Author: mopress

Email from John Wheat Gibson

To all interested in the bond hearing of Salaheddin Ibrahim in the Immigration Court at Dallas, Texas:

We just received notice of the true reason the Immigration Court Clerk postponed the date of Salaheddin Ibrahim’s custody hearing from today (7 February 2007) to tomorrow. The BICE came up with two witnesses today that it wants to have testify why Mr. Ibrahim should be kept in prison. The Gestapo wants them to testify by telephone. Obviously, the Gestapo wanted more time to bring in these witnesses, and was not ready yesterday.

John Wheat Gibson

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Note: In a follow-up phone call, Gibson says he received a fax about 2:30 pm from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Chief Counsel advising him that Deportation Officers McCormack and Gilberg would be testifying about Salaheddin Ibrahim’s “flight risk and danger to the community.”

The testimonies will be conducted telephonically to accomodate the schedules of the officers.

Salaheddin’s brother Ahmad said he cannot imagine any serious issues that could be presented.

“My brother is a legal resident of the USA. His children haven’t seen him for three months. He needs to go back to his family,” said Ahmad.

A Texas Civil Rights Review Editorial

See hearing reports below.

By Greg Moses

GlobalResistanceNetwork / ILCA Online
IndyMedia Houston / NorthTexas / Austin / L.A. / NYC

After two months of investigation, knocking on 170 doors, serving folks with orders to divulge their votes, swearing them to oath under penalty of law, and chewing over everything with the finest teeth that money can buy, the ousted opponent of newly elected Texas State Representative Hubert Vo now claims loudly to have “irrefutable proof” that Vo actually lost the election by “at least five votes.”

The conclusion is announced with fanfare and jubilation, because if it stands the test of a legislative hearing, it will unseat an immigrant legislator in Texas who represents for the first time in more then 30 years an actual increase of Democrats in the statehouse.

Never mind Vo’s detailed reading of the same evidence, showing once again that he won the election by some 30 votes. What’s sad about the contest that heads into hearing Jan. 27 is that so many voters have been put through so much for so little result. Even the opposition camp admits that their best-case evidence fails to support claims of “widespread fraud” that they were slinging last month.

Instead of grand voter theft, the Republican strike team presents us with a tawdry series of common error and low-level cheating worthy of a robust election among free peoples. Nearly half of ballots alleged to be illegal involve 154 folks who registered one place but moved to another. That’s 154 folks out of 41,000 who might have gone back to their old neighborhoods to vote.

“Thus, a dark and troubling cloud looms over the purported outcome of this race because of the enormous number of illegal ballots which were cast and counted,” complains the First Amended Petition. True enough, people should vote where they live, but if they do go back to their old neighborhoods to vote, what kind of cloud do they drag with them? Is this behavior so scandalous as to draw down the scrutiny of an entire legislative investigation, knocking on doors, and taking names?

“Because the margin of difference between the two candidates is only .04%,” argues the defeated Republican, “even the slightest irregularity in voting has the potential for reversing the outcome.” But, on the other hand, we’d like to know, how did the election get to be so close, with a 22-year incumbent running in a district that had been drawn up under his watch?

Inflated concern over the tiniest irregularities cannot distract from the embarrassment of political errors that must have brought the challenger to this place, where in order to extend a political career by two years he should be making a historical record out of the names of American voters who failed to update their registrations, placing into public view on the internet not only who they are but how they voted.

I am tempted at this point to exaggerate the scandal of this contest by publishing in this paragraph the names of folks who crossed back into old neighborhoods to vote straight ticket Republican. But their names are already too easy to find. It would be better I think to simply call off the dogs, cancel the hearing, and get on with the job of making better laws. Okay, so we have attack-dog lawyers in Texas. Can’t the Republicans find them something better to do?

Go for Vo: an online petition in support of State Rep. Hubert Vo has been posted by Houston 80-20 PAC. See story below.

Follow the contest at the legislative website.

Email from Riad Hamad, Palestinian Children’s Welfare Fund

Dear Friends,

I hope that all of you are safe and well and enjoying a peaceful week with your families. As you probably heard the Suleiman family was deported to Jordan on Monday of last week and they are now in Amman, Jordan penny less with no home, no car, no clothes and no jobs which is not very encouraging.

Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund works ONLY inside Palestine and we made an exception for these families due to the severe hardship imposed on them and the fact that children were put in jail which was unbelievable and moved us to provide help to them.
Mr. Suleiman called me three times from Jordan so far asking for help in shipping their furniture in order for them to have some sort of normalcy back into the lives of the children and to give them some sense of security. PCWF paid for the airlines tickets for the children to accompany their mother as they are U.S citizens and the government would not pay the tickets to deport them. On the other hand, we contributed to their personal expenses and legal fees which is mounting and taking away from funds that we usually send to the children in Palestine who are in dire need these days.

Please let me know if any one from the Arab, Muslim or Palestinian community is willing, able or desire to help in any way to send money for the family to eat and live with dignity till the man finds a job in Amman. Also, we need some help in finding a shipping company to send their furniture as so far, we can only find companies that charge nothing less than 4000 dollars to pick up the furniture from Dallas to Houston and then to Agaba, Jordan and then to Amman.

Personally, my financial situation is in shambles due to my commitments in Palestine and beyond any means of helping this family anymore. I would greatly appreciate any ideas from you on how to get help for these families and I will be glad to provide you with their account number in order for anyone to put the money directly in their accounts.

It is very important that we live up to our promise to them when they were in jail that we will help them and for the sake of the children who were forced out of their homes, schools and deprived of their dignity for several months. We will be glad to forward the money to them on your behalf and provide you with a tax exemption if you wish and like always, ALL the donations will be posted on the website for transparency and accuracy.

Looking forward to hearing from you and SHUKRAN in advance for your generosity, work and support for the children in Palestine

Salamat
Riad Hamad

http://www.pcwf.org, http://www.marhabafrompalestine.com , Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund. 201 W. Stassney # 201, Austin, Texas 78745 Support the children of Palestine by buying Palestinian arts and crafts. Sustain the Palestinian economy and provide jobs for the men, women and farmers in Palestine to live with pride and dignity TILL WE RETURN.