Elation in Harlem as Girl Held in Terror Inquiry Is Released

[Rose Siding]

It began with two 16-year-old immigrant girls arrested at dawn, detained far from home, and, in a chilling government assertion, called would-be suicide bombers who posed "an imminent threat to the security of the United States."

But now, after holding the girls for six weeks in a Pennsylvania detention center, the government has quietly released one of the girls and is allowing the other to leave the country with her family.

One girl, an immigrant from Guinea, was back in her East Harlem high school yesterday among the jubilant friends and teachers who have insisted all along that the accusation was absurd. The other girl, who grew up in Queens, was still in detention, but was granted an order from an immigration judge that will allow her and her parents to return to their native Bangladesh as soon as the trip can be arranged.
...
...Natasha Pierre, the lawyer for the Guinean girl, Adama Bah, said the outcome spoke for itself. "She should never have been detained in the first place," Ms. Pierre said of her client, who was not yet 2 when she arrived in New York with her parents, Muslims who have a trinket shop near a subway stop in Bushwick, Brooklyn. "I'm still under a gag order and I have to be very careful not to cross the line. All I can say is she's innocent - she's more than innocent. The girl doesn't know anything."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/07/nyregion/07suicide.html

[Ariana Celeste]

1. "She should never have been detained in the first place,"

is exactly right. While I am so glad they finally let her go, it should have never happened. How the hell can they get away with this shit? And what can we do to prevent it from happening again?

[burrowowl]

2. When will paranoid U$

become US and arrest the REAL TERRORISTS, i.e., Bu$hCo and CORPORATISTS (READ FACISTS)? And when will the U$ans (people who voted for Bu$hCo) be held accountable? Ignorance of the law is no excuse.

[Tigress DEM]

8. I was thinking if the IR$ collected from bums like ENRON...

who owe about 35 Million in Portland on employee taxes they collected, but never paid to the state of Oregon...

and if there was a legal crackdown on all these rich and mighty people and the money that they have stolen through insider trading and corruption were returned to the US via the IR$ .... we wouldn't have no stinkin social security problem... we could feed and house everyone and produce a health care system that works.

After all if the top 5% have 80% of the money now, wouldn't it make sense to go after those crooks? The payoff would really be worth the effort, don't you think?

[Yellow_Dog]

10. The current leadership

is a bunch of quaking cowards that apparently have an unmanageable fear that a couple of high school girl can topple our government.

Given the outside chance that they might be terrorists, how many can they harm? Sure unpleasant for those harmed, but these stupid weak kneed leaders obsess over a very minor threat while the unarmed invasion continues to cross our southern border every second of the day.

How did these cowardly fools every accomplish anything, much less rise to a position of power?

[Judi Lynn]

3. However, the situation is still horrible, outside her going home

The other girl is still in trouble:

The other girl, who grew up in Queens, was still in detention, but was granted an order from an immigration judge that will allow her and her parents to return to their native Bangladesh as soon as the trip can be arranged.
(snip)

and Adama's dad most likely will be deported, it seems:

In the immigration case against Adama's father, deportation is all but inevitable, according to a lawyer who reviewed the records.

He was granted political asylum in the early 1990's, but under the false claim that he was from Mauritania, and lost asylum in the late 1990's when he was found driving a cab under a friend's hack license. Last year he exhausted an appeal to stay on the basis that deportation to Guinea would be an extraordinary hardship for his five children, four American-born.

But Adama said she hoped to make her own, separate case for staying in the United States, the only country she has known.

"I'm really happy that I'm out," she said. "I just don't want them to take me away again."
(snip/)

If only they'd leave these young women alone. They are certainly innocent, law abiding students, and should be allowed to live with their parents, without threats, and a lot of harrassment from some government agents trying to make our contrived security measures look legitimate by producing problems where none exist.

[dbt]

4. My Goddess! What would have happened if these girls were WHITE?

*crickets*

Meanwhile:

"Many had tried to send Adama letters of support, but were told that she was not allowed to receive or send mail in the maximum security juvenile detention center, in Berks County, Pa., and was allowed one five-minute phone call from her mother each week.

Ms. Pierre said she herself was at a loss to explain how Adama was swept into the investigation. She and the Bangladeshi girl, seized separately on March 24, were not even friends."

The world is about to move WAY beyond laughing at us.

[wildeyed]

5. This got a ton of press because Bah is a popular,

socially adept kid and her classmates and teachers spoke out. But what if she was shy? Like maybe the other girl was? Or wasn't friends with Christians? Would we have even known about this case?

The fact remains that our government is yanking 16 year olds out of their homes and holding them for extended periods of time without charges. Since when do 16 year olds pose "an imminent threat to the security of the United States"?

Make it stop, please make it stop :banghead:

[Zhade]

6. I can't believe this fell off the front page, this is a relief!

NT!

[rocktivity]

7. If she's innocent, has been released, and never should have been detained

why is her lawyer still under a gag order?

:headbang:
rocknation

[Tigress DEM]

9. Maybe they are counter suing for false arrest...

Any portion of an ongoing action would include no comment....

or they just said, "We're wrong, but if you talk about it, it's a National Security thing and we make your life miserable."