|
|
Vertaal:
              Deed de V.S. duw detentie van Amerikaan zonder lasten?
Woensdag, 19 November, 2008
Door Jonathan S. Landay | WASHINGTON? Een Amerikaanse Moslim onderwierp aan verscheidene jaren van intens FBI nauwkeurig onderzoek en het vragen over verbindingen met terrorisme is gehouden zonder lasten, toegang tot een advocaat of contact met zijn familie bijna drie maanden door de veiligheidsdiensten van de Verenigde Arabische Emiraten. Het geval van Naji Hamdan, dat aan FBI ondervragingen van een Amerikaanse burger wordt gekoppeld die in het geheim zonder lasten in Oost-Afrika wordt vastgehouden, stelt de kwestie van of het beleid van Bush heeft gevraagd andere naties om Amerikanen te houden van terrorismeverbindingen verdachten die de V.S. de ambtenaren hebben het bewijsmateriaal niet te laden. Die bewering is van centraal belang aan een proces dat de Amerikaanse Burgerlijke Unie van Vrijheden van plan was om Dinsdag in federaal hof in Washington tegen President Bush, Procureur Algemene Michael Mukasey en FBI in te dienen Directeur Robert Mueller. „Als de V.S. de overheid is verantwoordelijk voor deze detentie en wij geloven het is, is dit duidelijk onwettig omdat onze overheid niet de Grondwet kan weg aangaan door de hulp van andere overheden aan te werven die niet de vereisten van de Grondwet aanhangen,“ bovengenoemde Ahilan Arulanantham van het bureau van Californië van ACLU zuidelijke. Het proces, dat namens de vrouw en de broer van Hamdan moet worden gebracht, eist dat de V.S. de overheid breidt tot Hamdan zijn constitutionele waarborg uit tegen onwettige detentie door de V.A.E te vragen om hem te bevrijden. De „elementairste wettelijke principes waardoor wij ons regeren kunnen de lawless detentie van een burger van Verenigde Staten bij de opdracht van zijn eigen overheid dulden niet,“ zei een ontwerp van het proces dat aan McClatchy door ACLU wordt verstrekt. Een woordvoerder voor het FBI bureau van Los Angeles, Heuvel Alonzo, verwees alle onderzoeken over Hamdan, een vroegere ingezetene van de buurt van Hawthorne van de stad, naar FBI hoofdkwartier in Washington, het zeggen door, „dit is een tegen-terrorismegeval.“ FBI hoofdkwartier betwistte de bewering dat het de V.A.E had gevraagd om Hamdan te arresteren maar erkend dat het uit routine gevangenen interviewt die in buitenlandse gevangenissen worden gehouden. „FBI vraagt geen buitenlandse naties om de V.S. vast te houden. burgers uit ons naam om hun rechten te omringen,“ bovengenoemde Speciale Agent Richard Kolko, een woordvoerder. „In terrorismekwesties, werken wij uit routine met buitenlandse tegenhangers en in sommige gevallen, met de toestemming van gastheer is de overheid, FBI Agenten toegelaten om mensen te interviewen die relevante informatie kunnen bezitten.“ Een woordvoerder van de Afdeling van de Staat zei de afdeling zich van de detentie bewust was geweest van Hamdan en dat de V.S. consular officer visited him nearly two months after he was arrested. The UAE Embassy said in an e-mail to McClatchy that all questions should be directed to the police in Abu Dhabi, the UAE sheikhdom where Hamdan is being held, because the case “is related to a police/security matter, which involves a private U.S. citizen.” Abu Dhabi, one of seven oil-rich sheikdoms, has cooperated closely with the Bush administration in cracking down against Islamist extremists following the 9/11 attacks. Hamdan is a 42-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen who immigrated to California from Lebanon in the early 1980s to attend university on a scholarship, worked as an aircraft technician and then opened a used auto parts business in Hawthorne, where he served on the board of a local mosque. Hamdan’s interaction with the FBI began in 1999, when agents visited him at his Hawthorne home and asked if he knew Osama bin Laden. The incident was recounted in a Los Angeles Times article on aggressive tactics used in FBI terrorism investigations. Hamdan’s wife, Mona Mallouk, and brother, Hossam Hemdan, insisted that he’s never had any terrorism involvement or been charged with any crime despite the longtime FBI scrutiny. “Naji hates war. He hates what happened on September 11. He hates terrorism,” Mona Hamdan said in a telephone interview from Beirut, Lebanon, where she and her children are living. Hamdan moved to Abu Dhabi in 2006 and set up a business of importing used cars doing car repairs, but then moved his family to Beirut and traveled between the two countries. In August, he was questioned at the U.S. embassy in Abu Dhabi by two FBI agents who flew out from Los Angeles. Several weeks later, UAE officials detained him, Mallouk and Hossam Hemdan said. Hemdan, who owns automobile emissions testing stations in Los Angeles, said he arranged for Hamdan to meet the agents at the FBI’s request. “He (Hamdan) said ‘That’s fine, I’ll see them,’” Hemdan recalled, adding that his brother later declined to discuss the meeting, except to say that “the agents know all this stuff about me and you and other people.” “I believe they are intercepting my phone calls and emails,” Hemdan said of the FBI. On Aug. 28, UAE security officers took Hamdan away as he, his wife and three children ate lunch in their Abu Dhabi apartment on the pretext of bringing him to a police station to sign papers related to a car accident, Mallouk said. She said that when her husband failed to return, she began a fruitless search for him at police stations. “I called the U.S. embassy . . . the next day. I was crying. They didn’t seem to care,” she related. “They said they would call back in an hour, but they didn’t call me back for six or seven days.” The consular officer who telephoned confirmed that the embassy was aware of Hamdan arrest the day it occurred, said Mallouk, who hasn’t spoken to her husband since he made a brief call to her shortly after his arrest. The case finds echoes in the secret detention in Kenya last year of Amir Mohammad Meshal, a New Jersey resident who was arrested fleeing the U.S.-backed Ethiopian invasion of Somalia. Meshal, who had spent time in Somalia with suspected Islamic extremists, was interrogated by FBI agents in Nairobi, secretly flown back into Somalia, turned over to Ethiopian intelligence officers and then flown to the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, where he was imprisoned three months before being released without charges. “I think you see a trend that reflects illegal detentions going underground or off the books, where the United States . . . out-sources detentions to other governments,” said Jonathan Hafetz, an ACLU attorney who’s involved in the Meshal and Hamdan cases. Hemdan said the FBI visited his brother, himself and other Muslims in Hawthorne after the Sept. 11 attacks, showing them pictures of the hijackers and asking if they knew them. Agents called on Hamdan once at home and twice at his business, he said. The brothers’ names were placed on watch lists at airports and they would be pulled aside and interrogated about ties to terrorist groups every time they entered or left the U.S., Hemdan said. In 2006, Hamdan and his wife moved to the UAE. She said Hamdan was frustrated over the FBI’s scrutiny, and both were concerned about drugs and other problems at high school their eldest son was due to attend. At Los Angeles International Airport, they and their luggage were rigorously searched and they were subjected to lengthy questioning that made them miss their flight, according to Mallouk. In the UAE, Hamdan set up a used car and auto repair business. But he decided to move the family to Beirut because they have close relatives there and the UAE was too hot, she explained. Last year, during a visit to Hawthorne, Hamdan came under intense FBI surveillance, according to Hemdan, with agents watching the brothers’ businesses, tailing them in automobiles and questioning their friends. “Where ever he went, they chased him, government vehicles with black windows,” said Hemdan. “From my perspective, they wanted him to see them. They’d drive over the (lane) dividers and over curbs. They wanted to be seen so he gets scared and leaves. It’s like ‘You are not welcomed here.’” “I told him to go to the Federal Building (in Los Angeles) and talk to the FBI. I gave him the number and he called and left a message, but they didn’t call him back,” he continued. Earlier this year, Lebanese security officers detained Hamdan at Beirut airport as he prepared to board a flight to the UAE after visiting his family. They later ransacked the family’s house and confiscated two computers, a video game, papers and photos, Mallouk said. Her husband was “slapped” while being interrogated for four days, during which he was accused alternatively of being an al Qaida member or working for Israeli or U.S. intelligence, she said. Khalid, 16, was also questioned for three hours. Hamdan was released without charges. Have Your Say: Did U.S. push detention of American without charges? Please read our posting guidelines before posting. Alternatively you can discuss this report here. Related News
|
Hey Ashley! Last post by Paul w @ 04:23 AM Go to Forum
| Latest Topics
Stop The Automakers Bailout!!! Last post by Knight of the Word @ 04:11 AM Ge next big company failure Last post by Knight of the Word @ 03:55 AM Man beheads himself with chainsaw Last post by Knight of the Word @ 03:46 AM Shock Results Of Geography Poll Last post by Knight of the Word @ 03:35 AM A sea of unwanted auto imports Last post by Knight of the Word @ 03:30 AM Do You Like Movies? Last post by Knight of the Word @ 03:20 AM Like To Cook? Last post by Knight of the Word @ 03:13 AM Do You Like Anything? Last post by ZingPao @ 03:11 AM Scientists find facial scars increase attractiveness Last post by ZingPao @ 01:38 AM  Email This Page To A Friend Latest Headlines
More World News  Archive |
The views expressed in the RINF news wire and newsletter are the sole responsibility of the author (s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the webmaster. RINF.COM: Breaking News & Alternative Media is Copyleft - Copy & Distribute Freely. News Forum |
Loading ...
