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============================================== 1. Fill the court for Lynne Stewart starting Monday, 6/21/04 2. Keep up the pressure for Ansar Mahmood's deportation to be deferred 3. October 22 Inductees, Saturday, 6/12/04 4. "American Gulag," book on immigration detention, by poet and activist Mark Dow ============================================== 1. Fill the court for Lynne Stewart starting Monday, 6/21/04 A message from activist attorney Lynne Stewart: As you may be aware, my trial is about to start, June 21 Jury selection and June 22 Opening Statements. I am anxious to organize around this date and get some momentum to carry us through the 4 - 6 month ordeal. As my teacher, friend and member of my advisory committee, Arthur Kinoy, always told us - we win these cases outside the courthouse. Inside though, we are facing a vicious, no-holds-barred, Ashcroftian prosecution-persecution. By trying to link me with worldwide terrorism for my ethically-required lawyer to client behavior, they hope to see me in jail for 45 years. Michael Tigar, Jill Shellow Levine and the whole legal team are doing their utmost to prevent this. I continue to speak publicly demanding justice. We need to enlist you, too. These are some of the things we hope you might be able to do. 1. Schedule a forum, or a vigil outside your local federal court to coincide with June 21, the day of final jury selection or June 22, the day of Openings. We can supply you with dvds or videos of Lynne speaking, literature, an Opening Day Flyer to reproduce locally etc. 2. Gather support signatures, addresses, with emails and addresses to get updates (daily by Blog) at the website. 3. We are considering a full page in the New York Times, at the beginning of Lynne Stewart's testimony (sometime in August) We envision $200 contributions from 200 people to swing this. Let us know what you think - to whom it should be directed - content. 4. Organize People to attend the trial. We need a strong and steady presence. It is a long haul to sustain this, but so is the potential time I'm facing!! Get it out on your email list and to personal contacts. The trial week is Monday through Thursday, 9:30 - 4:30 with 4th of July and Labor Day as 4 day weekends. If you're coming to give Dubya a piece of your mind at the RNC, come on down to Foley Square - we're air conditioned! Just check the web site for what is happening. We hope to have videographers and documentarians present on Monday and Thursday to record instant impressions, insights and good wishes. We hope to have events, entertainment and etc. during some evenings. But mostly we need PEOPLE to demonstrate their support by sitting (bring a cushion) in the Courtroom. You can co-ordinate with Pat (212-625-9696 or patlevasseurp@aol.com) if a large group is planning to come on a given day. You can designate your day ie. Quaker Day, Brooklyn Day, New Jersey Day, Feminist Rads day ... This is history and I invite you to join me in making it! 5. Always need money. Run a film or a strawberry festival to raise money for the Lynne Stewart Defense Fund. Everything costs, as we all know! Tax Deductible large amounts can be made payable to the National Lawyers Guild Foundation (just make sure to put Lynne Stewart Defense Committee on the memo line) and mail to the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee at 351 Broadway, 3rd fl., New York, NY 10013 or just make you donation payable to The Lynne Stewart Defense Committee and send to the same address. A final word, now that summer is here and there is so much that is horrid confronting decent thoughtful, caring Americans - election of Bush II, the Iraq war, and the other flagrant issues - I do beseech you to remember USA v. Lynne Stewart and do whatever you can to protect the right to counsel - I need you - you need me - we all need each other! And WE CAN DO IT! Come and Fill the Courtroom for The Trial of Lynne Stewart United States District Court Southern District of New York 40 Foley Square, New York, NY Rm. 110 (the old federal courthouse) Hon. John G. Koeltl presiding Monday, June 21 - Seating of Jury Tuesday, June 22 - Opening Statements - 9 a.m. Closest Subways: 4,5 or 6 to Brooklyn Bridge or the A, C or E to Chambers 1 or 2 to Franklin N or R to City Hall For more info go to: www.lynnestewart.org or call 212-625-9696 The Trial is expected to last from 4 to 6 months. We suggest you get to court by 9 a.m. although proceedings may not begin until 10. We need to keep a steady presence of support for Lynne Stewart in the courtroom. There will be a lot going on in New York City this summer) take a break from the sun and come to court! ==> Lynne Stewart will be on the Laura Flanders show on Air America, WLIB 1190, on Sunday, June 13, 7-10 pm, joined by Michael Ratner, who will talk about the importance of the case and put it in a larger context (it's also his birthday). ============================================== 2. Keep up the pressure for Ansar Mahmood's deportation to be deferred For information on supporting Ansar, contact the Chatham Peace Initiative at http://www.chathampeace.org/ A 9/11 Lesson: Don't Photograph the Water [Photo: Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times. Ansar Mahmood at a federal detention center. The idea that he was a terrorist was quickly dropped, but he was charged with helping Pakastani friends whose visas had expired.] By LISA W. FODERARO New York Times, June 6, 2004 [Photo:Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times. The treatment plant where Mr. Mahmood took pictures. At the time, terrorism fears included the possibility of poisoned drinking water.] HUDSON, N.Y. - On a cloudless autumn day three years ago, Ansar Mahmood, a pizza deliveryman for a Domino's near here, took a few hours off from work to snap pictures of the Hudson River amid the foliage, to send home to his family in Pakistan. Mr. Mahmood had seen the view from a customer's house on Rossman Avenue, but was told it was even better up the street. So up he went, to a bluff overlooking the river and the Catskill Mountains next to some official-looking buildings. He said he knocked on a door and asked an employee to take his picture. "He said, 'Of course, of course,' " Mr. Mahmood recalled. That moment marked the end of Mr. Mahmood's brief American dream, as he stumbled into a vortex of fear, politics and deportation proceedings. The official-looking buildings turned out to be a water-treatment plant for the city of Hudson. The crisp afternoon fell exactly four weeks after Sept. 11, when the nation was panicked at the possibility of more terror attacks, including poisoned drinking water. And Mr. Mahmood - who had hit the ultimate jackpot for a young Pakistani when he won a green card through a lottery - was suddenly from the wrong part of the world. Any notion that Mr. Mahmood was tied to terrorism quickly evaporated into the fluorescent ether of the Hudson police station. But he was soon charged with helping Pakistani friends whose visas had expired, an offense that led to his detention and pending deportation. With his arrest, Mr. Mahmood became part of the wave of Arab and Muslim aliens and citizens who were detained for questioning in the two months after Sept. 11. A United States Department of Justice report estimates that 1,200 people were rounded up, but advocates for the detainees say the number was much higher. Like Mr. Mahmood, many were then prosecuted for immigration violations or past crimes. But the moment also thrust him into the embrace of a local community of peace activists who took up his cause with a gritty intensity. They circulated petitions and propelled Mr. Mahmood's story into a number of national media outlets. They strategized in weekly meetings and button-holed politicians in an effort to prevent his deportation, recently winning letters of support from seven United States senators, including Hillary Rodham Clinton. They became so fond of Mr. Mahmood, a slight 26-year-old with a searching gaze and a quick grin, that they have traveled hours, individually and as a group, to visit him at a detention center outside Buffalo. One supporter awaits his call every Thursday between 2 and 4 p.m. Another sent him a copy of the Emily Dickinson poem "Hope Is the Thing With Feathers." "We started doing this from an abstract, idealistic point of view - that they can't pull someone off the streets of Hudson, that it was racial profiling - and all of that is still important," said Susan Davies, a supporter who prodded her fellow advocates from the nearby Chatham Peace Initiative to rally around Mr. Mahmood. "But since then we've gotten to know Ansar very well," she added. "He's very spiritual and loves beauty and that's why he took that picture that got him into trouble in the first place." When Mr. Mahmood returned to the Domino's in Greenport later that evening, on Oct. 9, two police officers were waiting for him. (A treatment plant worker had reported him after he left.) The next 24 hours, he said, were a frightening blur. He was handcuffed and placed in a holding area at the police station, in Hudson. There he was questioned by a stream of federal agents who had converged on this quiet city in Columbia County, a popular antiques center 109 miles north of New York City. They wanted to know why he was interested in the water-treatment facility, what connection he had to the World Trade Center attack. Mr. Mahmood recalled explaining that he did not even know that there was a water-treatment plant. Eventually, the investigators found that he was just a hapless immigrant taking pictures. As Senator Charles E. Schumer wrote in March, calling for his release, Mr. Mahmood was "cleared by the F.B.I. of any suspected terrorist activity, including tampering with the water supply." But during a search of Mr. Mahmood's apartment, law enforcement officials uncovered evidence that he had helped a Pakistani couple by co-signing their apartment lease and registering their car in his name. In an interview from the detention center in Batavia, N.Y., Mr. Mahmood said he was a good friend of the couple's: the woman's brother was his best friend in Pakistan. But he said that he did not know they were here illegally, explaining that it would have been rude to discuss their immigration status. "They never ask me if I have a green card, and I cannot ask them either," he said. Mr. Mahmood was then charged with harboring illegal aliens, which is a felony, and following the advice of his court-appointed lawyer, pleaded guilty. In January 2002, he was sentenced to five years' probation and time served. But by pleading guilty, he was automatically subject to deportation and detention. One of nine children from a poor family in Punjab, Mr. Mahmood is now waiting for the federal Department of Homeland Security to decide whether he can somehow find a way back to his former life. It was a life in which he worked up to 14 hours a day, earning enough money to send home $400 to $500 a month to his ailing parents. The money had allowed his three younger sisters to attend good schools for the first time. "Everything was looking up," he said, and his family had begged him to send home photographs of the Hudson region where he had settled. Through a new lawyer, Mr. Mahmood has asked the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, to release him despite his guilty plea. Specifically, he is seeking to have his deportation deferred, a rare status that would allow him to stay in the country with working papers under a supervised release. "It's very discretionary," said his new lawyer, Rolando R. Velasquez, who took the case pro bono. "It's something that is only used in exceptional circumstances, and we're hoping that this qualifies." A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Michael W. Gilhooly, said that the agency could not act on Mr. Mahmood's petition until an appeal that he has pending in federal court is withdrawn. Mr. Velasquez said the appeal would be withdrawn shortly. Mr. Mahmood's supporters, who recently worked through a 21-point agenda at a weekly gathering in the village of Chatham, are optimistic. "They can't afford to deport him, not in the face of Abu Ghraib and seven senators," said Bob Elmendorf, a retired state employee and the one who reserves Thursday afternoons for their phone conversation. Indeed, the latest coup was a May 21 letter of support from five Democratic United States senators addressed to the homeland security secretary, Tom Ridge. The letter - signed by Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey, Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin and Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont - cited a report last year from the Justice Department's own inspector general that criticized the roundup and detention of hundreds of Muslim and Arab immigrants after Sept. 11. The report, the letter said, "noted that 'it is unlikely that most if not all of the individuals arrested would have been pursued by law enforcement' but for the Sept. 11th investigation and that 'some appear to have been arrested more by virtue of chance encounters ....' " Mr. Mahmood's core group of seven supporters has tried to keep the heat on. In late May they organized a call-in to an immigration official in Buffalo, and they are now arranging a tour of the detention center. They have also assured federal officials that Mr. Mahmood will be well positioned upon his release. "He has at least 10 to 15 offers of a place to live and all kinds of offers for jobs," said Azim Goldrick, a handyman who has visited Mr. Mahmood four times. Not everyone in Columbia County believes Mr. Mahmood should be allowed to stay, however. Robert Nedwick, a 32-year-old construction worker, lives on Rossman Avenue near the water-treatment plant. "He got caught trespassing and that led to this other thing he got in trouble for," he said. "If you break the law, you should be punished." But his supporters are encouraged that they now have more than 2,000 signatures on a petition. And their unrelenting advocacy will continue, they say, until Mr. Mahmood is released or deported. "There have been thousands of deportations since 9/11 for very bureaucratic reasons and glitches," said Marcie Gardner, a supporter. "But he is someone taken from our midst. He was taken 20 minutes from where I live, and that's not O.K." ========================================================= 3. Sat, 6/12/04, 4 pm: Stolen Lives Induction Ceremony [Farouk will be there too.] Since the last Stolen Lives Induction Ceremony in March 2003, police in NY & NJ have killed at least 27 more! This Saturday, take part in the moving ceremony that honors the lives and families of people killed by law enforcement: June 12, 2004, 4:00pm Cuyler Warren Street United Methodist Church 450 Warren Street, Brooklyn (F/G to Bergen Street - if weekend Brooklyn-bound F service skips the stop, get off at 7th Avenue and commute Manhattan-bound back to Bergen or transfer to the A/C at Jay Street to Hoyt-Schermerhorn) Confirmed Stolen Lives inductees so far: * Egbert Dewgard, Jr., killed by NYPD May 1, 2002 * Lamar Wayne Grable, killed by Detroit police Sep 21, 1996 * Jose Luis Ives, Jr., killed by Weehawken, NJ police July 24, 2003 * Stefanos Kiladitis, killed by NYPD June 19, 2002 * Gonzalo Martinez, killed by Downey, CA police Feb 15, 2002 * Allen Newsome, killed by NYPD Jan 2, 2003 * Jamil Moore, killed by NYPD Sep 1, 2002 * Alberta Spruill, killed by NYPD May 16, 2003 * Timothy Stansbury, Jr., killed by NYPD Jan 24, 2004 * Santiago "Chago" Villanueva, killed by Bloomfield, NJ police April 16, 2002 * Calvin Washington, killed by NYPD June 20, 2003 Supporting families attending: * Milta Calderon, mother of Anibal "Junior" Carrasquillo * Marian Ebron, mother of Maliki Raymond * Andreyeva Fields, mother of Andre Fields * Debbie Harris, mother of Andre "Woody" Harris * Nicholas Heyward, Sr., father of Nicholas Heyward, Jr. * Abellard Louisgene, sister of Georgy Louisgene * David Muniz, father of Frankie Arzuaga * Jackie Nixon, aunt of Jamel Nixon * Margarita & Antonio Rosario, parents of Anthony Rosario and aunt of Hilton Vega * Maria Santos, mother of Jose Santos, Jr. * Juanita Young, mother of Malcolm Ferguson Guest Presenters: * Ninaj Raoul, Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees * Lynne Stewart, National Lawyers Guild, civil rights attorney Cultural Performers: * Kongo * Mahina Movement * reg e gaines * Sisters in the Spirit ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE STOLEN LIVES INDUCTION CEREMONY The Stolen Lives Induction Ceremony is an occasion in which recent and past victims of police killings are formally inducted into the roster of the Stolen Lives Project. The Stolen Lives Induction Ceremony is both an affirmation of life and a call to action. It brings together family members to a space in which the humanity of their loved ones lost at the hands of the police is acknowledged in contrast to the demonization by the powers-that-be. This and the previous Stolen Lives Induction Ceremony also calls attention to how under the current conditions of repressive legislation and a declared "war on terrorism," tremendous latitude has been extended to police forces around the country. Here in the New York and New Jersey area, over 80 cases of police killings since September 11, 2001 have been documented. THE STOLEN LIVES PROJECT The mission of the Stolen Lives Project is to assemble a national list of people killed by law enforcement agents from 1990 to the present. Through grassroots efforts, over 2000 cases were documented in the second edition of the Stolen Lives book, which was published in 1999. Although just the tip of the iceberg, these 2000+ are evidence of a horrifying national epidemic of police brutality. The victims of police violence were part of our society, but rarely are their lives or names publicized, or the real circumstances surrounding their deaths investigated and made known. The Stolen Lives Project aims to restore some dignity to the lives lost. Though their lives have been stolen from us, we will not allow them to be forgotten. SECOND VOLUME OF THE STOLEN LIVES BOOK The Stolen Lives Project aims to speak for victims of police brutality and murder, their families and loved ones, and for all of us who demand justice. The second edition of the Stolen Lives book documented over 2000 cases in the 1990's alone. The second volume to this book is now in the works, and volunteers are needed to help with the research and editing. Please contact the National Office at 1-888-NO-BRUTALITY or office@october22.org for more information. Visit the website at http://stolenlives.org or the national website at http://october22.org Contributions to this project are also needed. Checks or money orders (tax deductible) should be made out to "Stolen Lives/IFCO/Oct 22" and mailed to October 22 Coalition, P.O. Box 2627, New York, NY 10009 ___________________ Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation No More Stolen Lives! October 22 - Wear Black! http://october22-ny.org ========================================================= 4. "American Gulag," book on immigration detention, by poet and activist Mark Dow Now Available in Bookstores American Gulag: Inside U.S. Immigration Prisons by Mark Dow You can also order on-line from the publisher -- and read chapter 7, "The Art of Jailing" -- at http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/10041.html. Mark Dow was on Leonard Lopate's program on Tuesday, 6/8/04. You can hear the interview at http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/06082004 ========================================================= Committee for the Release of Farouk Abdel-Muhti PO Box 20587, Tompkins Square Station, New York, NY 10009 Phone: 212-674-9499 * Email freefarouk@yahoo.com Websites: www.freefarouk.org * freefarouk.netfirms.com ========================================================= |
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