By Sara Flounders, Co-Director of the International Action Center, 7/7/02
Muhajir frame-up hides real terrorists
In a dangerous legal precedent and complete violation of constitutional rights, a U.S. citizen is being held without the rights of due process or freedom from unreasonable seizure.
Abdullah al Muhajir, a Puerto Rican Muslim from Chicago formerly known as Jose Padilla, is being accused of planning to build a radioactive “dirty bomb” to attack a U.S. city. According to news reports, Muhajir had no accomplices, no materials, no access to materials and no training in making such a bomb.
The prosecution`s “secret” evidence is so flimsy that the government acknowledges it is not likely to obtain an indictment from a grand jury. In the current political climate, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft would likely have no trouble getting an indictment if there was any evidence at all.
Muhajir is being held without charges under the legal category of “enemy combatant,” despite the fact that Congress has not declared war. He was brought to New York, moved to a South Carolina naval brig and then to Department of Defense custody. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Muhajir may never get a trial.
But the very charge that Muhajir may have discussed the idea of unleashing a radioactive bomb is so ominous that it has silenced the U.S. corporate media and many civil rights organizations.
Using the charge that an “unfolding terrorist plot to attack the United States with a radioactive `dirty bomb` had been disrupted,” U.S. government attacks on civil rights and civil liberties have reached an ominous new level.
While in Moscow on June 10, Ashcroft called a dramatic press conference to announce Muhajir`s arrest. Ashcroft announced that the FBI and the CIA, working together, had uncovered this nefarious plot. Ashcroft assured the media that such a bomb would have caused “mass death and injury.”
Muhajir had been held incommunicado since his arrest on May 8 at O`Hare International Airport. Ashcroft`s grand announcement in Moscow–five weeks after Muhajir`s arrest–conveniently coincided with President George Bush`s unveiling of a new Homeland Security Department.
