Got this off salon:
Reno Blocks Palestinian's Release in Florida
Updated 12:21 PM ET December 12, 2000
BRADENTON, Fla. (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno blocked on Tuesday the release of a Palestinian
man who has been jailed in Florida for more than three years on secret evidence alleging he is a terrorist, immigration
officials said.
Mazen Al-Najjar's wife, three children, relatives and friends had gone to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization
Service (INS) detention center in Bradenton on Tuesday morning with an $8,000 check and were waiting to post his
bail when Reno issued the order blocking his release.
No charges have ever been filed against Al-Najjar.
Immigration Judge R. Kevin McHugh had ordered Al-Najjar's release on Dec. 6, but an INS appeal board issued a
stay the same day. The panel lifted its stay on Monday and Al-Najjar's release was set for Tuesday. Reno's order
remains in effect at least until Friday.
"We're very disappointed. They've been fighting this every step of the way," said Sami Al-Arian, Al-Najjar's
brother-in-law.
Al-Najjar, 43, has been jailed since May 1997. He was teaching Arabic at the University of South Florida in Tampa
when his visa expired in 1997. He was ordered deported, then jailed without being charge after INS attorneys
presented secret evidence to McHugh which they said proved Al-Najjar had ties to the Syrian-based Palestinian
Islamic Jihad.
In addition to the secret evidence, the INS has cited Al-Najjar's membership in the World and Islamic Studies
Enterprise, a Tampa think tank. Another member of that group became head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in 1995.
Al-Najjar has denied having any involvement with terrorists and his case has been championed by civil rights groups.
McHugh has said previously the evidence presented in public did not prove the INS' charges. Last week, he said
Al-Najjar should be freed on bail because the summary of the secret evidence given to Al-Najjar by the INS was
insufficient to let him defend himself. Al-Najjar and his wife, who is also Palestinian, came to the United States 20
years ago from the Gaza Strip, which was then under Israeli occupation but is now part of the territory controlled by
the Palestinian Authority. Their three children were born in the United States.
Even if Al-Najjar is freed, he and wife face deportation hearings but they said they have no country to go to.
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What Janet is saying, in so many words, is:
"We're just going to keep you in jail because we feel like it, and we can. We haven't brought you to trial or even charged you in the three years we've kept you in prison. Hell, we haven't even told you what you've done wrong. We haven't shown you, anyone that could help you, or anyone not involved in our operation against you, for that matter, that we have strong evidence against you. But we'll just keep you in the ol' lock-me-up anyway because we think its best and since you might know some people who might be involved in one of these groups, we guess no one here is really going to give a ****."
What do they mean, "had ties to the Islamic Jihad?" If he were a member (is this even a crime, anyway?), they'd have said that instead. Sounds like he isn't a member, but knows someone who is. Sounds to me like they won't charge him because they can't, because he's done nothing wrong. Sounds to me like the only reason to keep him in prison is to find out what he knows, out of the public eye. And I hope you know what that means.
Who said "Judge a society by how it treats its prisoners?" I forget at the moment, but those words ring true. I'll see you in Hell, Janet.__________________
...Heil Janet!
/Me thinks Janet will be on a plane out of this country by Jan 20 to somewhere without an extradition treaty...__________________
http://www.ilovebacon.com/noway/051700.shtml
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