[Ppnews] Video on post-9/11 racial profiling and prison abuse

[Political Prisoner News]

Last week, the Center for Constitutional Rights 
went to court to fight the Bush administration's 
post-9/11 racial profiling and round-ups of 
hundreds of immigrant Muslim, Arab, and South Asian men in the New York area.

<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=k1uIWS7hzMTr3ZfIgVFkrEehbAxPOJ8f>
Turkmen Video

http://ccrjustice.org/learn-more/videos/turkmen-v-ashcroft 
to watch a video of CCR attorney Rachel Meeropol 
and lead plaintiff Ibrahim Turkmen talking about the case.

We argued the appeal in our case,
Turkmen v. Ashcroft, which is an important legal 
challenge to the government's abuse of power in 
fighting the so-called "war on terror."

In actions reminiscent of the internment of 
thousands of Japanese Americans after the attack 
on Pearl Harbor, in the months after 9/11 our 
government rounded up and detained hundreds of 
Muslim, Arab, and South Asian immigrants to 
determine whether they had any ties to terrorism.

Held on the pretext of minor immigration 
violations, these men were kept in super-maximum 
security confinement and abused for months as 
their deportation was delayed so that the FBI could investigate them.

Often the men were picked up on evidence no more 
specific than a phone call to the authorities in 
which someone said, "my neighbor is an Arab and keeps strange hours."

http://www.ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/turkmen-v.-ashcroft 
to read more about the abuse they suffered while 
detained and other details of the case.

The men weren't detained because there was 
evidence connecting them to terrorism—they were 
swept up and detained because oof their race, 
religion, and ethnicity. Because they were Arab 
and Muslim men of Middle Eastern and South Asian 
descent, they were presumed guilty of terrorism until proven innocent.

In 2002, we filed Turkmen v. Ashcroft, a class 
action suit on behalf of the men held in New York 
and New Jersey, against the United States and 31 
government officials and employees, including 
then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Director 
Robert Mueller, and former INS Commissioner James Ziglar.

A lower court judge ruled in our favor on many of 
the charges, including keeping the high-level 
officials on the hook for what happened, so last 
Thursday's arguments were a cross appeal by both sides.

More than five years after the case was filed, 
and long after all the men have been deported to 
their home countries, CCR continues to demand 
accountability for the racial profiling and 
indiscriminate detentions that followed in the wake of 9/11.

We await a ruling from the panel of judges and 
hope that it will bring our clients one step closer to justice.

Sincerely,

Vincent Warren

CCR Executive Director
Center for Constitutional Rights  666 Broadway 
7th floor NY, NY 10012 ll 212-614-6464   www.ccrjustice.org

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