http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2009-09-29-income-gap-census_N.htm?obref=obnetwork
The above link is a very good article by USA Today featuring some recent census data. Among other things, it points out something very relevant to the next election:
"Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia had higher poverty rates than the national average, many of them in the South, such as Mississippi (21.2%), Kentucky, Arkansas and Louisiana (each with 17.3%). That's compared with 19 states and the District of Columbia that ranked above U.S. poverty in 2007."
Bonjour!
En ce moment je suis pas mal prise par le boulot, une grosse operation de communication à venir (non aucun rapport avec la black hattitude ;) ) bien que certaines méthodes utilisées pour la Black Hattitude pourront être bénéfique au projet sur lequel je travaille.
Tout comme Obama nous ne partons pas gagnant, peu croient en nous et il nous faut faire preuve d'une grande force de caractère accompagné d'une dose de folie/courage (au choix !) car sans cela il serait inutile de se lancer...
La campagne de Barack Obama est pour nous un exemple à suivre même s'il faut bien evidemment l'adapter. Nos cibles sont moins variées, nous n'avons pas autant de monde sur le projet (difficile de faire mieux que la puissance réunie des partisants de Barack! ) mais nous avons le même gout pour les challenges et avons envie de changer les choses, à notre petit niveau, mais s'impliquer et tenter de toujours s'ameliorer fait parti de notre philosophie.
C'est pourquoi, ne vous inquiétez pas si je ne suis pas toujours très présente, je suis et j'accompagne toujours au moins dans mon coeur, l'équipe d'Obama et tous ses supporters! :)
A bientot pour parler d'un peu de Black Hattitude
Soon as we got a Democrat in the White House, a bunch of Senators claiming to be Democrats rushed to show how independent they are, declaring they won’t necessarily vote in support of the President’s agenda that he was elected to enact. As a Hoosier, I’ll put Indiana’s Evan Bayh (pronounced “Bye” or “Buy”) at the top of the list.
Mr. Obama is right to allow politicians to vote their “consciences” (oxymoron is obvious). Where he’s wrong is in promising to raise money for them. I won’t give one penny to support ANY Senator who fails to toe the line and earnestly help the President do what he promised. Many promises were made. If they’re not kept because Democrats in the Senate support powerful banks and other lobbies against the people who support Mr. Obama’s agenda, then Bayh-Bayh to them come the primary.
If self-described Democrats in the Senate refuse to push through the President’s agenda, then it’s up to us to FIND SOMEONE WHO WILL. I won’t give money to or raise money for Evan Bayh or Arlen Spector or any of the approximately eight others who have declared themselves “independent” of this cause.
They want our money and votes only to betray us to the powerful lobbyists who own them. We need to start work right now finding better people to run against them in the primaries and start raising the money they’ll need to win.
We kept McCain and Palin out of the White House. We certain can put Bayh, Specter and those other eight “independent” Democrats OUT of the Senate. CHANGE is coming to America.
Yabca bcaju acnje accbye cas
How do you deter an enemy who is willing to kill himself in order to kill you? You strike at something more important to him than his own life. Defining that will be easy for me. The next question is can America be as ruthless as our enemies?
The time has come to end the fruitless and unsustainable effort to search and destroy every cave in Afghanistan and bomb every campground in bordering Pakistan. It’s counterproductive anyway.
What will put the fear of America into terrorist masterminds and those who would follow their orders is simple and radical revenge. Masterminds have families: Cousins, brothers and fathers. Eliminate them. All at once, or one at a time, it works just as well. The ones who survive an initial “hunt” will go into hiding. Having some adult male relatives killed and the rest hiding out in caves will demoralize masterminds and their loved ones. You cannot work and support your women like that. You can’t make more baby masterminds that way. You cannot continue the blood line. The women and children will pressure them to stop their plotting and bombing.
People want to leave a familial legacy, and they can’t do that under those circumstances over the long term.
Should America do that? Yes. Do we have the “intestinal fortitude” and sustainable motivation? I don’t think so. But we should, and it shouldn’t take another terrorist attack to get us there.
For the last seven years the CIA has been kidnapping people from other nations and torturing them. Why not just go in there and quietly shoot them to death?
Frankly, by not killing women or children the way those terrorists routinely do, we can even claim the moral high ground.
Yep! I will very shortly, be workin' with Daniella, a Hospice volunteer, on my artwork for the upcoming "big event" y'all have heard about! She is a real sweetheart, as are SO MANY 'round these parts.
I left for our two-hour session, and now am back! Of course, to you, no time elapsed; that's the nature of "linnear" time; perception is key. Dylan has a song entitled "Time Passes Slowly" whereas Tom Petty has a song called "Grew Up Fast", and on top of that, the old saw that states "a watched pot never boils". Go figure...I'm not really sure what I'm gettin' at here- other than time is as much as how we perceive it as it is a function of planetary speed on it's axis and around the Sun.
Enuff of the Metaphysics...for now, that is!
What else do you wanna know? We worked on two of my unfinished projects, one called "Reaper" and the other titled "Alien". The latter is inspired by a song from a fellow who died from cancer rather suddenly (his wet, hacking cough was much more serious than he thought, and by the time he had it checked out, he was, I believe, two weeks or so from death...I suppose I could look it up, but my meaning is clear!).
In any event, there's a line in the song that goes, "...mind of glass and a mask of ice..."; I find it very compelling and as such, it moved me to creating a three dimensional piece whereby a "mask of shattered ice reveales beneath yer "classic" gray alien face. Its lookin' pretty good in the early run.
And "Reaper" is also a three dimensional project. It will display "The Grim Reaper wearing a placard that says "Will work for food" as well as cleverly holding my signature by way of his wussy complaining!
Short post tonight...I have to go to beddy early for an *:30am Doctor appointment. Nothing serious; just lookin' into my vision, which sucks more and more as each day passes...or perhaps it is my perception of time passing!
Dear Members of “Africans and Americans for Obama” group,
Before hand, I would like to follow up on my yesterday’s email to tell you how sorry I am about the incident involving a “member” called “MARY KARGBO, ESQ” also known on the campaign’s website as “MARY from OKLAHOMA CITY, OK”.
This has been a hurt to most of you as this member incited a series back and forth emails, fueled a spread of hateful messages using very demining callings in a debate that violated the spirit, the vision and the goals of our group. More, she has disturbed more than one member by sending spams to the entire list-serv at a proportion of about 3 to 5 emails a day.
I understood, after reading the responses to my email when I suggested Mary to “remove her-self” from the group that Mary Kargbo, Esq (from the so called “Kargbo Law Office”—see the email’s title) has one mission in her mind: Distract and discourage Obama group’s members from staying involved in the work we have now and ahead of us, now that Barack Obama has been sworn in President.
Don’t ask me how a member (who according to the group’s records has joined on February 22nd 2007, under an email: KARGBOLAWOFFICE@GMAIL.COM became as trivial figure as she has been now, only when we just begun the work we pledged to support and toil for in past 2 years. All I can say is that she (if ever it is a “she”) has aligned herself as someone who preaches hate, intolerance and defamations while she is a Christian who claims her faith without showing the values that come with the epithet, a believer who makes stories about President Obama, hoping that sticks in our minds another story that characterizes President Obama as a Chicagoan that would try to perpetuate a “fairy tale”.
Well, after the flow of more responses and emails from Mary Kargbo Esq, today ( March 19th, 09) still inciting hate and defamation against the President and his agenda; after I have received many listserv and private email messages from members (among whom many asked to be removed if ever Mary was called on to just leave “freely”; given my duties as the Group’s administrator of the group “Africans and Americans For Obama”; considering the sensitivity of the moment when the American people hope that “We the People” – the organizers MUST help to bring and to keep a focus on bringing “real” debates to the table of discussions on issues like Healthcare, Education and Dependence on Foreign Oils -- I have decided 4 following elements and have acted upon immediately:
1. I have reported “Mary from Oklahoma City, OK” to the BarackObamaDotCom as an intruder with the purpose to disturb and to derail the vision and the work done by the group.
2. I have removed (March 19th 2009, at 7:30pm EST) from the group, “Mary Kargbo, Esq. of Oklahoma City”, OK from the group without any further delay.
3. I have instructed an investigation to detect the email used in connection with the mailing to prevent more incidents, and results are to come.
4. I call upon all remaining members to send me a direct email, if ever we do suspect another “Mary” has disguised her/him-self as another “deceitful” member within the group.
Dear Members,
Again, I do apologize to all those who were annoyed, appalled and offended by the comments and actions from this member (who is no longer one, as of now).
I ask you to reconsider, if ever you had decided to eminently unsubscribe from the group. The time is neither to quit nor to be distracted from meeting head on the challenges we face as a country; while we are working on bringing the process of change in action in Washington DC, the Republicans and the “racists” associated to the same right-wing talking points have constituted a bloc against the President’s agenda. They are being promoted by the masterminds of the “old ways” of doing business across both sides of the Capitol Hill political divide and have decided more than ever to exclude the American people becoming once again actors in public affairs.
They hope AIG’s bonuses be honored without challenge, without the American expressing their outrage; they hope they turn our online groups and the entire website into an inadequate instrument, in order to weaken the job we are doing to “Organize for America”.
Well, we know better than that. I’m sure all of you agree that it will take us more efforts to accomplish the will of the American people expressed in every recent election our country has held from 2006-2009 today than when we all worked hard to elect an “instrument” that would bring change in America: Barack Obama.
I’m glad that several groups are still active and involved: that why several SEIU members within continue to rally in Washington and lobby the DC’s insiders to push for the Employee Free Choice Act; many of them have protested the AIG and Bank of America’s embarrassments in Boston, today. This website still makes it possible to organize in precincts around debates such as the Healthcare forums and it is a great tool that helps inform members about the White House’s execution of the campaign’s agenda.
We would never lose sight of it, that my prayer, we will always remember what Barack Obama said about bringing change to Washington DC. I am happy we don’t have a “dictator” like Mary and those alike suggested but he is the man who asked us to believe in our abilities to bring change, not just in his abilities as candidate (today President).
“… The way to change will be long and it won’t be easy! ”-- he warned before the DNC convention, to finally promise on the Victory night that: “…We, as a people, we will get there!” Let no “Republicans-with-no-agenda” distract us from remaking America, starting in our backyard, our launch pads, in our group’s blogs
I’m Franklin Katunda, an Obama Surrogate, and I approve this message!!!
Part 1 of an article I wrote for jewishinstlouis.org
Every art student learns about the fair use principle, granting us permission to use any image in our artwork as long as we transform it so that it conveys new meaning. But beyond that all-encompassing definition, we don’t know what transgressions, if any, we are actually committing.
Recently in the news is the preemptive lawsuit artist Shepard Fairey filed against the Associated Press. According to Fairey the AP threatened to sue him unless he pays royalties for the image that he used as source material for his now famous campaign poster of Barack Obama. Fairey argues that he is protected by the fair use principle. He claims that his intention was not to reproduce any particular image, but instead was to capture a specific gaze representative of the ideas of hope and change.
In an interview on NPR, Fairey declared he was going forward with this suit on behalf of all artists, the thousands of artists that created their own campaign images in the same grassroots manner, pulling images from the web in support of the message of hope, change and a new administration in Washington.
screen shot of: first page of google image search results for "Barack Obama"
I am fascinated by Fairey’s implication that the process of appropriating and re-contextualizing Google image search results might be considered a grassroots action. As an artist, I frequently use images that that I find on Google. Like Fairey suggested, my motivation for using these images is to highlight the search itself, not the derivative image.
Perhaps then, these cyber Robin Hoodian actions—using and transforming Google image search results—are capable of changing the structures that control the dissemination of information. After all, the order that information appears in Google searches is determined by the amount of people searching any given topic. And as a result of the Fairey’s appropriation, his campaign poster may be forever linked to Obama’s presidency.
email from President Obama
Obama’s popularity can be credited to his skillfully constructed presidential campaign that effortlessly linked his name to hope. I was quick to jump onto Obama’s online campaign message of hope. Like many others, I subscribed to his twitter, facebook, and YouTube pages. I now get weekly emails from him and I even have a blog on his site…
We need to give credit where credit is deserved: NAME this economic crisis after the man most responsible for it's creation.
$10 trillion deficit is what we had at the end of the Bush administration. In eight years, Bush more than DOUBLED all the indebtedness America had accrued in more than 200 years.
This is more than a talking point, this is a necessary reminder that should be made every day, so that the notoriously SHORT memories of Americans shall be stimulated on a regular basis.
While reading Thomas Friedman's book "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" with CNN on in the background, it struck me that I've heard a number of reporters repeat teh phrase: "The campaign is over, and now it's time to govern."Not to put too fine a point on it, but, as the saying goes, "What planet are they from?"; the election campaign is over, but the campaign to maintain electoral support never ends.This is very closely tied in with the necessity to "green" America for the following reason: given that it is both well-known, and well-documented, that terrorism is funded by oil revenues (often called "petrodollars", I cannot comprehend why we, the American people, are not being provuided with public-service messages clearly and simply illustrating not only teh facts recarding that funding, but also, the fact that, when the CAFE standards were eliminated in the 1980's, that alone directly led to the US wasting as much oil as optimistic estimates say is located beneath ANWAR. In our rush to absolve ourselves of any and all responsibility, we as a people and government have long deluded ourselves that buying gas-guzzling SUVs and energy-wasting homes was a matter of "freedom", when it has, in fact, been the major vehicle for funding attempts to eliminate our true freedom.President Obama has ntoed that we have an economic struggle ahead of us, and he has intimated that energy-independence is both an economic issue and a national security issue. I do not think, however, that either aspect has at all been sufficiently communicated to the populace, not by a long shot. Perhaps we have become so sensitized to the mere mention of the word "propaganda" that we've allowed small minds to convince us the airwaves belong exclusively to commercial advertising (with snippets of programing squeezed in-between to keep us watchign the advertising). If this is so, then some improtant lessons from history have been either ignored, or deliberately swept under the proverbial carpet. I think it is not merely a "good idea", but rather, imperative that the oil-terrorism connection be communicated to the American people, and to all people in the West. The potential tyranny of energy has been well-illoustrated by Russia's having plunged Europeans into an icebath, so to speak, by cutting off the flow of natural gas. We, as a people, must either return to the realization that it is not the size of one's car or the square-footage of one's home that gives life value and makes it worth living; to reject that realization will mean that, by pursuing the Madison Avenue illusion of freedom as "purchasing choice", we will sell our true freedom to petrofascists.
Senator Dodd went rogue and inserted some crazy stuff into the new law, so the President will need to be creative. Perhaps we are looking for HEROES to run our troubled banks. A lot of wealthy patriots have made great financial sacrifices to serve in the Obama Administration. Like-minded people who don’t want to go through the vetting process and insane pubic humiliation of being outed on every little tax related or other embarrassment can now serve their country without becoming federal employees but while still consenting to be paid wages not all that far above that.
I see nothing different Obama has said or done since 2004 and today -- perhaps Gregg's understanding of it morphed overnight between the time he was begging for the job and yesterday, when it came time to vote on the stimulus plan. Gregg seems to claim otherwise.
Obama should have known Gregg either hasn't the courage of his convictions or , far more likely, hasn't got any deeply held beliefs other than politics. We demand omniscience! How DARE the President not realize a man like Gregg would say anything to further his own personal ambitions?
There's something wrong with a vetting process that cannot discern that a politically savvy adult who somehow got himself repeatedly elected to the US Senate would claim to have turned his back on Petty Partisan Politics but actually lack the moral fortitude to stand by his decision.
The U.S. terror war as seen through the eyes of a prisoner
When we first began corresponding with Khalid Awan in 2007, we had no idea why he was serving time in U.S. federal prison. We soon discovered Awan was one of the first of thousands of Muslims taken prisoner in the post-9/11 U.S. "terror war." As the story began unfolding in our letters, we began to realize that this honest, humble and sincere man was not only innocent, but the ongoing injustice being done to him provides critical insight into the mindless, meanspirited, bureaucratic-yes-men idiocy fueling the illegal U.S. "war on terror" (and just about everything else that is going wrong in this country). At our insistence, Awan wrote his story and supplied us with whatever documents we requested. And now, after three months of cooperative efforts, the story of Khalid Awan can be told. We have come to know Awan as a peaceful man engaged in peaceful work who has been wrongfully accused, detained and repeatedly convicted of crimes he did not commit because he was a Muslim with international connections and an office in New York on 9/11. We present this to you in faith that you will realize a deeper understanding of the levels of complicity necessary for the "land of the free" to tolerate the phony war on terror year after year and in hope that Awan—and all the other million or more political prisoners being held by this country—will one day be reunited with their families.
By Khalid Awan
My name is Khalid Qayyam Awan. My rights have been eroded in the name of "national security." Since I am a Muslim, my story has been written, produced, directed, choreographed and staged by U.S. government officials.
The Department of Justice and the FBI have been under pressure by the Bush administration to find "terrorists" in this country and to preemptively convict them before they can strike at the U.S. Although there is good evidence that there are few, if any, potential terrorists in the Muslim communities of the United States, U.S. attorneys who are not able to find any real "terrorists," target, prosecute and convict innocent Muslims on phony or inflated criminal charges to show they are politically "loyal to the president," and to avoid being fired for political reasons, as recent news revelations strongly suggest. These prosecutions have destroyed families in a country that is renowned for its human rights activities around the world.
Background
I am a 46-year old Canadian citizen and native of Pakistan. Throughout my life I studied in Catholic Christian schools and read the Bible every morning. I received my Masters Degree in Political Science at the University of Karachi in Pakistan and I am one of the founding members of the Pakistan Human Rights Commission. As a result of my belief in humanity and equality, I moved to Canada in 1993, becoming a Canadian citizen in 1996. In Canada I worked as an immigration consultant and was a member of the Canadian Bar Association. As part of my business, I also had an office in New York, which is where I was on Sept 11, 2001.
October 2001
On October 25, 2001, U.S. government agents entered my house in Garden City, NY, without knocking and yelled at me to drop everything or they would shoot me. They forced me to lie on the ground while they handcuffed me and placed me under arrest.
They claimed they had received an anonymous tip that I was a material witness for the 9/11 World Trade Center terrorist attack. After my arrest, I was taken in front of New York Judge Michael Mukasey (current U.S. attorney general known for his Israeli sympathies). After a detailed investigation by the FBI and U.S. Naval Intelligence, I was put in front of a Grand Jury. The case was dismissed on November 6, 2001.
Charge #2
Before I was released from custody, on November 5, 2001, the U.S. government imposed new charges: "Conspiracy to Commit Fraud and Money Laundering." They alleged that I stole/misused the identity profiles of my clients, people who come to me seeking to obtain Canadian visas and citizenship in the U.S., although there was not a single complaint from any of my clients or any banks.
(Note: Journalist Dr. Paul Craig Roberts stated in his 12/11/06 column, America’s Injustice System is Criminal: "The criminal justice system today consists of a process whereby a defendant is coerced into admitting to a crime in order to escape more severe punishment for maintaining his innocence. Many of the crimes for which people are imprisoned never occurred").
Every defense attorney knows that today prosecutors can purchase testimony against a defendant by paying "witnesses" with money, dropping charges against them or reducing prison sentences to testify against defendants. Jurors tend to trust government prosecutors and are generally unaware that they will withhold exculpatory evidence and suborn perjury and bear false witness to obtain convictions.
Months went by. Then a year had passed and I was still "detained" without a trial for crimes I did not commit. My lawyer advised me to plead guilty. He said it was in my own best interests as I would be "facing 10 years on the money laundering charge" due to the current climate in New York courts and my being a Muslim and a native of Pakistan. By this time I had served 17 months in detention, so I pled guilty to $95,000 of fraud conspiracy, which carried a maximum sentence of 15 to 24 months. The plea agreement—release for time served—was not even honored and I was sentenced to five years, the sentence for approximately $2,400,000 in credit card fraud.
Appeal to Canada
In January, 2005, when I was finally able to apply for a "treaty transfer" to Canada. I learned from my case manager that my citizenship was listed in the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) computer as "Pakistani" instead of "Canadian." All my Canadian documentation—passport, citizenship card, social insurance and health cards and Canadian drivers license—were in the possession of the FBI. I wrote the Canadian Consulate in Buffalo, NY, to request that they fix this problem so I could be transferred back to Canada. On March 30, 2005, the Canadian Consulate sent a letter to the jail to correct my citizenship status, but the FBOP ignored the request and did not correct the computer.
I realize now that the BOP intentionally left my citizenship as "Pakistani" to make me administratively ineligible for transfer to Canada and keep me in the U.S. while the U.S. government prepared new charges against me.
A year later, six weeks before my scheduled release date, I was transferred from Allenwood FCI to the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, NY, supposedly in preparation for my deportation back to Canada. I signed the immigration deportation papers, which incidentally, contained my correct citizenship status. Later I learned the Allenwood FCI warden had been given a summons from Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) Lawrence Ferazani in January, 2006, requesting for me to appear in federal court in Brooklyn, NY, on February 15, 2006.
Family threatened
Once in Brooklyn, on January 31, 2006, I phoned my family in Montreal. I learned that Officer Buttazzoni from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) had contacted my sister regarding the whereabouts of my wife. He was told that she had returned to Pakistan. Buttazzoni left his phone number with my brother-in-law, telling him to please tell my wife to call him back immediately. She called Buttazzoni several times and left messages on his voice mail, after which Buttazzoni told my brother-in-law to tell her not to call him again.
Then on February 17, 2006, I was brought by AUSA Ferazani to an office in New York to be interrogated by the FBI without an attorney present. I was told by AUSA Farazani that if I did not talk they would arrest my sisters in Montreal and my wife, who had returned to Pakistan. He said, "We just have to make a call."
I was surprised and scared that he knew where my family lived. He stated, "If you don’t tell me [what I want to know] I can recommend lethal injection to the court and call the press and tomorrow morning you will be in every newspaper as a big terrorist."
Another federal agent told me that if I did not cooperate, they would turn me over to the Indian government, an enemy of Pakistan, which would treat me as an enemy.
At this time I was certain that my family was in danger because they were living in countries that work closely with U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies. After seeing my liberty evaporate when I was cleared of being a material witness in the World Trade Center tragedy, I had every reason to believe that the overarching power of the government would secure my family members’ arrests and inflict severe punishment on them. I strongly believed the RCMP was working in collaboration with the FBI to harass me to admit to charges of crimes that I did not commit. I thought about how the RCMP officials had played a role in other discrimination cases that included the interrogation and torture of Canadian citizens Mahrar Arar, Abdullah Almalki and Ahmed EI Matti, whose only "crimes" were being Canadian Muslims.
Because I felt I had no other choice, I signed the Miranda Rights waiver forms the agent gave me, waiving my right to an attorney’s presence during questioning and spoke with agents of the U.S. government on Feb. 17 and 20, 2006.
February 17, 2006: Interrogation…and bribe
I was pushed to the edge during this interrogation. Even though I could not answer all of their questions, I was determined to provide anything they wanted, even if the questions made no sense. I tried to give answers so they would be pleased and not give me the death penalty or harm my family.
During this interrogation, the agents offered me the opportunity to work for them in an "under cover capacity" abroad in Pakistan and Canada. They wanted me to testify against a group of Sikh people, on fabricated statements, based on my association with them from when I lived in Pakistan. I refused. So they told me to keep in mind that they wanted me to testify against people who are of the Sikh religion from India, an enemy of Pakistan and, because I am a Muslim, I should not have any concern for them.
I said, "But they are human beings! If they did something wrong and I knew about it, I would be more than happy to help the law, but you are asking me about something which I know nothing about."
The agents waited a couple weeks and then started asking me again, this time through my attorney. Upon my continued refusal, Officer Buttazzoni in Montreal again approached my family. I told them to get an attorney and not to go to his office without a legal written notice from him. They followed my advice and the RCMP stopped calling them—but not before the FBI was able to create a self-incriminating statement based on "evidence" they secured during their interrogation of me without the presence of my attorney. As a result of this, prosecutors were able to go in front of a Grand Jury and indict me, based on my own (fabricated) statements, prepared by federal agents without my signature.
Third charge March 16, 2006
On March 15, 2006, I completed the term of my imprisonment and was to be deported back to Canada. Before I could even go out onto the street I was arrested a third time and charged with "Providing Material Support to a Foreign Terrorist," and "Money Laundering to Support Terrorism," for supposedly providing support to the Sikh organization Khalistan Commando Force (KCF), through a man of the Sikh religion, Mr. Paramjit Singh Panjwar (PMJ), whom I met once when visiting Pakistan.
These charges emerged while I was still in prison and had no capability to provide KCF with any kind of support. It was difficult for me to get enough finances together to pay my legal fees while I was in prison for five years and I could not launder any money because I did not have any. In the plea agreement I signed for my previous "money laundering" charge, it is mentioned that no further money laundering charges would be brought against me, so this was double jeopardy and a violation of the 5th Amendment of the Constitution.
August to December, 2006: administrative detention
I appeared in court and pled "not-guilty" for my second "superseding indictment" on August 2, 2006. Upon my unwavering refusal to work for the government on their fabricated statements against the Sikh people, FBOP officials placed me into the Segregation Housing Unit (SHU), for 210 days of segregation and isolation despite the fact that I was rated as needing low security on the government’s "Male Custody Classification Form."
Segregation was continuous torture as we were not given basic amenities or respect and the building was cold and leaky. I went on a hunger strike for four days and after that I filed various complaints with the FBOP higher authorities, but no action was taken.
October 2006
After my refusal to work for the government on their case against "two individuals" they had identified as "potentially to be joined in this matter, but at this stage we don’t have enough evidence to charge," the government went to them and indicted them and, giving them a lot of benefits, prepared them to testify against me.
During my pre-trial hearing, the first two counts of my indictment were dismissed due to lack of facts and figures. Within two weeks, AUSA indicted me again, probably to cover up for their huge embarrassment. This hastily drawn up indictment was also full of factual errors and creative legal theories.
This time, in the bill of particulars/indictment, AUSA Farazani included the names of the following participants as co-conspirators in this "conspiracy."
1) Khalid Awan—me
2) Paramjit Singh Panjwar—Leader of Sikh Khalisto Commando Force (KFC), residing in Pakistan (not indicted).
3) Gurbax Singh—Indicted as co-conspirator #1
4) Baljinder Singh—Indicted as co-conspirator #2
5) Jatinder Singh—Residing in Texas (not indicted).
6) Dr. Pritpal Singh—Residing in California (not indicted).
Except for me, all the "co-conspirators" are elected leaders of the Sikh religion, a group of people known in Pakistani history books as the worst killers and rapists of the Pakistani nation, having killed, raped, burned and cut into pieces a hundred thousand Pakistani Muslim men, women, girls and infants during the world’s largest migration from India to Pakistan in 1947.
Sikh Background (a little history)
To better understand the game the U.S. government was playing with me and the Sikh people, a brief history is necessary. The mid-1980s to the mid-1990s was a decade of violent political opposition in Punjab, an area divided between India and Pakistan. The pattern of unlawful and indiscriminate arrests and killings during that time has left a lasting legacy of "catch and kill" police practices in the state. In the early 1980s, the Indian army attacked the Sikh Holy place called the Golden Temple in the Punjab State of India. About 10,000 civilian lives were lost while hundreds of people were detained without charge or trial and thousands of "disappearances" and extrajudicial executions were carried out by the police.
As a result, thousands of Sikhs fled to various countries for asylum. Many of the Sikhs who were living near Pakistan took refuge inside Pakistan, having the advantage of speaking the same language and the area being home to established holy places where Sikhs from all over the world came annually to perform their pilgrimage to the Pakistan side of the Punjab state. Pakistan is like a Vatican for the Sikhs, because the Sikh religion was started there and is the birthplace of their holy guru.
Paramjit Singh Panjwar (PMJ)
Among these Sikhs, PMJ also took refuge after members of his family were arrested and killed by the Indian police. In Pakistan he started producing videos about the attacks and killings of Sikhs by the Indian police, and started printing and distributing literature on the Sikh problems at the hand of the Indian government. He also started broadcasting a daily radio program and running various charities for Sikh families in India and Pakistan whose bread-winning family members had been killed by the Indian government.
I met PMJ during a visit to Pakistan when he was living next to my brother-in-law and I invited him to a wedding. He wrote his phone number down for me on a piece of paper. He also wrote down the number for Baljinder Singh, his friend in New York, because he was a community advocate for the Sikh people who might refer clients to me for immigration purposes. I kept the number, but did not call him.
The FBI had been after Baljinder Singh ever since he delivered a speech in front of the White House at the "Sikh Million March" on Washington in 2000. The FBI had called him for interrogation from 2000 to 2006, but was unable to arrest him. When they interrogated me on February 17, 2006, they told me they needed me to testify in court that the Pakistani government was taking care of terrorists in Pakistan and New York. It was Baljinder Singh, and Gurbax Singh, a close relative of PMJ, that they wanted me to testify against, and since they found his and PMJ’s phone numbers during their search of my office in New York after my arrest in 2001, they deputized their paid Sikh informant, Harjeet Singh, into my unit at MDC in 2006.
Harjeet told me he would be released from federal custody in the next six months and he wished to visit Pakistan for the annual Sikh pilgrimage there. He asked me if I knew some Sikhs in Pakistan who might take care of him during his visit. I replied that I did know Paramjit Singh Panjwar, who was there on asylum and introduced them over the phone.
The FBI then went to Baljinder and Gurbax Singh and convinced them to testify that I had transferred $4000 (two $2,000 transactions allegedly conducted between 1998 and 2002) from them to Pakistan on behalf of PMJ. In exchange for this, they dropped the charges they had against them and promised amnesty from the Indian government (for armed attack on Indian police) and U.S. green cards for them and their families.
PMJ has not been indicted by the U.S. nor convicted by the Indian courts of anything. No effort has been spent for his extradition by U.S. "terror war" ally, Pakistan, though the Pakistani government has, according to AI, handed over 700 Muslim citizens to the U.S. government.
According to my attorneys, no American citizen of the Christian faith nor of the Sikh faith has ever been arrested for providing material support to the KCF, even though the KCF is a Sikh organization that draws its support from members of the Sikh community.
I, on the other hand, a Canadian citizen of Pakistan origin and Muslim faith, on Sept 12, 2007, am the only person in the U.S. to be convicted of terrorism, on fake, fabricated and government purchased testimonies of the Sikh’s religious people, for transferring $4000. I was convicted and sentenced on three counts:
1) Conspiracy to provide material support (14 years)
2) Providing material support to foreign terrorists (10 years)
3) Money laundering to support terrorism (14 years)
Total: 38 years to run concurrently (14 more years in prison).
Jail
The government sent me to FCI Terre Haute Prison in Indiana, a "medium" prison with the exception of one isolated unit, called the "Guantanamo Bay on American Soil,"—Unit D, the "dog unit."
According to the history of this jail, this unit was built in the 1930s for Cuban people, after which it was used for convicted members of the Ku Klux Klan. Then it was used for death row inmates until its "permanent closure." It was re-opened with minor repairs for Muslim inmates because they are worse than death-row inmates—not because of their "crimes" but because of their religious beliefs.
We are denied many privileges according to BOP policy because we are Muslims. Visits must be through glass and phone calls and outgoing mail are routed through Washington D.C. The buildings are old and leaking so it’s cold in the winter, flying insects in the summer and air circulation is poor year round. Lead is seeping out of the walls and many inmates suffer chronic joint pain.
The government is trying to goad us to act violently so they can justify their claim that we are dangerous, but they have failed. According to the jail guards this Muslim unit is the most peaceful they have ever seen in any prison anywhere and they ask to be allowed to work here.
I agree that those guilty of terrorism should be prosecuted, but innocent people should not be targeted. Locking us down in this dirty, old, cold, leaking building and prohibiting us from hugging our children and restricting our calls to them will never bring peace to this country or make this nation safer.
To the American people:
I have been singled out, isolated and discriminated against because of my race and religion. I am being held here in detention against my will for crimes that I never committed. I am not a terrorist and I should not be treated like one.
The AUSA succeeded in getting a verdict against me from the jurors in December, 2006, with the help of the media glamorization of the "war on terror." I have been convicted of guilt by association; of making the FBI angry and vengeful by refusing both to work for them abroad in an undercover capacity and to testify against members of the Sikh religion using their fabricated statements; and of being a Muslim and native of Pakistan.
Isn’t it time that all humans are equal? Isn’t it time that everyone is free to choose his faith? Are human rights protected by law? We hear this, but we would like to see it – especially in this country called the United States of America that claims itself across the world as a champion of human rights.
This article was edited for publication in the hardcopy edition of The IO. The full-length version is posted online at The IO website under the Nov., 2008 update. You can correspond with Awan by writing to:
Khalid Awan, #50959-054, Federal Correctional Inst., PO Box 33, Terre Haute, IN 47808
(With thanks to Anne Wilder Chamberlain for her dedication and persistence in helping to tell Awan’s important story).
http://khalidawancanadian.today.com/ http://www.awankhalid.com/
Obama election sparks new interest in civil rightsBy Andrea Shalal-EsaREUTERSBIRMINGHAM, Alabama - When Barack Obama is sworn in next week as the first black U.S. president, 97-year-old Alabama civil rights veteran Amelia Boynton Robinson will see a miracle in the milestone."I think it's an act of God," said Robinson, who was jailed and beaten decades ago in the racially segregated U.S. South.For Robinson, whose mother was born just a few years after the end of slavery, the fight for equality did not end with the civil rights laws passed in the 1960s and it won't end with Obama's historic inauguration on January 20."To this day, I am still on the battlefield," Robinson told 35 educators, students and activists last week in Tuskegee, Alabama, during a four-day tour of civil rights historic sites in Selma, Montgomery and Birmingham, Alabama.Obama's election has rekindled interest in the U.S. civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s amid continuing racial tensions and wide disparities in income, education and health care between whites and minority groups.In Alabama, visitor numbers are up dramatically at a center that marks the route of a five-day, 47-mile march led by King from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 by 25,000 people demanding equal rights for black Americans, said Tina Smiley of the U.S. National Park Service.Doug McMillon, chief executive of the Sam's Club unit of Wal-Mart Stores Inc, has brought four large groups of executives to the center in recent months, and has commissioned a film so all his workers can share the experience, she said.Activists Charles Alphin and Bernard Lafayette organize civil rights tours such as the one Robinson addressed.Robinson, who once hosted Martin Luther King Jr. in her home, will travel to England next month to teach the principles of non-violence used in the sit-ins, mass arrests and protests that characterized the movement.In the 1930s, she started a voter registration drive in Selma, Alabama, where African-Americans were hindered from voting until the mid-1960s by capricious literacy tests, poll taxes and the need to produce two white "sponsors."Robinson catapulted the issue into the limelight in 1965 when she asked King for help.Soon afterward, King led the historic voting rights marches in Alabama. On what came to be known as "Bloody Sunday," white authorities beat and tear-gassed protesters and television images flashed around the world.A LONG ROAD"It's the screaming I remember most," says Joanne Bland, who was 11 years old when she was knocked unconscious on Bloody Sunday. Her 14-year-old sister needed 26 stitches on her head; but both girls marched again the next Tuesday.The violence sparked outrage and solidarity marches around the country and helped prod Congress into passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a law that finally secured the right of African-Americans to vote.Bland ran Selma's voting rights museum and now leads tours of the 20,000-plus town that is grappling with a high crime rate, drug problems, severe poverty and rising unemployment.Bland says the Selma movement paved the way for the election of Obama, who visited the city in 2007."What we did here in Selma is why he was able to be elected," she said.Obama often credits the black Americans whose struggle made his personal road to the White House possible."It's important for people to study and learn about this period of history so that we can continue to build on King's work and his philosophy," added Roger Vredeveld, 47, who teaches U.S. and black history in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and went on the tour.Some analysts have described Obama's victory as ushering in a "post-racial" era, but civil rights activists say there is still much to be done. They point to such crises as Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which revealed deep racial divides, and recurrent cases of police brutality.Another teacher on the tour, Arthur Romano, cited riots in Oakland, California, after the January 1 shooting of an unarmed 22-year-old black man by a white transit police officer, and said King's non-violent approach would be far more productive.Oscar Grant's death, he said, "serves as a reminder of how far there is to go, and the need for serious, strategic and long-term community involvement on these issues."(Editing by Doina Chiacu)
posted: http://africanamericans.barackobama.com/page/community/post/president/gGxFcL discussion: http://discussheadlines.blogspot.com/2009/01/civil-rights-education.html
Presidential Inaugural Committee and The Advertising Council Launch a New Public Service Advertising Campaign Highlighting President-elect Obama's Call to Service
President-elect Obama asking Americans to "Step Forward" and Volunteer in their Communities
Washington, D.C. - The Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) and The Advertising Council launched today a new public service advertising (PSA) campaign aimed at summoning a new spirit of service in America. The television ad "Step Forward" and radio PSA "Chapter" feature President-elect Obama urging Americans to log on to USAService.org to find ways to make an ongoing commitment to serve their communities and their country. Nearly 6,000 volunteer projects and opportunities across the country are listed on USAService.org.
President-elect Obama's and Vice President-elect Biden's "Renew America Together" initiative, calling on Americans of all ages to participate in community service, begins on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Monday, January 19th, to honor the legacy of a man who lived his life in service to others. On the eve of the Inauguration, thousands of community service events will take place in Washington and all across the country.
"President-elect Obama believes each of us, as Americans, has a responsibility to do what we can for our communities and fellow citizens. We've launched USAService.org to connect volunteer organizations with Americans in their community and make it easier to serve on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and beyond," said Josh Earnest, PIC Communications Director.
The Ad Council is distributing the new television and radio PSAs to stations throughout the country this week. Per the Ad Council's model, the PSAs will run and air in donated advertising time and space.
"We are delighted to join President-elect Obama and the Presidential Inaugural Committee for this poignant campaign that will inspire Americans to serve their communities and their country," said Peggy Conlon, President & CEO of the Ad Council. "Media companies have committed to support these new PSAs and I believe this critical effort will encourage Americans to answer President-elect Obama's call to service."
Several media companies have committed to support the PSAs in donated time and space. These media companies include: CBS Television and Radio; NBC Universal; CNN and the Turner Networks (including TNT and TBS); FOX Networks; Clear Channel Radio, Comcast Spotlight and Entercom Radio. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) will promote the television spots to their members and donate a satellite feed during the week of January 26 for the distribution to the cable industry. Additionally, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is donating a satellite feed for distribution of the radio and television spots to the broadcasting industry this week.
Script for "Step Forward":
President-elect Obama VO:
America's greatness was not crafted in skyscrapers alone...
But on the ground by those who could see what needed to be done.
Volunteers who in service stepped forward... Onto the dust of the moon, a levee in the heartland, the marble steps of a dream.
You may ask yourself: "Where's my moon, my levee, my dream?"
Well, it's here...with you.
President-elect Obama: Step forward. Help renew America at USAService.org.
The Advertising Council - The Ad Council (www.adcouncil.org) is a private, non-profit organization that marshals talent from the advertising and communications industries, the facilities of the media, and the resources of the business and non-profit communities to produce, distribute and promote public service campaigns on behalf of non-profit organizations and government agencies in issue areas such as improving the quality of life for children, preventive health, education, community well-being, environmental preservation and strengthening families.
source: http://women.barackobama.com/page/community/post/president/gGxFrr
