[Pnews] Why is Obama administration prosecuting sexual torture victim Rasmea Odeh?

[Prisoner News]

*Why is Obama administration prosecuting sexual torture victim Rasmea Odeh?*


Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Tue, 06/10/2014
*http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/why-obama-administration-prosecuting-sexual-torture-victim-rasmea-odeh*

Human rights campaigners in the United States are calling on the Obama 
administration to drop charges against Rasmea Odeh 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/rasmea-yousef-odeh>, a 
Palestinian-American community organizer in Chicago who is accused of 
lying on a citizenship application two decades ago.

The government alleges that Odeh failed to disclose a 1969 conviction in 
an Israeli military court related to a bombing at a Jerusalem 
supermarket, a conviction Odeh says was extracted by torture, including 
sexual assault.

Odeh, 67, is Associate Director of the Arab American Action Network 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/arab-american-action-network>.

She is scheduled to stand trial in a Detroit federal court starting on 2 
September. The trial date was recently moved forward from October.

If convicted Odeh could face prison time as well as being stripped of 
her citizenship and deported.


    Action urged

In an action alert <http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=4059> 
today, the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/us-campaign-end-israeli-occupation>, 
the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/uspcn> and the Committee to Stop FBI 
Repression 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/committee-stop-fbi-repression> urge 
members of the public to write or call 
<http://org.salsalabs.com/o/641/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=14540> 
US District Attorney Barbara McQuade calling on her to drop charges 
against Odeh.


    Torture

The action alert states:

    In 1969, Israel brutally tortured Rasmea, her father, and her
    fiancé, eventually extracting from her a "confession" to a crime
    which she did not commit. Last year, the Obama administration dusted
    off her ten-year-old application to become a US citizen and charged
    her with "unlawful procurement of naturalization" for allegedly
    omitting mention of her time in Israeli prison, despite the fact
    that Rasmea publicly testified at the UN about the torture she
    suffered while imprisoned.

    Rather than prosecute this torture victim and well-respected
    community organizer---honored by the Chicago Cultural Alliance last
    year with its "Outstanding Community Leader Award" in recognition of
    her devoting "over 40 years of her life to the empowerment of Arab
    women" -- President Obama should make good on his pledge to take
    "concrete actions against torture and to address the needs of its
    victims" by dropping the spurious charges against Rasmea.


    Sexual torture by Israeli captors

In an article in /The Hill/ today 
<http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/international/208699-why-is-obamas-doj-prosecuting-a-torture-victim>, 
US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation policy director Josh Ruebner 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/josh-ruebner> notes that "addition 
to this physical torture, Odeh also faced sexual torture." Ruebner writes:

    Her father, a US citizen, was also arrested and beaten, "and once
    they brought in my father and tried to force him under blows to take
    off his clothes and have sexual relations with me." Later,
    interrogators "tore my clothes off me while my hands were still tied
    behind my back. They threw me to the ground completely naked and the
    room was full of a dozen or so interrogators and soldiers who looked
    at me and laughed sarcastically as if they were looking at a comedy
    or a film. Obviously they started touching my body." In her father's
    presence, interrogators threatened to "violate me" and "tried to
    introduce a stick to break my maidenhead [hymen]." Shackled naked
    from the ceiling, interrogators "tied my legs, which were
    spread-eagled, and they started to beat me with their hands and also
    with cudgels."


    Forced confession

After 45 days of such torture, Odeh finally gave in, as Ruebner recounts:

    Finally, fearing "that my father might lose his life from one moment
    to the next" because of the tortures he was enduring, Odeh readied
    herself "to make the confession that they wanted, so that they would
    leave my father alone." Her interrogators accused her of planting a
    bomb in a Jerusalem supermarket, an act which Odeh testified she
    "never carried out." The interrogators "realized that perfectly
    well" because they brought her to the supermarket "and asked me to
    point out where I had put the explosive. Of course, I didn't know
    the place and I said 'where exactly do you want me to show you where
    I put this explosive charge?' So they showed me where the explosion
    had taken place and I actually pointed out that place without being
    able to give any details of the operation. I didn't even know how
    the operation had taken place."

More information 
<http://uspcn.org/2014/06/06/june-10-call-in-day-to-drop-the-charges-against-rasmea-odeh/> 
on the Odeh case is available from USPCN. Also read The Electronic 
Intifada's previous coverage 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/rasmea-yousef-odeh>.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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