War and Civil Liberties

[This urgent report by Amnesty International was circulated by Rabbis for Human Rights in Israel. Please note that the Israeli government is refusing to allow refugees from Darfur and other African countries where they are being oppressed to get any due process for review of their pleas for asylum in Israel. American Jewish groups that have close connections with the Israeli government and that claim to be opposing genocidal attacks in Darfur might want to take action on this matter. For action possibilities, see the end of the report. -- ED. NOTE by Rabbi Arthur Waskow.]

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

By NY Times & Rabbi David Senter

[Rabbi Senter's comments on this case come after the NYT article.] ]

By TINA KELLEY and ELIZABETH DWOSKIN
New York Times April 24, 2008

PATERSON, N.J. — For a dozen years, Mohammad Qatanani has supported the members of the Islamic Center of Passaic County by speaking at funerals, hashing out ethical dilemmas and sometimes opening his home to domestic-violence victims at a moment’s notice.

Mohammad Qatanani, imam of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, faces possible deportation in a dispute over his application for permanent residency.

But now Dr. Qatanani, 44, the imam of the mosque here, requires the support of the members: he has been barred by federal immigration authorities from renewing his driver’s license, and must call on friends to ferry him to hospitals for visits with the sick among his flock. There are fund-raisers for him at the mosque. And after Friday prayers, the hugs the men give him seem to last extra long.

The Shalom Center was invited to join in an Amicus (friend of the court) brief in the case of Yousuf v. Samantar, involving whether survivors of torture by other governments can, in the US, sue officials of those governments as provided in US law. We agreed to join in the Amicus brief, along with other religious groups, and submitted an explanation of our stake in supporting the argument on appeal. For our explanation, see below. First, the essence of the argument we support is this:

When Congress passed the Torture Victim Protection Act (“TVPA”), 28 U.S.C. § 1350 note (2000), it intended to allow survivors of torture to sue former officials of foreign governments in U.S. courts, on the understanding that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (“FSIA”), 28 U.S.C. § 1602-1611 (2000), would not bar suits against former officials accused of torture.

Philadelphia Inquirer,
Sun, Sep. 17, 2006
Op/Ed Page

Bill would strip courts of the power to protect

By John J. Gibbons

Gibbons served for 17 years as a judge and three years as chief judge on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He also argued Rasul v. Bush, the Supreme Court case establishing that Guantánamo detainees have the right to habeas corpus

Much has recently been written about the courageous battle being waged by a small group of Senate Republicans against a determined White House. The conflict is over the rules governing military commissions for suspected terrorists held at Guantánamo Bay. Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), John Warner (Va.), and John McCain (Ariz.) rightly insist that no fair trial, and therefore no American trial, has ever relied on secret evidence or evidence secured by unlawful coercion, and that now is no time to start.

In 1967, Marcus Raskin and Arthur Waskow of the Institute for Policy Studies wrote and arranged for publication of "A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority." It offered and urged support of young men who chose to refuse to participate in the "unconstitutional and illegal" war in Vietnam. It was widely circulated and signed by thousands of people.

Five antiwar activists who disseminated the document-- Raskin, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Yale University chaplain William Sloane Coffin, author Mitchell Goodman, and Harvard graduate student Michael Ferber--were charged with conspiring to "counsel, aid and abet" resistance to the draft. (All but Raskin were found guilty. The others had their convictions reversed on appeal, on the grounds that the judge had committed a number of prejudicial errors.)

Jill Serjeant

HUNDREDS OF MUSLIM IMMIGRANTS ROUNDED UP IN US SWEEP

[Reuters reports on hundreds of Muslim immigrants being detained in Southern California. Only men were apparently detained. The men had reported as directed by the Justice Dep

PROGRESSIVE JEWS SPEAK OUT ABOUT ROUNDUPS OF MIDEAST IMMIGRANTS IN LOS ANGELES

PROGRESSIVE JEWISH ALLIANCE (www.jpalliance.org) and Civil Rights Partners Issue Statement on INS Detention

FOR IMMEDIATE