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Posted 9:09 AM by Mary

Please sign a petition on Amnesty International's website for all governments not to enter into US impunity agreements

Today, Tuesday 17 September 2002, Amnesty International launched a worldwide petition for individuals around the world to call on all governments to refuse to enter into impunity agreements currently being proposed by the United States not to surrender US nationals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes to the new International Criminal Court.

The petition is located on the AI website - and national Amnesty International websites. After approximately 1 month we will submit the final petition to all governments. We also intend to submit those signatures received by 27 September to EU Ministers of Foreign Affairs who will meet to consider the issue on 30 September.

We will of course keep you up to date with the progress of this initiative.

Thank you!
Jonathan O'Donohue
Assistant Legal Adviser. International Justice Project. Amnesty International

Posted 9:02 AM by Mary

HOUSE GOP LEADERSHIP TO BRING JONES `CHURCH-POLITICKING` BILL TO FLOOR WITHIN WEEKS. RELIGIOUS-RIGHT RALLIES GRASSROOTS TO SUPPORT H.R. 2357, from Interfaith Action Alliance:

In a stunning backroom political maneuver that could hand the Religious Right lobby their biggest win in years, Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) reached an agreement with the House leadership to allow him to bring the ``Houses of Worship Political Speech Protection Act,`` H.R. 2357, directly to the House floor for a vote. The vote is expected within days of the House returning from their August recess.

Caving to the demands of the Religious Right, Jones and the GOP leadership, three of whom are sponsors of the bill, have chosen to bypass the committee process by scheduling the bill for a vote under suspension of the rules in early September. Due to legal and ethical concerns, as well as widespread opposition to the bill from religious and faith-based organizations, the influential House Ways & Means Committee had held the Jones bill in limbo for nearly a year, refusing to schedule the bill for a committee vote.

With 128 co-sponsors to date, the threat of the Jones bill receiving the required two-thirds vote of those present on the House floor is very real. Senators Bob Smith, Jesse Helms and Tim Hutchinson also recently introduced companion legislation in the Senate. Crafted by attorneys from Pat Robertson`s American Center for Law and Justice, H.R. 2357 would radically alter the tax code by allowing houses of worship to endorse political candidates, lobby for legislation, create political action committees (PACs) and funnel political donations to partisan political causes and candidates. Currently, houses of worship have an `absolute prohibition` on partisan political activities. Despite the rhetoric surrounding this legislation, however, there is nothing in current law that prohibits houses of worship from speaking to issues of the day.

TIA supporters are urged to use our Interfaith Action Center to send an email to their member of Congress alerting them to the upcoming floor vote and asking them to stand up for religious liberty and the integrity of houses of worship by voting NO on H.R. 2357. Your action on this bill today is more important than ever. We also urge you to use the ``Tell-a-Friend`` option to spread this alert to as many allies as possible.

The Christian Coalition, Concerned Women for America and Coral Ridge Ministries are all working together to pass H.R. 2357. To date, they claim to have collected nearly 100,000 petitions in favor of the bill. Your actions today could not be more important to the defense of religious liberty and the separation of church and state!

Sample letters
HR 2357
Dr. Gaddy`s testimony before the House Subcommittee on Oversight

Posted 10:54 AM by Mary

WHY ARE THESE MEN STILL IN SOLITARY?

Ayub Ali Kahn, Mohammed Azmath, and Ehab Elmaghraby have been in solitary confinement in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) for nearly a year, with no immediate relief in sight. Are they violent criminals? No. Have they been linked to terrorism? No. Are they Muslims? Yes.

In the weeks after September 11, 2001, the Immigration and Naturalization Service detained nearly 1200 Arab, South Asian, and Muslim immigrants around the country. Many of the men in that initial roundup were sent to the MDC, a maximum-security federal prison in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. One by one they have been transferred from solitary to the general prison population, returned to the community, or deported-all but these three men. There they sit in their 5-by-8-foot cells, with nothing to read but the Koran and an occasional newspaper. Their cells are lit 24 hours a day. Their windows are painted white. "Recreation" consists of standing alone in a small cell for half an hour a day. They get one 15-minute personal call a month. Sometimes the guards wake them up during the night for no reason, adding terror to the uncertainty of their situation.

Elmagrahby and Khan have pleaded guilty to minor white-collar crimes. Azmath is expected to do the same shortly. None of these men have been connected to terrorism in any way despite months of FBI interrogation.

Elmagrahby's lawyer says that he is "a polite, gentle man, in no way violent," yet he is shackled hand and foot whenever he leaves his cell. He recently got a letter from his sister in Egypt, who reported that his father was gravely ill in the hospital and his mother was "crying, crying all the time." His sister begged him to call home, but the warden refuses to allow him an additional social call until next month. Ehab is growing despondent and says that the only thing that keeps him from suicide is his faith..

Mohamed Azmath and Ayub Khan (Gul Shah) worked as news vendors in the Newark train station. They both had box cutters in their possession when they were profiled and arrested the day after the attacks on the World Trade Center. Like Ehab, they have been interrogated repeatedly by the FBI and spent nearly a year in solitary confine- ment. They have been cursed and threatened, thrown into walls, and told by guards they would be killed in jail.

Amnesty International notes the increasing use of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons. Solitary confinement is a violation of international conventions, and cruel and unusual punishment by any moral standard. Human beings are social animals, and prolonged isolation often results in psychological breakdown. Prisoners become suicidal, acutely depressed, and mentally unstable.

Retribution is not justice. We must fight to get these men out of solitary confinement and into the general prison population. We must end this nightmare of secret detentions. We must free the MDC 3.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP THESE MEN

Call, write, or fax these people. Tell them to immediately transfer Ayub Ali Kahn, Mohammed Azmath, and Ehab Elmaghraby out of solitary confinement and into the general population of the Metropolitan Detention Center. End this unjust confinement now.

Kathleen Hawk Sawyer, Director, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 320 First St., NW, Washington, DC 20534, Tel: 202-307-3198
Senator Hillary Clinton, 780 Third Avenue, Suite 2601, New York, NY 10017, Tel: 212-688-6262, Fax: 212-688-7444
Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, 268 Broadway, 2nd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11211, Tel: 718-599-3658; Fax: 718-599-4537
Congressman Jerrold Nadler, 201 Varick St., Suite 669, New York, NY 10014, Tel: 212-367-7350, Fax: 212-367-7356

For more information, contact JusticeForDetainees@hotmail.com or 718-482-3157.

******
SAMPLE FAX/LETTER TO DIRECTOR SAWYER FOLLOWS

Kathleen Hawk Sawyer, Director Federal Bureau of Prisons
320 First St., NW Washington, DC 20534

Dear Director Sawyer:

Ayub Ali Kahn, Mohammed Azmath, and Ehab Elmaghraby have been in the Special Housing Unit in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) for nearly a year, with no immediate relief in sight. They are confined to
5-by-8-foot cells. Their windows are painted white, the lights are on 24 hours a day, they have little or no reading material, and they are allowed only one personal phone call a month. Elmagrahby and Khan have pleaded guilty to white-collar crimes. Azmath is expected to do the same shortly. None of these men have been connected to terrorism despite months of FBI interrogation, nor are they violent. It seems that they are being subjected to this inhumane form of punishment for one reason only: they are Muslims.

Amnesty International notes the increasing use of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons. Solitary confinement is a violation of international conventions, and cruel and unusual punishment by any moral standard. Human beings are social animals, and prolonged isolation often results in psychological breakdown. Prisoners become suicidal, acutely depressed, and mentally unstable.

You have it in your power to transfer these men to the general population of the MDC. Please do so. Democracy cannot exist without justice, and retribution is not justice.

Sincerely,