In 2007, staff of the Ktziot Prison (located in the Negev desert) brought Israeli military troops into the prison to conduct a night raid on prisoners for the purposes of “building morale”. What resulted after the callously disposed military aggression on unarmed and noncombatitive prisoners, was the fatal shooting of Mohammed Ashkar and the injury of over 250 other prisoners by the use of unknown ammunition. While his parents looked on, Mohammed died later that night while chained to a hospital bed.
‘… Sister Maryam Uloho has had her shoulder dislocated by a prison guard. The guard that attacked Maryam Uloho and dislocated her shoulder should be brought up on charges and dismissed. She is unable to receive packages of basic needs of religious items because she is being punished for refusing sex with a staff member at LCIW. Is this a state run correctional facility or a concentration camp? These women have the right to be treated humanly even while incarcerated.’
In the CMU, there is a new brand of justice dispensed and it is called: ‘You are guilty as charged regardless of your innocence, or evidence, no matter what!!! We do not care about what anyone else thinks’.
This is the same type of justice of which we, “THE USA”, accuse other countries of dispensing on their own people and keep track of their violations in our daily, weekly, monthly and yearly reports on human and civil rights abuses, and we sanction them until they prove that they are no longer practicing injustice and mistreating their own people.
At the CMU, this is how it starts: When an inmate violates any BOP rule, staff can issue an incident report against that inmate if they choose to do so. The incident report is usually given to the inmate within 24 hours of the incident. Usually a Lieutenant or other staff brings the incident report to the CMU unit and gives it to the inmate. The incident report includes the inmate’s name, number and description of the violation as well as the code associated with the violation and the name of the staff who issued the violation. Each violation code has specific punishments associated with it. The inmate does not have to defend himself at the time the incident report is given to him.
Normally a UDC (Unit Disciplinary Committee), made up of two staff, calls the inmate to a hearing and reads the violation and asks him for his defense. This usually takes place within three days after the violation is given to the inmate and if the violation is not serious. If the violation is serious, such as fighting with other inmates, then the inmates involved will be immediately taken to the SHU (Special Housing Unit) where they are held in solitary confinement and placed under investigation. The investigation may take up to six months while the inmates are held in the SHU. I will address the issue of the SHU and the DHO (Disciplinary Hearing Officer) hearing in another e-mail. Let’s go back to the UDC hearing: Read the rest of this entry »
Sister Lina al-Jarbouni is from Arabba Al-Batouf village, near the Palestinian City of Akka (Akko – Acre), in the north of the country. She was born to a Palestinian family on 11 January 1974.
In an illegal attempt to stifle her protesting to her unjust incarceration, the Israeli Prison Administration has placed detainee Lina al-Jarbouni, 37, into solitary confinement at the Ramla Israeli prison. Lina started her hunger-strike on Tuesday, joining thousands of other Palestinian detainees on hunger strike. Her decision made her subject to constant harassment and abuse by her Israeli jailers in an attempt to force her break her strike.
Sources close to her family stated that soldiers of the “Nachshon” brigade, operating in Israeli prisons and detention camps, forced Lina into solitary confinement at the Ramla Prison after transferring her from the Ha-Sharon prison.
On 18 April 2002, Lina was arrested and interrogated for more than thirty days at the Al-Jalama interrogation facility where she was tortured and abused. She was subsequently sentenced by an Israeli court to seventeen years imprisonment for what Israel calls “contacting an enemy”, and “aiding a suicide bombing”. Israel refused to release Al-Jarbouni during the Shalit Prison-Swap deal with the Palestinian resistance in Gaza.
There are more than 4.600 Arab political prisoners held by Israel according to the Ad-Dameer Prison Support Association who issued the latest figures on 17 April; Palestinian Prisoners Day. The vast majority are from the West Bank, while approximately four-hundred and seventy-five are from the Gaza Strip, and three-hundred and sixty are from Israeli controlled East Jerusalem and the 1948 territories.
Israel is still holding captive six women, one-hundred and eighty-three (183) children, like the infant Yusuf al-Zaq who along with his mother is held captive in Israeli prisons. Twenty-seven democratically-elected Palestinian legislators, including Marwan Barghouthi who was sentenced to more than five life-terms, legislator Jamal Terawi, who was sentenced to 30 years, and Ahmad Sa’adat who was sentenced to 30 years. In addition, 24 legislators are currently being held under Administrative Detention orders without charges.
Over one-hundred and twenty Palestinian detainees have been imprisoned since before the first Oslo peace agreement was signed between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1993, twenty-three of them have been imprisoned for more than 25 years.
Praise be to Allah who has invited us for His sake, will make us meet for His sake, love for His sake, depart for His sake and … for His sake Only for His sake.
Dearest brother, may Allah grant you peace in this life, and inshAllah make you be those whom you love. InshaAllah Jannatul Firdos.
It was nice to finally speak to you, it’s been missions trying to get your no. put on but Alhamdulillah, it’s on now.
Akhi where do you want me to start with how these ‘people’ treat me in this place. When I arrived at this prison I read a leaflet, telling us how “we welcome people” to the establishment. The officers, three of them, took me in to the strip search area stripped me of my clothes and punched me black and blue. May Allah deal with them, the police was involved but “no camera footage”. What a lie. Brother ever since then, the racial, religious and Islamic hatred. These officers are torturing the Muslims within the prison system, I don’t even know if this letter will even get to you. And they call me a terrorist what they are doing to me. Brother more bad things are going on but inshaAllah just make dua Allah strengthens us to foil there attacks on us and pray that Allah reveals what they have in their hearts so we can see why Allah chooses us over them.
Brother I’m going to ring you soon inshAllah. If you write back brother make sure it’s recorded so I sign for it, so I know I get it inshAllah.
This is the fifth and the last e-mail for my trip from Seagoville Texas to USP Marion: The Air Marshall (AM) called the two of us (me and Ghassan) and told us to change our seats and move forward. They wanted us to be closer to the front of the plane so we can leave the plane faster. The plane’s next destination was the State of Ohio. I am not sure where in Ohio.
So far, it has been over six hours of tight handcuffing of the hands, chaining of the legs and ankles and the Black box that caused extreme pain and made it tremendously uncomfortable and unbearable. No matter how much I tried to move my hands to get comfortable, I found no comfort, only pain!!!. I saw the color of my wrist and it was very red and noticed a dent in my skin caused by the handcuffs. I felt the pain and kept on making duaa for this journey to end soon. I tried to occupy my mind by reminding myself that no matter how long this will last, it will end at some time. Anything has an end no matter how bad or painful it is. Also I remembered our brothers and sisters in Palestine and thorough out the world who wake up day in and day out being dragged to be tortured.
One of the most famous torture techniques used is the” ghost” where the persons’ hands are tied together behind him and then he is hanged from the ceiling for hours and days until he faints while a bag soaked in urine covers his head and tied around the neck. The pain in this position is unimaginable. So many Palestinians who get arrested in Palestine gets the special treatment of the “Ghost Torture”. Read the rest of this entry »
Now we are in Oklahoma City Detention Center recreation cage in the SHU on the seventh floor when the brother in the next cage greeted me and the first words that came out of his mouth were ‘Assalamu Alaikhum’. I have heard this beautiful Islamic Salutation/greeting in prison may be more than I have heard it in my entire lifetime. Every time you see a brother you say it or he says it. It is the message of peace and a sign of love: ‘Assalamu Alaikhum’. If you were sitting with a non Muslim and a Muslim brother stops by, he will say Asslamu Alaikhum to the brother and he will say hello/hi to the non-Muslim.
Even if you have just finished talking to one brother or have seen him just five minutes ago, you will say it again. It is so beautiful when you hear it so often. The brothers here make a point of saying it over and over because they are PROUD to say it. It is an identity symbol that says hey ‘I am a Muslim’ and that is a source of pride. They are not shy about saying it to their brothers. Even non-Muslims use it a lot when greeting Muslims. It is just an awesome feeling of brotherhood because it says: ‘from me to you, you will have nothing coming but peace and love’.
Today, I was sitting with a Muslim brother and another person who was non-Muslim sitting at a table discussing a Marketing class, a Muslim brother stopped by and said to me and the other Mulsim: ‘Assalamu Alaikhum my dear beloved two brothers’ and then turned to the other person and said: Hello and mentioned his name. In the free world, even some Muslims are embarrassed to use it at work or even in the presence of non-Muslims. Not here, the wearing of the cofi (the cofi is a netted cap that fits the head and is recognized as a Muslim symbol) is very normal and you see Muslims wearing it here all the time. No one comes to Friday prayer (Jumaa) without his cofi. In the free world Muslims put it on only after they enter the Masjed. Read the rest of this entry »
Now we were in Oklahoma City Detention Center and the bus just arrived and one of the guards pointed his finger at the four of us and said: ‘You, you, you, and you get up now,’ and asked the rest of the inmates to remain seated.
We were taken first into the building and they put us in a room (15 ft x15 ft) by ourselves. The room had big windows with bars so you can see what is happening outside the room. We saw as the rest of the inmates were taken to other rooms. Some of the inmates were placed in individual cages just like monkeys. I could see about six or seven cages adjacent to each other across the hall from our room. We thought that they will come to take us soon but it took them over three hours to come back.
The room had benches all around it and also had a toilet and a sink that is attached to it. The benches were one foot wide which is not enough to sleep [on]. The walls were completely covered with aluminium sheets panels so no one can write or scratch them. We talked for a while and then we prayed Thuhor and Asr prayer combined. I started singing all the songs I remembered and everyone including El-Mezain joined in dancing the Palestinian Dabkha. Read the rest of this entry »
This segment will describe the trip to Oklahoma City:
[The day wa]s Friday April 25, 2010. We were still in Texarkana Prison preparing to head toward Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Oklahoma City is a transfer/holding Prison Center for all inmates from around the United States. It holds over 5,000 inmates and it is a hub where all inmates are flown in/out or bussed in/out to be transferred to their designated prison where they were assigned to serve their sentences. Some are transferred from one prison to another (for example from a High to medium security, medium to a low security prison, etc). We were getting shackled and handcuffed. Again, we were the privileged ones who received the black box special treatment. Other inmates were also shackled and handcuffed but not with the black box. You must be very special to receive that special gift from the Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
Once the shackling, chaining and handcuffing of all inmates was done, we were taken outside the Texarkana Prison and escorted to the bus like a herd of goats. It was still very dark outside (around 4:00 AM or so). We were first inline and also first seated in the bus (the four of us together). After everyone else was seated, the trip started. After the bus left the prison, it took a route of small roads and State Highways to Oklahoma City. I tried to stay awake so I would not void my wudu (wudu is the mandatory act of washing hands, face, arms and legs prior to performing prayer). I made wudu before we left the SHU in Texarkana. I pushed myself hard to stay awake because I was worried that if I dozed off that I would end up voiding my wudu and having to do it again specially when there was no water on the bus, only a jug with some cups for drinking water. And even if water was available, how would I make wudu with my hands and legs shackled and handcuffed with the black box? I couldn’t even move.
It was an impossible mission so I might as well make tayamom (this an alternate option when water is not available, Tayomom is a dry ablution). Eventually, I ended up making tayamom. I knew these are the times when Allah gave us permission for an exception under these difficult circumstances. So now I had wudu and ready for Fajr prayer. I knew that Fajr prayer Athan was at 5:45 AM in Seagoville TX and even though we were not there, I figured it would not be that different from where we were. But the question was; what time was it now? I guessed that it was not time for Fajr just by looking on the outside and seeing it was very dark. No one had any watch. The only solution was to keep looking outside the bus hoping to see one of these big Banks panel clocks that tells time and temperature. So I kept my eye on the outside hoping to see one. I finally noticed one from a distance and it was a big electronic panel that turns around in all directions. By the time the bus made it there, the panel was displaying time and temp to the opposite side of the highway, and I could not see it. Read the rest of this entry »
Our trip to USP Marion started way before Thursday April 24, 2010, the day we were moved from Seagoville to USP Marion in Illinois. The trip went from Seagoville to Texarkana, Texas to Oklahoma City to Philadelphia to Ohio to St. Louis, Missouri and finally ended when we were bussed (three hours trip) from St. Louis to USP Marion in Marion, Illinois. It was six days of pain, extreme discomfort, racist treatment by guards, singled out to be screamed at, and showed disrespect and other forms of racist/behavior at different levels.
There was no reason for us to be moved from Seagoville. It was the prosecutor who initiated the move. He may have thought it was his top national security mission to protect the country by separating us from our families, by keeping us hundreds and hundreds of miles away. He was on a mission to prevent me from hugging and kissing my ten year old daughter for that was a major concern he must address.
It may be that he just could not stand the thought of me seeing, meeting and being with my own family. He was determined to accomplish the mission. Yes, his mission was to destroy my family relationships and ties because that would make our country safer. He was so patriotic, and it was all about protecting our country. So in order to accomplish this cause, in early March, he filed a motion to have us moved from Seagoville, Texas to a prison in Marion, Illinois.
He filed the first motion and followed it with a series of motions and then followed that by involving the Bureau of Prison (BOP) when the Warden filed a declaration with the judge. All this effort was to accomplish one thing, to move us from one jail to another jail. That’s it!!! We were in jail but not in the jail of his choice. He wanted us in a specific jail that is exclusive for Muslims and mainly Muslims. A jail where Muslims were under total control and being discriminated against. Where they receive special treatment. Now that is not racism, is it? Read the rest of this entry »
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