Tweeting While in Detention

'China: Tweeting a detention experience'
by Oi wan Lam, Global Voices

Yesterday, Guangzhou blogger Beifeng went hiking with a number of friends in Baiyun mountain. Some of them were wearing a Tee-shirt that carry a slogan from Xinhua Daily in1946 that says: one-party rule will bring disaster everywhere. It is a communist party slogan against the former ruling party Kuomingtang. The group of people were interrogated by six police and brought to the police station for further investigation. The tea-time lasted for more than eight hours and Beifeng reports on the process via twitter. Here is a translation of his tweets:

Some people with the t-shirts that carry the slogan of past "Xinhua Daily" are interrogated by six police. They are on their way to climb Baiyun mountain.

Police officer numbered 018356 is most active.

The police officers want to take them to the police station, but they don't want to go. There is a tension.

Both sides are taking video of each other, the police officiers then ask us to delete the video.

The slogan on the t-shirts is "one party rule will bring disasters everywhere".


Now all of them are invited to Baiyun police station. You can call up for further inquiry.

The reason for taking us away is to check our I.D and the police station of Baiyun branch is located at Guangyuen Chong Road 805.



I didn't wear the t-shirt, I went there to climb the mountain.

Nine of us are brought to the police branch. We are in a big room and there is no police officer there nor CCTV. From time to time, police officers walk pass the door. Probably they are waiting for the city police officers. We are making all kind of jokes in the room.


Still sitting in the police station. A undercover police walks in and asks us about the source of the slogan and asks if we are willing to write down our names. Two of us write their names down. The rain is very heavy outside.



Police comrades are having meeting, and there is only a police officer attending to us. We are bored. A friend is reciting poem from the Bible. Some fall asleep.

A friend just walked out from the police station front door. Ha, this is so funny.

Now the Baiyun police branch close the front door. Remind me of a saying "it is not too late to fix the cell after the sheep has run away". This is hilarious.

The atmosphere is becoming tense and there are more police. They want to keep us for dinner. We ask them to give a reason for detaining us.


Now the eight of us are sitting in the stair way at the front of the police station, passer-by can stop and watch and take picture of us.

An undercover takes us to a meeting room in the second floor. A senior police officer wants to see us. Up till now there isn't any procedural step taken.


Now they are taking note.


The reason for the written interrogation record is disturbing social order.


I left the police station 20 mins ago. Have been detented for 8 hours. Other people should be fine, will report on that later. However, Yeh Du has to stay and have tea (being interrogated) with security police.

“Fucking revolution”
Other people were asked to change into their new clothes and leave the old ones in the police station. I asked them to write a detention slip if they want us to leave our clothes. The police officers refused to do so. After a long negotiation, I took off my clothes and brought the old one home. But I had to wear the new one. I gave them money for the new clothes, they refused. I asked if I could just walk out without clothes, they wouldn't let me. By the way, the t-shirt that I wore had the slogan "Fucking revolution" with Lenin and his middle finger.

This is my first "tea-time" experience. Totally out of my expectation.

In their written record, I asked them to write down at the end: As a tourist in Baiyun mountain, as a citizen in this country, I feel regret that the police had detained me for more than six hours under the circumstance that I have not broken any law. I wish the country can respect every individual's freedom and will not let such incident happen again.


At first they asked me to change the clothes and I asked them to issue an official reciept for object detention. A police said if the object is a propaganda, they would destroy it. Later they suggested to cut it into pieces and brought the scissors in. I still requested the object detention slip. A police officer was getting angry and I told him that it was nothing personal. Then they consulted with the higher rank officers and eventually I could keep my t-shirt.

They asked me why I need the object detention slip, I said because I would get back my clothes.


Probably they could not think of any excuse to detain us, that's why they did not take away our mobile and eventually let one of us escaped. They had two hours meeting and then printed out a question outline. They must have consulted with higher rank police officials to figure that out. I told them that the whole incident would turn into a joke.


Yeh Du is now back home. All eight of us are back home safe.

As the time line of the tweets are not clear, Beifeng added more details in his blog:



The first tweet was written at 14:40, 19th of July. We arrived at the Baiyun police station at around 15:15. The written record started at around 18:00. 8 of us did that separately. I finished at 21:00. Because I insisted to have my clothes back, I stay longer until 22:55.

War on Terror Gone Wrong

How the War on Terror Backfired

Mathew Carr, FirstPost.co.uk

Any MPs still wavering over the 42-day detention issue should pay attention to the disturbing chain of events that has unfolded at Nottingham University during the last fortnight.

The story begins on May 14, when a postgraduate student at the university named Rizwaan Sabir was arrested in a joint operation by the West Midlands Counter Terrorist Unit and Nottinghamshire police, accused of downloading and printing the 1,500-page 'Al-Qaeda training manual' from a US government website.

Sabir had printed the document as part of his research into Islamic radical movements, with the help of Hicham Yezza, a 30-year-old Algerian national currently employed at the School of Modern Languages.

Despite the fact that the 'manual' was freely available, a member of staff informed the police, both men were arrested on suspicion of possessing 'material useful for terrorism'. Though Sabir's own tutors affirmed that he was using the document for research purposes, the two were held for six days, their houses searched and their computers confiscated.

On May 20 both men were released without charge, but Yezza was handed over to the immigration authorities for unspecified irregularities in his visa status. Yezza was due to challenge these allegations in a legal hearing on July 16. Last Friday however, the Home Office informed his solicitor that he had been taken to the Coinbrook Immigration Removal Centre and was scheduled to be deported to Algeria this Sunday.

The reasons for this decision are not known and both the Home Office and the police have declined to comment, but there is no obvious explanation for the sudden urgency.

Known as 'Hich' to his friends and colleagues, Yezza (pictured right) has lived in Nottingham for 13 years and is a popular figure on the university campus, where he earned his degree and a PhD in mechanical engineering. He is also a member of a popular theatrical dance troupe and a regular visitor to the Hay-On-Wye literary festival, where he would have gone this week had it not been for his arrest.

None of this is obvious al-Qaeda material. But Yezza is also a longtime peace activist and the editor of a student magazine Ceasefire. Did this political activity qualify him for deportation in the eyes of the authorities? Or has Yezza become a suitably suspicious foreigner, whose removal is intended to deflect attention from a botched investigation?

Whatever the answer, the whole affair does no credit to any of the institutions involved, nor are such procedures likely to do much to advance the cause of counter-terrorism. Yesterday, students and members of staff staged a public protest at Yezza's deportation and the threat to academic freedom posed by the original arrests, in which they read extracts from the al-Qaeda manual.

Alf Nielsen, a research fellow at the School of Politics and International Relations, is indignant at the university's role in an investigation which he believes should never have involved the police in the first place.

Yezza's friends and supporters on campus have cause to question the paranoia, xenophobia and authoritarianism that may result in the deportation of an innocent man. They must also be wondering whether the 'war on terror' is doing infinitely more damage to the brittle facade of British democracy than its terrorist enemies could ever have hoped.

FIRST POSTED

Chinese Blogger Sentenced 3.5 Years for 5 Articles

Zeng Jinyan speaks out on Hu Jia’s sentencing
Published by John Kennedy April 13th, 2008
On the day after her husband’s sentence to 3.5 years in prison for his blogging activities, house arrested blogger Zeng Jinyan wrote a letter explaining her side to their story. Here now thanks to one friendly netizen is an English translation:
Please tell me: is this a just verdict?
Zeng Jinyan, 4 April 2008

In a hearing on 3 April 2008, the court convicted Hu Jia (胡佳) and sentenced him to three years and six months imprisonment and subsequent deprivation of his political rights [1] for one year. They also confiscated his laptop computer, his wireless internet access card, his WiFi router, ZTE ADSL modem, an internet access card, one sheet of A4 printer paper with Cai Chu’s (蔡楚) e-mail address written on it, and his PHS limited-range mobile phone.
After the verdict was announced, I had to struggle with the state security squad police just for the right to walk by myself. They dropped me off at the Babaoshan subway station exit. A group of friends, some of whom I recognised, came running up to meet me. Many of them asked me: ‘Is this a just verdict?’
Now let me ask you: if someone in your family got sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment and one year of deprivation of their political rights for writing five articles and giving two interviews, having already been subjected to long term house arrest – would you think that just?
And let me ask President Hu Jintao and our various leaders responsible for the administration of justice: given that the Constitution accords priority to the protection of freedom of speech, does a verdict of three and a half years of imprisonment and one year of deprivation of one’s political rights for writing five articles and giving two interviews manifest the ‘spirit of the rule of law’? Does it exhibit the justice of our judicial system?
[more]
http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/04/13/zeng-jinyan-speaks-out-on-hu-jias-sentencing/

Imprisoning Kids for Profit

Imprisoning Kids for Profit

According to Wikipedia:

CCA is the largest private prison "provider" in the United States, with meteoric stock growth, more than doubling in the first eight months of 2006. Among other facilities, CCA runs T Don Hutto, a former medium-security prison in Taylor, TX which, since 2006, has held non-criminal, immigrant "detainees," against their will, under a pass-through contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of Homeland Security. The basic contract pays CCA approximately $2.8 million monthly, for a maximum incarceration of 512 individuals. (Minimum = $5,000+ per prisoner.) Approximately half the prisoners are children, many of them born in this country. No prisoner held is charged with a crime, nor are they deemed to be a danger to national security; it is simply their immigration/amnesty request status that has marked them for imprisonment. This is the first (and only other) time since the interment of Japanese during WWII that children have been imprisoned by the United States. A recent lawsuit asserted that the children were being held in inhumane conditions. The resulting settlement (September 2007) gained on-site pediatric service for the children being incarcerated, as well as a requirement that the toilets in their open cells be made private with the addition of a shower curtain. Additional visitation hours, schooling, and recreational opportunities were also agreed upon. The facility continues to be the site of vigils and protests by various human rights groups.

Not Guilty, Sentenced to Five Years in Prison

By Chris Hedges, Alternet

The Palestinian activist Dr. Sami Amin Al-Arian, imprisoned for five years despite a jury's failure to return a single guilty verdict against him, has gone on a hunger strike in Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Va. Al-Arian, who has abstained from food and water since March 3rd, began his hunger strike after being informed he would be called before a third grand jury. He has lost 15 pounds and has been moved to the jail's medical unit.

"A great nation is ultimately defined and judged by its system of justice," Al-Arian said in a statement released through his family. "When the system is manipulated by the powerful and tolerates abuses against the minorities or the weak members of society, the government not only loses its moral authority and betrays future generations, but will also be condemned by history."

The hunger strike is the third by the Palestinian activist, who was to have been released in April and deported. During his first hunger strike, which lasted 140 days, he took liquid nutrients and lost 45 pounds. During his hunger strike last year, which lasted 60 days, he drank only water and lost 55 pounds. Al-Arian is a diabetic.

"We are very worried about his health, but we understand why he's doing this," said his daughter, Laila Al-Arian. "The U.S. government, through its vindictive and politically motivated behavior, has given our family no other option."

The recent documentary, USA vs Al-Arian, detailed the absurdity of the show trial held in Florida and the hollowness of the government's case against Al-Arian. When the film was awarded Best Nordic Documentary at the Nordic Panorama in Finland the jury wrote: "The film shows precisely how a common man becomes a victim of the situation in the contemporary world, where the Big Brother is watching you even when you're ordering pizza."

The decision to call Al-Arian before the grand jury was made although Al-Arian had signed a "no-cooperation" agreement. The agreement stipulated that he would not be required to cooperate with the government in other cases. The government's attempt to force him to testify, despite the agreement, came a month before his scheduled release. It is seen by his lawyers and his family as an effort by the government to keep the activist in jail indefinitely.

Al-Arian endured a six-month show trial in Florida that saw the government's case collapse. The Justice Department spent an estimated $50 million and several years investigating and prosecuting Al-Arian. The government called 80 witnesses and subjected the jury to hundreds of hours of often absurd phone transcriptions and recordings made over a 10-year period, which the jury dismissed as "gossip." Out of the 94 charges made against the four defendants, there were no convictions. Of the 17 charges against Al-Arian -- including "conspiracy to murder and maim persons abroad'' -- the jury acquitted him of eight and was hung on the rest. The jurors disagreed on the remaining charges, with 10 of the 12 jurors favoring his full acquittal. Two others in the case, Ghassan Ballut and Sameeh Hammoudeh, were acquitted of all charges, dealing another body blow to the government's case.

Following the acquittal, a disaster for the government, especially because then-Attorney General John Ashcroft had announced the indictment, prosecutors threatened to retry Al-Arian. The Palestinian professor, under duress, accepted a plea bargain agreement that would spare him a second trial, saying in his agreement that he had helped people associated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad with immigration matters. It was a tepid charge given the high profile of the case. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida and the counter-terrorism section of the Justice Department agreed to recommend to the judge the minimum sentence of 46 months.

But U.S. District Judge James S. Moody Jr. sentenced Dr. Al-Arian to the maximum 57 months. In referring to Al-Arian's contention that he had only raised money for Palestinian Islamic Jihad's charity for widows and orphans, the judge said acidly to the professor that "your only connection to orphans and widows is that you create them."

The Importance of Being Ted

If your name happens to be Ted Kennedy, Naomi Wolf or Cat Stevens, you are on the list of criminals and terrorists dedicated to destroy the American Way of Life.

If you call yourself John Williams, Richard Anderson or any one of 100’s of common American names, you may be detained at the airport and flown to a dungeon in darkest Egypt. Under torture you will confess. Most people do.

In this case, the words ‘suspect’ and ‘accused’ do not apply. Detainees are guilty until proven innocent. The niceties of habeas corpus and due process are ancient history.

If you don’t co-operate, the authorities will rape your spouse and sodomize your kids.

Joe McCarthy used to walk the corridors of power with a pocket full of blank pages. They listed alternatively 113 traitors in the State Department or 67 Communists in the Screen Writers Guild.

Not to be outdone, J Edgar Hoover amassed a list of 12,000 Communists who prepared to overthrow the government.

Thanks to computers, Homeland Security has upped the ante. Their list of criminals and terrorists will top one million by July, 2008. They run monthly local raids to catch these dangerous outlaws 12,000 to 20,000 at a clip. Mostly, they are runaway dads and scofflaws. They have failed to catch a single terrorist.

Life Without Habeas Corpus

If I had murdered my wife in 1992, the Israeli authorities would likely have released me in 1999 to return home to America. Unfortunately, I could not pull the hammer on the mother of my son.

So, Israel revoked my human rights and detained me indefinitely in the Holy Land. Without charges or trial, I probably will die here. It’s cheaper to give me a disability check and six hours on the Internet than it is to incarcerate me.

Torture would kill me faster than I could confess.

Most citizens with common sense have resigned themselves to this status. They are free to travel, to take a new job or to participate in politics. They are free to rock the boat, but not to change its course or to sink it.

What does one do when the Police riot?

If Men Could Get Pregnant...

If Men Could Get Pregnant, Abortion Would be a Sacrament

Erica Jong, HuffPost

Roe v. Wade is one of the most controversial cases in U.S. Supreme Court history. Even before it was decided there were men and women whose stomachs turned at the idea of abortion. The issue had been argued many times before in fairly recent history.

For centuries, death in childbirth was woman's lot. In some places, it still is. In mountainous Afghanistan where women can't get to hospitals or there are none, in war zones, in occupied zones with barriers or curfews, in many parts of Africa, in rural India, and China, in rural America, giving birth is still no joke. Even in big cities, it can be dangerous.

Jbpaz

Aside from resembling Mary Astor, my girlfriend was arguably the most corrupt woman in town. After she became pregnant, she gave me the classic choice of marriage or abortion.

Although my son remains my pride and joy, we have been wrongfully held hostage by Israel for 16 years. My life a shambles, the only way I’ll ever get out of the Holy Land is in a box. I never fully appreciated my human rights until I lost them.

Others may act as they wish, but I have never doubted my decision for life.