Dr. Rafil A. Dhafir and hardship for Muslims at Terre Haute CMU
http://www.dhafirtrial.net/2009/01/07/request/
Dr. Dhafir and other Muslims being held at the Communication Management Unit (CMU) in Terre Haute, Indiana need your help. Please write to Warden Jett (address below) and ask that he address Dr. Dhafir’s concern about a situation that is creating religious hardship for Muslim prisoners. Please be respectful and courteous in all correspondence.
Dr. Dhafir says:
There are a good number of us here who fast Mondays and Thursdays as well as 3 additional days every month for religious reasons. This is something highly recommended in Islam. This is a total of 11-13 days a month.
This practice was recognized from day one here [at the CMU] and we were accommodated.
Meals are served at about 6 am, 10.30.am and 4.30 pm daily. On fasting days we will take our trays and keep it in our rooms until sun set when we eat it after cooking it. No special requirement from the Kitchen people what so ever.
As of Jan. 4 this year, Administration decided that no food is allowed to leave the eating area at all regardless of our fasting. We pleaded with them that this was unfair and is depriving us from a religious practice. An appeal to the Chaplain here went unanswered. Many cannot afford to buy food on their own on so many days a month from the commissary.
Our contentions are:
1. this is a religious practice that we did not invent.2. this is something we did since day one and was recognized earlier by Administration to the extent that the previous Unit Manager Mr. Henry wrote a memo about it to give us this freedom.3. We are not asking for any special arrangement, no special meals, no special added work. We simply are asking that we are allowed to have our own meals stored until we are allowed to eat at sunset.4. If they don’t like us to store it in our rooms ( which is what we did for over 2 years now with no problem), there is an empty refrigerator in the eating area where they can store it and lock it until sunset. We will not remove anything outside the eating area thereby complying with their regulations.5. We are not keen on fighting them over this issue in courts as it is a clear violation of our religious rights. We want to solve it peacefully. So far they want no part with it.
Please call Administration here constantly** and explain to them our request to accommodate us in such a simple request. We want no problem, just treat us fairly.
[** Phone number for Terre Haute: 812-238-1531. Please be respectful and courteous in all communication/correspondence.]
Help Dr. Dhafir’s have his concern heard by writing to:
Warden B. R. JettFCI-Terre HauteP.O. Box 33Terre Haute IN 47808
———-
Here are examples of some letters that have been sent:
Dear Warden Jett,
I wonder if you realise that Muslim inmates in FCI Terre Haute are being prevented in practice from eating after fasting during daylight hours in accordance with their religious vows. This has only happened since Jan. 4th this year as the result of an order forbidding the removal of any food whatever from the eating area. I gather that the inmates concerned have done their best to suggest practical means of storing the food provided by the canteen during the day. As this situation may arise twice a week, plus holy days, it can only result in either a great deterioration in health or people being forced to break religious vows that in no way harm others. This surely violates the fundamental religious rights of human beings in the USA.
I would be most grateful if you could look into this matter urgently and would appreciate your early reply, for which I enclose a stamped, addressed envelope.
Yours sincerely,
Mrs. Claire Shearer, B.Sc. A.R.C.S.
——————–Re Islamic religious hardship
Dear Warden Jett:
I understand that there are a number of Islamic prisoners at FCI-Terre Haute who for some time have been fasting at least twice a week. I further understand that the FCI has recognized this practice since “day one.”
It seems that recently your administration has decided that no food should leave the eating area - thus short-circuiting the prisoners’ custom of saving up their meals in their unit until after sundown when their day’s fast is complete.
Although I am not Islamic, I have lived in predominantly Islamic lands and have noted the seriousness with which Muslims fast. Such is their devotion to the practice that I found myself observing Ramadan as well. I have also noted how in the Islamic world fasting is woven into the warp and woof of daily life. For a Muslim fasting is no casual or trivial matter.
I write today to respectfully request that your administration reconsider its policy of preventing your Muslim prisoners from bringing their meals back to rooms where they can then be held until their fast’s end at sundown.
Sincerely,
Ed Kinane
—————
Dear Warden Jett,
Rafil Dhafir 11921-052 who is an inmate in FCI Terre Haute’s Communication Management Unit CMU has mentioned in his latest communications with me that the policy of allowing inmates, who fast on some days for religious purposes, to store their food for consumption in the evening has been rescinded. I believe that it would raise the spirits of everyone who has to live or work in the unit and make for greater harmony between the men and the staff if this policy could be reinstated. Perhaps if there is a worry about food going bad in the rooms, then a refrigerator could be employed. I appreciate any efforts you can make in this direction.
Sincerely,
Bob ElmendorfSecretary, Dr. Dhafir Support Committee
Dr. Dhafir and other Muslims being held at the Communication Management Unit (CMU) in Terre Haute, Indiana need your help. Please write to Warden Jett (address below) and ask that he address Dr. Dhafir’s concern about a situation that is creating religious hardship for Muslim prisoners. Please be respectful and courteous in all correspondence.
Dr. Dhafir says:
There are a good number of us here who fast Mondays and Thursdays as well as 3 additional days every month for religious reasons. This is something highly recommended in Islam. This is a total of 11-13 days a month.
This practice was recognized from day one here [at the CMU] and we were accommodated.
Meals are served at about 6 am, 10.30.am and 4.30 pm daily. On fasting days we will take our trays and keep it in our rooms until sun set when we eat it after cooking it. No special requirement from the Kitchen people what so ever.
As of Jan. 4 this year, Administration decided that no food is allowed to leave the eating area at all regardless of our fasting. We pleaded with them that this was unfair and is depriving us from a religious practice. An appeal to the Chaplain here went unanswered. Many cannot afford to buy food on their own on so many days a month from the commissary.
Our contentions are:
1. this is a religious practice that we did not invent.2. this is something we did since day one and was recognized earlier by Administration to the extent that the previous Unit Manager Mr. Henry wrote a memo about it to give us this freedom.3. We are not asking for any special arrangement, no special meals, no special added work. We simply are asking that we are allowed to have our own meals stored until we are allowed to eat at sunset.4. If they don’t like us to store it in our rooms ( which is what we did for over 2 years now with no problem), there is an empty refrigerator in the eating area where they can store it and lock it until sunset. We will not remove anything outside the eating area thereby complying with their regulations.5. We are not keen on fighting them over this issue in courts as it is a clear violation of our religious rights. We want to solve it peacefully. So far they want no part with it.
Please call Administration here constantly** and explain to them our request to accommodate us in such a simple request. We want no problem, just treat us fairly.
[** Phone number for Terre Haute: 812-238-1531. Please be respectful and courteous in all communication/correspondence.]
Help Dr. Dhafir’s have his concern heard by writing to:
Warden B. R. JettFCI-Terre HauteP.O. Box 33Terre Haute IN 47808
———-
Here are examples of some letters that have been sent:
Dear Warden Jett,
I wonder if you realise that Muslim inmates in FCI Terre Haute are being prevented in practice from eating after fasting during daylight hours in accordance with their religious vows. This has only happened since Jan. 4th this year as the result of an order forbidding the removal of any food whatever from the eating area. I gather that the inmates concerned have done their best to suggest practical means of storing the food provided by the canteen during the day. As this situation may arise twice a week, plus holy days, it can only result in either a great deterioration in health or people being forced to break religious vows that in no way harm others. This surely violates the fundamental religious rights of human beings in the USA.
I would be most grateful if you could look into this matter urgently and would appreciate your early reply, for which I enclose a stamped, addressed envelope.
Yours sincerely,
Mrs. Claire Shearer, B.Sc. A.R.C.S.
——————–Re Islamic religious hardship
Dear Warden Jett:
I understand that there are a number of Islamic prisoners at FCI-Terre Haute who for some time have been fasting at least twice a week. I further understand that the FCI has recognized this practice since “day one.”
It seems that recently your administration has decided that no food should leave the eating area - thus short-circuiting the prisoners’ custom of saving up their meals in their unit until after sundown when their day’s fast is complete.
Although I am not Islamic, I have lived in predominantly Islamic lands and have noted the seriousness with which Muslims fast. Such is their devotion to the practice that I found myself observing Ramadan as well. I have also noted how in the Islamic world fasting is woven into the warp and woof of daily life. For a Muslim fasting is no casual or trivial matter.
I write today to respectfully request that your administration reconsider its policy of preventing your Muslim prisoners from bringing their meals back to rooms where they can then be held until their fast’s end at sundown.
Sincerely,
Ed Kinane
—————
Dear Warden Jett,
Rafil Dhafir 11921-052 who is an inmate in FCI Terre Haute’s Communication Management Unit CMU has mentioned in his latest communications with me that the policy of allowing inmates, who fast on some days for religious purposes, to store their food for consumption in the evening has been rescinded. I believe that it would raise the spirits of everyone who has to live or work in the unit and make for greater harmony between the men and the staff if this policy could be reinstated. Perhaps if there is a worry about food going bad in the rooms, then a refrigerator could be employed. I appreciate any efforts you can make in this direction.
Sincerely,
Bob ElmendorfSecretary, Dr. Dhafir Support Committee
Dr. Rafil A. Dhafir at Terre Haute Prison’s New Communications Management UnitBy Katherine Hughes
The Federal Correctional Institution at Terre Haute, Indiana (www.rawstory.com).
AT PRECISELY 7 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 11, 2006, 17 federal prisoners across the country were taken out of their cells, held in isolation for two days, then bused to the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Terre Haute, Indiana. Here the government quietly began implementing the first stages of a secret new program, the Communications Management Unit (CMU). A completely self-contained unit housing almost exclusively Arab and/or Muslim inmates, it eventually will hold approximately 85 prisoners.
Special new rules set out in a “CMU Institutional Supplement” dated Nov. 30, 2006 include severe restrictions on prisoner communication. Contact with family and friends is limited; outgoing and incoming mail is monitored and copied, with a one- to two- week delivery delay; and no contact visits are allowed. Instead of 300 minutes of phone time a month, prisoners may receive only one 15-minute call a week, which the warden has the power to reduce to just three minutes a month. Unlike the usual weekly or biweekly all-day contact visits, visits in the CMU are for two hours, just twice a month, and are restricted to non-contact only. Calls and visits must be conducted in English unless prior arrangement is made.
According to Jennifer Van Bergen, the journalist who broke the CMU story, there are only three government offices—all within the Justice Department—that have authority to issue changes to federal prison operations: the Office of the Director of the Prisons Bureau, the Office of Legal Counsel, and the Office of the U.S. Attorney General. Van Bergen was unable to get confirmation of where the authorization originated. The Bureau of Prisons Web site (<www.bop.gov>) does not list CMU among its facility abbreviations, and a search of the site for “CMU” or “Communications Management Unit” yields no result.
In a Dec. 18, 2006 letter, however, CMU inmate Dr. Rafil A. Dhafir wrote:
“No one seems to know about this top-secret operation until now. It is still not fully understood. The order came from the Attorney General himself. The staff here is struggling to make sense of the whole situation. There are 16 of us, all Muslims but two, with one non-Arab Muslim. We are housed in what we are told was the holding area for those on death row!!!!! We are told this is an experiment, so the whole concept is evolving on a daily basis.” [emphasis added]
According to Howard Keiffer, executive director of Federal Defense Associates, an Institution Supplement cannot exist without the authorization of a National Program Statement, and the CMU has no such authorization. The Administrative Procedures Act (APA) requires that all prison regulations be promulgated under the law, yet there was no public notice of any changes to prison programs and no opportunity for opposition to be heard. Civil libertarians are concerned that the CMU operates by racial and religious profiling and that the severe restrictions placed on inmates’ communication inhibit their ability to mount an appeal. Keiffer says the CMU “violates not only the Constitution, but [also federal] statute[s and] regulation[s], and its implementation almost certainly is also violative of the APA.”
Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley said that although the CMU’s present population consists of inmates convicted of terrorism-related cases, the unit will not be limited to prisoners who fit that definition. Many of those currently held there, however, are not considered high-risk prisoners, meaning the government definition of a terrorism-related case needs to be examined closely.
CMU Prisoner Dr. Rafil A. Dhafir and The War on Muslim Charities Magda Bayoumi (l) and Robert Newman at a rally protesting former Attorney General John Aschcroft’s recent lecture at Syracuse University. Bayoumi’s was among the 150 Muslim families interrogated between the hours of 6 and 10 a.m. on the morning of Dr. Dhafir’s arrest because they had donated to Help the Needy (Photo K. Hughes).
Some of the major casualties in the government’s “war on terror” have been Muslim charities and their principals. Two CMU inmates, Enaam Arnaout of Benevolence International Foundation (BIF) and Dr. Rafil A. Dhafir of Help the Needy (HTN), were defendants in Islamic charity cases. Neither has been convicted of charges that have anything to do with terrorism: Arnaout accepted a plea agreement by pleading guilty to one charge of “racketeering conspiracy,” and after a long trial Dhafir was convicted of violating the International Economic Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA) and white-collar crime.
The government justifies its targeting of Islamic charities by saying it is going after the money funding terrorism. Just three months after 9/11, in December 2001, the government raided and closed down the country’s three largest Islamic charities: the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), the Global Relief Foundation (GRF), and the Benevolence International Foundation (BIF), accusing them of supporting terrorism. In each case, alleged “guilt by association” meant that the charities’ assets were frozen and their principals imprisoned without bail. Since then the government has shut down several additional smaller Islamic charities. However, “Muslim Charities and the War on Terror,” a 2005 report by OMB Watch—which describes itself as “a nonprofit research and advocacy organization…formed in 1983 to lift the veil of secrecy shrouding the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB)”—concluded that despite their new investigative powers, government authorities have failed to produce evidence of terror financing by Muslim charities.
Dhafir and other HTN associates were arrested in the early morning of Feb. 26, 2003, just weeks before the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Between the hours of 6 and 10 a.m. that day, law enforcement agents interrogated 150 Muslim families who had donated to the charity. Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that a number of “funders of terrorism” had been arrested.
A founding member of the mosque in Syracuse, New York, Dhafir is a leader among the local Muslim community. An Iraqi-born oncologist, he has been a U.S. citizen for almost 30 years. Before his arrest, he and his wife, Priscilla, were very active in Syracuse civic affairs, and Dhafir often spoke at events and on local TV and radio about health and cancer care. In the early 1990s, in direct response to the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the brutal embargo on Iraq, he founded Help the Needy. For 13 years it sent food and aid to civilians suffering under U.N. sanctions imposed on Iraq at the insistence of the U.S. and Britain. Dhafir devoted much of his life to prayer and charity, and government records showed that he donated half his income to charity every year. In his oncology practice he treated those without medical insurance for free, paying for their chemotherapy out of his own pocket.
Confident in his innocence and the American system of justice, Dhafir refused to accept a plea bargain, and the government piled on charges. When his case finally came to trial 19 months after his arrest, he faced a 60-count indictment of white-collar crime.
The government employed many tools to inhibit Dhafir’s ability to mount a defense. Despite the facts that Syracuse’s Muslim community put up $2.3 million in bond money and that Dhafir offered to wear an electronic tag, he never was granted bail; his assets were frozen, making it more difficult to hire defense counsel; and he was denied access to both his records and his counsel. The government’s unlimited resources, moreover, allowed it to present its case in minutiae—seven government agencies had investigated Dr. Dhafir for five years before the case came to trial. The limited resources of the defense counsel, on the other hand, enabled it to call but a single witness, who testified for a mere 15 minutes.
Although state and national officials smeared Dhafir in the press and New York Gov. George Pataki described Dhafir’s case as “money laundering…to help terrorist organizations,” local prosecutors successfully petitioned Judge Norman Mordue, the presiding judge who had denied Dhafir bail on four occasions, to prevent the charge of terrorism from being part of the trial. This ruling made his defense a nightmare: throughout the trial the prosecution hinted at more serious charges, but the defense was prohibited from addressing these inflammatory innuendos.
As a direct result of the lack of terrorism charges, only the local Syracuse newspaper, The Post Standard, covered the proceedings. The paper proved to be little more than a mouthpiece for the government, however. On the rare occasion that it did provide coverage of a cross-examination, it immediately followed with a restatement of the charges in the indictment. Convicted on 59 counts of white-collar crime and held without bail for 31 months, Dhafir was sentenced to 22 years in prison for a crime that he was never charged with in a court of law—money laundering to help terrorist organizations.
The government continues to hound Dhafir. In January of 2007 it successfully overturned an appeals court order to release his transcripts to him at the court’s expense. The three-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals gave no reasons and did not address the points in opposition.
Nor are Islamic charities free from government harassment. The Holy Land Foundation (HLF) case will come to trial this July—six and a half years after its assets were seized and its principals arrested. It is imperative that members of the public attend this trial to monitor its proceedings.
For more information visit <www.dhafirtrial.net>. Non-tax-deductible contributions in any amount may be sent to the Dr. Dhafir Appeal Fund, c/o Peter Goldberger, Esq., Attorney at Law, 50 Rittenhouse Place, Ardmore, PA 19003. Checks should be made payable to “Dr. Dhafir Appeal Fund.”
Katherine Hughes attended nearly every day of the 17-week Dhafir trial, and for the last two and a half years has tried to educate people about Dhafir’s case and the plight of Islamic charities in the U.S.
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