I absolutely know that the election of Donald Trump is the next step in the
nightmare through which we've been living and that this new phase will be worse
than what we've been through so far. But all of the Democrats and Liberals or
whatever names people choose to identify themselves, all but a very few, seem
to have been in a massive state of denial about what our country has become,
about what it is now, before Trump and his appointees take office. Back in the
early 80's, I heard a talk at the Ethical Humanist Society about how our
government, as well as those of other western nations, were scapegoating
Muslims and Muslim nations. I heard the talk, but I had no idea of what that
individual was talking about, about what he or she was predicting. When people
say that we are losing our democracy, that if we're not careful, we will be
living in a police state, my response is that we have, and we are. And we can
no longer trust the corporate media to inform us of what has happened, or what
is happening now. The Washington Post which, the other day, published someone's
black list of news sources as Russian propaganda sources not to be trusted, a
list that includes many fine journalistic enterprises, a list provided by
annonymous people with no evidence, has also now published a story that says
that our CIA, the same fine patriotic agency known for kidnapping and torturing
people handed over to them for a bounty and for overthrowing democratic
governments at the behest of our Presidents, has just informed us that yes, the
Russians did interfere with our election on behalf of Donald Trump. The
Washington Post is owned by the owner of Amazon which now has contracts with
our government's surveillance state. Recently, a court ruled that it is
perfectly legal for the FBI to lure poor and troubled youth into terrorist
plots, construct the plots, pay these young people, and then arrest these
misguided souls as terrorists on the basis that some young people, put in a
similar position, would resist temptation.
We have a President, who is extremely intelligent and well educated, who is a
constitutional lawyer, who has deported more immigrants than any other, who has
built a system for assasinating people all over the world without trial who are
chosen by algorithms, who might have the potential to commit a terrorist act
somewhere in the world in the future. He is knowingly handing over all of the
power that he has accumulated to an individual with the emotions of a toddler,
with no attention span and no conscience. And everyone in and out of government
knows what the character of the president elect is like, but no one is managing
to find a way to stop this monstrosity from occurring.
Thursday, I asked my periodontict's office to send a prescription to my local
pharmacy. I have to take an antibiotic before any dental treatment because I
had a hip replacement in 2005. I gave the office the name and phone number of
my local pharmacy and they saw it on their computer. Friday, I received a phone
call from my AARP mail order pharmacy, the one that their insurance companies
prefer, checking on my identifying information so that they could send me a
prescrittion. When I asked what prescription they wanted to send me, it turned
out to be the antibiotic. I said, "no", and called back the periodontist's
office. They had no explanation. They'd given the doctor the name of my
pharmacy and its phone number. No one had an explanation. This is the world in
which we are living, a world in which corporations and beaurocracies have taken
over, in which we are watched and controlled, and some of us are unlucky enough
to be targeted. The House has just passed a new bill making it possible for the
FBI and police to target any dissenting organization.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey ;
(Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Sunday, December 11, 2016 10:14 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Somali youth sentenced in ‘Minneapolis Terror Trial’
https://socialistaction.org/2016/12/10/somali-youth-sentenced-in-minneapolis-terror-trial/
Somali youth sentenced in ‘Minneapolis Terror Trial’
/ 18 hours ago
dec-2016-somali-motherBy KAREN SCHRAUFNAGEL
MINNEAPOLIS—The show trial dubbed by our local capitalist media, “Minnesota’s
Terror Trial,” ended in November with the sentencing of the nine young men
(eight Somali and one Oromo) who pled to or were convicted of charges relating
to alleged attempts to join the “designated foreign terrorist organization”
ISIS (the Islamic State).
The pre-sentence period—which lasted for five and a half months—and sentencing
were another roller coaster ride through the Criminal Injustice System for the
young men, their families, and their communities. They have been on this roller
coaster since the Countering Violent Extremism Program (“CVE”) came to town
almost three years ago.
It could have been dubbed the “CVE Trial” if the media were more concerned with
accuracy and less concerned with flash. District Attorney for Minnesota Andrew
Luger has been the program’s champion and point person since its inception,
bringing together Homeland Security, the FBI, and state, county, and city law
enforcement agencies and bearing down on the local Somali community with
enticements and entrapments designed and destined to “divide and conquer” this
previously cohesive community of immigrants and first generation American
citizens.
It was frequently rumored that Andrew Luger would ride the constant media
coverage generated by these arrests, trials, convictions and sentences all the
way to Washington, D.C. as Hillary Clinton’s Attorney General.
In this process the judge is supposed to play a mediator role between the
prosecution and defense, seeking the truth and insuring some measure of
“fairness,” but working-class people and oppressed communities know this system
has never served us. Marx and Engels wrote in the “Communist
Manifesto”: “Your jurisprudence is but the will of your class made into law for
all,” and nearly 170 years later, this is as true as ever.
Judge Michael J. Davis, Senior District Court Judge for Minnesota, showed
remarkable hubris from start to finish. The fact that a Black, civil rights
award-winning jurist has taken it upon himself to find and eliminate what he
repeatedly referred to as a “terror cell” in the Somali community is surely no
accident. At trial he took copious notes, and during sentencing he repeatedly
referred to a “nine to 20-person cell” that is still active.
Before the final day of sentencing, when those convicted at trial were to be
sentenced, the judge told the packed courtroom, “This community has to
understand that there is a jihadist cell in this community—its tentacles spread
ou.” (illustrating yet again that he neither understands the actual meaning of
“jihad” nor comprehends his limited role in presiding over these trials and
passing sentence on these particular young men).
The two young men who cooperated with the prosecution and testified against
their friends, Abdullahi Yusuf and Abdirizak Warsame, were the first to be
sentenced and they received the lightest sentences—time served for Yusuf and 30
months for Warsame—confirming for us all that the judge had no intention of
listening even to his own hired “de-radicalization” expert, who had deemed
Warsame’s risk of re-offending (meaning trying again to join a terrorist group)
to be high and designated him dangerous.
The prosecution took the unusual step of testifying on behalf of these
cooperators and even though the judge himself said he still believes Warsame is
a “jihadist,” he closely followed the prosecution’s lead and issued a two and a
half year sentence, an appropriate reward for a job well done at trial: “For
the next round of sentencings, it’s a whole new ballgame. So count your
blessings.”
This “next round” of sentencing was for the four young men who pled guilty but
did not cooperate with the prosecution. The prosecution was asking for 15 years
each for Zacharia Abdurahman, Hamza Ahmed, Hanan Musse, and Adnan Farah. The
extremely prejudicial ISIS videos that played such a dramatic part in the trial
were back for sentencing. The judge revealed that he watched hours and hours of
these videos to prepare himself to issue sentences.
With each defendant in turn he proceeded to clear the courtroom of young
children and play a gruesome video, continuously prodding the defendant:
“How could you watch this? You watched video after video over and over.
How could you support this organization? Are you a terrorist?”
As at trial, it was clear the men were taken as ISIS proxies, as if watching
these videos was equivalent to personally committing the atrocities. “I am a
terrorist” defendant after defendant declared in shame.
The defense attorneys seemed to agree that the best strategy was to accept the
label of “terrorist,” argue that the experience since being arrested had
enabled a transformation, and beg for mercy. It was a very demeaning process,
excruciatingly painful to watch for those who care about the defendants
personally or care about justice generally. And it was all the more painful
because the mercy that was begged for was not granted. Abdurahman, Ahmed,
Musse, and Farah will serve 10 years each.
On the final day, the young men who were convicted at trial on charges
including Conspiracy to Murder outside the United States, which carries a
possible life sentence, appeared one after the other in Judge Davis’
courtroom. The overflow room that had been used for the previous two days was
not available, and those who were not family or media (or members of the jury,
who returned to watch the sentencing) were made to wait in the lobby.
For Guled Omar’s sentencing, in an unprecedented move, no one was allowed even
in the lobby. The building was cleared and we waited outside, following tweets
from reporters in the courtroom to keep up with the proceedings.
While the capitalist press has implied that some defendants accepted pleas
(which meant they must be guilty) while others CHOSE to go to trial (showing a
“refusal to take responsibility for their actions”) and many supporters have
asserted, equally problematically, that the bravest young men from the group
steadfastly refused to plead to something they did not do and insisted on going
to trial, both of these positions mistakenly placed power in the hands of the
defendants that they never really had.
The truth is that the Criminal Injustice system in this country does not give
defendants this level of self-determination. Those who pled guilty did so under
the enormous pressure of multiple charges, each carrying potentially long
sentences, knowing that members of their circle had already succumbed to the
pressure. Some were even “cooperating” with the prosecution, knowing that no
Muslim tried on such charges during this seemingly endless “War on Terror” has
been found “not guilty” by a jury.
If that pressure were not enough, a Superseding Indictment was filed in October
of 2015. In that indictment, filed more than six months after the bulk of the
arrests in this case, the charge of Conspiracy to Commit Murder Abroad—which
carries a potential life sentence—was added to the list of charges on the five
young men remaining. At that point, it seemed inevitable that anyone offered
the chance to plead to the lesser charge, carrying a 15-year sentence, would do
so.
This was a chance that was never offered to Mohamed Farah, Abdirahman Daud, or
Guled Omar. To his credit Adnan Farah held out until the trail was almost ready
to begin. He was being pressured mercilessly to not only plead, but to testify
against his older brother. Leverage seems to be the only reason he was ever
charged and his 10-year sentence is likely punishment not for anything he
actually did but for how long he held out against the full power of the US
government.
As for the elder Farah, Daud, and Omar, the prosecution had decided these young
men were going on trial for their lives. At the end of a deeply flawed trial,
the three were found guilty by a jury of the prosecution’s peers.
The prosecution was seeking 30 years each for Mohamed Farah and Abdirahman
Daud, and 40 years for Guled Omar, the one they decided was the ringleader of
the alleged conspiracy.
Those who see a different kind of conspiracy afoot would point out that Guled
was one of the first people the FBI approached when CVE came to town. They
wanted him to work with them, spying on his friends. He refused over and over
again. So the FBI decided he was dangerous and drew a target on his back. It is
possible that Guled, like Adnan, was punished not for what he actually did, but
for what he would NOT do—for refusing to help the government send his friends
to jail.
Mohamed Farah was the first to appear. He was made to watch the graphic ISIS
video that ends with the burning alive of a Jordanian pilot. Had Mohamed Farah
set a Jordanian pilot on fire? It did not matter. The judge sentenced the
22-year-old to 30 years.
The next to appear was Abdirahman Daud, and the same public shaming that we had
become so familiar with took place. This time the judge seemed to engage in
genuine dialog with the defendant. He wanted Daud to know that he doesn’t hate
Islam, that he will challenge anyone who claims Islam is a dirty religion. The
rapport melted away as the judge passively read the sentence—30 years.
And finally, it was time to sentence Guled Omar. “Your brother is in Somalia
fighting with Al-Shabaab. You have another brother who has gotten in trouble as
a result of your case,” the Judge declared, again showing an uncanny inability
to focus on what the young men were found guilty of by the jury. The prosecutor
called him “irredeemable,” but the judge seemed more concerned with his
charisma. “You’re charismatic, and that’s why you are being locked up for the
period that you are.” The 21-year-old received a 35-year sentence.
Abdirahman’s mother commented to me that it almost felt like there was no Judge
in this case, just the defendant, her boy, against the entire government. No
mediator between them, just a government mouthpiece. It was clear from the
start and throughout that this prosecution was political in nature. Now it
falls on all of us to stand by these young men and their families through their
harsh sentences. No Justice, Just US.
Photo: Farhiyo Mohamed, right, the mother of defendant Abdirahman Daud, and a
second woman emerge in tears from the federal courthouse in Minneapolis after
the verdict was delivered in the ISIL trial. Jim Gerhz / Minneapolis Star
Tribune
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December 10, 2016 in Africa, Anti-War, Black Liberation, Civil Liberties,
Immigration, Minneapolis, Police & FBI. Tags: Somalis
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