Author: mopress

We told the story of Salim Yassir, the Palestinian refugee held for four years by USA immigration authorities, whom Judge Maryanne Trump Barry called “a man without a country.” And we hinted, pay attention to this story, because there’s Yankee lawyers coming to Texas. Well, Joshua E. Bardavid is the New York lawyer who argued the Yassir case before Judge Barry, and he is filing a federal suit in behalf of the Ibrahim family. We’ll tell more as we know it, but first, here’s a get-acquainted interview with Mr. Bardavid, that he graciosly agreed to conduct via email–gm

TCRR: We are very interested in the Yassir case as an example of what can happen to “a man without a country.” Of course, we have read Judge Barry’s decision. Can you tell us a little more?

Joshua Bardavid: Mr. Yassir’s case was difficult and strange. I learned a lot about the different tricks of which the government was capable. After we thought
we had finally won the case, the government tried to force Mr. Yassir back onto a ship bound for England, without travel documents. This would have placed his life, or at least well-being, in significant danger for a variety of reasons.

The only reason we were able to stop it was because I had maintained contact with the lawyers for this shipping company, and they contacted me in the middle of the night. I then called the media, and when ICE got calls for comment, and camera crews were showing up on the docks, they called it off.

After his release, Mr. Yassir experienced more difficulty, as the government fitted him with a global positioning tracking device (that didn’t work). In the end, they ended up spending a huge amount of money, resources, and personnel-hours for someone who had never been accused of a crime and who they admitted in court filings did not pose a danger to the community in any way.

Eventually, the government dropped their efforts to track his daily movements, although Mr. Yassir is still required to check in every two months, and has had trouble renewing his employment authorization.

TCRR: Your federal case for the Ibrahim family comes about 90 days after they were abducted by immigration authorities. And we have seen lawyers making reference to a kind of 90-day trigger when it comes to immigration detention. Does this explain the timing of your visit?

Joshua Bardavid: As for the timing of our court filings, it is not directly related to the 90-day trigger, as it is our contention that the government only had the legal authority to detain the Ibrahims for 90-days from the date they were ordered removed in 2004. Because the government chose not to, they cannot now do so.

Our timing is simply related more due to the fact that we were just retained, and this was the earliest we could complete all of the papers required to file the federal court action. We are confident that the law is strongly on our side, and that it is only a matter of time before the Ibrahims will be released (although I suspect there will be very significant efforts to remove the Ibrahims in any way possible — lawful or not — by the government).

TCRR: We consider the Ibrahims a Texas family now. I hope you will be able to stop the government from removing them.

Joshua Bardavid: I will comment more as the case proceeds, and I thank you for your efforts to call attention to this important fight.

Of course, we would usually treat news from Gaza as, well, not Texas. But as Ibrahim family attorney John Wheat Gibson says: “This is what Israel plans for the Ibrahim children in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.” Therefore, we post this report from John Pilger–gm

New Statesman
Terror and starvation in Gaza
John Pilger

Published 22 January 2007

Pilger on the genocide that is engulfing Palestine as bystanders silently look on

A genocide is engulfing the people of Gaza while a silence engulfs its bystanders. “Some 1.4 million people, mostly children, are piled up in one of the most densely populated regions of the world, with no freedom of movement, no place to run and no space to hide,” wrote the former senior UN relief official Jan Egeland and Jan Eliasson, then foreign minister of Sweden, in Le Figaro. They described a people “living in a cage”, cut off by land, sea and air, with no reliable power and little water, and tortured by hunger and disease and incessant attacks by Israeli troops and planes.
Egeland and Eliasson wrote this four months ago in an attempt to break the silence in Europe, whose obedient alliance with the United States and Israel has sought to reverse the democratic result that brought Hamas to power in last year’s Palestinian elections. The horror in Gaza has since been compounded: a family of 18 has died beneath a 500lb US/Israeli bomb; unarmed women have been mown down at point-blank range. Dr David Halpin, one of the few Britons to break what he calls “this medieval siege”, reported the killing of 57 children by artillery, rockets and small arms and was shown evidence that civilians are Israel’s true targets, as in Leba non last summer. A friend in Gaza, Dr Mona el-Farra, emailed: “I see the effects of the relentless sonic booms [a collective punishment by the Israeli air force] and artillery on my 13-year-old daughter. At night, she shivers with fear. Then both of us end up crouching on the floor. I try to make her feel safe, but when the bombs sound I flinch and scream . . .”

When I was last in Gaza, Dr Khalid Dahlan, a psychiatrist, showed me the results of a remarkable survey. “The statistic I personally find unbearable,” he said, “is that 99.4 per cent of the children we studied suffer trauma. Once you look at the rates of exposure to trauma you see why: 99.2 per cent of their homes were bombarded; 97.5 per cent were exposed to tear gas; 96.6 per cent witnessed shootings; 95.8 per cent witnessed bombardment and funerals; almost a quarter saw family members injured or killed.” Dahlan invited me to sit in on one of his clinics. There were 30 children, all of them traumatised. He gave each a pencil and paper and asked them to draw. They drew pictures of grotesque acts of terror and of women streaming tears.

The excuse for the latest Israeli terror was the capture last June of an Israeli soldier, a member of an illegal occupation, by the Palestinian resistance. This was news. The kidnapping by Israel a few days earlier of two Palestinians – two of thousands taken over the years – was not news. A historian and two foreign journalists have reported the truth about Gaza. All three are Israeli. They are frequently called traitors. The historian Ilan Pappe has documented that “the genocidal policy [in Gaza] is not formulated in a vacuum” but part of Zionism’s deliberate, historic ethnic cleansing. Gideon Levy and Amira Hass are reporters on the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. In November, Levy described how the people of Gaza were beginning to starve to death: “There are thousands of wounded, disabled and shell-shocked people, unable to receive any treatment . . . The shadows of human beings roam the ruins . . . They only know the [Israeli army] will return and they know what this will mean for them: more imprisonment in their homes for weeks, more death and destruction in monstrous proportions.” Hass, who has lived in Gaza, describes it as a prison that shames her people. She recalls how her mother, Hannah, was marched from a cattle-train to the Nazi concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen on a summer’s day in 1944. “[She] saw these German women looking at the pris oners, just looking,” she wrote. “This image became very formative in my upbringing, this despicable ‘looking from the side’.”

“Looking from the side” is what those of us do who are cowed into silence by the threat of being called anti-Semitic. Looking from the side is what too many western Jews do, while those Jews who honour the humane traditions of Judaism and say, “Not in our name!” are abused as “self-despising”. Looking from the side is what almost the entire US Congress does, in thrall to or intimidated by a vicious Zionist “lobby”. Looking from the side is what “even-handed” journalists do as they excuse the lawlessness that is the source of Israeli atrocities and suppress the historic shifts in the Palestinian resistance, such as the implicit recognition of Israel by Hamas. The people of Gaza cry out for better.

http://www.johnpilger.com

http://www.newstatesman.com/200701220021

forwarded by
John Wheat Gibson

Dallas, Texas

Williamson County Commissioners not only renewed the one-year lease with Corrections Corporation of America, they made it a two-year lease. The Austin American-Statesman rushed to the web with the news, which was a service in two respects. It was a quick report, and it reminded us why we prefer to cover activists, not authorities. Or, to put it in the paradigm of the Gospels referenced below, we’d be much more interested in covering Jesus, not Pilate, you know, that Jerusalem commissioner who washed his hands of the matter, muttering something about it being Rome’s business, not his. Anyway, here’s an email from Jay J. Johnson-Castro, including activist accounts of what happened today–gm

Hey Jessica…and Jane…

Thanks to both of you for the eyewitnesses accounts ( below for ) what transpired today at the Williamson County Commissioners Court. Many have wanted to know.

We’re all disappointed…of course…but not surprised. Nonetheless … however it would have turned out today … we all should know that we were going to win … and win handily. This flies in the face of all true lovers of freedom and justice. We have simply seen a much finer demarcation between the champions of the children, of morality, and of democratic freedoms in this country, and those that … will not defend them.
I heard Ex Governor of Arkansas and presidential hopeful, Huckabee, say last night…that we have two Americas . It becomes no clearer than on the imprisonment of innocent children…for corrupt, greedy and obscene profits. Are you against imprisoning innocent children? One America . Do you approve of children in cells for 22 hours a day in a prison camp on the pretense of national security? Another America .

One thing for sure. Williamson County …and Taylor , Texas …is going to suddenly wake up and find itself in the national and international spotlight. Anyone ever heard of Auschwitz ? Yet…I also believe that the majority of citizens of Taylor and Williamson County will show the spirit of the American Constitution…that of “We the people”.

How often have we heard…and said it ourselves…”It’s all about the money”? Commissioners that would sell out innocent children for a buck a day…are little different than a court of Judases. A political elitist like DeLay who would take $100,000 from CCA is a criminal. An administration that would funnel $7000 a month of American tax payers’ money to a CCA, GEO or Halliburton to imprison a 2-y-o innocent child is a criminal administration. Every decision maker who is complicit in this international crime should have to live as these children have been living.

If there is any metal in this new Congress…it should be shown here and now…on this very issue. There is no other like it in our modern history. If the new Congress wants to be recognized as a champion of democracy…let them act now…and free these children and their mothers. Who cares where they go. A wrong cannot be corrected by an evil.

For the sake of Texas and the American dream…the children MUST be freed…NOW!!! The Ibrahim and Suleiman families MUST be released to go back to their lives as productive immigrants…NOW!!! They must not be deported.

Again…I ask. Where is our national media? Where are the Governor of Texas and the legislators? Where is the Congress? Where are the champions of the innocent? You know why Lou Dobbs isn’t speaking about this…and defending the actions Chertoff and ICE on this. His real strength of character couldn’t hold up. If he tried…he’d be mocked off of CNN by the viewer-ship. Come on Laura Ingram, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh. Take a crack at it. I’d be glad to debate this American tragedy with you. I’m just a grassroots guy. No techno tower tricks. Real dialogue.

Hey Nancy Grace? How about these kids?

All the more reason for Vigil IV on Feb 12th. I’ll be in touch…

Jay

P.S For those with a Bible based faith…how did Jesus treat the little children? JJJ

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yes I got a chance to speak. We were limited to 5 speakers. The place was packed! We got our say – I must say that our defense was strong, articulate and full of passion… but it was fruitless…. they agreed to renew the lease for 2 more years.

They on the other hand had a conspiracy theorist who stated that “Mexicans” were planning to take over Texas . Kidnap women and steal stuff and take them back to Mexico . The surprise of the day was Mrs. Ella Jez, Taylor City Council woman from Taylor who spoke “in favor” of the prison. She painted a pretty rosy picture of the facility…. it almost made me want to plan my next vacation there.

No one has had a chance to read the new lease as it was not offered for review.

Sincerely;
Jose Orta

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jessica wrote:

Hello all, just a little addition to Jane’s email.

….The woman representing CCA is Laurie Shanblum. I believe she was actually the person in charge of preparing the prison to become a “residential facility”.

After the vote, many gathered outside the court. Sherry and I observed a man asking many specific, hard hitting questions about the facility. His name is Mark Smith. He is an I-TEAM producer from WFAA – TV in Dallas . He has been following a story of Dallas residents that have relatives in the facility. Tomorrow night they are running a piece on the family and he is interested on keeping up with what is going on at TDH. He has information that those being held are given 24 minutes to eat…they can shower between 6-6:30am…twenty children share 2 toy cars to play with…guards tell residents that if their children don’t behave they can send them away. The rebuttal from CCA is that ICE has the decision making ability to separate families if there are any problems. It is a privilege, not a right for families to be together. If there is a problem woman can be in one facility, men in another, and children with a CPS like facility.

After CCA squirmed and ran, I moved on to the warden to listen to what he had to say. He speaks off the record. His information was there are about 400 currently being held and half that number is children. There is a physician and a physician’s assistant from I believe he said the US Public Healthy Services. Once a week, women who need prenatal or gynecological care go to a clinic.

The decision to renew this lease was clearly made in executive session. Today Judge Gattis made a motion to renew the lease with a few considerations provided by “lawyers” without discussion. Lisa Birkman, fearing for her seat, made some statements that was supposed to make us feel better…there are no US Citizens being detained, she stated classrooms were comparable to classrooms in Round Rock, and a few other remarks to make her seem less blameworthy for her vote to renew. I believe the action of the Commissioner’s Court violates the open meeting rule. Again, I contend that this decision was made behind close doors without public access.

As I was leaving the Annex, KLBJ was reporting that Williamson County had voted to renew the lease. This story is growing daily. Thank you Jose, Sherry and Jane and all of the others who have brought this to the attention of the public. It is sickening that Williamson County is participating in this abuse of rights and making themselves lackeys of evil.

As Jim Stauber pointed out when he spoke, Valerie Covey said a prayer that she was thankful enjoy the freedom of this country and that she prayed God would help them make good decisions for Williamson County. Jesus would slap the shit out of them….

Oh and Jane, even though it says you can contact the warden for a tour, the warden would refer

you to ICE.

Jessica

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On 1/30/07, Jane L Van Praag wrote to Jay:

Perhaps one or more of the attendees who got to their computer before I did has already told you that the WC Commissioners’ Court did vote to let the CCA contract continue; I do think I heard Judge Gattis say something to the effect of ‘with modifications as discussed today’ but don’t bank on it because my hearing is really deteriorating. Jose Orta, on behalf of LULAC had called for several improvements at least during the interim and that may be what the Judge was referring to but I am copying Jose and all the others named herein to make sure.

The five speakers opposed were a lady from Round Rock whom I had not met before and I couldn’t hear much of what she said including her name, etc. Then Peter Dana spoke, followed by Jose Orta, Jim Stauber, and Frances Valdez of the UT Law School Immigration Clinic. Before the convening I’d also placed a copy of a letter Melissa Irion wrote on each court member’s portion of their dais.

I think only 3 people spoke for the facility; one was this staunch Constitutionalist Party guy who just ran for governor and received around 300 votes from the Florence area, a woman from Taylor who was able to tour the facility and reported favorably, and another woman whose name I didn’t catch but she’s the Austin liaison for CCA and presented a broad background working in juvenile justice. However, three pews were almost filled with young men and women dressed in the CCA uniform. I guess they were prepared to speak or just to make a showing, don’t know.

In addition to the above named and myself, also present were Efrain Davila, Billie Reaney, Jessica Stempko, Tracey Storie, Richard Torres, and I may be overlooking one or two others.

Soon I am going to contact TDH and arrange to tour the facility now that I see it’s so easy to do.

Good luck on your trip,

Jane

******************

The following email was circulated separately–gm

Jay,

KXAN Austin was at the Commissioners Mtg and did a fair report at 6 and will probably repeat it at 10. I didn’t get the call letters of the Spanish language TV station that came late but its channel 60. Lisa Ogle from the AAS was there and Ben Trollinger from the Williamson County Sun . The media had a press release in their hands on the approval of the contact BEFORE the meeting ended.

The woman from Taylor who spoke glowing of the conditions in the prison is Ella Jez. She is a rich Republican Taylor city council member. I have it on good authority that Judge Gattis, head of Williamson County Commissioners Court , spoke to her at the Taylor Chamber of Commerce Banquet last Thursday and asked her to get info and present at the commissioners court. Warden Liles and other CCA people were at the Banquet but I don’t know if she got her tour before or after Gattis asked her to speak. I think I can get more information soon.

According to Commissioner Birkman, the rest of the Court wanted the contract to remain in effect indefinitely but she got them to change it to a 2-year contract.

Progress is slow but definitely heading in the right direction.

Sherry

Alumni of Camp Casey (the first) will surely remember Annie and Buddy Spell who put their organizing and legal experience to work in the bar ditches of Crawford, Texas, supporting their friend (and our hero) Cindy Sheehan. So we’re sharing a press release that brings news of the Spells’ excellence in civil rights–gm

COVINGTON NAACP BRANCH WINS STATE AWARD

THREE LOCAL MEMBERS ALSO RECEIVE INDIVIDUAL HONORS

BATON ROUGE, LA The Greater Covington Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was recognized in Baton Rouge on Saturday afternoon with the “Outstanding NAACP Unit Award” by the Louisiana NAACP. The award, which acknowledges the local group’s community activism in the ongoing civil rights movement, was accepted on behalf of the membership by Branch President James A. “Gus” Davis. Davis, a decorated Viet Nam veteran and long time community activist who only recently assumed leadership of the unit, also received individual recognition by the state organization and was presented with the “Community Service Award”.

Also receiving individual honors from the state were local attorneys and branch members, Annie and Buddy Spell. Mrs. Spell, the immediate past president, received the “Emmit F. Douglas Memorial Award” in recognition of her valuable contributions to the Louisiana NAACP. She received national attention when she was elected two years ago as only the second white, female branch president in the history of the national organization. Under her leadership, the local group established itself as an activist branch both regionally and nationally for not only civil rights actions, but also within the antiwar movement.

Her husband and law partner was honored with the “M. Joy Clemmons Legal Service Award” for his assistance to the state organization in connection with various direct actions addressing criminal defendants’ right to counsel, Katrina relief, and voters’ rights over the last year.
BACKROUND ARTICLES:

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2005-05-24/news_feat.html

http://www.countercurrents.org/us-spell250706.htm

http://peacefile.org/wordpress/?p=232

CONTACT:

Annie Spell

(985) 264-7752 P.S. Smudge the Peace Cat is “good,” says Buddy.