Witness to Abuse - Human Rights Watch

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Five to six cars surrounded my car. The agents pulled out shot guns and told me to get out of the car or they will shoot me. They told me they were about to shoot me. I was dropping off a coworker and she fainted. They had to call an ambulance. I was shackled, surprised. I asked what’s going on? I’ve been so helpful. But three guys told me to put my hands on the car, they patted me down and shackled me. I asked what am I arrested for? Am I charged with something? I am supposed to meet [the FBI agent who was questioning him] at 10. I got no answer. They shoved me against the car and handcuffed me. My friend in the car fainted-they had to call an ambulance. She was unconscious for awhile. She was so afraid in the car. I was taking her to work because there was so much hostility. After she had been harassed she was intimidated to go to her workplace. They didn’t tell me why I was arrested—they said they’d explain in the main office. They didn’t read me Miranda rights. I got in the car. They were so disrespectful and so rude. They told me to “shut the fuck up.” 119 Albader al-Hazmi On September 12, 2001, Dr. Albader al-Hazmi, who was living with his wife and young children, woke up in his house to five FBI agents with guns drawn. A medical doctor doing his residency in San Antonio, Texas, al-Hazmi had no previous criminal record or interaction with the FBI. The government based its arrest of al-Hazmi on the fact that he shared the last name of one of the hijackers and had been in phone contact with someone at the Saudi Arabian Embassy with the last name “bin Laden” (which is a common Arabic name). 120 After the government arrested al-Hazmi, agents searched his house for twelve hours, turning his house “upside down,” with little regard for his wife 119 HRW/ACLU telephone interview with Mohdar Abdullah, Yemen, August 25, 2004 (Interview with Mohdar Abdullah). 120 “Responses of Gerald H. Goldstein, attorney for former material witness Albader al-Hazmi to Senate Judiciary Committee,” U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Department of Justice Oversight: Preserving our Freedoms While Defending Against Terrorism, Dec. 4, 2001. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VOL. 17, NO. 2(G) 38
and young children. 121 He was detained for two weeks in jails in Texas and New York before being released. He never testified before a grand jury or court. Brandon Mayfield When FBI agents arrested Oregon immigration and family attorney Brandon Mayfield at his law office, a group of agents searched his cars, law office, and home. Although Mayfield tried to keep his client files confidential, federal agents seized almost all of his files. Meanwhile, Mayfield’s wife, Mona Mayfield, was at their house as dozens of agents searched it for more than five hours. FBI officials forced her to sit at the kitchen table and restricted her movement as they searched and seized items: A half hour [after the federal agents entered], twelve other agents came in … Two agents told me to sit at the table. The FBI said that we need to contain the situation, and I could not watch. They searched the house from 10:30 to 3 [p.m.]. I asked if I could make a phone call; they said no … I told them I needed to go and pick up the kids. They told me if you leave that you cannot come back. So I stayed until I could. They were everywhere, and they piled all of our stuff in the living room. … I asked to make phone calls. At first they would not let me. Eventually they let me call Brandon’s mom. I guess they were questioning her too and would not let her pick up the phone, so I left a message. So then the phone rings and I pick it up and it’s Mike Isikoff from Newsweek. He started asking all these questions. I asked the female agent what’s going on? How did Isikoff know? She just said I don’t know. They wouldn’t let me pick up the phone again. 122 “Evansville Eight” The FBI frequently has transported witnesses to detention centers in a manner consistent with the assumption that they were criminal suspects who posed a serious 121 HRW/ACLU e-mail interview with Dr. Albader al-Hazmi, Dharan, Saudi Arabia, April 22, 2004 (Interview with Dr. Albader al-Hazmi). See also Ellise Pierce, “Coming Home,” Newsweek Web Exclusive, available online at: http://www.msnbc.com/news/637609.asp?cp1=1, accessed on April 20, 2004 (Pierce, “Coming Home”) (“There were six men with guns. They asked me if I knew Mohammed Atta and I said that I’d never heard that name. They mentioned another name, Khalid-something, and I said I never heard that name.”). 122 HRW/ACLU interview with Mona Mayfield, wife of material witness Brandon Mayfield, Beaverton, Oregon, July 22, 2004. 39 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VOL. 17, NO. 2(G)
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Page 3 and 4: Summary After I got in the cell I w
Page 5 and 6: were almost all the witnesses Musli
Page 7 and 8: combination with having worked in t
Page 9 and 10: Recommendations The recommendations
Page 11 and 12: o requiring the government to infor
Page 13 and 14: eflects a compromise between an ind
Page 15 and 16: the witness for immigration or prob
Page 17 and 18: those suspected of committing a cri
Page 19 and 20: Arizona, and Florida, where the nin
Page 21 and 22: testimony—you get fingerprints, y
Page 23 and 24: The FBI appeared to believe that Ma
Page 25 and 26: interrogating him, without counsel,
Page 27 and 28: Jose Padilla On May 8, 2002, the Ju
Page 29 and 30: The Justice Department has often st
Page 31 and 32: criticism on the conduct of Assista
Page 33 and 34: government failed to take Diab’s
Page 35 and 36: Eric Sears, a former federal prosec
Page 37 and 38: sentencing. The judge finally got a
Page 39: accompanied by extensive searches c
Page 43 and 44: High Security Conditions of Detenti
Page 45 and 46: Harassment and Abuse in Jail Many m
Page 47 and 48: uised. See id. In the elevator, the
Page 49 and 50: In practice, then, court approval o
Page 51 and 52: I kept asking what am I being charg
Page 53 and 54: As Mark Foster, the lawyer for one
Page 55 and 56: Federal marshals transferred the ei
Page 57 and 58: [T]he government filed all their pa
Page 59 and 60: Federal agents have also refused to
Page 61 and 62: In many cases, the trauma of forcef
Page 63 and 64: In January 2002, another hotel gues
Page 65 and 66: abuse, international human rights 2
Page 67 and 68: It is not clear why the courts have
Page 69 and 70: Things go on behind those doors tha
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Page 73 and 74: Detaining Witnesses Who Cooperate w
Page 75 and 76: stayed with the FBI agents for eigh
Page 77 and 78: government, “I’m not coming.”
Page 79 and 80: armed forces for several years and
Page 81 and 82: Congress included the deposition re
Page 83 and 84: X. Haste, Incompetence, Prejudice:
Page 85 and 86: government’s basis was weak. Thes
Page 87 and 88: target, 272 the state police ordere
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told them I told them I had no idea
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y subletting their apartment. Altho
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The post-scripts to the stories of
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I could not ask questions. What’s
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Ayub Ali Khan and Mohammad Azmath A
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get all these kinds of questions—
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Human Rights Watch and the American
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