June, 04 2009, 02:51pm EDT
HRF Urges Senate to Adopt Federal Hate Crime Law
WASHINGTON
Dear Senator:
I write to express Human Rights First's strong
support of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act (S. 909).
This important legislation will help to ensure that law enforcement
authorities have the tools they need to combat violent hate crime in
the United States.
Forty-five states and the District of Columbia have hate crime laws,
but many of those laws do not cover crimes based on disability, gender,
gender identity, or sexual orientation. S. 909 would close this gap by
providing federal law enforcement officials with the authority to
investigate and prosecute a wider range of bias violence, including
that based on disability, gender, gender identity or sexual
orientation. And while state and local authorities will continue to
investigate and prosecute the large majority of hate crime cases, S.
909 would provide an important backstop by ensuring that federal
authorities can provide assistance in state and local hate crime
investigations and by authorizing federal prosecutions when state and
local authorities are unable or unwilling to act.
Hate crime is a serious problem in the United States. As we documented in our 2008 report on Hate Crime in the United States,
hate crimes in this country include assaults on individuals, damage to
homes and personal property, and attacks on places of worship,
cemeteries, community centers, and schools. In 2007, the FBI documented
7,624 hate crimes directed against institutions and individuals because
of their race, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, or
disability. Behind these statistics are individuals, families, and
communities deeply impacted by these violent crimes. By undermining the
shared value of equality and nondiscrimination, violent hate crimes
also threaten the very fabric of the increasingly diverse society in
which we live.
Violent hate crime is a worldwide problem. In our 2008 Hate Crime Survey
we documented a rising tide of racist, antisemitic, anti-Muslim and
homophobic violence across Europe and the former Soviet Union and found
that the majority of governments in these countries are failing to adequately address the problem.
The U.S. has led efforts to confront this scourge through its foreign
policy and through engagement in multilateral institutions such as the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. In addition to
strengthening the U.S. government's response to hate crime at home,
enactment of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act would
enhance global leadership by the U.S. on this issue, enabling the U.S.
to more effectively encourage other governments to strengthen their
responses to hate crimes.
The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act has been endorsed by
more than 275 national civil rights, professional, civic, education,
and religious groups, twenty-six state Attorneys General, and a number
of the most important national law enforcement organizations in
America. In the 110th Congress, sixty Senators voted in support of a
very similar measure. Last month, we welcomed passage in the House of
Representatives (by a bipartisan vote of 249-175 of the Local Law
Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (H.R. 1913).
We urge swift passage of S.909. Please do not hesitate to contact
our office if you have questions about this legislation or if we can be
helpful in any way.
Sincerely,
Elisa Massimino Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director
Human Rights First is a non-profit, nonpartisan international human rights organization based in New York and Washington D.C. Human Rights First believes that building respect for human rights and the rule of law will help ensure the dignity to which every individual is entitled and will stem tyranny, extremism, intolerance, and violence.
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A U.S. military judge on Thursday found Guantánamo Bay prisoner Ramzi bin al-Shibh—who stands accused of being a key 9/11 organizer—unfit to stand trial because he suffers from mental illness his attorney says was caused by CIA torture years ago.
Air Force Col. Matthew McCall severed al-Shibh, a 51-year-old Yemeni, from the conspiracy case involving four other defendants who allegedly organized the cell of militants in Hamburg, Germany who hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 and flew it into the north tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan on September 11, 2001. Al-Shibh had been charged as an accomplice in the case.
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According toLawdragon editor-in-chief John Ryan:
Al-Shibh has long claimed that the detention facility guard force has subjected him to noises and vibrations, continuing his torture from CIA black sites... In recent years, his lawyers have also claimed that al-Shibh feels stabbing and other painful sensations that he experiences as directed invisibly at parts of his body. The government has denied the allegations.
"The totality of the facts demonstrates an accused who is wholly focused on his delusions," McCall wrote in his ruling, according to The New York Times. "Again and again, he focuses his counsel's work on stopping his delusional harassment, (which) demonstrates the impairment of his ability to assist in his defense."
Military prosecutor Clayton Trivett Jr. acknowledged that al-Shibh is delusional but insisted "he has the capacity to participate" in his defense, and that his refusal to do so is "really just a choice."
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While McCall ordered pretrial proceedings to continue Friday for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed—the alleged mastermind of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on 9/11—as well as three co-defendants, what comes next for al-Shibh is unknown.
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According to the CIA's own documents:
The interrogation plan proposed that... al-Shibh would be subjected to "sensory dislocation." The proposed sensory dislocation included shaving al-Shibh's head and face, exposing him to loud noise in a white room with white lights, keeping him "unclothed and subjected to uncomfortably cool temperatures," and shackling him "hand and foot with arms outstretched over his head (with his feet firmly on the floor and not allowed to support his weight with his arms)".
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Al-Shibh was also held at a black site in Morocco for three-and-a-half months, where Moroccan agents allegedly tortured him under CIA supervision. Moroccan interrogators videotaped some of the interrogations and handed the footage over to the CIA.
This isn't the first time that torture played a role in derailing the prosecution of an alleged 9/11 plotter. In 2009, Susan J. Crawford, the top George W. Bush administration official in charge of deciding whether to bring Guantánamo prisoners to trial, declared that the U.S. "tortured" Mohammed al-Qahtani, the alleged would-be 20th 9/11 hijacker, and declined to green light his prosecution.
Col. Stuart Crouch, a Guantánamo prosecutor whose Marine Corps buddy was a pilot on one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center on 9/11, refused to prosecute Mohamedou Ould Slahi—who allegedly helped organize the plane's hijacking—because he was tortured.
Additionally, numerous Guantánamo officials have resigned over what they claim is a corrupt military commission system. Former lead prosecutor Col. Morris Davis—who called trials there "rigged from the start"—stepped down in 2007, claiming he was told by top Bush lawyer Jim Haynes that acquittals were unacceptable.
"I now understand that the commissions were doomed from the start. We used new rules of evidence and allowed evidence regardless of how it was obtained."
At least four other military prosecutors—Maj. Robert Preston, Capt. John Carr, Capt. Carrie Wolf and Darrel J. Vandeval—requested to be removed from the military commissions because they also felt that the proceedings were unfair.
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Earlier this year, Ted Olson—the former Bush administration solicitor-general who then argued against basic legal rights for Guantánamo Bay prisoners and defended their indefinite detention and torture—made a stunning admission, saying the military commissions don't work and should be shut down, and the government should strike plea deals with 9/11 defendants held at the prison.
"In retrospect, we made two mistakes in dealing with the detained individuals at Guantánamo," Olson wrote. "First, we created a new legal system out of whole cloth. I now understand that the commissions were doomed from the start. We used new rules of evidence and allowed evidence regardless of how it was obtained."
Defense and prosecution attorneys had been negotiating a possible plea deal that would have spared the defendants the prospect of execution. However, earlier this month the White House said that President Joe Biden would not approve or deny such a request because he "was unsettled about accepting terms for the plea from those responsible for the deadliest assault on the United States since Pearl Harbor," according to The Associated Press.
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