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18 January 2011 By Stephen
Lendman Pakistani Canadians Mahboob
Khawaja, his son Momin, and family were wrongfully
targeted for alleged involvement in terrorism. Mahboob
is an "academic specializing in Strategic Studies with
special interests in Western-Islamic Civilizations,
Change and Conflict Resolution." While working in Saudi Arabia,
dozens of Royal Canadian Mounted police arrested his
family at gunpoint in Ottawa. They blew open his door,
then searched his home lawlessly with no warrant and
found nothing. At the same time, Mahboob was arrested
in Saudi Arabia, jailed for two weeks, then released.
The affair ruined his academic career as a professor
of global politics, and Momin's as a software
developer and free man. In March 2004, he was bogusly
accused of a UK bomb plot, becoming the first person
charged under Canada's 2001 Anti-Terrorism Act. Though
acquitted on that charge, he was held without trial
for over four years, then convicted on October 29,
2008, and sentenced on March 12, 2009, after a bench
trial, to ten and a half years (above time already
served) for allegedly: -- donating $859 to an Afghan
refugee charity; in fact, he gave $25; -- making a device, readily
available at retail, to jam cell phone signals and
emails, specifically ones relating to Western
imperialism; -- providing material support to
Afghan resistance fighters, called terrorists; and -- attending an unknown camp
during a Pakistan visit. Appealing before Ontario's Higher
Court from May 18 - 20, 2010, prosecutors restated all
trial court charges, including the bogus UK bomb plot.
The Lawrence Greenspon-led defense team argued for
acquittal on time served. On December 17, Momin was
sentenced to life plus 24 years to be served
concurrently, though innocent of all charges. The
harsh Appeals Court ruling stressed "the unique nature
of terrorism-related offenses," though none whatsoever
were committed. Based largely on thought crime
emails, the sentence was politically motivated. Not a
shred of evidence justified it. It's the wrong time to
be Muslim in Canada and America, with prosecutorial
injustice in both countries engineered to convict,
regardless of innocence. A Supreme Court appeal is
planned, but given Canada's climate of fear and jihad
against Islam, victims like Momin stand little chance
for justice. On December 20, Richard Fidler's
article headlined "Canadian courts embrace the 'war on
terror,' " said: A three-panel hanging Appeals
Court wrongfully punished Momin for his alleged
attacks on "Western culture and civilization," what he
never did, in fact, or imagined. Yet his life now
irrevocably has changed. Minimally, he faces another
10 years in prison before eligibility for parole.
Waging war on Islam, Canadian courts rush to convict,
replicating the same American injustices. Indeed, it's
the wrong time in both countries to be Muslim. Oscar Lopez Rivera - Wrongfully
Imprisoned for Supporting Puerto Rican Independence Longtime Chicago area organizer,
activist, and campaigner for Puerto Rican
independence, the FBI arrested him in 1981, calling
him an alleged Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN)
leader. Though Rivera neither confirms or denies it,
Puerto Rico has been colonized for over 112 years.
Freedom fighters like FALN members seek independence,
a right international law and annual UN resolutions
affirm but not Washington, the repressive occupying
power. In 1981, Rivera was convicted of
armed robbery, miscellaneous charges, and seditious
conspiracy - sedition pertaining to actions to incite
insurrection or rebellion; conspiracy by working with
others to achieve it. Initially sentenced to 55 years,
15 more were added in 1988, based on spurious charges
of participating in an escape conspiracy, the new
sentence to begin when the original one ends. In 1999, the Clinton
administration offered him and 11 other Puerto Rican
nationalists clemency. He declined, saying it
required him to serve 10 more years with good conduct.
Had he accepted, he'd be free. His sister, Zenaida
Lopez, said he refused because on parole, he'd be in
"prison outside prison." On January 5, a US Parole
Commission recommended he remain in prison until his
mandatory 2023 release date or serve another 15 years
before parole reconsideration, whichever comes first. The entire hearing process was
engineered to deny. Rivera attended handcuffed to a
chain around his waist despite his attorney's
objections. Eight Bureau of Prisons staff guarded him,
though he posed no flight risk. Testimonies of four
1975 New York explosion victims were introduced, a
crime unrelated to Rivera's conviction. The Puerto
Rico Bar Association's observer status petition was
denied by non-response. A seven-page Chicago US Attorney
Patrick Firzgerald political diatribe against Rivera
was introduced, listing unrelated acts and unsupported
conclusions. Defense attorney Jan Susler
argued that he met the criteria for release, has been
a model prisoner, and was never accused of any rules
violations. Moreover, that his release would not
lesson the seriousness of charges (true or false) or
promote disrespect for the law, and that a freed
Rivera wouldn't jeopardize public welfare. In addition, she stressed the
Clinton administration's determination that his
sentence was disproportionately long, that he was
offered clemency, and that released political
prisoners become productive, fully integrated
citizens. No matter. He was denied. Days before his hearing,
right-wing opponents, in fact, flooded the media with
lies and innuendos and barraged the Commission with
anti-Rivera phone calls. However, when his supporters
called, they reached no one. Clearly, the fix was in
to reject him on political grounds to keep an
effective public voice silenced. The National Boricua Human Rights
Network (NBHRN) continues working for his release
through petitions, phone messages, elected officials,
religious and community leaders, and enlisting other
activist supporters for justice. He was wrongfully
incarcerated in the first place, victimized like
hundreds of other political prisoners, many thousands,
including undocumented Latinos. Earlier articles addressed them,
accessed through the following links: http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/10/canadas-war-on-islam-case-of-mahboob.html http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/11/oscar-lopez-rivera-imprisoned-for.html Stephen Lendman lives in
Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished
guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the
Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central
time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/. |
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