“Guantanamo at Home”: Muslim American Syed Fahad Hashmi Held in 23-Hour Solitary Pretrial Confinemen

[EFerrari]

“Guantanamo at Home”: Muslim American Syed Fahad Hashmi Held in 23-Hour Solitary Pretrial Confinement for Over Two Years in Case Resting on Plea-Bargaining Government Informant




One day after President Obama trumpeted the achievements and freedoms of Muslim Americans in his celebrated Cairo speech, we look at the case of Syed Fahad Hashmi, a US citizen who has been held in pretrial twenty-three-hour solitary confinement in a Manhattan federal prison for over two years. Hashmi is charged with providing material support to al-Qaeda in a case that rests on the testimony of Junaid Babar, an old acquaintance of Hashmi’s who turned government informant after his own arrest on terror charges. Hashmi is being prosecuted for a two-week period when Babar stayed at his home carrying rain gear that was allegedly later delivered to al-Qaeda members in Pakistan.

In his first major address to Muslims around the world, President Obama emphasized the importance of Islam in America, while speaking from Cairo on Thursday. He also highlighted the numerous achievements of American Muslims and the multiple freedoms they enjoy and are constitutionally guaranteed in this country.

President Obama also reiterated his promise to close down the Guantanamo Bay prison by next year.

Well today we’ll look at the case of a young Muslim-American citizen who the Village Voice has described as “experiencing the constitution in a cage.” Twenty-eight-year old Syed Fahad Hashmi, known to his family and friends as Fahad, has been held in pre-trial solitary confinement in a federal prison in Manhattan for over two years now.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/5/hashmi

Guantanamo at Home,
By Jeanne Theoharis
The Nation

The day after President Obama signed the three executive orders, I sat in a courtroom for a hearing in the case of Syed Fahad Hashmi. Hashmi is a 29-year-old Muslim American citizen being held in solitary confinement at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Lower Manhattan. He is charged with two counts of providing and conspiring to provide material support and two counts of making and conspiring to make a contribution of goods or services to Al Qaeda. If convicted, Hashmi faces seventy years in prison. He is also a former student of mine at Brooklyn College who graduated in 2003 and received his master's degree in international relations at London Metropolitan University in 2005.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/41410

Who is Fahad?

Syed Hashmi, known to his family and friends as Fahad, was born in Karachi, Pakistan in 1980, the second child of Syed Anwar Hashmi and Arifa Hashmi. Fahad immigrated with his family to America when he was three years old. His father said “We knew there would be many opportunities for us here in the United States. We came here to find the American dream.” The large Hashmi family settled in Flushing, New York and soon developed deep roots throughout the tri-state area. Fahad graduated from Robert F. Wagner High School in 1998 and attended SUNY Stony Brook University. He transferred to Brooklyn College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science in 2003. A devout Muslim, through the years Fahad established a reputation as an activist and advocate. In 2003, Fahad enrolled in London Metropolitan University in England to pursue a master’s degree in international relations, which he received in 2006. On June 6, 2006, Fahad was arrested in London Heathrow airport by British police based on an American indictment charging him with material support of Al Qaida. He was subsequently held in Belmarsh Prison, Britain’s most notorious jail.

The Case

The Charges
The US government accused Fahad of providing material support to Al Qaeda, but a close look at the evidence shows that the charges make little sense. Fahad is NOT charged with providing any money or resources to any terrorists or being a member of al Qaeda. Instead, the US government charged Fahad with allowing an old acquaintance — Junaid Babar — to stay in Fahad’s London apartment for about two weeks in 2004. During that two week period, Babar allegedly kept several raincoats, ponchos, and waterproof socks in luggage that Babar temporarily stored in Fahad’s apartment. The US government then alleges that at some point Babar gave the socks and ponchos to a high ranking member of al Qaeda. There is no allegation that Fahad is a member of al Qaeda or that he ever personally gave or helped to give anything to any member of al Qaeda.


Conditions of Fahad’s Imprisonment
Fahad was held in England’s Belmarsh prison mixed with the general prison population for 11 months without incident. Since his extradition to the United States more than a year ago, Fahad has been kept in solitary confinement and subject to unduly restrictive Special Administrative Measures (SAMs), These draconian measures mandate that he be kept under 23-hour lockdown, be allowed only one visit from an immediate family member a week, and have no other contact with anyone besides his lawyer and prison officials. The SAMs also limit the material that Fahad can read and make it illegal for his family members to pass any messages from him onto friends.

Fahad is not charged with any acts of violence, nor were there any accusations that he attempted to contact any terrorists during his time with the general prison population at Belmarsh, rendering the restrictions he is subject to unnecessarily cruel in a society that treats people as innocent until proven guilty. SAMs are meant to prevent crimes orchestrated from within prison walls, but even if EVERYTHING the government alleges is true, there is no evidence that Fahad would be a danger if he were kept with the general prison population.

http://www.freefahad.com/

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. Habeus Corpus? Speedy trial? Humane conditions? K&R

[EFerrari]

3. This is the federal court system that the detainees at Gitmo want into.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. Catch 22. Military Tribunals vs unending detention.

[leftstreet]

2. The American Dream: Be a Pre-Trial Detainee the rest of your life

Jeez...

[EFerrari]

4. They don't allow him to speak out loud. He's been there two years. n/t

[Solly Mack]

6. K&R

I want to scream so badly sometimes but I fear I wouldn't be able to stop

[EFerrari]

8. The word was put out that he gave money and weapons to al Qaida

and that's how he's represented at RW sites, like this at "Western Resistance":

27-year old Hashmi was presented in United States Magistrate's Court on Tuesday May 29, and on the following day he was indicted at Manhattan Federal Court before United States District Judge Loretta Preska. He was indicted on three charges, with the main count involving conspiracy to contribute funds, goods or services to the terrorist group. If he is found guilty at his future trial, he could serve 50 years in jail.

Mark Mershon, assistant director-in-charge of the FBI's New York office, said: "Syed Hashmi aided the enemy by providing military gear to al-Qaida." Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said: "This arrest reinforces the fact that a terrorist may have roots in Queens and still betray us."

[Solly Mack]

9. with no regard to due process...or any of the (so-called) "values"

America is supposed to cherish and defend...just...he's a terrorist!!! It's national security!!! It's classified!!

He's an America citizen, regardless of what he's charged with...he has due process rights....he has Constitutional rights.

The presumption of innocence is thrown out the window and people cheer it...defend it....are downright self-righteous about it.

I know you know that...I'm just disgusted.

[EFerrari]

10. This American citizen has been in SOLITARY CONFINEMENT for two years

on the word of someone who copped a plea.

[Solly Mack]

11. Yes, I know...on a SAM. I read the Nation article from back in April

Junaid Babar made a deal to testify...said testimony being the primary "evidence" against Hashmi

Hashmi is an America - and he isn't being given his Constitutional rights (due process) because he's been labeled a terrorist and people cheer and justify such abuses because of that label...his presumption of innocence has been tossed out the window and the presumption of guilt hangs over his head and a lot of people don't care...because he was labeled a terrorist...without a trial...without a verdict. Just labeled and left to languish.

[bridgit]

7. Not only is the crown heavy, but the wheels turn sometimes very slow, still...

Raincoats, ponchos, and especially waterproof socks while innocuous on their face and in many other instances; will keep a given operative operational while standing in ankle deep water beside his adversary till they no longer sense the operative as a threat or even standing there for that matter, so it's difficult to plumb what they consider evidence till they get to trial. There are many, many, many-many people held in American custody unjustly. To put forward that this grotesque only occurs to Muslims pulls the eye both too far afield and too near a refutation of Obama's words as though a summary judgment upon them, when with a docket stretching back two years; Fahad is a product of the Nero-esque g.w. bush, and not Barack Obama. Sad though...

That all this war on terra shit has come down to latex rubber socks...why no rubber underwear or bed sheets? Why the socks? I heard a journalist guy that considered himself a progressive on the radio the other day calling for the immediate impeachment and removal of Obama even after having voted for him, because he is livid that he isn't hearing/hasn't heard what he wants to hear from Obama in the ways he wants to hear it.

There is a similar, negatively charged inertia working it's will here today in particular at DU regarding his speech which I found refreshing, and so my weather prophecy for DU and surrounding areas is: partly cloudy flames fanned by un-seasonally hot Santa Ana winds, increased TS's & locked threads, with a 40% chance of Ding Dongs this evening

[EFerrari]

12. Hashmi didn't purchase, carry or deliver that gear.

Someone who stayed at his house may have had it in his suitcase according to the testimony of another individual looking to reduce his own charges.

And the persecution of Muslim males in this country started on 9/12/2001 and continues today, whether Obama gives a speech or not. Holder is going to have his hands full for the foreseeable future, detoxifying the Justice Department. It doesn't help, though, that the men appointed to the security apparatus are people like Blair, Gates and presumably, Mudd, all of whom have a history of breaking the rule rules with impunity and so landing us where we are now.

[bridgit]

13. Oh sure, and circumstances are mitigated up & down the data chain...

But you know...the law is splintered into guilts by association, by omission, sitting on your couch while associates trundle seemingly innocent if stolen property past your reruns of Ali G can be problematic in the long term and just how/why is that the case we should be asking? Fair enough...

But America is the nation that hanged Mary Serrat anyhow, and she didn't pull the trigger either.


Every single bit of every single problem in the world is America's fault and America's fault exclusively. Let's just admit it and move on ~ cause by 9/12/2001 it was easy to see who was jubilant, and dancing in the streets.