Hollman Morris....Says Patriot Act Visa Rejection for "Terrorist" Activities "Puts My Life in Danger

[Judi Lynn]

Posted: July 14, 2010 11:37 AM
Hollman Morris, Colombian Journalist, Says Patriot Act Visa Rejection for "Terrorist" Activities "Puts My Life in Danger"

A Colombian journalist who was recently denied a visa to study under Harvard University's Nieman Fellowship program says the State Department's decision may put his life under further threat. Hollman Morris, an investigative television producer who has denounced abuses by leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and the Colombian army in the country's decades-long internal conflict, was denied a student visa in late June. The denial reportedly came under a provision of the Patriot Act that makes foreigners suspected of "terrorist activities" ineligible for admission to the U.S..

Morris, who has received death threats for ten years, believes the "terrorist" label will increase threats against him and his family.

The journalist, whose family lives under the protection of bodyguards, says the visa denial "indisputably puts my life in danger." Had the visa application been accepted, Morris' family would have moved with him to Cambridge for the year. The head of the Nieman Foundation program, Robert Giles, says this is the first time in the 60-year history of the program that an international fellow has been denied entry to the country.

U.S. officials have not provided the exact reason for Morris' denial. Morris and human rights advocates supporting his case believe the rejection is connected to a campaign by Colombia's intelligence agency, the Department of Administrative Security (DAS), to discredit Morris by linking him with the leftist guerrilla group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). Colombia's largest rebel group is on the US list of foreign terrorist organizations.

The State Department declined a request for comment, citing Morris's privacy.

Over the past year Morris has traveled to the U.S. to discuss Colombia's human rights issues with officials at the Pentagon, Department of State, Congress and White House. In January of this year he lunched with Deputy Secretary of State James B. Steinberg in Bogotá, according to the Washington Post. In 2007, Human Rights Watch gave Morris the annual "Human Rights Watch Defender Award."

In February 2009, the Colombian press unleashed a nation-wide scandal when it reported that the DAS had been carrying out widespread illegal wiretapping, email interceptions, surveillance, and threats against people viewed as critics of President Álvaro Uribe, a list that includes Supreme Court judges, presidential candidates, journalists, and human rights defenders.

Morris -- whose television show Contravía has been critical of the Uribe government and has denounced alleged ties between paramilitaries and members of the government and armed forces -- was a primary target of DAS wiretapping and surveillance. Documents obtained by Morris from the Colombian attorney general's office, which is investigating the DAS, indicate that the intelligence agency orchestrated a smear campaign against Morris that included instructions to link him to a FARC video and "press for the suspension of the visa."

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-schoening/hollman-morris-colombian_b_645911.html