalism, she recently joined Al-Jazeera English as
a producer.
I spoke with Laila on her recent
visit to Burlington, Vt., where she sought a meeting with Sen.
Patrick Leahy, a leading Democrat and chair of the Senate
Judiciary Committee. So far, Leahy has refused to investigate
the circumstances and conditions under which Dr. Al-Arian is
being held.
*
* *
IN 2006, after a Florida
jury refused to return a guilty verdict on any of the charges
that the Bush Justice department had brought against him, your
father signed a plea agreement with federal prosecutors to
secure his release from prison. Why wasn't your father released
and deported as agreed? What's happened since?
MY FATHER signed a plea
agreement, and we thought that was that, and he would be
released just a few months later. Then, this federal prosecutor,
Gordon Kromberg, tried to bring him to Virginia. Kromberg has
been on a six- or seven-year witch-hunt against Muslim
organizations in the Northern Virginia area.
To describe where he's coming
from, he's blogged about trips he's taken to Israel and his fear
of Palestinians. He's made anti-Arab and anti-Muslim statements
on the record that he's never apologized for. During one trial
in Virginia, he said "all Arabs lie"--that's what he told the
jury--and he said "don't believe anything they tell you."
This is a person with a lot of
power and authority. Not to say that he's the only one driving
the ship--I think his bosses are supporting what he's doing. But
we know Kromberg wasn't happy with the Florida jury's verdict,
and this was his way of trying to retry the case in Virginia.
Kromberg succeeded in getting my
father moved to a Virginia jail, and for the next 18 months and
more, he brought my father to the grand jury and tried to force
him to testify. But had my dad testified, they would have
charged him with perjury, maybe even obstruction of justice.
So he was held in civil
contempt. During the 12 months my dad spent in civil contempt,
he went on two different hunger strikes. He was trying to make a
point that "I'm not going to testify. It's against my
principles, it's against my plea agreement."
Finally, when my dad was removed
from contempt, there was a period where his sentence had run
out. He had been removed from contempt, and yet he still wasn't
being deported, when one of the promises the government made in
the plea agreement was to deport him expeditiously. They used
that language, which is very important in this case. But of
course, that never happened, and it's been more than two years.
WHAT HAVE those two
years been like for him, and how has he endured?
I WOULD say the completely
lowest point was when he was in Hampton Roads Regional Jail in
Portsmouth, Virginia. He was on a hunger strike, and the
authorities there went completely ballistic. They put him on
suicide watch. They took away all his clothes and put him in a
paper-thin white gown. They took away his pillows, blankets,
even his water--his cup of water.
We had a huge campaign at the
time to call the prison and demand that he be treated with
humanity and respect. A few days later, they removed him from
isolation, and they started treating him better. I think that's
a really good example of the power of the people. It's
heartening to see that it actually does work.
WHAT ARE the most recent
developments?
IN LATE June, my dad was
indicted on two counts of criminal contempt. Now we're awaiting
the trial, which will take place August 13. A lot of lawyers
have said it's really unusual for someone to be placed in civil
contempt, and then be charged with criminal contempt, because
you've already punished the person for not testifying.
The scary thing about the
criminal contempt charge is that it's the only so-called crime
on the American law books that has no minimum or maximum
sentence--so it could range from less than five years to 10, 20,
30 years. We really have no idea.
The other thing--and this is a
law that was passed post-9/11--is that the government can ask
for terrorist-enhancement charges, which they tack on to charges
to increase the prison time.
A JUDGE recently granted
bail for your father. Why wasn't he been released?
THE BAIL hearing for my father
took place after my father finished his sentence, which ended on
April 7, and before his indictment, which came down on June 24.
So at the time of the bail hearing, he was in jail
illegally--because you're not allowed to just hold someone
indefinitely for no reason. I think that's still not allowed in
this country.
But at that time, he was being
taken from one ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] prison
to the next. He was under ICE custody. At the bail hearing, when
the judge decided to grant him bail, it was a really good day
for us. She said on the record that he was neither a flight
risk, nor a threat to any community. She did impose some
restrictions, which we were okay with, so long as it meant that
my father would be released.
But everything in my dad's case
is always the exception to every rule. Even if something good
happens, somehow the government always finds a way to prevail.
In this case, because he's not a citizen, even though he was
granted bail, ICE can detain him. The judge even said during the
bail hearing, "I don't have the authority to order ICE to
release him. It's going to be up to them."
My brother and I went to the
courthouse the following week--my brother had to sign some
paperwork because he was the custodian if my father were
released--and the woman at the courthouse who works in the
clerk's office told us, "Oh yeah, whenever the court says for a
person to be released on bail, ICE 99 percent of the time will
release a person."
Of course, we're that 1 percent
exception.
WHERE IS your father
now?
I JUST found out this morning
that my dad has been moved from the U.S. marshal's custody to
ICE, and he's now 75 miles away from Arlington, Virginia. He's
now in Winchester, Virginia, in ICE custody. It's obvious
they're not planning on releasing him.
YOU CAME to Vermont
hoping to meet in person with Patrick Leahy. What reason did the
senator give for refusing to meet with you?
FROM WHAT I understand, his
response is that it's illegal for a representative or a senator
to get involved in pending litigation. Well, we've been asking
him to get involved way before there was any pending litigation.
The pending litigation [on the
charge of criminal contempt] only happened last month, so Leahy
had a chance for almost the past two years to get involved, and
he didn't. We know for a fact that he's received hundreds of
letters, faxes, e-mails and phone calls from people all over the
world who are concerned about what's happened to my father, and
unfortunately, he hasn't responded to any of these calls,
including calls from his own constituents here in Vermont who I
know are very concerned about the case.
There was a big window of time
when he really could have taken the initiative to investigate
the abuses going on in this case--and there are grave abuses. I
think that as head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he has the
responsibility to oversee what the Bush Justice Department is
doing.
Leahy's committee has taken the
right step of investigating the politicization of the Justice
Department under [former Attorney General Alberto] Gonzales, but
what's the flip side of that coin? They're looking into the
issue of attorneys being fired during that time when Gonzales
was ordering attorneys he didn't agree with to be fired, but
they should also be looking at who was being promoted. It's
people like Gordon Kromberg.
YOU'VE DEDICATED
Collateral Damage, featuring interviews with more than 50
U.S. soldiers about the wretched treatment of Iraqi civilians
under occupation, to your father. What are the connections
between how your father is being treated and what the Iraqi
people are being subjected to?
I THINK it's just the same
policies of this Bush administration. Bush went out of his way
to say that this isn't a war on Islam and Muslims, but I think
the past almost eight years have shown otherwise.
They targeted someone like my
father, who was an activist who just spoke his mind. I know
that's what the jury in Florida concluded, because that's what
they've told us, and that's what they've told journalists on the
record: that my father's only so-called crime was exercising his
First Amendment rights.
It's the same in Iraq--this
whole misguided notion of who Arabs and Muslims are, invading a
country based on lies, lying to the American people just like
they lied to the jury about my father's case. Except,
thankfully, the jury saw through that.
HOW DO you respond to
Barack Obama's recent arguments for reducing troops in Iraq to
boost troop levels in Afghanistan?
I THINK you just need to look at
the recent incidents in Afghanistan--we bombed civilians, there
was an air strike on a wedding. But I also think few American
people know about the effects of the war on Afghan civilians.
I met a veteran of the
Afghanistan war, and he told me about one experience where he
actually gave the people who were about to [conduct an] air
strike in Afghanistan the wrong coordinates because the metal in
the vehicle next to him interfered with his [Global Positioning
System]. He said they bombed a village of Afghan civilians, and
then they went to the village and told them, "We're sorry the
Taliban did this to you." It's really telling of how failed our
policies are, how destructive occupation is to the people.
I think sending more troops to
Afghanistan will also hurt our own military and our own troops
who don't want to be there. From what they've told me, they want
to be back home here with their families; they've already served
years in Iraq--enough is enough.
It's also going to have
long-term consequences on our own country when we've had all
these young men and women serving in all these war zones, and
under extremely difficulty circumstances.
OBAMA HAS also
reaffirmed the U.S.'s "special relationship" with Israel while
suggesting he would negotiate an agreement between the Israeli
state and the Palestinians. What do you think of the prospects
for peace under an Obama presidency?
I THINK the only way to be a
credible peace-broker, if you will, in the Middle East is to
actually consider both sides, and that's never happened. Even at
the Camp David Accords, the only thing the American negotiating
team was doing was copying and pasting Israeli demands, and
offering them to the Palestinians.
So if it's just a matter of
repeating that history, then no, I don't think we'll get very
far. I think America does have a very important role as being
one of Israel's staunchest allies, and for that reason, I hope
more Americans will inform themselves about the conflict and
really dig deep and learn both sides of the narrative, because
right now, the media is only offering one side. You very rarely
get a glimpse of the actual history. They've done polls where a
majority of Americans think it's the Palestinians who are
occupying the Israelis.
There's such little depth to the
coverage of this conflict, and yet seeing how much of our tax
money goes to sustaining Israel, I think people really have a
responsibility to learn as much as possible.
RECENTLY, HUNDREDS of
Vermonters turned out to protest the attempt by Burlington's
municipal cable company to drop Al-Jazeera English from its
offerings. What's the significance of people rallying to keep
Al-Jazeera on the air?
FIRST, I should say I'm not a
spokesperson for Al-Jazeera, but I work there, and I obviously
have tremendous respect and regard for the network. Al-Jazeera
English is a refreshing change from what we're offered here in
this country, and it's really encouraging to be in the one city
in the United States that actually offers the network.
I think it's great that people
turned out in support of it--in support of free speech and also
the opportunity to be exposed to more than one perspective. I
hope that more cities in the U.S. follow that lead and insist
that their cable companies provide Al-Jazeera, because how can
we say we live in a democracy when we can't even get a TV
station?
HOW SERIOUSLY should we
take right-wing, anti-Muslim groups like the "Vermont's
Defenders Council," which has very few members but almost
succeeded in suppressing Al-Jazeera?
I THINK we should take them very
seriously. Even though they're small in number, they're very
vocal, and they have a lot of influence. In Burlington, free
speech and dialogue triumphed, but all over the country,
suppression, censorship and fear-mongering have triumphed more
often than anyone would like.
When I was in southern
California recently, a theater agreed to screen a documentary
about my father's case called USA vs. Al-Arian, and they came
under a heavy campaign by a right-wing group in the area and the
theater decided to cancel it at the last minute. Thankfully,
another theater stepped up to screen the film and didn't
capitulate to this fear-mongering campaign, but the first
theater did, and that's an example of where these groups do
triumph.
We have to make sure our voices
are louder than theirs. We have to stand up against them.
YOUR FATHER has been
imprisoned for more than five years. What has been the impact on
him and on your family, and what can people do to continue to
stand up for him?
THERE HAVE been so many times
when we thought this nightmare was finally over, and it wasn't.
It just continues.
It's been devastating for our
whole family--to see our father imprisoned, to see the sustained
campaign by the U.S. government to put him through as much
psychological--and sometimes even physical--torture as possible.
Being placed in complete
isolation--that would drive anyone to a breaking point. Being
cursed out and subjected to racist comments by prison guards and
the marshals who transport him from prison to prison. Being
taken from prison to prison. This is something that's really a
deliberate attempt to try to break someone, by constantly
isolating them from their loved ones and their families. And for
what? What did my father do to deserve the treatment he's
gotten?
Throughout this experience,
we've learned so much more about the prison system than we ever
imagined learning: just the way families themselves are
humiliated; the way that guards talk to regular people visiting
their families, yelling at them, turning people away who have
driven 15 or 20 hours to visit their loved one, just because
they're wearing the wrong thing. It's really heart-breaking.
It's terrible, too, seeing that the vast majority of prisoners
in this country are minorities--Blacks and Latinos--the
disproportionate numbers and the selective enforcement of laws.
But along the way, we've also
had so much support from people, all over the country, all over
the world, especially with the documentary [USA vs. Al-Arian].
It raised so much awareness throughout Europe, especially the
Scandinavian countries, because it's a Norwegian-produced
documentary. In the Middle East, it screened on both Al-Jazeera
and Al-Arabiya, the two Arab networks.
It's been tremendous. I think
that without all of the support from people, this would have
been a much more difficult experience to go through than it
already is.
Locally, in Florida, the Arab
and Muslim community were so terrified. They were scared of the
government. A lot of them were being visited by the FBI in this
campaign of intimidation. So a lot of them really wanted nothing
to do with us and shied away, and we felt very isolated--like
our family had to deal with this whole thing by ourselves.
But--and this is probably one of
the most beautiful parts of this whole nightmare--there's this
progressive Christian community and this community of local
Tampa residents that stood by us. They would hold signs every
single Monday during the trial saying, "Charity to orphans and
widows is not a crime" and "Free Sami!"
And the jurors saw these people
who looked just like them, just average Americans supporting the
rights of this stateless Palestinian professor, and I'm sure
that had a big effect on them.
Nancy Welch
writes for the
Socialist Worker.
What you
can do
The Tampa Bay Coalition for
Justice and Peace is asking Dr. Al-Arian's supporters to call
Pamunkey Regional Jail to protest the further unjust
treatment--a 23-hour lockdown, held in complete isolation--that
Dr. Al-Arian is being subjected to. Call 804-365-6400, press 4,
then 3001, and ask to speak to the superintendent's office;
press 0 after business hours.
Visit the
Free Sami
Al-Arian Web site to get regular updates about his case and
learn more about what you can do to protest his continued
imprisonment.
You can send donations to help
the Al-Arian family defray the costs of more than five years of
legal defense to: Liberty Defense Fund, P.O. Box 1211, 24525 E.
Welches Road, Welches, OR 97067.
Laila Al-Arian's book,
co-authored with Chris Hedges,
Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians],
exposes the patterns of the U.S. occupation of Iraq through
interviews with 50 American veterans of the war.
The documentary film USA v.
Al-Arian can be viewed on the Internet at the LinkTV Web site.
http://www.linktv.org/programs/usavs
Click
on "comments" below to read or post
comments
Comment
Guidelines
Be
succinct, constructive and relevant to the story.
We encourage
engaging, diverse and meaningful commentary. Do
not include personal information such as names,
addresses, phone numbers and emails. Comments
falling outside our guidelines – those
including personal attacks and profanity –
are not permitted.
See our complete Comment
Policy and use
this link to notify us if you have
concerns about a comment. We’ll promptly
review and remove any inappropriate postings.
Send
Page To a Friend
In
accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this
material is distributed without profit to those
who have expressed a prior interest in receiving
the included information for research and
educational purposes. Information Clearing House
has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator
of this article nor is Information ClearingHouse
endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
|
