DhafirTrial

Katherine: My video interview of Help The Needy (HTN) defendant Ayman Jarwan’s lawyer Jim McGraw is available on YouTube. (more…)

[Katherine: Below is a letter from Rafil about his transfer and new prison situation at Terre Haute, Indiana. The first part of the letter was written around December 17, 2006; it was completed on January 18, 2007 and received on February 3, 2007.]

I am writing you from Terre Haute, Indiana where I was just moved. I was put in isolation for 2 days before the move in what I know now was a nationwide operation to put Muslims/Arabs in one place so that we can be closely monitored regarding our communications, be it our phone calls or visits or correspondence. (more…)

Below is a link to a January 2007 radio interview of Katherine Hughes, court watcher in the Help the Needy Muslim charity case. Hughes was one of a core group of about 12 court watchers, several of whom attended almost all of the 17-week trial – from October 2004 to February 2005. Please ask your local radio station to air the 30-minute interview. (more…)

[KH: This is a letter to the BOP by a coalition of organizations concerned about civil liberties concerning the “suppression of prisoner contacts.” We don’t yet know if this program has any relation to the “Communication Management Unit” program that Rafil is being held under. Rafil appears to be getting mail that is sent to him, but since his December 18, 2006 letter no-one has heard from him. He does have one short phone call a week, but no contact visits. And all correspondence must be in English.] (more…)

Link to an interview of Katherine Hughes by Marianne Barisonek of KBOO Portland, Oregon, available here (30 minutes). Katherine was just one of a core group of 12 court watchers, several of whom attended almost all of the trial.

CORRECTION: In this interview, from memory, I gave the incorrect amount of depleted uranium dropped on Iraq during the Gulf War. The correct number is 300 tons and the half-life of depleted uranium is 4.5 billion years. For more informaton see this BBC report: Depleted Uranium Weapons — a BBC investigation by Angus Stickler. (more…)

We still have had no news from Dr. Dhafir since a December 18th, 2006, letter letting us know he had been moved to Terre Haute and is being held in a seperate section of the camp with other mostly Arab/Muslim prisoners. This “experiment” is ordered by the Attorny General and for three weeks we have been unable to find out any more about it.

Please continue to write to Dr. Dhafir to let him know that he is not alone and not forgotten: Rafil Dhafir, 11921-052, FCI Terre Haute, P.O. Box 33, Terre Haute, IN 47808

A video interview with attorney Jim McGraw, counsel for Ayman Jarwan in the Help the Needy charity case, will be available through a link on this site in the next day or so. Ayman Jarwan was released on December 22, 2006 after serving 15 months, he continues to be held awaiting deportation.

Also coming (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…)