Witness to Abuse - Human Rights Watch

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One cannot help but ask whether ignorance and prejudice about Muslims in the United States and men of Middle Eastern or South Asian descent has helped color the analysis of the government in these cases. The witnesses’ religion and national origin has taken on excessive and unwarranted significance, as agents have become suspicious of the most innocuous of activities. Many of the cases suggest the government has paid scant heed to either the constitutional or the international prohibitions on discrimination on the basis of religion, national origin, or ethnicity. Whether it was possessing a box cutter, taking pictures of a bridge, or playing soccer early in the morning, the most innocent conduct has aroused the government’s suspicions when undertaken by people who fit a certain religious and ethnic profile. Innocent people have also became the hapless victims of the government’s zeal because neither the Justice Department nor the courts have honored the letter and spirit of the material witness rules that protect everyone’s right to freedom. Disregarding the requirement that arrests and incarceration not be used if there were some other way to secure the testimony has meant the unnecessary arrests and detentions for scores of men. Denying witnesses access to information and keeping the proceedings buried in secrecy has also meant the Justice Department’s mistakes have not been rectified as quickly as they might otherwise have been. Many of the cases already described in this report suggest the extent of the government’s errors. Additional ones include the following: Abdullah Tuwalah and Salman al Mohammedi In 2003, the Department of Justice was conducting a grand jury investigation into the alleged criminal activity of Ali Saleh Ali Almari, a Saudi Arabian national who was a student at Marymount College. Federal agents suspected Almari of assisting terrorist plots as an operative, although they only charged him with running a college test-taking scam—selling test answers to college students. 259 In connection with the grand jury investigation, the Department of Justice arrested a number of material witnesses, including two other Saudi Arabian and Muslim students at Marymount, Abdullah Tuwalah and Salman al-Mohammedi. According to the lawyers for the two students, the FBI’s main argument for arresting the two witnesses was that they knew Almari through the Muslim society at school. Fred Sinclair, who represented al-Mohammedi, told HRW/ACLU: [I]t was guilt by association. He knew someone who knew someone … If anything, my guys may have partied with [Almari] … The 259 Bret Ladine, “Saudi Man with Hub Ties Held in Alleged Test-Taking Plot,” The Boston Globe, June 29, 2002. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VOL. 17, NO. 2(G) 82
government’s basis was weak. These people go to school together. Al Mohammedi was social with him through their Arab groups. If he was not an Arab friend of al-Mohammedi, I don’t think the government would have any suspicion. 260 Denise Sabagh, who represented Tuwalah, was similarly dismissive of the government’s case: It was pretty vague—it was more tenuous than al-Mohammadi. They said that he knew some person that knew some person that may have known anything. The affidavit also said they found some flight manuals and magazines with Osama bin Laden’s picture. But it was so tenuous. The magazine was Time or something from the Saudi Embassy and [Tuwalah] had come to the United States originally to attend flight school. 261 Neither Tuwalah nor al-Mohammadi was ever brought before the grand jury, much less ever charged with any crime. After months of detention, during which they were repeatedly questioned by the FBI, they were released. 262 Ahmed Abou El-Khier On September 14, 2001, the government arrested Ahmed Abou El-Khier after a clerk at a motel in College Park, Maryland called the FBI authorities to report that he looked suspicious. 263 (After the September 11 attacks, many Middle Eastern and South Asian men have become the victims of public suspicions based on no more than their appearance.) 264 Although El-Khier was a paying guest at the motel, the Justice 260 HRW/ACLU telephone interview with J. Fredrick Sinclair, attorney for Salman al Mohammedi, Alexandria, Virginia, August 17, 2004. 261 HRW/ACLU telephone interview with Denise Sabagh, attorney for material witness Abdullah Tuwalah, Washington, D.C., August 18, 2004. 262 Both Tuwalah and al-Mohammedi were held as material witnesses for about six weeks. 263 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Ahmad Abou El-Khier, Passaic County Jail, Paterson, New Jersey, October 2001 (Interview with Ahmad Abou El-Khier). For newspaper accounts of this case see: John Cloud, "Hitting the Wall," Time Magazine, November 5, 2001; vol. 158, no. 20; Patrick McDonnell, "Nation's Frantic Dragnet Entangles Many Lives Investigation: Some Are Jailed on Tenuous ‘Evidence,' Their Opinion of America Soured," Los Angeles Times, November 7, 2001; Jodi Wilgoren, "Swept Up in a Dragnet, Hundreds Sit in Custody and Ask, `Why?,'" New York Times, November 25, 2001; and Josh Gerstein, "Cases Closed: In Immigration Cases, Information on Hearings and Court Records Is Restricted," ABCNews.com, November 19, 2001. 264 “Presumption of Guilt.” 83 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VOL. 17, NO. 2(G)
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Human Rights Watch June 2005 Vol. 1
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Summary After I got in the cell I w
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were almost all the witnesses Musli
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combination with having worked in t
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Recommendations The recommendations
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o requiring the government to infor
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eflects a compromise between an ind
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the witness for immigration or prob
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those suspected of committing a cri
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Arizona, and Florida, where the nin
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testimony—you get fingerprints, y
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The FBI appeared to believe that Ma
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interrogating him, without counsel,
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Jose Padilla On May 8, 2002, the Ju
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The Justice Department has often st
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criticism on the conduct of Assista
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Page 41 and 42: and young children. 121 He was deta
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
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Page 59 and 60: Federal agents have also refused to
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Page 63 and 64: In January 2002, another hotel gues
Page 65 and 66: abuse, international human rights 2
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Page 79 and 80: armed forces for several years and
Page 81 and 82: Congress included the deposition re
Page 83: X. Haste, Incompetence, Prejudice:
Page 87 and 88: target, 272 the state police ordere
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Page 93 and 94: y subletting their apartment. Altho
Page 95 and 96: The post-scripts to the stories of
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Page 99 and 100: Ayub Ali Khan and Mohammad Azmath A
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Page 103: Human Rights Watch and the American
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