On Saturday, members of Friends of Human Rights, The Committee to stop FBI Repression and other organizers held a public program at the First United Church of Tampa. They called the event "U.S. War on Terror", and the question posed was, who are the real victims? Mass incarcerations in the U.S. are no secret, but there are an estimated 80,000 prisoners currently being held in solitary confinement in America, a number of them accused of being suspected terrorists.
Among those in attendance was Nahla al-Arian, the wife of Sami al-Arian, the former USF professor and political activist who for the past two decades has been fighting for his freedom after being accused of terrorism charges. In February 2003 he was arrested on 17 counts of suspected terrorism, which ultimately resulted in a 57-month sentence after he pled guilty to one count of aiding a designated terrorist group (his jury trial failed to find him guilty of anything, as the jury deadlocked on a number of counts and threw out the rest). In 2006 he was subpoenaed to testify about Muslims affiliated with terrorist groups in Virginia. He refused to testify and was imprisoned again for a year for two counts of criminal contempt, and then placed on house arrest for a number of years.
Ms. Al-Arian says that this experience nearly destroyed her family, but that she and Sami still believe in America. They had to sell everything they owned; it has cost them over a million dollars to cover legal and living expenses. She says, “The community didn't know how to deal with a family of political prisoners; they just wanted us to disappear.”
Last June, after more than a decade of being in the legal system, all of the charges against Al-Arian were dropped. The family signed a government agreement to be deported to another country. They are still looking for a place to go. Ms. Al-Arian says, “We came to America when we were very young, we grew up here.” She believes we must all work together to fight social injustice and racism - “look at what happened in Ferguson, we must be objective and unbiased.” She believes people of all religions and backgrounds should denounce terrorism.
The Al-Arians will have to move far away from all of their children and friends. She says they cannot return to Palestine, because they are “considered refugees, and their country is being occupied by Israel.” Egpyt was an option until the military coup took place last year. She says that Egypt is not opening their boarders to Palestinians. Canada she says, “even Canada is pro-Israel…maybe Mars.”
Hatem Fariz, a co-defendant of Sami Al-Arian was also found not guilty, but spent what he called a horrific three years in solitary confinement at a the Federal Correctional Complex in Coleman, Florida. He expanded on the enormous cost and resources needed for suspects such as him to defend themselves. He says that he did not have the financial resources, and his community was too afraid to help for fear of future retribution, so he decided to get a public defender. He says, “My case cost the public defender’s office $7.5 million dollars of your tax money.”
Farez says the conditions he stayed in were unlivable. “The rats, they live with you, right next to you.” He said that hsi cell is no more than two arms length long, with a cement bed, a metal table and toilet, two fifteen minute phone calls a month, and one month’s wait to see a doctor if you are ill. Most of the literature requested or sent in by family is deemed inappropriate and sent back, he said, and in some cases inmates are not allowed to read, speak or even pray in their own language; instead they must do everything in English. They are under camera video and sound surveillance twenty-four hours a day, there is no air conditioning or heat, and they never leave their cell. They even have to shower in their cell. When transported, they are taken underground in tunnels away from all the other inmates. Visits with family were done over the phone from behind glass.
Faraz described the situation as unfortunate for those who just want to help, such as Sami and himself. They send money overseas so that people can eat, have fresh water, not to kill people. He says also, “Sami was outspoken, so they didn’t like him.”
Avni Osmakac, a local St. Pete resident, spoke about his brother, also named Sami, who has been in solitary confinement for two years even though seven doctors have diagnosed him as mentally ill. Jared Hamil, member of The Committee to stop FBI Repression, says the FBI took advantage of Sami’s mental illness and entrapped him by forcing him to carry out fake plots that they in fact created.
Avni says that his brother was approached by an informant and brainwashed for sixteen months and was then promised a job. He believes his brother was forced to say things on camera that made him appear guilty. “Everything in the videos is what they want you to see. You don’t see what goes on in the background. My brother turned them down three or four times, but they pushed him by offering him a trip to Mecca to find help.”
He says the video surveillance of Sami refusing to help them by becoming an informant himself, conveniently disappeared the day he was arrested. When it was time to go to court, the informants also disappeared. One was said to have gone to Palestine and the other came down with brain cancer. Avni believes they are probably working on another case. He says his family has had to sell everything they own for four different lawyers, but nothing is happening.
Tracy Molm with The Committee to stop FBI Repression spoke as well. Four years ago she and twenty-three other anti-war and international solidarity activists were summoned to appear in court. Several of their houses were raided by the FBI who seized their work material, member lists, computers and even personal photos and notebooks.
A year later everything was returned once copies of everything were made. She says she isn't sure what will happen in the future. "We don’t even have a clue of the incident or what we did that was illegal.” She says there haven’t been any new subpoenas, so it may have been shut down, but from what she gathers the precedent for terrorism cases take anywhere from eight years to an indefinite number of years.
Laila Yaghi, a single mother and teacher, explained her son’s situation by video. After visiting Egypt with a friend he was accused of terrorism activity. His charge is as follows, “A conspiracy to provide material support to an unknown terrorist organization, at an unknown time in an unspecified place.” When he refused a plea bargain, which he felt was immoral, because he would have had to lie about himself and his co-defendants, he was sentenced to 31.5 years. She says, with the plea deal, if he had lied he would have only been given two years.