Rounding up people who don't look like John Ashcroft:
theregister.co.uk
Are Scott, Carly and Larry risking time at Camp X-Ray?
By Andrew Orlowski
Making a charitable donation could find you in Camp X-Ray. Scott
McNealy, Larry Ellison and Carly Fiorina, please note, you've been
doing it too. As we'll explain. And you could be at risk too, dear
reader: if it's the wrong charity ... at the wrong time.
Take the case of senior Intel Engineer Maher Mofied 'Mike' Hawash.
Hawash has been arrested on undisclosed charges and detained.
He has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but owes his loss of
liberty - and constitutional rights - because he has detained as a
"material witness" on the grounds of giving to a charity.
Senior Intel VP Stephen McGeady - a guy with very cool timing, as
we recall from the Microsoft antitrust trial - has rallied to his support:-
"Americans are taught that the Constitution protects us against
arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, and that our freedom and these
constitutional liberties are what we are fighting for in Iraq and
elsewhere," McGeady wrote to the Oregonian.
"Yet one of our neighbors can be taken from his home or office and
held without charge for weeks or months."
Hawash had indeed given to a charity, and The Oregonian
newspaper, which had obtained a list of donors from the FBI, set
about its work. It contacted Hawash last Fall, to question him about
his donation, and last week, they could barely disguise their glee at
his detention.
"It is shameful that the Oregonian chose to report this as though
Hawash were a criminal, rather than as a citizen whose rights are
being trampled," wrote McGeady.
But the crackdown was coming. The Feds were already keeping a
beady eye on those wooden slot boxes and collection tins. A
Portland FBI officer earlier this month boasted that his priority would
was to get suspects "off the street", promising, "we'll be arresting
them for tearing the tag off a mattress."
Well, somebody must have got reckless in Sleeptrain. The FBI froze
the charity - Global Relief Fund, which distributes zakat or charity -
one of the pillars of Islam - to fund health facilities in the occupied
West-Bank territories and Mosques and Muslim schools in the US,
the Portland Tribune reported last Fall. It was accused of "links"
with Al-Qaeda, which it denied, suing the US state after its accounts
were frozen. And the links appear to be inconclusive.
The order cites GRF's support for a couple of bad things. Baddd
things indeed. One is mention of the word 'Jihad' in GRF
documentation. But Jihad, which literally translates from the Arabic
as "striving", reflects a Muslim's social obligations, to overcome
your bad desires (and don't say you don't have days when you want
to overcome your bad desires?).
Its interpretation in the Western media as something nasty is
because one of the more vigorous translations, or imperatives,
emerges as "Holy War". Which of course, by implication - whoah,
another huge leap, there - means armed struggle against Infidel
religions, which means Blowing Us Up! Now this whacky sequence
as owes as much to the ignorance and conflations of Western
media as it does to the few fringe groups who are nuts enough to
believe this stuff. Which is against the Qu'ran.
The second is a photograph of GRF supporters purportedly holding
up boxes of ammunition. Well, this we put down to small-town
youthful exuberance, and the desire of guys to been seen with their
stash. You know how guys like to be seen with their stash? (I'm
thinking of hip-hop's gold chains here, bear with us). Well, this, we're
convinced is just a mere photo-opportunity, and those balaclavas
and shades were rented, no doubt, from the NORAID guys round the
block. Perhaps there's a kind of "rent a balaclava" franchise, they've
all got going there, these poseurs - but who knows?
The third, and rather damning piece of misplaced intelligence is that
infoflow in the "Al Qaeda" link turned out to be going the wrong
direction. A senior Al Qaeda no-good was fingered with giving a
donation to the GRF ... but not the other way round. If you recall,
Osama Bin "do you mind if I borrow your mountain for a
cave-complex filled with murderous training rooms, only it's like a
gym" Laden sweetened his presence in your nearest mountain with
almsgiving, donating to local communities and building hospitals.
Zakat, in other words. Sure, take over our mountain. That's a deal.
So where do the Oracle, HP and Sun CEOs enter this miserable
story?
In December last year, all three suspended donations to the India
Development and Relief Fund (IDRF), a nationalist Hindu charity
which claimed to be working on behalf of the urban poor, which it
was. But it was also accused of - a charge it denies - operating a
"shadow network" responsible for sectarian violence. An NGO
accuses IRDF of channelling aid away from Hindu and Christian
victims of disasters and encouraging "Hinduisation." And a violent
fundamentalist, and well armed fringe is seeking to "Hinduise" tribes
in Gujarat, for example.
In other words, an association was made with an organization that
promotes terror. While we don't know how strong these might be,
the accusation is the same. Yet these annual corporations weren't
subjected to dawn raids, while private charity donor finds himself
stripped of his liberties.
Newspaper editors are sometimes disappointed to find there a due
process of law to determine innocence or guilt. The Oregonian
should be reminded of this, as it goes about measuring the length of
the noose. |
