Texas Civil Rights Review

Category: Uncategorized

  • HLF Trial: A Witness to Justice

    By Dr. Asma Salam

    God is great! The Judge has declared a mistrial in the Holy Land Foundation case. It does not sound like victory; however, when you look at the details, then we realize that it is a true victory, since not one guilty verdict was found against 197 charges against the defendants of Holy Land Foundation (the Largest Muslim Charitable organization in America).

    Monday Oct 22 was a morning of test and patience for Muslims and their non Muslim friends at the Federal curt building at 1100 commerce St in Dallas. We all arrived their before 10:00am. Regardless of arriving early none of us got to sit in the court room, since we were told that it is reserved for the family, also we were not allowed on the 16th floor to observe it on video as we were told that it is reserved for media.

    I did not understand the discouragement of friend’s support at the crucial moment of these defendants life. It is the same court room where we all sat with the family for many days during the trial. Anyways, we all went to the first floor and were removed from there as well. Finally, we ended up at the cafeteria area with no TV monitors to watch or hear what is going on in the court room. I am sure most of us were wondering “Are we in America?”

    It was a time to persevere with patience and prayers. Some of us were using cell phones to watch the news coming out of the court room through media. When we all heard that Holy Land Foundation was fully acquitted we all made Sajuood (heads down to floor to praise God). Initially, three defendants were almost entirely acquitted, but a juror poll and further deliberations resulted in an entirely hung jury on all counts.

    All praise to God, this trial is the biggest trial against a Muslim charity in the history of the US, and today I feel that there is hope people are still capable of thinking and utilizing their god gifted talents of analyzing the facts and not playing with the lives of innocent people who are just being wrongfully charged for helping orphans and widows.

    I am very happy that Jurors were not biased by the wrong information and bad image that has been portrayed deliberately by some private parties to destroy the hard work of Muslim Americans who take America as their beloved country and take pride to follow the freedom of religion to help each other grow stronger.

    Inshallah (godwilling) there will be no trial again. Amen. I have regained hope and this event has reaffirmed my faith that the public will understand that it is a wastage of our tax money and these defendants lives, since for last 13 years and for so much wastage of money and resources the prosecutors have no solid evidence except their prejudice and hatred against Muslims.

    It is time for all Americans to show our strength in diversity to accept each other as humans and not let the administration violate our rights to live and practice religion in freedom in our homeland America.

    Anyways, it was a moment to thank God for his grace and mercy to see four defendants sitting among family and friends after Isha prayer Monday night at the Richardson Mosque. We pray that Br. Ghassan, the fifth defendant, will join them soon and fill the seat that was left empty by his friends with his name on it in Monday’s get together.

    Monday night at the Mosque, at the family fellowship with our Holy Land Foundation leaders felt like an Eid celebration. It is an extended Eid celebration for all Muslims to believe in the power of justice and prayer and to humble ourselves in front of God and not to give up our unity and good work in the fear of injustice and mistrust in our administration.

    This victory is not a small victory, it is a tremendous achievement in the environment of paranoia against Muslims in America and world. Inshallah (godwilling) justice will prevail. Amen. Inshallah we will all live once again in America with respect and love for each other regardless of our color and creed. Amen.

    If you would like to learn about defendants our community leaders and their great work to feed orphans and widows and their contributons in promoting health and quality of life in the death vally of 21st century please click on these links.

    http://www.h4jusa.com/

    http://freedomtogive.com/mufid

    http://freedomtogive.com/shukri

    http://freedomtogive.com/mohammad

    http://freedomtogive.com/ghassan

    http://freedomtogive.com/abdulrahman

    http://www.muslimlegalfund.org/links.html

  • South Texans at School of the Assassins Protest

    By Nick Braune

    The School of the Americas (SOA) housed in Fort Benning, Georgia is sometimes called the School of Assassins. Over recent decades it has taught “counterinsurgency” techniques, torture, surveillance, and assassination skills to Latin American soldiers. I interviewed Dr. Guy Hallman, a scientist and a political activist from McAllen who recently returned from the Georgia protest.

    Author: Guy, I know that you and your wife have just returned from the annual School of the Americas protest, and judging from the SOA Watch website, it looks like it was a success this year.

    Hallman: Every year the numbers grows. This year 25,000 protestors attended. The SOA is widely known for causing damage in Latin America, and the blowback hits us. US citizens have been killed by SOA graduates in El Salvador, for instance, and SOA grads have put their US taxpayer-funded education to the service of drug lords in Colombia and Mexico. Why is the U.S. still funding this school?

    Author: I know you have traveled to Fort Benning, Georgia each November for several years. What is it about this event that attracts you?

    Hallman: I keep going back because it is the premier annual progressive event, as far as I know. Although the main issue is closing the SOA — our side was only 11 votes shy in the House this year — many other issues are raised during the four day event.

    For instance, our group from the Valley brought the No Border Wall issue to the SOA and got a very good reception. The Immokalee farm laborers from Florida were present. (There is a Valley group supporting those farm workers by protesting Burger King for not raising the wages of tomato-pickers.) There were workshops on defeating torture, on anti-military recruitment, building coalitions, nonviolent resistance training, etc. There were movie screenings. I counted over 100 events not including the main march on Sunday! So, it is an important, well-rounded, progressive event.

    Author: Who were some of the other attendees?

    Hallman: Well, two presidential candidates were there: Democrat Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney. (SOA protest pictures are on the Green Party website right now.) Congressman Jim McGovern, who is the chief sponsor of bills to close the SOA, was also present.

    A group of 27 came from St. Joseph Academy in Brownsville. There are many other interesting people there. There was one person who is suing the Fort Benning base for all the restrictions they are imposing on demonstrators. He was seen engaging military guards in conversation through the 3-layer fence, but he scared them off instead. It seems if the guards can’t shoot somebody, they don’t know what to do.

    Author: The SOA protests used to be viewed as mainly a Catholic event, but it is a lot wider now, isn’t it?

    Hallman: Yes, and the fact that the SOA was founded by a priest, Fr. Roy Bourgeois, may even keep some away who do not wish to identify with his church. The church might be seen as losing its way since John Paul II was elected pope; I mean, look at what a bad job our local bishop Pena is doing on justice issues — but I digress. Surely many Catholics are there, but people of different faiths or no faith participate in the event and have major roles in it.

    A prominent rabbi, Michael Lerner, for instance, spoke about the Network of Spiritual Progressives (spiritualprogressives.org) urging a strategic vision of a progressive future. It is not enough to attack the badness of Bush, etc., but we must offer a replacement. I can’t do his presentation justice in this short space, but check his website.

    Author: I understand the local police are always dreaming up some new rule for the demonstrators, and they even had a rule limiting the sizes of crosses people could carry. [Many demonstrators carry crosses with names of people killed by SOA graduates.]

    Hallman: Yes, the cops always have something new, trying to keep us afraid and in line. Oh, and this year there was a counter-demonstration, “God Bless Fort Benning” day. “Dr.” Laura Schlesinger was there, dressed in cammies, for the “God Bless” event. Some of her ravings were disgusting.

    Author: Yes, she is a joke. If she was their highlight, their counter-protest was pretty pathetic.

    Hallman: The “God Bless” rally with Laura Schlesinger, was corporate sponsored (defense contractors “giving back” a little, but with tax deductions), but if not for some soldiers there [for free food], no one would have joined Dr. Laura’s counter-protest.

    Author: Thanks, Guy, for this interview. And I thank the 25,000 protestors at the School of Americas (School of Assassins) this year.

  • Denzel Washington’s ''The Great Debaters''

    Beauty from the Heart of Texas

    By Greg Moses

    CounterPunch

    Over at the Internet Movie Database, redneck trolls are saddling up their cyber posse to go night riding on the message boards against Denzel Washington and “The Great Debaters.” All of which is a good thing if you like to see relevance in contemporary art. Because deep down, “The Great Debaters” is a film about how to grow yourself into a real person despite the needlers, taunters, and brutes who dominate the space around you — and who dominate it, still.

    Passion, poetry, learning, and love. These are the things you must keep working at. “The Great Debaters” is about never being deterred. In art, thank goodness, we are graced to craft images of humanity into beauties that last. And the beauty of Professor Melvin B. Tolson in “The Great Debaters” is heroic as it should be.

    Okay, so the actual Wiley College debate team from Marshall, Texas didn’t actually debate the actual Harvard College debate team in or about the actual year of 1935, as the actual movie shows. But what Tolson and his students did achieve was just as beautiful as the film portrays. The students and scholars of the most unlikely little community in NorthEast Texas embodied the Harlem Renaissance. They breathed in the mighty poetry and aspirations that had converged upon Lenox Avenue, and they gave back to the world tiny seedlings of a civil rights movement that would make history, yes, upon brand new roots. And they were great debaters.

    If “The Great Debaters” has not been able to satisfy internet demand for documentary accuracy, that’s a good thing again; because now there is opportunity to nourish that appetite. The more you get to know the actual beauties of these folk and their work, the less the film will appear like exaggeration. The more you’ll see that the film did the best it could do in two hours’ time to share with you the force of spirit that was distilled among the children and grandchildren of slaves.

    Pecking through the internet, I’m locating a handful of seeds to get you started on your East Texas victory garden. The University of Illinois has a good starter page on Melvin B. Tolson. There you will notice that many of Tolson’s poems did not make it into print during his lifetime.

    The Center for East Texas Studies has a good starter collection of materials about James Leonard Farmer, Sr. I have linked to the “historical marker” page, but if you navigate to the Farmer root directory, you’ll find a nice collection of texts and pictures. For example, I like what the Bostonia file says about the sermons of Farmer Senior:

    “No printed copies of those sermons have been uncovered, but poet Melvin Tolson, on the Wiley faculty during the 1930’s, offered another glimpse in his Washington Tribune column, ‘Caviar and Cabbage,’ describing Farmer’s Mother’s Day 1938 sermon: ‘I was thrilled,’ Tolson wrote, ‘by this vivid picture of Jesus the young rebel,’ who dearly loved his mother while battling the convention of his time.”

    Notice on the big screen how much smiling goes on between Tolson and Farmer Senior when the subject of Jesus comes up. Glimpse the game they play within a close intellectual relationship. In fact, Farmer Senior was a great scholar of the Gospels, which is another story altogether. A clip of the film scene, featuring the two academy award winning actors Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker, is widely available on the internet.

    The autobiography of civil rights activist James Farmer, Jr. is rich with early memories of black college campuses, not only in Marshall, Texas. Here’s a link to the publisher’s page for “Lay Bare the Heart.”

    During the 1930s, a federal work program collected slave narratives in Texas, which have been typed up and stored at the Library of Congress. Here’s a link to the index of that collection. Could it be the case that so many former slaves of Harrison County Texas actually had the failing memories they reported to federal writers?

    And Salatheia Bryant of the Houston Chronicle offers a fine writeup on the “real” woman debater of Wiley College, Henrietta Bell Wells. Of the film says Ms. Wells: “I hope I live up to the ideals in it.”

    So please don’t bother believing what the bigots tell you about this film, not even the trolls who claim to have Harvard degrees. You don’t have to be Black to feel beautifully about Denzel Washington’s fine new film, “The Great Debaters.” The “message” of this film is for anyone who still desires the capacity to dream higher than what you already are.

    See Also: Philadelphia television reporter Tamala Edwards presents a more personal report on “Ma Wells.”

  • Immigration Persists in Effots to Dope and Deport Albanian Refugee

    If this Court grants the Plaintiff’s request for authorization to drug Rrustem Neza so Plaintiff can deport him without his protest, then the deportation will deprive the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and the BIA of jurisdiction of the actions now pending before them to prevent the deportation of the Defendant. As the Appendix demonstrates undeniably, “If Rrustem Neza is returned to Albania, he very likely will be killed on account of his political activities related to the Hajdari assassination.” Affidavit of James Pettifer, Exhibit 6 to the Appendix to Amended Motion to Reopen on Account of Changed Circumstances, which is Appendix 1 to the Appendix to Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss, Motion for More Definite Statement, and Reply to Motion for Preliminary Injunction.

    Excerpt from Rrustem Neza’s Oct. 22, 2007 reply to continuing legal efforts to dope and deport him to Albania.

    See also: Oct. 1, 2007 motion by USA immigration authorities to dope and deport Rrustem Neza to Albania.

  • Hutto First Anniversary Vigil: Until We Free the Children

    Email from Jay Johnson-Castro, Sr.

    Hola ya’ll…

    If we cannot free innocent children imprisoned “for profit” on American soil…right here in the “heart of Texas”…our State and our country are doomed.

    We must free them!

    Many of you have been there since day # one…and already know this. Many are just coming to discover the details. Many of you from all parts of the country have shared in solidarity with us in our quest to free the innocent children from the Hutto prison.

    A year ago, May of 2006, Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff proclaimed the T. Don Hutto prison for immigrant families the prototype of many more to be opened across our great land. Hutto just so happened to be a privately owned prison…run “for profit”. Immigrant children would condemned to becoming a commodity for huge financial gain of the corrupt political-corporate world. A few informed Texans tried to find a way to expose and bring public awareness to this immoral, callous and criminal scheme.

    At that time, children were confined to 8′ x 12′ cold cells for 23 hours a day in a medium security prison surrounded by razor wire walls. Often not with either parent, the children, ranging from 2-y-o and up, were forced to wear prison uniforms, stand for head counts starting at 5:30am and only allowed 20 minutes to finish a meal, often prepared with out of date food and spoiled milk products. They were getting sick on a regular basis and loosing weight.

    Those were the conditions…up to early December, 2006 when an alliance of Central Texas organizations solidified to form Texans United For Families (TUFF) collaborated to hold a protest walk and vigil. Starting with a press conference, hosted by Texas State Senator, Carlos Uresti, at the Capitol building, the first Hutto walk was launched on December 14th. Arriving at 11:00am on December 15th, in Taylor, TX at the Hutto childrens prison, the walk joined the first Hutto Vigil…with some 150 grassroots citizens coming together for the first time to publicly condemn the Chertoff-ICE-CCA-Williamson County collusion to imprison children and their mothers for profit.

    Since that time numerous vigils and walks have been conducted. The most recent walk, Hutto Walk III, went from the Hutto childrens prison in Taylor to the Williamson County Commissioners Court in Georgetown, in order to confront the commissioners about moral breakdown and their complicity of profiting from the imprisonment of innocent children.

    Since the first Hutto Walk and Vigil, many things had come to light.

    1. ICE funnels a minimum of $2, 800,000 per month to the private prison company CCA…Corrections Corporation of America.
    2. Parents were often separated from their children.
    3. Fathers are generally imprisoned in a different prison far away.
    4. Hutto did not comply with Texas or US educational laws.
    5. Hutto did not comply with Texas family and day care laws.
    6. Women were not being given proper medical care.
    7. Women were chained to beds while undergoing checkups.
    8. Women were being sexually assaulted.
    9. Media was not allowed to tour the facilities.
    10. Hutto did not comply with the UN Rights of the Child.
    11. CCA was grossing $7,000 per month per child.
    12. WCC would make $1 per child per day.
    13. No toys were allowed.
    14. Mothers and children were threatened with separation as a form of punishment.

    Under those conditions, at the end of January, 2007, the Williamson County Commissioners Court ignored the expressed concerns of a public with a conscience and extended their one year contract for two more years. But thanks to grassroots citizens, human rights organizations and media pressure, some of those things started to change as early as mid February. Razor wire started to come down, cells doors got painted lavender and the media was allowed to enter the facility…although they were not allowed the freedom of the press to interview the children or their mothers.

    In March, the ACLU, TCRP and UT Law Clinic filed lawsuits against Chertoff and ICE, adding another level of legal and media attention.

    On May 8, the UN Special Rapporteur, Jorge Bustamonte, of the Human Rights Commission, came to Texas to inspect the human rights violations of the children in Hutto. He was denied access by Chertoff.

    On June 23, an Amnesty International coordinated Hutto Vigil X was held at which half a thousand folks peacefully protested this international crime against innocent children.

    The ACLU effectively won their lawsuit against Chertoff…in the form of a settlement. Conditions for the children would be significantly better…but…any settlement would fall well short the rightful freedom for the innocent children that we the public demand.

    Since there was a clear case of sexual assault by a guard on an immigrant woman in front of the woman’s child, the Williamson County Commissioners Court finally saw their could get caught with their pants down. Concern about exposure and “liability” became public. For a short time, the WCCC entertained termination of their contract with ICE and CCA as the money laundering mechanism for ICE and CCA. Yet ICE and CCA courted the WCCC to keep it in the loop…with CCA offering the WCCC a $250,000 line of credit and legally holding them harmless in the event of law suit. Not at all concerned with the moral or criminal aspects, or the international mockery they had become for imprisoning innocent children, WCCC unanimously accepted the offer of protection from “liability”.

    YET…not one national television network has covered this international crime against children. While more concerned this past year with celebrity crimes, paternity DNA, panties, drunk driving, dog fights and heists and jail sentences…CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, Fox…national…have all refused to tell the story of innocent children being prisoners in a privatized “for profit” internment prison in the United States.

    While we recognize that the national networks are complicit with an administration that would commit this dehumanizing crime against the most innocent and helpless of our human family, we applaud all of the local media here in Texas…along with those around the country and around the world. “Hutto” has gone from four Google search results one year ago…to tens of thousands today.

    From Australia to Iran, Russia to Argentina, the media…radio, television, newspapers, magazines and blogsphere… have carried the message all across the planet of how children are being imprisoned in America…in the heart of Texas…for profit. Radio, newspapers, television and online news and blog sources…have faithfully published the story. We also applaud the vast national and international media that has tried to inform their audiences about this American tragedy. We look with cynicism upon the national networks that rebuff this international crime being committed by the administration on American soil.

    We have also had Texas legislators try to condemn Hutto during the legislative session. Unfortunately, and that’s how corrupt politics is, legislators who are on the payroll of private prisons refused to allow the condemnation to be aired publicly.

    This December 16th will be the anniversary of our first Hutto Vigil. We will indeed hold an anniversary vigil…regardless of the weather. Regardless of the weather, the children from upwards of 50 different countries have been imprisoned in Hutto. After months of being treated as criminals and slaves…we don’t even know what has happened to them, or where they are or how they are. Worse yet…the vast majority of our fellow Americans do not YET know that Hutto even exists.

    What’s interesting about this vigil…we have come to learn that it coincides with December 18…the International Migrants Day. How fitting that we would be prote

    sting the imprisonment of immigrant children in the land of the free.

    So, we now notify you…and invite you…to join us on December 16th…in front of the T. Don Hutto prison for innocent children…for our Hutto Anniversary Vigil….and in honor of the International Migrant. We will hold the Anniversary Vigil from 2pm until dark. After sunset, the anniversary vigil will become a candlelight vigil.

    T. Don Hutto is located at 1001 Welch St. in Taylor, TX, 35 miles N.E. of Austin. The following link can be used to get directions from your particular point of origin.

    Before we sign off here, may we all, in total solidarity, make a personal appeal to the President of the United States. Would you join me in requesting his intervention in behalf of the innocent children imprisoned by his Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff? Would you join me in demanding that he order the immediate release…the freedom of the innocent children…from Hutto and from any other facility that detains them against their will?

    Do you, as President of the United States, approve of the imprisonment of innocent children…in America…in Texas…”for profit”? If not, please immediately free them and their mothers.

    If you actually do approve of the imprisonment of innocent children…in America…in Texas…and “for profit”…then we expect you to give them at least as good a deal as you gave Scooter Libby. After all, if you can pardon Scooter Libby…a convicted criminal…before he had to serve even one day in prison, surely you can free innocent children that are already imprisoned under your watch.

    One December 16th…and our Hutto Anniversary Vigil…may we have a 1001 candles lit up and down 1001 Welch St.

    In solidarity
    Jay
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    BorderAmbassadors
    FreedomAmbassadors
    “Connecting the Dots…Making a Difference”
    Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr.
    jay@villadelrio.com
    Please read my column: Inside the Checkpoints