Fri 28 Oct 2005
Excerpts from Dr. Dhafir’s 46 page sentencing statement
Posted by k under By Dr. Dhafir , Site Announcements1 Comment
“It would not have taken much effort, had we been given access to our computers, to show that based on my office’s alleged “improper billing”, for the entire year of 2002 Medicare reimbursement for my services did not even cover the cost of the anticancer drugs we provided to our cancer patients for that year. What this means is that I paid from my pocket for medication to patients and never got paid for it. That also means that all the other services provided by me and my staff were not reimbursed. These services include my time, lab tests, supplies … etc.” P. 4
[Katherine: An investigative reporter with access to the documents would be able to check this statement out.]
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“When I was handcuffed and thrown in the backseat of a car against my will, without explanation, in the early hours of Wednesday February 26th 2003, I was concerned about my wife and my patients who were scheduled to be seen that day. I was told that my wife would be notified. But no solution was offered to care for my patients, hundreds of them, in spite of repeatedly reminding my jailors that there was no doctor available to care for them in that area.
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Eventually scores of patients died due to lack of care and others died grieving over the fact that the only doctor they had was now incarcerated and could no longer care for them. These patients were not Iraqis, Arabs or Muslims, but instead red blooded Americans from all walks of lives. With the shutting of HTN operations, hundreds of thousands of children, women and men suffered. It would be near impossible to count how many of them died. I gathered that no one actually cared. They are foreigners, they are not of us, they don’t look like us nor do they believe as we do. The only concern was to put an end to this demonable Dr. Dhafir.
It would have been a non issue had an alternative doctor been made available or a different relief organization continued the relief work in Iraq. But there was none provided.” P. 14
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“What was the result of Feb 26, 2003 besides imprisoning innocent people? Scores of elderly American cancer patients died needlessly, innumerable tens of thousand of Iraqi needy (children, women and men) died, and more than that suffered malnutrition and the humiliation of poverty. An entire segment of our society here was treated as criminals, intimidated, interrogated and threatened. Never in the history of the Islamic Society of Central New York had we had so many cases of depression and suicide that the mosque had to engage the services of a psychiatrist to help out. the dream of this Republic being a sanctuary for the oppressed was shattered on that day and new sad reality was erected in its place.” P.36
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I harbor no disrespect to the court or anybody but I do have contempt for those who abuse their authority, those who put their personal interest and careers over that of the public, those who trounce upon the very laws they pretend to uphold and for this I pray forgiveness – because we should be free of contempt.
I echo the words of Abdul Rahim Dost, another prisoner of conscience, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle on July 7, 2005:
“Just as the heart beats in the darkness of the body, so I, despite this cage continue to beat with life. Those who have no courage or honor consider themselves free, but they are slaves. I am flying on the wings of thought, and so, even in this cage, I know a greater freedom.” P. 44
Go to: full statement.
October 30th, 2005 at 8:55 am
I submitted the following letter to the Posrt Standard last Thursday (10/28). It was not published.
To the Editor:
Thursday’s sentencing of Dr. Rafil Dhafir came after a lengthy trial in which he was found guilty of white collar crimes, but treated like a terrorist. Dr. Dhafir, a Muslim American citizen, was given a much harsher sentence than others accused of the same crimes. He was charged with violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, as other non-Muslims have been previously, but it is virtually unknown that persons so accused must serve jail time for their alleged offenses.
This raises the question of whether it is still possible for a Muslim to receive a fair trial in the United States. As a Jew who was born in Germany, I saw that it was not possible for Jews to receive a fair trial there well before Nazi persecution turned more deadly. In Germany, this was accomplished by imposing special laws for Jews and other “undesirables”. In the United States, it seems, the same effect is accomplished, not by writing selective laws, but by enforcing existing laws selectively, — increasingly against Muslims since 9/11. This has created a stifling climate of fear among our Muslim neighbors.
The climate of fear that existed in Nazi Germany ensured that few individuals protested these selective laws. One who did so was the Protestant Pastor Martin Niemoeller, who spent eight years in concentration camps for his opposition to Hitler. Upon his arrest by the Gestapo he famously stated: “First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.”
We must remain vigilant and speak out whenever we see injustice in our society. Injustices perpetrated selectively against others must always concerns us, not only because we, too, may become the “others”, but because the erosion of freedom for some signals the loss of freedom for all.
Sincerely,
H. Richard Levy
Professor Emeritus, Syracuse University