DhafirTrial

by Stephen Lendman OpEdNews.com 1/18/07

With all the customary pomp and pageantry accompanying the occasion, the 110th nominally (first time in 12 years) Democrat-led Congress convened on Capitol Hill on January 4. It was done much the same as in earlier years except for the first time ever a woman took the gavel after being elected Speaker of the House in a final vote known weeks in advance killing any suspense about its outcome. (more…)

This letter was sent to the Syracuse Post Standard and the New Times on 1/17/07 (Published by the Post Standard 1/19/07. Published by the New Times 2/21/07.)

Dr. Rafil Dhafir, a local oncologist, was convicted of white-collar crime but the government touts his case as a success in the War on Terror. Thus he is now serving 22 years in prison for a crime that he was never charged with in a court of law. From the outset the government’s goal was a terrorist conviction and it intentionally misled the judge, the jury, the media and the public. (more…)

Dr. Dhafir has been in prison 15 months since his sentencing (47 months since he was arrested) and we have been unable to move forward with the appeal because we don’t have the transcripts essential to the appeal process.The government is contesting an award by the appeal court to grant Dhafir transcripts at the expense of the court and it will be too costly and time consuming for us to fight this. (more…)

Felicity Arbuthnot Uruknet 11/17/07

“You angels,
Pure ones,
Liberators,
Leaders … (more…)

Dr. Dhafir and the Help the Needy case are covered in “Satanic Purses: Money, Myth, And Misinformation in the War on Terror.”Thomas Naylor, McGill-Queen’s University Press (August 3, 2006).

Chapter 14: Neither to Give nor to Receive — Requiem for Islamic Charity in the US? (more…)

By John Pilger New Statesman, U.K. 1/18/07

‘In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes the warnings of genocide in Gaza, and the suffering of 1.4 million Palestinians living a “life in a cage” as the world looks on. He quotes Israeli journalist Amira Hass on the experience of her mother in a Nazi concentration camp and the Germans who watched, “looking from the side”.’ (more…)

By Michel Chossudovsky ICH 1/17/06

At no point since the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, has humanity been closer to the unthinkable, a nuclear holocaust which could potentially spread, in terms of radioactive fallout, over a large part of the Middle East. (more…)

While Lt. Ehren Watada awaits his fate at a court martial at Ft. Lewis, Washington in February, American citizens, including Iraq War veterans, will come to nearby Tacoma to participate in a Citizens’ Hearing on the Legality of U.S. Actions in Iraq. The organizers of the January 20-21 “tribunal” indicate that it is of particular relevance to military personnel and their families, and welcome their attendance. (more…)