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Chronology of Islam in America (2011)
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
July 2011
Obama administration shuts down investigations into Bush-era torture
July 5: As part of its cover-up of Bush administration war crimes, the Obama administration has announced that it would shut down 99 investigations into deaths of prisoners in US custody during the so-called “war on terror,” leaving only two investigations with the potential to develop into criminal prosecutions. The announcement underscores the fact that the anti-democratic policies developed during the presidency of George W. Bush continue unchallenged under President Barack Obama, who is doing everything in his power to keep the lid on the crimes of his predecessor. Following the events of September 11, 2001, the Bush administration quickly and quietly erected a network of secret prisons and “black sites,” where opponents of US imperialism in the Middle East—as well as, in many cases, their friends, relatives and acquaintances—were jailed, tortured and murdered. The Obama administration has continued and expanded the anti-democratic methods of the Bush administration, including the use of presidential assassination orders, indefinite detention without trial or charges, blocking court cases that threaten to reveal torture, domestic spying, prosecution of whistle-blowers, “rendition” of alleged terrorists to countries that practice torture, open violations of US and international law, including the War Powers Act in the case of Libya and the Geneva Conventions more generally, and the maintenance of illegal torture camps such as the infamous facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The administration’s 101 investigations into torture deaths were a token measure to begin with. The investigations were initiated in 2009 and were designed to placate popular disgust with torture and other crimes carried out under Bush. The 101 cases by no means include every death in US custody, and rather conveniently, no case in which the torture victim survived was selected for investigation. The investigations proceeded on the explicit basis that the infamous Bush Justice Department torture memos would not be challenged. Neither would the Bush-era policy of “enhanced interrogation” (a euphemism for torture). The only question that was to be pursued in the investigations was whether the Central Intelligence Agency operatives in the 101 selected death cases had violated Bush administration guidelines. Saddled with such limitations from the outset, the investigations could barely scratch the surface of government-sanctioned war crimes. Echoing Obama’s mantra of “looking forward, not backward,” Attorney General Holder announced June 30 that 99 of the 101 cases did not warrant further investigation.
While the two ongoing investigations remain officially secret, some details have been leaked to the press. One case involves the murder of a prisoner at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq; the other case involves a murder at the secret CIA “Salt Pit” prison in Afghanistan. These two cases are remarkable both for the shocking brutality of the murders themselves as well as for the cold-blooded “business as usual” attitude of the CIA operatives involved. Only the most depraved intellect could have designed the nightmarish “Salt Pit,” located northeast of the Kabul, Afghanistan airport, in which a young Afghan man named Gul Rahman was murdered on November 20, 2002. Ghairat Baheer, a physician and son-in-law of an Afghan political figure associated with opposition to the US occupation, survived the Salt Pit and gave a chilling account to the press of the conditions surrounding Rahman’s death. Baheer and Rahman were old friends, and they were abducted by CIA operatives at around the same time in October, 2002. They were taken together to the Salt Pit for “enhanced interrogation.”
The CIA chose an abandoned brick factory for the installation. According to Baheer, an unimaginable stench permeated the Salt Pit, where prisoners were kept in windowless cells with metal buckets for latrines. Prisoners called it the “dark prison” because there were no windows and no electric lights. Prisoners spent much of their time in total darkness. The CIA operatives running the prison wore full face masks and used medieval-type torches to make their way through the blackness. In many cells, prisoners were shackled naked to the rough walls with metal chains. No expense was spared to ensure maximum ghoulish terror. Baheer said he was forced to sleep naked on a rough concrete floor next to his latrine bucket, when he was not chained to the wall of his cell. The cell was perpetually dark. CIA operatives took turns repeatedly torturing the two men. Among the countless horrors, the two men would be tied to chairs, their torturers would sit on their stomachs, threaten to kill them, stage mock executions, beat them, or douse them with water and leave them to freeze naked in the unheated cells. The Salt Pit prison was closed last year after it became the subject of international scrutiny and survivors began to describe to the press the hideous terrors that took place inside. In closing the prison, the CIA no doubt also had in mind the destruction of any physical evidence of the crimes that had been committed there. The CIA appears overall to have regarded the Salt Pit as a successful operation. According to information leaked to the Associated Press, the CIA Kabul station chief has been promoted at least three times since Rahman’s death.
The second of the two ongoing investigations involves the murder of Manadel al-Jamadi at the hands of CIA operatives in the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq on November 4, 2003. Jamadi, an alleged insurgent, was abducted violently from his house outside Baghdad in 2003 by Navy SEALs—the same feared and secretive military force that has been lauded in the bourgeois media for the murder of Osama Bin Laden. Apparently, Navy SEALs pursued Jamadi into his kitchen, where he made a ferocious last stand, toppling his stove onto one of the SEALs. In retaliation, the SEALs beat him savagely before turning him over to the CIA for interrogation at Abu Ghraib. Naturally, no trial or legal process of any kind was involved in this operation. Forty-five minutes after he walked into Abu Ghraib, Jamadi was dead. It appears that once he arrived, Jamadi was subjected to further beatings and was chained to the wall, after which he lost consciousness and asphyxiated. Jamadi’s bruised and bloodstained corpse is featured in a number of the infamous Abu Ghraib photos, with grinning US military personnel standing over him and giving the “thumbs up.”
While the Rahman and Jamadi murders constitute only the tip of the iceberg, they expose the day-to-day reality of CIA operations in occupied Iraq and Afghanistan. The CIA, tasked with discovering and silently “taking out” opponents of the occupations, operates outside the bounds of US and international law. When a federal court ordered the CIA to release 92 video tapes of “enhanced interrogations” in 2005, the CIA responded by destroying the tapes, a brazenly criminal maneuver for which no official to this day has been prosecuted. The decision by the Obama administration to shut down virtually all of its investigations is a clear signal that the war crimes will continue. Indeed, in the bourgeois press, Holder’s announcement last Thursday was generally interpreted as a green light from the Obama administration to resume and escalate the practice of torture and murder of political opponents in the Middle East. The headline of an article in the Washington Post read, “Could Torture Make a Comeback?” (Global Research)
GOP congressman teams up with anti-Muslim group
July 7: Spencer Ackerman flags a press release announcing a Capitol Hill briefing sponsored by Rep. Allen West (no surprise there) for a group called Citizens for National Security (CFNS): “Less than two months before the ten-year anniversary of 9/11, Congressman Allen West (R-FL) will sponsor a Capitol Hill briefing this coming July 25, on Homegrown Jihad in the USA: Culmination of the Muslim Brotherhood’s 50-year History of Infiltrating America. It will be the first-ever report of its kind produced entirely by a private group of U.S. citizens, notes West in a letter about it to his congressional colleagues. Volunteer members of Citizens for National Security (CFNS), a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization based in Florida conducted the 14-month research that is the basis for the briefing. Its co-founders, Drs. William A. Saxton and Peter M. Leitner will present the report. “It details exactly how the Muslim Brotherhood’s deliberate, premeditated plan is now reaching maturity in this country in the form of homegrown Jihad,” explained Dr. Saxton, CFNS Chairman. A highlight of the briefing will be an announcement by Dr. Leitner of CFNS’s development of an unprecedented list of individual members of the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S., and the people and organizations with which they are associated.”
If it sounds like CFNS is going to be painting the Muslim community with a rather broad brush, the group's website confirms that impression. One section describes the group's "task forces," which "focus on, or support, the academic community, Congress, the media, and other establishments and professionals where intelligence and national security issues are in play." Some of the six are devoted to tracking what the group calls the "Muslim Brotherhood in North America." And then there's this: TASK FORCE 4. Identify "Islamic" businesses, social and religious organizations, schools, etc. throughout North America.Note that's not qualified as "extremist" or "terrorist" -- just "Islamic," with inexplicable scare quotes. Can this be described as anything other than outright bigotry? (Salon)
Combating religious intolerance when freedom of speech enables hate speech
July 7: Religious pluralism, versus the defamation of religion and freedom of speech have become an increasing source of conflict in international politics and interreligious relations. Preachers of hate and activists in America, Europe, and many Muslim countries are engaged in a culture war. Far right anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim political leaders and parties warn of the Islamization of America and Europe to garner votes. The acquittal on June 22, 2011 of Dutch politician Geert Wilders on charges of "inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims," is a political victory for Wilders but also a sign of the times, growing normalization of anti-Islam bashing in the West. Spiegel Online's headline of the acquittal reads "Wilder's Acquittal a 'Slap in the Face for Muslims.'" The exploitation of freedom of speech to promote religious intolerance emerged only days after the Wilders' decision. Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE) and Stop Islamization of America (SIOA), a coalition of far right anti-Muslim European and American groups billing themselves as human rights organizations, had scheduled "United We Stand: First Transatlantic Anti-Islamization" in Strasbourg, France on July 2. On June 28, French and EU authorities' cancelled the conference. In response, the Islamophobic cottage industry and their websites' headlines blared: "Free in speech rally cancelled in Strasbourg over Muslim violence threats" and "Democracy Collapses in Europe: EU Cancels SIOA/SIOE Free Speech Rally."
Freedom of speech is a precious right that must be guarded carefully. But what happens when that right is used to incite hatred and to feed religious intolerance, such as Islamophobia, that is spreading like a cancer across the United States and Europe? Islamophobia and its impact, like racism and anti-Semitism, must be countered by creating a climate in which hate speech and discrimination in the public square are not tolerated even when bigots exploit freedom of speech. Today, one can engage in anti-Islam and anti-Muslim hate speech and threats in print, media, and protest rallies that promote a popular culture that paints the religion of Islam, not just terrorists, as a threat to America. These preachers of hate and Islamophobia must be rejected and marginalized. Their mission to polarize our society must not be allowed to threaten our belief that religious tolerance and free speech are indeed compatible. (John L. Esposito and Sheila B. Lalwani - Huffington Post)
Muslim woman assaulted in Harlem
July 8: A Muslim woman was beaten by two female thugs who ripped off her headdress during a Harlem attack that cops are investigating as a possible hate crime, The New York Post reported. Aissatou Diallo, 56, said she was pummeled after asking one of the women to stop taking her picture as she walked to her husband's store. Diallo said she was attacked after asking one of the two alleged assailants to stop taking her picture as she walked down a New York City street. The alleged attackers were charged with assault. The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) has called on state and federal authorities to file hate crime charges against two people who allegedly attacked Aissatou Diallo. "An American of any faith or ethnicity should be able to walk down the street without fear of bias-motivated harassment or attack," said CAIR-NY Civil Rights Manager Cyrus McGoldrick. "We urge New York law enforcement authorities and the FBI to bring appropriate hate crime charges in this troubling case." He said CAIR-NY recently welcomed the filing of hate crime charges against a Brooklyn man who allegedly shouted "F****ing Arabs! F****ing terrorists!" as he attacked a Turkish man and his wife who live next door. McGoldrick added that CAIR and the University of California, Berkeley's Center for Race and Gender recently released a report that documents growing Islamophobia in the United States. (New York Post/CAIR)
Muslim students visit Japanese-American internment camp
July 8: The San Francisco Bridging Communities program of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) recently took high school students on a three-day trek to Tule Lake, where 18,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry were unjustly incarcerated during World War II. This site, the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, Tule Lake Unit, was the largest of America's concentration camps, and is located near the California-Oregon border. The San Francisco Bridging Communities program was held in partnership with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, San Francisco Bay Area branch (CAIR-SFBA) and the Tule Lake Committee. The program featured workshops over a five-month period, bringing together Asian American and American Muslim students to learn with and from one another by examining one other's history and experiences. The students discussed the parallels they share in being viewed and treated like "the enemy" following Pearl Harbor and 9/11, and the racial profiling and stereotypes that continue to challenge them today. (Los Angeles Japanese Daily News)
VA. woman fired from Air France for wearing Muslim scarf
July 8: A 19-year-old Herndon woman has filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging she was fired from her Air France job at Dulles International Airport because she refused to remove her religious head scarf. Riham Osman, a 2009 Westfield High School graduate, is a junior at the University of Mary Washington. She is a practicing Muslim who wears a head scarf, or hijab, as a symbol of her faith. Last month, she was hired by local staffing agency Aerotek to work as a passenger service agent for Air France. On her first day of work, during a training session, Osman said she was pulled aside by an Air France supervisor and was told to contact Aerotek. Osman contacted the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which deals with allegations of discrimination against Muslims. A spokesman for CAIR, Ibrahim Hooper, said he is aware Air France is a French company and that controversial new laws there might allow for a dress code policy that discriminates based on religion, but that this is America. "Our position is that no company doing business in America has the obligation to enforce discriminatory foreign policies on American employees," he said. "A discriminatory dress code implemented in France does not supersede American laws protecting the religious rights of American citizens." (Fairfax Times)
New Australian law to make Muslims lift veils
July 10: Muslim women would have to remove veils and show their faces to police on request or risk a prison sentence under proposed new laws in Australia's most populous state that have drawn criticism as culturally insensitive. A vigorous debate that the proposal has triggered reflects the cultural clashes being ignited by the growing influx of Muslim immigrants and the unease that visible symbols of Islam are causing in predominantly white Christian Australia since 1973 when the government relaxed its immigration policy. Under the law proposed by the government of New South Wales, which includes Sydney, a woman who defies police by refusing to remove her face veil could be sentenced to a year in prison and fined 5,500 Australian dollars ($5,900). The bill — to be voted on by the state parliament in August — has been condemned by civil libertarians and many Muslims as an overreaction to a traffic offense case involving a Muslim woman driver in a "niqab," or a veil that reveals only the eyes. The government says the law would require motorists and criminal suspects to remove any head coverings so that police can identify them. Critics say the bill smacks of anti-Muslim bias given how few women in Australia wear burqas. In a population of 23 million, only about 400,000 Australians are Muslim. Community advocates estimate that fewer than 2,000 women wear face veils, and it is likely that even a smaller percentage drives. (Associated Press)
Overwhelming evidence of torture by the Bush administration
July 11: Overwhelming evidence of torture by the Bush administration obliges President Barack Obama to order a criminal investigation into allegations of detainee abuse authorized by former President George W. Bush and other senior officials, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Obama administration has failed to meet US obligations under the Convention against Torture to investigate acts of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees, Human Rights Watch said. The 107-page report, "Getting Away with Torture: The Bush Administration and Mistreatment of Detainees," presents substantial information warranting criminal investigations of Bush and senior administration officials, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and CIA Director George Tenet, for ordering practices such as "waterboarding," the use of secret CIA prisons, and the transfer of detainees to countries where they were tortured. "There are solid grounds to investigate Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Tenet for authorizing torture and war crimes," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "President Obama has treated torture as an unfortunate policy choice rather than a crime. His decision to end abusive interrogation practices will remain easily reversible unless the legal prohibition against torture is clearly reestablished." If the US government does not pursue credible criminal investigations, other countries should prosecute US officials involved in crimes against detainees in accordance with international law, Human Rights Watch said. (Human Rights Watch)
America's Dirty War on Islam By Stephen Lendman
July11: America's dirty war, in fact, targets Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, political activists, and Muslims for their faith, ethnicity, and at times prominence and charity, exploiting them as "war on terror" scapegoats. On July 9, a Press TV US prison system racket interview highlighted the problem and urgency to address it. America's media ignore how unjustly it harms millions of disadvantaged people. Instead, they regurgitate spurious high-profile case accusations, always when Muslims are affected. Most often they're men, occasionally women, bogusly charged with terrorism or conspiracy to commit it, when, in fact, they're guilty only of being targets of choice and/or being in America at the wrong time. Why Muslims when, in fact, Islam teaches love, not hate; peace, not violence; charity, not selfishness; and tolerance, not terrorism; or that Islam, Christianity and Judaism have common roots.
Who'd know though in today's climate of hate and fear at a time America wages global wars on Islam, including at home. Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame is America's latest high-profile target, illegally captured, interrogated (and likely tortured) at sea for over two months, based on spurious allegations of Islamic terrorist ties. Post-9/11, the same pattern repeated ruthlessly against hundreds of innocent victims. Pronounced guilty by accusation, America's media shamelessly regurgitate fabricated hate charges, not legitimate honest accounts, doing what good journalists should - their job. On July 5, New York Times writers Charlie Savage and Eric Schmitt headlined, "US to Prosecute Somali Suspect in Civilian Court," saying: Obama's Justice Department will "prosecute (Warsame) in civilian court," likely "reignit(ing) debate about (whether) to bring newly captured detainees to" Guantanamo, try them before military commissions, or do it "in civilian court."
While admitting Warsame plotted no attack, and that administration officials gave contradictory accounts of his importance, the article presumed guilt by accusation. It failed to question whether or not charges are legitimate, let alone his illegal capture, detention, interrogation, and likely torture at sea secretly for over two months. A same day Karen DeYoung, Greg Miller, Greg Jaffe Washington Post article headlined, "US indicts Somali on terrorism charges," was just as one-sided, presuming guilt because administration officials say so.
On July 5, a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release headlined, "Accused al Shabaab Leader Charged with Providing Material Support to al Shabaab and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," saying: "AHMED ABDULKADIR WARSAME, aka "KHATTAB," aka "FARAH," aka "ABDI HALIM MOHAMMED FARA," aka "FAREH JAMA ALI MOHAMMED" has been indicted on charges of providing material support to al Shabaab and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ("AQAP"), two designated foreign terrorist organizations, as well as conspiring to teach and demonstrate the making of explosives, possessing firearms and explosives in furtherance of crimes of violence, and other violation."
In fact, no evidence exists when suspects are charged with providing material support or conspiracy to commit terrorism. Moreover, in 2008, the State Department bogusly designated Al Shabaab a "foreign terrorist organization" like it's shamelessly done to other groups, scapegoating them for political advantage. DOJ said America's military captured Warsame on April 19, 2011, "question(ing him) for intelligence purposes for more than two months," allegedly after (but very likely never) reading him his Miranda rights."
Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara called him "a conduit between al Shabaab and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - two deadly terrorist organizations - providing material support and resources to them both." In fact, Al Shabaab members are Somali freedom fighters, not terrorists, and Al Qaeda is a 1980s CIA creation. Moreover, no nation may charge citizens or residents of another one with alleged internally committed crimes. Only host countries may do it, but it doesn't deter America's military or covert CIA agents from lawlessly operating anywhere, at times with complicit regimes - pressured, intimidated or willingly going along.
Warsame's indictment alleges that "at least (from) 2007 until April 2011, (he) conspired to provide and provided material (support) to al Shabaab (and) allegedly fought on (its) behalf (in) Somalia in 2009 and provided other forms of support....including explosives, weapons, communications equipment, expert advice and assistance, and training." Other allegations included providing money, training, various other weapons, facilities and personnel, with no evidence proving anything only host countries may address if legitimate. (OpEd News)
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