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Oggetto: [stop-polabuse] Letter to Chicago Activists for Justice, from Rabih Haddad
Data: sabato 9 febbraio 2002 6.36
Subject: Letter to Chicago Activists for Justice, from Rabih Haddad
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2002 03:59:04 EST
From: CABNstopthehate@aol.com
The following is a letter sent by Pastor Rabih Haddad from his cell at the
Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in downtown
Chicago. Haddad is well known in the Ann Arbor/Detroit area as an
ecumenical leader and assistant Imam of a local mosque. He is
co-founder of the Global Relief Foundation, the second largest Muslim
charity in the U.S., which has had its assets frozen since
December 14th, even though the government has yet to produce any evidence
against it.
Haddad, along with thousands of others, has been racially profiled by our
government for being Arab and Muslim. He has been
locked up in solitary confinement since December 14th, without criminal
charges, denied bond, without the government releasing
any of the alleged "evidence" against him. The Detroit Free Press, Detroit
Metro Times, Congressman John Conyers and the ACLU
have sued Atty General Ashcroft to open the heretofore closed court
hearings, which even his family, let alone the rest of the public
and press, have been barred from. For more information, please go to the
following URL:
<>http://chicago.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=7428&group+webcast
While Mr. Haddad's letter is initially addressed to one member of the
Chicago Coalition Against War & Racism (CCAWR), it's really to
all who are working defend civil liberties and end racial profiling.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jan. 27, 2002
Dear Mr. Thayer,
Thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful letter of Jan. 22. I do
greatly appreciate your interest and efforts for my release.
Please extend my regards and gratitude to all members of CCAWR.
I am sorry to say that I was not able to see the protests because the
window in my cell is "Whited out" to allow light in but not for me to
see anything out. I was able, however, to hear about it from other inmates
who own small radios and heard it on the news.
Allow me to take this opportunity to bring you slightly into my world here
at MCC Chicago. I am in a 6' x 9' solitary cell that seems to
have been designed for extremely violent or extremely troublesome
inmates. The bed is situated in the center of the room with about
a foot and a half on either side of it to the wall. The bed is a metal
slab with four legs bolted to the floor and fitted on all four corners
with special fittings to hold straps if it should become necessary.
I have a camera fixed on me right outside my door that has completely
deprived me of any kind of privacy since that door has a small
window which allows them to check and see if I'm still there around the
clock. It's for my safety, they say.
I am allowed one 15 minute call to my family every 30 days. My food is
handed to me through a slit in the door 2-1/2" x 12". The
same opening is used to put the cuffs on me before the door is opened for
any reason. I am allowed 3 showers a week for which I
have to be cuffed to walk 10 paces to the shower that has a door similar to
my cell's door. I'm only un-cuffed after I'm inside and the
door is locked.
I also get 1 hour of recreation 5 days a week, and what a joke that is. I
am led, cuffed, from my cell to a cage (literally) just down the
hall which is the same size as my cell. In it is a homemade stationary
bicycle that has no resistance and thus is worthless for
exercising. I have to wait until the cage is empty because I cannot be put
in there with anyone else, for my own safety, they say.
I have made numerous pleas to the warden and others to let me speak with my
family once a week, but my pleas have fallen on deaf
ears. I have been under these conditions for the past month and a half,
which can drive a person to the extreme limits of his/her
mental, emotional, and psychological capabilities.
Where do we draw the line between justice and oppression? Between
prosecution and persecution? Is due process supposed to serve
society or is society supposed to be enslaved by "due process"? Many people
on this side of the fence, I'm sorry to say, have become
Pavlovic dogs of sorts when it comes to "due process." I have been treated
like the worst criminal you can imagine when I have not
even been charged with a crime, save overstaying my visa, which I was in
the process of remedying.
All of this has done nothing but harden my will and strengthened my resolve
to overcome and persevere. Your efforts and the efforts
of others are like torches of hope that light my way in this deep and dark
tunnel that I've entered and I am eternally grateful for that.
Please convey my warmest greetings and thanks to all those who planned,
participated or supported your efforts. May God bless you
all.
Sincerely,
Rabih Haddad
P.S. Please forgive my spelling. I did not realize how dependant I've
become on my computer's spell-check until now.
P.S.2 I forgot to mention the waves of cockroaches that invade the cell
at night and crawl all over everything, including me.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
PLEASE TAKE ACTION NOW:
Join a solidarity protest at the Immigration & Naturalization headquarters
in downtown Chicago at 12 noon next Tuesday, Feb. 12 --
10 W. Jackson Blvd. On this same date in Detroit, Haddad's wife, Salma
al-Rushaid, faces a deportation hearing along with three of
their four small children. The family's attorneys believe such action is
virtually unprecedented in a case such as theirs, and points to
a retaliatory motivation for the government's actions. As al-Rushaid is
from Kuwait, and Haddad is from Lebanon, a successful
deportation could permanently break up the family.
You can also help support Rabih Haddad by sending a letter to him at the
following address:
Rabih Haddad
#30189-039
Metropolitan Correctional Center
71 W. Van Buren Street
Chicago, IL 60605
As several letters sent to him have not delivered by the prison
authorities, we strongly recommend that you send letters via certified
mail, return receipt requested. Please consider enclosing a money order
made out to him also. In order for him to mail stuff back, he
needs to purchase stamps from the MCC commissary. That's also the only way
he can get all but the most basic toiletries and other
goods - nothing can be sent in from the outside, aside from reading materials.
Write/call/fax the following officials and demand that they stand up for
fair treatment for Rabih. No prisoner should be treated this
way. MCC officials claim he is in solitary confinement "for his own
protection," but then why the punitive visitation policies? Why the
humiliating shackles? ...all for a man who has no criminal charges.
Address messages of protest to:
Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney, Northern District, Illinois
219 S. Dearborn St., 5th Floor, Chicago 60604. Phone: (312) 353-5300 Fax:
(312) 353-2067
Metropolitan Correctional Center, 312-233-0567. Push option 4 for "staff
directory," and ask the operator if you can speak with Mrs.
Kenner, the warden's secretary. Fax: 312-322-0565