Category: Uncategorized

By Greg Moses

The final report on Riad Elsolh Hamad was signed by the Travis County Medical Examiner on May 14, 2008. Death by drowning. Suicide.

The widely beloved teacher and founder of the Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund (pcwf.org) had gone missing on the evening of April 14. He telephoned Paul Larudee in California at about 7:30 Pacific Time (9:30 Central), and when Larudee told Hamad that a donation had arrived to the new address of the PCWF, Hamad said, “it doesn’t matter.” His body was pulled from Lady Bird Lake at about 2 p.m. on April 16. From the viewpoint of the medical examiner on the morning of April 17, the body was “in a state of early decomposition characterized by marbling and maroon discoloration of the skin.”

“The body is received with the wrists loosely bound in front of the body with a tan rubber telephone-type cord. One end of the cord is looped loosely once around the left wrist and arranged in a very loose knot. The cord is looped loosely three times around the right wrist, and then arranged in a very loose knot. The hands are separated by approximately 1 ½ foot of cord. The cord ligature is easily slipped off of both hands.

“The ankles are bound loosely by black rubber speaker-type cord. The cord is looped twice around each ankle. On the right ankle, the cord is looped over the surface of the skin. On the left ankle, the cord is looped over the surface of the pants. The ends of the cord are arranged in a loose knot in front of the ankle, medially. The loops around the ankles are loose enough to slip off of the body intact. The loops are separated by approximately 6 inches of cord between the ankles.

“Gray duct tape is wrapped neatly twice around the head just above the eyes, and leaves a blanched, slightly depressed band of imprint on the skin. The duct tape passes above the eyelids, and does not cover the eyes. The duct tape passes over the ears.”

The term “atraumatic” appears several times to describe the body’s head, face, neck, and hands. No signs of strangulation. No drugs. The left ventricle of that once exuberant heart had grown thick with hypertension. There was a “history” — notes the report — “of recent depression and stress.”

***

Reporters for the Oak Hill Gazette and the Austin Chronicle have told the story of Imams who reported “bruising” or “facial bruising” when the body was washed for burial. Imam Ibrahim Dremali found the post-autopsy condition of the body so offensive that he complained to officials, to his mosque, and to the press.

“I believe they were sending us a message,” he said, “and that’s what I told the people here [at the mosque], that they believe they do not have to respect the bodies of Muslims,” said Imam Dremali to Austin Chronicle reporter Michael King.

In April, Imam Mohamed-Umer Esmail, of the North Austin Muslim Community Center, told Oak Hill Gazette reporter Ann Fowler, “Those that knew [Riad Hamad], their concern is why was the case closed so quickly? The investigation was made and they closed it really quickly, saying it was suicide.”

***

Although Hamad’s advocacy in behalf of Palestinian children had attracted FBI attention for many years, his recent troubles began in November 2002 when a neighbor complained to the Joint Terrorism Task Force of the FBI that packages were coming to Hamad from the West Bank of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Hamad was famous for carrying around boxes full of Palestinian crafts that he sold, or gave to friends to sell, as fundraising supplies. Of course, the government found no evidence of terrorism, but Hamad was apparently a tax resister and sloppy bookkeeper.

On the morning of Feb. 27, a team of federal agents entered his house and packed up at least 20 boxes of papers, books, and computer disks. In an email, Hamad estimated the number of boxes at 40. (If the government’s own bookkeeping is to be believed, there is a box numbered 100. I personally suspect, however, that the record for box 100 is a result of sloppy bookkeeping on the part of the FBI.) Federal agents even took a David Rovics CD and a book that was resting on Hamad’s piano entitled, “War on Freedom.” Hamad immediately started looking for a lawyer.

In preparation for this article, the Texas Civil Rights review emailed a query to the Hamad family. A reply was forthcoming from the family attorney: “They are obviously still in the middle of the grieving process [and] are not at a stage where they want to discuss any details regarding his death or the months leading up to it.. . . Thank you so much for respecting the family’s privacy and for your understanding.”

If I ask myself what Riad Hamad would ask me to say next, it is this: donations may be sent to the Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund, 405 Vista Heights Rd., El Cerrito, CA 94530; 510-236-5338; or visit pcwf.org to access an online donation link.

The following item previously appeared in the announcements section of TCRR–gm

This message is from Antonio Diaz of the Texas Indigenous Council in San Antonio. He and his sisters and brothers have been leaders in the campaign against the TDH immigrant family prison since early in the protests, which began in December, 2006:

“Native people celebrate death as it is apart of the circle of life, there is no need to fear physical death, the death of innocence on the other hand is a sad thing indeed. We will be going to Taylor on Sat. Nov.1st to recognize the Death of innocence of the Children Detained at T.D.Hutto Prison, Nov.1st is known as “Dia de los Inocentes”.

“Dia de los Muertos from Nov 1st to Nov 2nd. This loss of innocence due to incarceration because of greed of private prison corporations like Corrections Corp. of America must be addressed and the policy of fear and division that allows for rampant greed to dictate immoral immgration legislation must come to an end. Reinstating the Catch and Release program will be the first step to bringing justice into immigration reform. Join us if you are able 6 to 8 pm in Taylor TX. at T.D.Hutto Res. Ctr. — for more info (210) 396- 9805
Antonio Diaz”

T. Don Hutto is at 1001 Welch St., Taylor, TX (map). From Austin, take I-35 north to Round Rock. Exit Hwy 79. Turn right on 79 and drive east to Taylor. Just before you enter Taylor, go right on the 79 bypass (sign says to Rockdale). Take the first left onto S. Edmond St. Edmond ends at Welch. Go right on Welch and you can’t miss the prison.

Solidarity,

Leslie Cunningham

“Las luchas obreras/No tienen fronteras.”

From the MALDEFian

Judge orders improvements in programs for English language learners

AUGUST 14, 2008 – Citing “palpable injustice” a federal court found that the State of Texas is failing to overcome the language barriers faced by tens of thousands of English Language Learner (ELL) students in the State’s public school secondary programs. MALDEF’s victory in United States v. Texas represents the most comprehensive judicial decision concerning the civil rights of ELLs in a quarter century.

The case was born out of long-standing discrimination against Latino students in Texas schools, which resulted in their inclusion in a 1981 Order that required the State of Texas to, among other things, provide appropriate and effective language educational programs for ELL students. Twenty-five years later, MALDEF and Multicultural Education Training and Advocacy, Inc. (META) filed a Motion under the Modified Order to enforce its terms. MALDEF argued that the State had failed to implement and monitor the bilingual and English as a Second Language (ESL) programs for ELL students in the state, resulting in the denial of equal educational opportunities for those students.

In July 2007, District Court Judge William Wayne Justice ruled that MALDEF was not entitled to the relief it sought. After MALDEF and META persisted in the case on behalf of ELL students, Judge Justice vacated his earlier ruling in its entirety. Finding that “[s]econdary…students in bilingual education fail terribly under every metric,” he ordered the State to create a language program for ELL secondary students and a monitoring system that met the requirements of the federal Equal Education Opportunity Act.

This ruling was a tremendous victory for ELL students in a state that has one of the highest percentages of ELLs in the country. In the 2004-05 school year, more than 15 percent of the student population in Texas’ public schools were identified as ELL. Ninety-three percent of those were Hispanic. According to the Texas Education Agency, only 13.1 percent of those students are recent immigrants.

The education system has significantly failed these students, allowing them to continue to experience the effects of the discrimination that first brought MALDEF to court on their behalf nearly 30 years ago. The court found that not only does the Texas Education Agency under-identify ELL students, but the “achievement standards for intervention are arbitrary and not based upon equal educational opportunity; the failing achievement of higher grades is masked by passing scores of lower grades; and the failure of individual school campuses is masked by only analyzing data on the larger district level.”

“Failed implementation cannot prolong the existence of a failed program into perpetuity,” the court concluded. Texas now has until January 2009 to come up with a revamped monitoring system that actually measures equal educational opportunities and an improved educational program for secondary ELL students. The new system will be introduced in the 2009-10 school year.

“This decision gives hope for the future of thousands of young Texans. Its importance cannot be overstated,” said MALDEF Staff Attorney David Hinojosa who, along with META, brought the case on behalf of LULAC and the American GI Forum.

Our quarter-year of absence at the Texas Civil Rights Review has coincided with the electoral revolution led by Barack Obama, so we couldn’t be more pleased to have a picked a season during which little more needed to be said.

Yet the time of absence wasn’t chosen so much as it was delivered with a bundle of priorities that left not a spare minute to type in. At one point, it was only thanks to a delayed airplane that I was able to hammer out a fast note to a contributor. The competing priorities this past quarter were entirely welcomed, so worry not; our energies are well, our spirit intact.

In the short time I have to write tonight, I’d like to reflect upon what usually goes on here, and why we miss it.

The Texas Civil Rights Review was founded in 1997 as on online archive dedicated to racial equity in the Land Grant system of higher education in Texas, and, by proxy, across the USA. Thanks to that work in the 1990s some real progress was made for some real people. And as we look forward to Change, please remember Mr. President that equity in the Land Grant system is still possible, still worthy, and perhaps more than ever a timely theater for economic and democratic renewal of ourselves and our posterity.

After a few years of exile from Texas politics (perhaps not unrelated to our successes in the Land Grant establishment) we returned in 2003 with a hopping mad interest in what had happened to affirmative action policy, and we proudly outed a blue-ribbon report from a Land Grant college committee that recommended affirmative action in admissions. (We still like to call it integration, remember?)

As Summer turned to Fall in 2004 we covered the trial for public school funding in an Austin District Court, and documented the courageous struggle of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) to uphold the principles of equitable funding, especially for impoverished Hispanic children.

On Christmas Eve 2004 we posted our first of many letters from federal prisoner Ramsey Muniz. We still say it would be a righteous act to pardon Ramsey and set him free.

In the opening months of 2005 we covered the hearings that officially certified the election of Hubert Vo to the Texas House of Representatives. We followed up on the Vo hearings with a massive review of the hearing documents. (Rep. Vo has since been re-elected twice. In 2008 he won a comfortable 56 percent of the vote.)

In April of 2005 we reported on thousands of pages of documents that we reviewed at the office of the Texas Secretary of State regarding the construction of a statewide voter database that was built to satisfy the so-called Help America Vote Act (VAWA).

During the summer of 2006 we filed an open records request with the Texas Governor seeking documentation for the deployment of the Texas National Guard to the border with Mexico. We were told there were no documents. Later that year, we followed a rising flood of immigration issues that culminated in the federal roundup of several Palestinian families from the Dallas area who were cruelly treated regardless of age or pregnancy status.

In 2007 we let fly a few thousand words over the converging issues of immigration injustice in Texas, symbolized by the Hutto family prison and the border wall reflex. If Change means anything, it should make a difference on both of these issues.

Earlier this year we covered the federal harassment of Albanian refugee Rrustem Neza, who was finally released to live with this wife and children after a year of meaningless imprisonment at Haskell. And we reported on the shocking detention of Bujar Osmani who was nabbed by federal agents while taking a bathroom break at a law office.

As the summer of 2008 turned into record swelter, we reported the death, the federal documents, and the dreams of Riad Hamad, ebullient champion of Palestinian children.

In these stories and others, we have been very nearly alone in our commitment to documentation and detail. So yes, there was something to miss when we were absent during the Fall quarter of 2008. If you missed us, you weren’t alone. We kind of missed us too.

As for the future, we remain realistic. The amount of time devoted to the Texas Civil Rights Review these past five years will not be sustainable, but the reasons for this are good ones. Your editor has not given up or burned out. I’m just busy.

Whenever I do have a few spare hours, you’ll know it. I’m here. I keep my eyes open. I may be out of the office a lot, but I ain’t giving up the lease. — gm