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TechnoratiHomeland Insecurity
As Noordin Mengal's experience shows, the US is now adding human rights defenders to its list of unwanted aliens
In another bizarre twist to Washington's often illegal, irrational "war on terror", peaceful, lawful human rights campaigners are now apparently being refused entry to the US -- without any right of appeal.
Noordin Mengal, a British citizen and Baluch human rights defender, was detained and deported by US immigration when he arrived at Newark Liberty airport from Dubai last week.
Mengal is the grandson of the veteran Baluch national leaders Sardar Attaullah Mengal and Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri. He is a representative to the UN human rights council on behalf of Interfaith International and is a member of the lawful, non-violent Baluchistan National party.
Baluchistan was invaded and annexed by Pakistan in 1948. It has been under military occupation ever since. Washington's ally in the so-called "war on terror"", the Pakistani president and dictator Pervez Musharraf, has been waging a savage war against the people of Baluchistan, indiscriminately bombing civilian areas using US-supplied (pdf) fighter aircraft and attack helicopters.
Unlike Musharraf, some of whose army and intelligence services are protecting the Taliban and Osama bin Laden, the Baluchistan National party is peaceful, democratic and secular. Its members ought to be supported, not harassed, by the US.
But the ignorant, simple-minded Bush regime doesn't like human rights defenders who challenge its foreign allies and stooges. In particular, it is fearful of campaigners who expose US complicity with dictators and with the perpetration of crimes against humanity. Presumably, this is why Mengal was stopped and sent back? There is no other explanation, since all his papers were in order and all his humanitarian campaigning is non-violent and constitutional.
Mengal has never been arrested in the past and has never been convicted or charged by any government. He has never been accused of any offence and has no charges pending against him. Does the US government care? Apparently not. It seems to ignore the US constitution when it suits it to do so.
After being held in custody in appalling conditions for over 26 hours by the department of homeland security, Mengal was refused entry to the US and deported. No reasons given. No right of appeal. This is Bush-style democracy in action.
Apart from humiliating and inconveniencing Mengal, does this matter to the rest of us? Yes. It is further evidence of the corrosion of the rule of law and human rights by a US administration that is making major blunders in its bid to protect the country from terrorist attack.
Mengal's mistreatment by the US authorities is worth telling in some detail because it highlights the lawless abuses and shameful ignorance that often characterises President Bush's foreign and domestic policies.
On his arrival at Newark at 6.30pm on June 23, Mengal was detained and interrogated by officers of the customs and border protection enforcement section of the department of homeland security. Mengal was questioned about the situation in Baluchistan and his human rights activities. Although he cooperated fully and gave a truthful account, he was subsequently told that he would not be granted entry to the US and was, in effect, deported.
Under the US visa waiver programme, however, law-abiding British nationals are exempted from formal visa procedures and can freely visit the US for a maximum stay of up to three months on each entry.
Mengal asked an officer if he could call an official at the British embassy. The official confirmed his right to do so, but told him it would only be possible just prior to his departure. In the end, this assurance was voided. Moreover, Mengal was denied access to a telephone to contact his family and no one from the US government informed Mengal's family of what was happening to him.
According to Mengal, at the wholly unreasonable hour of 2am the next morning he was re-interrogated. At one point he was asked if he would like to phone someone within the US, as he was not allowed to call internationally. But then he was told it was too late in the night and he would have to wait until later in the morning. But this opportunity to phone a US contact never materialised.
A transcript of his interrogation was supposed to be given to him but wasn't. It was eventually sent to him after he left the US, but it was doctored to falsely allege that he had declined offers to contact a lawyer and the British embassy.
A little later Mengal was informed that he would be given a place to rest, but was made to sit on a chair for nearly 10 hours, during which time he was repeatedly told that he would soon be taken to another facility.
At approximately 6am on June 24 he was belatedly given a thermoplastic blanket (a disposable emergency sheet made of yellow polythene with a cellulose matting insulation) to keep warm.
At around 11am, officers moved Mengal to another facility. The authorities shackled him like a common criminal, locking his handcuffs to a heavy chain looped around his waist, and led him through the airport lounge to an armoured detention vehicle.
Mengal was driven to the Elizabeth detention facility in New Jersey, where he was placed in a cell with a solid steel door. He estimates he was there for over five hours.
On questioning the detention officer regarding his status, Mengal was told that he was not a criminal, nor an offender. Mengal asked the officer if a British citizen had ever been detained at this facility. The officer replied: "Never."
In the evening of 24 June, Mengal was once again restrained with fetters and manacles and transported back to the airport. He asked officers of the department of the homeland security if he had the right to call a lawyer. He was told he was not now entitled to one and could only have done so on the day of his arrival. On the day of his arrival, however, he was not informed of any of his rights, nor was he allowed to contact anyone.
At 8pm, Mengal was interrogated again by officials from US immigration and customs enforcement. They disparaged and dismissed his human rights work. He was made to feel like an enemy of the US.
Shortly before he was put on a Qatar Airways flight at about 9pm, Mengal was told he was being sent back to Dubai and that if he returned to the US, even having attained a visa, there was still a possibility he would be denied entry.
With typical US government doublespeak, Mengal was informed that he was not being deported, but rather was regarded as "inadmissible". At no point was he ever told why he was refused admission to the US. Even now, he doesn't know why.
Throughout his detention, Mengal was denied the right to contact an official from the British embassy. Isn't this a violation of the Vienna convention? Aren't detained foreign nationals supposed to have the right to contact their diplomatic representatives?
It seems like the department of homeland security can't tell the difference between a terrorist and an anti-terrorist, democratic, secular, peaceful Baluch human rights defender. In which case, the "war on terror" is bound to fail. The US government's clumsy, ignorant victimisation of another innocent person - Mengal isn't the first and he won't be the last - helps explain why so many people hate America. This is a nation that professes a love of liberty yet often acts like a tin-pot tyranny.
Peter Tatchell is a human rights campaigner, and a member of the queer rights group OutRage! and the left wing of the Green party.
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
23 Comments so far
Show Allrealdim3 - so funny. There is a certain personality type - petty, incompetent, defensive, no sense of perspective or humor. There are plenty of jobs for them in the "powst 911 wuhld".
bbr-001 July 4th, 2008 3:30 pm
Only six more months!
Six long, long months.
Let's be honest, if you are not considered a threat by the serial war thugs running ameriKa then the chances are that you are a terrorist, a supporter of NATO (north amerikan terror organisation) a supporter of Izrael, the apartheid entity in occupied Palestine and other sundry ameriKan terror outfits.
Bush said "you are either with us or against us" and the entire world knows exactly what he and his necro-mongering regime meant by that. Anybody considered an enemy of ameriKa has my respect!
Onward thru the fog, Captain George and our own titanic destiny!
Mengel's home province of Baluchistan has had a separatisit movement (from Pakistan) for decades. Pakistan has been accused (probaly justifiably) of heavy handed tactics in maintaining this province. If Pakistan lumps freedom fighters, Taliban, al qaeda and human rights advocates of the wrong ethnic persuasion together on one list for DHS, then once in a while the wrong person will be detained. There have been incidents where these people have been arrested and investigated in Britain.
However, the mistreatment and failure to follow procedure described in the article and in several comments is an embarrassment to the US. Its hard to believe this racist and "bad cop" attitude is so pervasive, even at the supervisory and managerial level. Only six more months!
MiMiCcS July 4th, 2008 4:50 am
Makes the most sense to me.
God Bless America and all who serve her.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."
Put aside for a moment the readily observable fact that the United States is a bloated, clogged cesspool of inbred idiocy and a perpetual threat to the world's existence. Mengal's desire to enter that country, from anywhere else, while covered with brown skin is in itself at least mildly suspicious, and therefore a federal crime.
Except as a member of an invading army, why would anyone ever go into the USA except to deprogram a brain-washed relative or rescue a brain-damaged friend? Both of these activities are "un-American," which, under American jurisprudence, is the legal definition of "illegal." *
* See page 783 Article 1102, paragraph 9 clause 13 of "The Patriot Act," which officially replaces the King James version of the Bible.
I recently flew in to Rome with a friend who is not an EU or US citizen. He had a problem with his visa. He could not reach anyone at his embassy right away. The Italian authorities were extremely polite and actually apologetic! We were brought to a comfortable waiting room where a number of other people were waiting and were fed! (great food!). We had constant access to a phones and beverages, and finally reached someone at the embassy. He spoke directly to one of the Italian officials and we were on our way! Not exactly fun, but civilized! In contrast, even as a US citizen, I have often felt anxious at customs, especially in Atlanta. I guess I'm somehow paranoid that somehow "they" know I have some of those "left-wing" websites bookmarked on my computer, and maybe "they" know about all the "subversive" books I have on my wish list at Amazon (like Naomi Klein,John Perkins, Chomsky, Palast....). A student of mine recently had to write a paper on the "RAF" terrorists in Germany. I did a big google search to find material. Will "they" think I'm a terrorist now?? Can they really deny a US citizen entry?
Every country has the right to deny entry to any foreign national, visa or no-visa.
The detention and treatment, despite not being pleasant, does not have seemed overly harsh or length. Dubai probably has flights arriving every 24 hrs, and not hourly, so after the interrogation he had to have someplace to wait it out.
Should he have been admitted. Who can say unless we knew why he was not. It could be as simple as getting caught in a lie. If he was on a list, I would assume he would not have been allowed on the plane to the US.
I MEANT BECOMING!
"BIRDS OF A FEATHER" WE ARE BECOMMING A MUCH LARGER VERSION OF ISRAEL!
From Triumph to Torture
Israel's treatment of an award-winning young Palestinian journalist is part of a terrible pattern
by John Pilger
Two weeks ago, I presented a young Palestinian, Mohammed Omer, with the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. Awarded in memory of the great US war correspondent, the prize goes to journalists who expose establishment propaganda, or "official drivel", as Gellhorn called it. Mohammed shares the prize of £5,000 with Dahr Jamail. At 24, he is the youngest winner. His citation reads: "Every day, he reports from a war zone, where he is also a prisoner. His homeland, Gaza, is surrounded, starved, attacked, forgotten. He is a profoundly humane witness to one of the great injustices of our time. He is the voice of the voiceless." The eldest of eight, Mohammed has seen most of his siblings killed or wounded or maimed. An Israeli bulldozer crushed his home while the family were inside, seriously injuring his mother......
http://www.antiwar.com/pilger/?articleid=13081
On a recent trip to the US, my dual-citizen (US-Canadian) daughter produced her Canadian citizenship card, provincial identity card, and her US birth certificate and birth registration card. She was then subjected to an interrogation that included the following exchange:
Border Thug: What's the purpose of your trip?
Dual Citizen: Visiting friends.
BT: What are their names and addresses?
DC: [supplies information]
BT: How long have you known them?
DC: All my life.
BT: How's that?
DC: Their parents are friends of my mother.
BT: I see. And how do you know HER?
DC: [struggles to keep straight face] She, like, birthed me.
More questions followed, along with a meticulous search of her luggage, revealing no fruits, vegetables or contraband of any kind.
Thrity minutes after she'd given them to him, idiot BT actually looked at kidlet's documents.
BT: Why didn't you tell me you're an American?
DC: Um ....
BT: [angrily] You know, I could've had you sent away!
He did not mean sent back across the 49th, either: he meant AWAY. And for what? Witnessing him asking a stupid question and doing his job ass backwards?
Kidlet now lives in the US, and totally understands why I, not a US citizen, have chosen to stay on this side of the border for the foreseeable future. I would be too tempted to say something snarky and run the risk of getting disappeared. Of course, I wouldn't have to say anything snarky at all, just look as if I might be thinking, might have thought in the past, or might think in the future something snarky, like "Why would I want to live in the States?" or "Who's that chimp on the wall?"
The problem of thwarting potential terrorists from crossing our borders could be resolved without mistreating respectable citizens through the interesting POP (Privilege of Passage Plan) proposed by author John Errett. He claims the plan is before the State Department now. It would put ownership of screening citizens in the hands of the country that issues the passport. The author sells his fiction book on his site (claims that it is a device to awaken the sleeping 9/11 public to the reality of terrorism). His plan is proposed at the end of the book (I read it - it is a C read - but holds your interest well enough to "see what happens"). I think the proposal is pretty interesting. Why not have other countries be responsible for doing a better job of issuing passports ( for more details go to his site: http://www.theowlandthehawk.com )?
Do you recall hearing:
"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends...I believe that as soon as people want peace in the world they can have it. The only trouble is they are not aware they can get it...All we are saying is give peace a chance...All you need is love...Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one."-John Lennon
Have you read this reality check:
"The Un-American Treatment of Sami al-Arian" by Charley Reese,
http://www.antiwar.com/reese/?articleid=12744
The latest on that UNJUST UN-AMERICAN situation due to the injustice of The Patriot Act:
"Dr. Al-Arian has been imprisoned continuously for more than five years, since his arrest on February 20, 2003. He has served his sentence and now awaits trial on a minor charge...Dr. Al-Arian deserves to be released and is not a flight risk since the government holds all his travel documents. In addition, he has lived in the United States for more than 33 years and his wife and children are all American citizens." -tampabaycoalitionforjusticeandpeace-owner@yahoogroups.com
"Be the change you want to see in the world."-Gandhi
To learn how you can be a part of the change, please contact:
samialarianactioncommittee@gmail.com
You will feel better when you DO SOMETHING.
Eileen Fleming, Reporter and Editor WAWA:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Author "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory"
Producer "30 Minutes With Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu"
I think it fair to say, that I would invite 90% of the CD readers to any dinner party, and although I have visited the US on a couple of occasions, I don't think I will be returning. I loved Hawaii and California, but there was a slight problem. My wife was born in Tehran, and has been a British citizen for twenty years. We are not terrorists, and being middle aged and a little thicker around the waist, we could see no problems, visiting the "land of the free and the home of the brave". How wrong we were. On each trip, a detour to Atlanta was forced upon us, just so that the US could see that we were really going home, and not hanging around to take flight lessons, or link up with a terrorist cell.
I think that I share the same values with CD readers, but unfortunately your administration is just off the scale as far as lunacy goes.
Republicans
E Murderous Unum
Democrats
E Vomitus Unum
mengal
I had to laugh, "Menagal was questioned about HIS human rights work", okey dokey.....
this kind of treatment is so disgusting. America is now a fascist state. American values are the values of oppression and terror. A curse on anyone who stands by and watches these shows of indignation without even a wimper. It is high time to take this country back, start by not paying your credit card bills(once youve maxed them out by buying good quality mountain bikes and other essentials), start by turning off that propaganda tube, start by talking to your neighbors and letting them know your true views of what is going on, start by starting something local. Start by voting ANYTHING OTHER THAN ONE PARTY CORPORATE MASTERS.
OH by the way, i WANT to be deported, send me to Canada!!!
Noordin Mengal is a dissenting voice against the Bush regime. When I lived abroad I would routinely see US embassy officials take photos and and record information about anyone who 'protested' against American corporate abuses thereby putting them on the immigration blacklist permanently barring them from entry into the US. This practice was accelerated once Bush came to power.
The MSM media enjoys a monopoly over the misinformation they dole out to the citizenry. The banning of any dissenting voice by immigration is therefore is encouraged by the corporate media to ensure that the majority of Americans remain in the dark about the daily abuses and illegalities perpetrated by American multinationals and their puppets in Washington. If Chomsky or Michael Moore were Canadians or Europeans, neither of them would ever be allowed to enter the US. America's immigration officials are the most ideologically warped public servants in the industrialized world today.
The frightening thing is that US CITIZENS can be denied re-entry to the US from abroad. Don't piss off big brother or he won't let you come home. This country has become an outright literal fascist dictatorship.
tin-pot tyranny
well, at least nelson mandela is no longer on the "everyone's-a-terrorist/no-flight-list"
though ghandi, MLK and john lennon remain.
someone please shove their foot up bush's ass real hard.
...might reverse that braindamage.