Magistrate changes little
Complaints from defense lawyers and Tampa-area residents and friends
of Al-Arian led U.S. Magistrate Thomas B. McCoun III to travel the 70
miles north from Tampa to inspect the U.S. Prison at Coleman.
He denied almost all defense motions challenging Al-Arian's treatment
but did order guards to cut back on strip searches. He found "no real
justification" for such searches before and after all "non-contact"
visits.
The magistrate found Al-Arian's little cell far from intolerable:
"While in their cells, defendants are permitted radios as well as
reading material, including discovery material. The cells include bunk
beds, a sink, toilet, shower, and small metal desk."
Amnesty International contends that placing two men 23 hours a day in
a 70-square-foot cell does not meet American Correctional Association
guidelines of "at least 80 square feet of total floor space per
occupant" when confinement exceeds 10 hours a day.
But McCoun's May ruling concluded that the cell, "while not spacious,
is more than adequate to meet constitutional minimums."
The judge was impressed with the prison's cleanliness but not the
recreation available to Al-Arian and Hammoudeh.
He noted that they are allowed to exercise "in a cage adjacent to the
cellblock five times a week... the exercise cages are enclosed by a
high wall and covered by an opaque weather deflector. While there is
open air space above the walls, for all practical purposes the
Defendants remain indoors. No equipment is provided and the
circumstances of their recreation inside these fairly small cages when
compared to that available to convicted inmates on the nearby open-air
recreation yards stands in stark contrast."
Even so, the judge declined to order a change in the recreation
regimen.
Unless Al-Arian finds a friendlier judge, his best hope of better
living conditions may be when he comes to trial. But that's a long
wait. His trial is scheduled sometime in 2005.
Visits highly restrictive
Al-Arian has tried to portray himself as an innocent victim of
anti-Arab, anti-Muslim hysteria in the wake of Sept. 11. After a July
25 hearing, he was allowed to dismiss his court-appointed lawyers and
represent himself. But his family and the National Liberty Foundation,
a Muslim civil rights group in Virginia, are trying to raise enough
money to hire a Washington attorney. Until then, Tampa's Linda Moreno,
who is appealing his denial of bail, is the only attorney visiting him
at Coleman.
When they meet, he arrives shackled and chained, bent over with his
papers loaded on his back "like a mule," she says. "It's completely
disgraceful."
He is unshackled and allowed to sit at a table across from Moreno, who
cannot bring a briefcase, laptop or tape recorder to the meeting. She
is restricted to a legal pad, pen and documents that can't exceed a
half-inch in height, she says. "That makes it quite difficult to
confer with Dr. Al-Arian since the indictment itself is 2.5 inches."
Moreno, who worked for several years as a criminal public defender,
often representing murderers and thugs, says, "In 23 years of
practicing, I've never seen anything like it."
"We're not asking much, just human rights," says Al-Arian's wife,
Nahla. On Tuesday, she and her eldest son, Abdullah, 23, and daughter,
Laila, 21, gathered at an Ybor City coffee shop with Moreno.
The family is allowed to visit the prison for two to three hours, on
Monday, Friday and every other weekend. Nahla is not allowed to carry
anything into the prison other than her car keys and change for the
vending machines. The usual wait for clearance to go in and meet her
husband is two hours.
During a recent visit, she says, she was taking notes for a to-do list
from her husband when guards "swooped down on me. They were watching
on a camera."
The guards took her pen and pad and says she isn't allowed to write
during visits. Ignore the rule, she was warned, and her husband would
lose family visits for a year.
For a June phone call home -- Al-Arian gets one monitored 15-minute
call per month -- Nahla arranged a three-way conversation to include
Abdullah, who at the time was studying at the London School of
Economics. Because the prison hadn't approved the three-way call,
Al-Arian has lost phone-home privileges for six months.
Top D.C. lawyer sought
Al-Arian wants to hire attorney William Moffitt, a Washington-based
former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense
Lawyers. Moffitt has visited Al-Arian at Coleman.
"There's an agreement between us, and if they can complete the
agreement, I will be in the case," Moffitt says.
That agreement comes down to cash, the amount of which, Moffitt says,
is "nobody's business but theirs and mine."
Moreno says that "the magnitude of this case is startling. When you've
got renowned attorneys from around the country offering services at
discount fees, that's a sign there's something important going on."
Al-Arian was impressed by Moffitt after a Washington speech by the
attorney about the Patriot Act and secret evidence.
Moffitt is no stranger to big trials. He represented former United Way
President William Aramony, accused of defrauding the charity of more
than $1 million in 1995.
But Nahla is finding it hard to raise money to pay Moffitt.
"It is very difficult now," says Nahla, who has a degree in
comparative religion and was working on a master's when her husband
was arrested. "That's why I want them to find jobs and start helping,"
she says of her adult children.
"It's now time to give back," agrees Laila, a Georgetown graduate and
former USA Today intern who's looking for a job as a newspaper
reporter.
Duke graduate Abdullah is just back from the London School of
Economics and needs to complete a thesis for a master's degree. He is
seeking a job with a law firm.
Middle child Leena is a sophomore at the University of South Florida,
the school that fired her father. Ali, 12, is ready to attend school
in Egypt. The family's youngest, Lama, 10, starts fifth grade at the
Islamic Academy in Tampa, a private school co-founded by her father.
The school recently had its state voucher money pulled because of past
ties to her father.
Nahla hopes fellow Muslims will help her to hire Moffitt.
"There are two kinds of people in the Muslim community," she says,
"the open and courageous and others that are scared and intimidated by
the government. Little by little, the Muslim community is regaining
their conscience. Anybody can be targeted. The only way to stop this
is by mobilizing."
With all of the problems, Abdullah says, visits with his father at
Coleman aren't all doom and gloom.
"We talk basketball. I went to Duke. He likes North Carolina State
because he went there. He follows the (NFL Tampa Bay) Bucs and
soccer," Abdullah says.
Claim of death threats
Amnesty International's letter mentioned "several 'death threats' from
other prisoners."
Nahla knows about only one written threat, a couple of lines
handwritten on a scrap of paper, pushed under her husband's cell door.
It could have come from an inmate or a guard, she says.
Inmates have been good to her husband, she adds, giving him soap and,
on one occasion, ice. When a guard brought apple juice, Al-Arian
declined and asked for a cup of ice. A diabetic, he doesn't drink
apple juice. The guard refused to bring ice. "After a mini-riot,
inmates gave him ice," Nahla recounts.
"The inmates are very nice," she says. "They a have a heart and are
compassionate. Sami respects them. He doesn't fear for his life with
them."
Al-Arian can't have hardcover books but can receive paperbacks if
mailed directly from the publisher. He also has a subscription to the
Tampa Tribune plus subscriptions to Foreign Policy and Washington
Report.
During a recent prison visit, Al-Arian showed he hasn't stopped being
a dad. He wanted to make sure his youngest, Lama, had a birthday
party.
"He told me what books to buy her," Laila says. "The Mouse and the
Motorcycle and Ramona and Her Father. And Mom took her to the movies."
Nahla laughs, rolling her eyes. The inside family joke is that she's
not exactly a multiplex regular.
"Pirates of the Caribbean," she says, adding with a smile, "they made
the guy against the establishment the hero."
==========
THE MEDIA AND MUSLIMS: A MINEFIELD
Stasia DeMarco,
www.TomPaine.com
Note: Audio version available at:
www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/8484
Historically, Arab and Muslim culture has not been a major focus of
the U.S. news media. Violence and war brought it into the headlines.
When the events of 9/11 put the entire Islamic world into sharper
focus, many in the American Muslim and American Arab communities did
not like what they saw. Stasia DeMarco reports on their efforts to
present what they consider a more accurate picture.
America's Arab and Muslim communities have had a crash course in
public relations over the past two years, as they tried to counter
what seemed to be a near-constant stream of negative images from the
"war on terror." Community leaders and activists made a concerted
effort to reveal themselves, talking about their religion, their
traditions and their ways of living to their neighbors and to
reporters.
But Sobia Ahmab [sic] doesn't think it's working. The 22-year-old
Muslim American, who majored in media studies in college, no longer
watches TV news or reads the paper because she is so frustrated by the
coverage. She says she believes the reporters and editors purposely
try to make Muslim Americans look bad.
"I mean, there are so many cases, at first I wouldn't believe them,
but I have seen it with my own eyes." Ahmab said. "They will be
interviewing a person and they will cut off half of the thing. They
will be saying something positive and it will end up looking totally
like something negative. I mean over and over again, it's like the
media wants to just brainwash people that as soon as you see a Muslim
person, that's what should come to your mind and it just gets really
frustrating."
The portrayal of Arabs and Muslims by American news outlets and in
films is also frustrating for Jack Shaheen. The Arab-American media
critic and retired college professor is the author of several books on
the issue. He says he is saddened by what he sees as a dangerous
stereotype presented by the U.S. news media and by politicians.
"Not only have we said that 1.2 billion Muslims equal the lunatic
fringe, are the same as the 19 terrorists that attacked our country on
9/11." Shaheen said. "We are equating the acts of those 19 people with
1.2 billion people overseas. We are also attributing those acts,
unfairly so, to six million American Muslims and three million
American Arabs and there is a problem there."
There's a problem, he says, not just with the idea that all Muslims
and Arabs are alike, but with the words and phrases used to describe
the image -- words like jihad.
"Traditionally, jihad has always been misused by every network and
many reporters throughout the country, not every but many." Shaheen
said. "Jihad is the struggle within oneself. Everyone knows that.
Everyone with a modicum of intelligence knows that. It is the struggle
within oneself to be the best person that you can be. Now these
extremist groups use it, they misuse it and then we misuse it thinking
that it means something totally different."
Dismayed by what they regard as a misrepresentation of their religion,
many Muslim academics, journalists, politicians and historians began
working to craft a more accurate picture.
"September 11th was a watershed for us in that we realized many people
in this country don't know about our faith and they are scared and
that includes journalists," said Raeed Tayeh. He says it is the
responsibility of American Muslims to make sure the news media get the
true information about Islam. As public affairs director for the
Muslim American Society, he leads workshops to educate journalists.
"If I tell a journalist, if I explain to them the tenets of Islam from
A to Z and I explain these terms then, now the burden is on that
journalist," Tayeh asserted. "The journalist can either heed the
guidance that I sort of gave them, in terms of these semantical
footnotes, or they can continue to use the terms that they are
comfortable or used to."
On this topic, as perhaps no other, words are a minefield. Jeffrey
Dvorkin knows that well. As ombudsman for National Public Radio in
Washington, D.C., it's his job to respond to criticism about his
network's news coverage. And it's been hard to separate reporting
about the war on terror from news coming out of the Middle East.
Mr. Dvorkin says NPR has offended both sides. In 2000, it was
lambasted for being pro-Israeli and now there is intense pressure from
groups that feel NPR's coverage is pro-Palestinian.
"This is an enormously complicated story that requires a lot of
context and a lot of subtlety," Dvorkin said. "The problem is that
when it comes to the Middle East, language has not only been
politicized, but weaponized. That means that you can't use certain
terms; if you use certain terms you end up appearing to be on one side
or the other. The idea of a neutral description of events is almost
impossible."
Jeffrey Dvorkin says the only way Americans can begin to understand
these complex issues is to go beyond journalism. He says learning at
least the basics of Middle East history is the best way to develop a
context for the news.
"I think people have to realize that a full service news operation is
not the same as the Department of History at the University of
Pennsylvania." Dvorkin said. "And so they confuse what their
expectations are from an all-news radio, from CNN and even from NPR.
We are going to be able to provide a lot of information. Are we going
to be definitive in every case? No. And I think that people have an
obligation and a personal responsibility that if they want more
information, they are going to have to find it in other places. That
there is actually a limit to what journalism can or should be expected
to do."
For his part, Raeed Tayeh is hopeful that Americans -- Muslims and
non-Muslims -- will find ways to communicate more clearly with one
another, and that this better understanding will be reflected in the
media coverage of Arab and Muslim communities.
"Well, you know, I think journalists, responsible journalists are
patient people," Tayeh said. "You seek out the information, and that
fosters understanding. And when you understand people and you
understand an issue, then you are more informed."
While all sides continue a passionate debate over the way American
Muslims and Arabs are portrayed, everyone involved in that debate
agrees that the public must be wary of stereotypes in the news.
--Stasia DeMarco is a public radio news anchor and producer in
Philadelphia. She teaches communications and broadcast at La Salle
University.
==========
FALL INTERNS NEEDED IN WASHINGTON, DC AND ELSEWHERE
The MAS Freedom Foundation is seeking interns for the fall semester in
our Washington, DC headquarters, as well in any of our offices in
Maryland, Virginia, Boston, Chicago, San Diego, Los Angeles, Raleigh,
Detroit, and New York.
Deadline is September 1st
Interns will work on issues such as political participation, coalition
building, and community outreach. No experience necessary. All
internships are unpaid.
Interested college students and recent graduates should send a resume
and cover letter to Raeed@masnet.org. References from local Muslim
leaders is a plus. The length and nature of the internship will be
tailored to the schedule of the interns and the needs of MAS Freedom.
Non-Muslims are welcome to apply.
END
_______________________
MAS Freedom Foundation
1050 17th Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
202-496-1288 or 703-998-6525
Freedom@masnet.org
www.masnet.org
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