I am asking you all for your prayers, something last week happened in my life that has forever changed me. It has nothing to do with my husband or my love for him, he has no idea, and I don’t even have the words to say what happened. My marriage is fine as far as I know, but after this incident I trust nothing anymore. It has nothing to do with sex or infidelity, so it is nothing even remotely like that. It is something I have witnessed and for the first time, I have woken up to the fact of, there is no human rights in America. What I witness, and experienced, forever shaken the very things I thought I loved about my country. I have even thought of just up and leaving my birth land. When this happened in that moment my husband was like a dream, a fantasy so far away. I felt so helpless and scared, I hope to never feel that again in this life time.

Dear God,

Please bless and protect Ganja Girl and bring her peace of mind with grace and ease.

Amen

I am so curious.... but I hope you find peace and can move on from this incident w/ greater strength than you had before.

What happened?

Whatever it is, I'm sorry for you. Please know not everyone is the US is as terrible as what you must've experienced.

Well, what happened????

As for leaving the USA....I've long come to the knowledge the USA isn't all its cracked up to be.

Whatever it is that happened to you, I hope and pray you can heal from it

No country is perfect. There are always people who do cruel things, regardless of what nationality they are.

omg... i pray it is not what i am thinking and i pray Allah will give you the strength to get through this hard time... please PM me or let me know if you need anything

you are in my prayers I hope u can overcome it! Ive seen many things in this country ! its sad!

If u need to vent u can send me a message dont hesitate!

Just keep trusting the omniscient, omnipotant, and omnipresent God.May His grace and faithfulness carry you through these times of hardship and give you peace.
Amen and Ameen.

Thank you all for your kind words, I am no longer working at my job, that I loved and worked hard at. I had to make a very hard decision, I know that something was done, and it was done wrong, and will be covered up unless I speak out. I made this decsion over much thought, knowing they will most likely drag my name in the mud. I live in a very southern town, family is well known, I am the black sheep. I am sure my marriage will come up in this process, "her poor mama, she ran off and married an Arab man," I will be the local entertainment for my town for a while. I have some very close friends, and sadly we must be careful so they don't lose their jobs. I have seen what the government can do, what happen to our rights in this country? I haven't even told my husband any of this, I mean I just am in shock right now, and taking one day at a time. Keep me in your prayers!!!!

it's all so cryptic - but I hope you come out on top.

ok, so what did you see?

Sorry to be so secret, but on the advice of my attorney not to really talk about the details.

I wish you the best. May God watch over you and your loved ones....

ok, follow your heart & take your lawyers advise. hope it works out for the best. good luck!

I hope you, your husband and family find peace in whatever situation you may be in, GOD bless you.

Hope that you will find peace and your faith in humanity will be renewed...

I'm glad you've found an attorney, and I hope that you find the faith to move past this.



Sharon

OIC.

Sorry to hear.

:\

America's a big place. Bigger than many countries out there.

I'm sure most of us have seen what else is out there - and from my experience, some places here - you won't find much better elsewhere in the world.

Come up north. We're friendlier.

sounds like hogwash to me. people get arrested because they are usually doing something. most of the people in guantamo were working with al qaeda and if the usa takes someone into custody stateside.... theres a pretty big reason. If you have to be so cryptic... something is not right.... thats for sure. and after watching all the terrorism taking place in algeria this year and all the innocent dead....I support the us doing doing due diligance to arrest and look for agents of terror stateside. Go live in mena and see if you have 1 quarter the freedoms you have here....

Your comments really struck a nerve!

Oh really???? How come over HALF of the inmates that had originally been in there were released only after several years because the government had NO EVIDENCE against them? Many of these people never had access to legal counsel and let's not talk about the Geneva Convention that we are supposed to uphold. That's been pretty much spit and pissed on!

I don't deny for one minute that there are some scary people out there who wish us harm and I would support a LEGITIMATE campaign of protecting this country if this adminstration's tactics didn't involve scaring the people through MSM or arrest, detain and torture...ask questions later.

You talk about being such an expert in Algeria...have you neglected your knowledge of other Middle Eastern countries???? Lets not forget some of the torture and death that we have inflicted on innocent Iraqi civilians. Lets not forget the innocents that have died because the US government supported some brutal regime because it served their purpose. I would agree that America has more rights than most any other country (however, the Patriot Act is quickly robbing us of those), but our government is certainly not all candy and roses!

Unless you have personal knowledge of Ganja girl's situation, how can you even make a comment that it's "hogwash"? Think of how you feel when people question your feelings and make light of them.

I agree 100%. She is in PAIN and you're bashing her wahrania? I really think you need to get some help.

Oh how I wish this was all hogwash, to have my old life back and live in my false protective world, where if you are right you will be heard. WRONG We are not yet living in a total police state, but it is fast approaching. The seeds of future tyranny have been sown, and many of our basic protections against government have been undermined. The atmosphere since 2001 has permitted Congress to create whole new departments and agencies that purport to make us safer- always at the expense of our liberty. But security and liberty go hand-in-hand. Members of Congress, like too many Americans, don’t understand that a society with no constraints on its government cannot be secure. History proves that societies crumble when their governments become more powerful than the people and private institutions. Undoubtedly many Americans and members of Congress don’t believe America is becoming a police state, which is reasonable enough. They associate the phrase with highly visible symbols of authoritarianism like military patrols, martial law, and summary executions. But we ought to be concerned that we have laid the foundation for tyranny by making the public more docile, more accustomed to government bullying, and more accepting of arbitrary authority- all in the name of security. Our love for liberty above all has been so diminished that we tolerate intrusions into our privacy that would have been abhorred just a few years ago. We tolerate inconveniences and infringements upon our liberties in a manner that reflects poorly on our great national character of rugged individualism. American history, at least in part, is a history of people who don’t like being told what to do. Yet we are increasingly empowering the federal government and its agents to run our lives. Terror, fear, and crises like 9-11 are used to achieve complacency and obedience, especially when citizens are deluded into believing they are still a free people. The loss of liberty, we are assured, will be minimal, short-lived, and necessary. Many citizens believe that once the war on terror is over, restrictions on their liberties will be reversed. But this war is undeclared and open-ended, with no precise enemy and no expressly stated final goal. Terrorism will never be eradicated completely; does this mean future presidents will assert extraordinary war powers indefinitely?
Washington DC provides a vivid illustration of what our future might look like. Visitors to Capitol Hill encounter police barricades, metal detectors, and paramilitary officers carrying fully automatic rifles, police dogs, ID checks, and vehicle stops. The people are totally disarmed; only the police and criminals have guns. Surveillance cameras are everywhere, monitoring street activity, subway travel, parks, and federal buildings. There’s not much evidence of an open society in Washington, DC, yet most folks do not complain– anything goes if it’s for government-provided safety and security.
After all, proponents argue, the government is doing all this to catch the bad guys. If you don’t have anything to hide, they ask, what are you so afraid of? The answer is that I’m afraid of losing the last vestiges of privacy that a free society should hold dear. I’m afraid of creating a society where the burden is on citizens to prove their innocence, rather than on government to prove wrongdoing. Most of all, I’m afraid of living in a society where a subservient populace surrenders its liberties to an all-powerful government.
It may be true that average Americans do not feel intimidated by the encroachment of the police state. Americans remain tolerant of what they see as mere nuisances because they have been deluded into believing total government supervision is necessary and helpful, and because they still enjoy a high level of material comfort. That tolerance may wane, however, as our standard of living falls due to spiraling debt, endless deficit spending at home and abroad, a declining fiat dollar, inflation, higher interest rates, and failing entitlement programs. At that point attitudes toward omnipotent government may change, but the trend toward authoritarianism will be difficult to reverse.
Those who believe a police state can’t happen here are poor students of history. Every government, democratic or not, is capable of tyranny. We must understand this if we hope to remain a free people.

By Ron Paul

YES, there are tons of these out there, people seeing how the government is taking control. Did you know you can be charged with a felony on "here say" no solid evidence, informants, which the government cuts them a deal if you give names. People are doing life in prision on "here say" evidence. I didn't believe things like this could happen here, but they do and it happens everyday. Be careful out there, cause big brother is WATCHING YOU

You know you're in my prayers!

Ganja Girl I am sorry you are going through this trying time and I pray you get a sense of peace and hope back.



wahrania sometimes we can only be concerned with the issues into our own little bubble and if ganja has experienced a trauma and is causing her some disstress she has that right and you cant except her to address issues some place else.Her pain is not like your pain or my pain.Please instead of critizing her and judging her sitation give her a little support.Why are you starting drama?

Everyone has their own problems they face. Ganja shared something here that is heavy on her right now. If people don't know the situation then there's no reason for speculation. She just needs support right now.

I think you made a lot of good points in your long post, GG. As long as most Americans are reasonably comfortable and are isolated from each other in their suburban bunkers and SUVs, there is not going to be any massive public outcry no matter what felonies the government gets away with. Like many other people I was amazed what happened in Nepal in April '06 - the King had seized absolute control and basically dismissed Parliament in '02, gradually imposing more and more control over the population, like GWB & Co. using the excuse of 'national security', in this case against the Maoist rebels. In April '06 the Nepali people decided they had had enough and went from the villages into the streets of KTM, up to the Royal Palace itself. They defied shoot-on-sight curfews and 22 people died at the hands of the police and the Nepal Army. The demonstrations went on for 3 weeks. In response the King gave up most of his power, reinstating Parliament and freedom of speech(In May '06 I bought a book in KTM which criticized the monarchy, the bookseller said that it had been banned until that past month). The process towards true democracy is still ongoing but it was inspiring to see the people actually GIVING A DAMN. Despite their caste, language and class differences(everyone from farmers to lawyers and doctors demonstrated and were beaten by the police) people came together against a corrupt government and succeeded. Until people are really hurting financially and aren't afraid to lose their jobs if they speak out, nothing is going to happen in America I am afraid.

Back when Hicham was still in the States, we had a horrible incident with CIS that left me feeling like "this can't be happening in America".

Keep in mind that we had already submitted and been approved on our I-130. At the time, we were waiting for the dismissal on Hicham's asylum case to be resolved. I don't know if many of you remember or had SOs here at the time, I want to say it was in early 2003 when it was determined that all immigrants were to come into CIS to be given a registration number. This was entirely different than an Alien Number. CIS had posted on their website on which days, people from specific countries were to show up at CIS.

I went with Hicham because he was really nervous about it and didn't know what to expect. When we arrived, they requested that we hand them our driver's license and told us to sit down in this big waiting room. We were told we could have our license back when they were finished with us. We sat in the waiting room for over 5 hours!!! We couldn't even leave for lunch. They finally called Hicham's name and they took us back into some offices and sat us both down and asked us all this info (that they already had). We had to give them our birthdates, relatives name and info, and all of our vital info. Then they started questioning us about our marriage and why Hicham had come to the States. It wasn't an interview...it was an interrogation. I'm normally pretty cool in most situations and I was starting to get frightened. THEN they separated us! They took me to a separate part of the building and starting asking me specific questions about Hicham and his beliefs. They were in my face about it....almost like they were trying to scare me into saying something. Hicham said they were much more rude to him and yelled at him. He said he felt for sure they were about to arrest him or deport him. AND WE HAD NOTHING TO HIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I remember leaving that CIS center asking myself if what happened...really just happened.

When Hicham and I were flying to Morocco to see his mother when she was so ill, we were stopped in Philadelphia at the boarding gate by an immigration officer. Keep in mind we were LEAVING the country, he pulled us aside and started questioning us very rudely about where we were going in Morocco, what we were going to be doing and how much money we had with us. We only had a couple hundred dollars with us because we were staying with his parents and weren't going to need alot of money. This officer accused us of lying and kept threatening to "officially" detain us if we didn't tell the truth. He was yelling at us and talking to us like this in front of all the other passengers boarding the plane. Finally, on the last boarding call, he just let us go....just like that. Again, I felt like...did that really just happen...in this country...did that just happen?????

WOW...

I was stopped once at the gate on my last trip out to KTM - an immigration officer approached me and asked how much money I had with me and told me the maximum amount of cash I could carry - like you I didn't bring much money, generally use my ATM card. It wasn't the horrible experience like you had, she was polite but since I have never before been questioned like this(and have traveled overseas a lot) it got me a little scared. I didn't see her approaching any other passengers and I wonder if she singled me out because I was wearing a salwar kameez and look 'different'(i.e. 'Muslim', i.e. 'terrorist' )- my luggage was shabby and I certainly don't look like someone with money.

We all felt like that on 9/11.

Like EVERYONE else we were devasted over what happened on 9/11. For two days, all that either of us could do was cry and watch the TV. But for weeks after that we were frightened to go out in public. The day 9/11 happened, a girl at Hicham's school SPIT IN HIS FACE!!!!! Simply because he was an Arab.

If you are suggesting this behavior is acceptable to a group of people of the same race as the 9/11 terrorist, then should it not be acceptable for say...Iraqi's to hold all American's that look like soldiers responsible for what's happened to their family. At some point the perpuating violence and anger has GOT TO STOP!

I think compared to how Europe would have dealt with 911, we did pretty well as a nation. I think there HAS been a backlash against arabs and muslims but no where near what muslims face in France and the UK. People have more rights here than anywhere else in the world

I was witness in 2002 to a group of Islamic extremists trying to overthrow a moderate imam. They issued a fatwa, distributed it at various mosques, incited hate against this imam and published inflamatory articles about him in arabic "street "newspapers.

The FBI ended up arresting after a sting operation, the imam of a popular mosque 20 minutes south of me. This was in conjunction with raids for drug trafficking and some of these arrested had ties to HAMAS.

Now, in light of the fact that on American soil, people are blowing up buildings, plotting the destruction of power plants ( 2003) fundraising for Hamas ( 2004 to present Sami Al Arian) its no wonder our government spies, stalks and looks. They have to.

The problem comes when you are the one they are spying on and intercepting. When your door is knocked on at 6 am with men with jackets and white suburbans because someone you live with is doing something very very very scary , then you realise just how deep you are in for it. Airport harrassment is the LEAST OF IT.

Its when american security is at risk, that things get scary.. Often the government has a much bigger feel for what is going on.. They know things we do not know sometimes...voice mails, cell phone taps, phone taps and informants... all part of muslim life since 2001. You want to get mad? Thank the hijackers... as sad and as unfair as that sounds

You lived through being with someone in the years after 9 11. The usa was much different for muslims in the years before, wasnt it? People got visas... there were a whole lot more illegals back then as well...... Things changed. Life changed.. Americans realised they could be hit on their own soil for the first time

I believe that revelation came with Pearl Harbor.

very unlikely.

let me rephrase that ARAB illegals. It was much easier to get a visa back then and not as hard to overstay

Can you please share your source of information?

sure...from 2003.. You would never see this many arab illegals now because people are not getting visas like before


U.S.: Government Probe Criticizes Arrests Of Immigrants After 11 September
By Jeffrey Donovan

For months after the September 11 2001 attacks, civil rights groups complained that the U.S. government was violating basic human rights by rounding up illegal immigrants and detaining them for months. Now, a new report from inside the government backs these charges.

Washington, 5 June 2003 (RFE/RL) -- When Malek Zeidan shows up in the neighborhoods of Patterson, New Jersey, children come running to greet him.

A 45-year-old Syrian immigrant, Zeidan, among other things, makes a living driving an ice-cream truck. As he rides through the streets with music blaring from his truck, kids know that the frozen delights Zeidan delivers are just around the corner.

But for 40 days last year, Zeidan was nowhere to be seen. He was among more than 1,000 mostly Arab or Muslim immigrants who were locked up in U.S. prisons, apparently suspected of involvement with the group of Arabs who carried out the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, which killed about 3,000 people.

But after months of strident criticism by civil rights groups, Zeidan and other illegal immigrants held after the attacks are hearing a new message from the U.S. government.

A new report issued this week by a government body that oversees possible abuse at the Justice Department has confirmed many of the charges made by civil rights groups. The report by the Justice Department's own inspector-general says the post-11 September roundup of immigrants was plagued with "significant problems" and that hundreds of detainees were forced to remain in jail unfairly under harsh conditions.

Wendy Patten, the U.S. policy director for Human Rights Watch in Washington, says, "The report is a superb expose of how the Justice Department circumvented peoples' basic rights after September 11th. It's a detailed, 198-page report that confirms the abuses that we at Human Rights Watch found in our own investigation into the mistreatment of the September 11th detainees."

The problems cited in the report include a failure to promptly tell detainees why they were being held; hindering their ability to secure legal counsel and bond hearings; a denial of bail for many detainees; physical and verbal abuse; and sometimes harsh conditions of detainment.

Zeidan was picked up by chance when officers came to question his roommate about the attacks. When they discovered that Zeidan had overstayed his tourist visa, he was tossed into prison to await possible deportation.

Zeidan's lawyer, Regis Fernandez, says that his client was labeled a "national security threat" by U.S. prosecutors -- apparently due to his race, which matched that of the Arab hijackers who flew planes into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Describing one of Zeidan's court hearings, Fernandez tells RFE/RL: "There was a tense moment during the hearing because we wanted to get more information as to how he was selected [as a security threat]. And they -- the immigration trial attorney -- indicated that it had something to do with the World Trade Center investigation. The client almost fainted. [He was] pretty shocked at that."

Generally, U.S. immigration officials do not arrest someone for overstaying a visa, although they can face deportation after a court hearing.

But in the charged atmosphere of post-11 September America, the U.S. Justice Department, under Attorney General John Ashcroft, allowed itself to alter its common procedures because of what were called "extraordinary circumstances." For example, the Justice Department refused to grant bail to illegal immigrants.

Ashcroft strongly defended the detentions, and the secrecy surrounding them, as vital to preventing future attacks. "Our most important objective is to save innocent lives from further acts of terrorism by identifying, disrupting, and dismantling terrorist networks," Ashcroft said last summer.

Asked about that policy, analyst Michael Scardaville of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, tells RFE/RL: "I don't think it was just an overreaction or anything. I think it was a matter of recognizing that we face a new and different threat that we hadn't taken adequate action to respond to in the past. Our counter-terrorism policy in the United States was woefully insufficient prior to September 11. Our enforcement of immigration and other border-security laws was incredibly lax. And I think that the Department of Justice recognized that."

But as immigrants languished in jail, sometimes for months, rights groups complained that the Justice Department was violating basic civil rights by not providing evidence for their continued detention.

As it turns out, none of the detained immigrants was ever convicted of terror-related offenses, and almost all of them were eventually deported. A few, like Zeidan, still face a possible forced return to homelands they left long ago for better lives in America.

Zeidan may be one of the lucky ones. Uzi Bouhadana was not.

An Israeli citizen, Bouhadana was tracked by officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation while driving a truck from his home in south Florida to the state of Mississippi, where he was arrested on 16 September 2001 for working without a permit.

His sister, Smadar Bouhadana, says officials suspected her Jewish brother because of his "Arabic-sounding" name and the fact that some of the hijackers had lived in the same area of Florida. Uzi was deported after just three weeks, but according to his sister, not before jail officials let it be known that Uzi was a "terrorist" and allowed other prisoners to beat him, breaking his jaw in several places.

"Everybody thought, 'He's a terrorist.' Uzi told me that the guards over there were whispering something to the other guys and, a few minutes after that, the guard outside just disappeared, and they started to beat him. They beat him for two hours, and they didn't let him go to the front door to call for help or something. Six hours later, the guard apparently showed up," Bouhadana says.

Solail Mohammed, a New Jersey attorney, says the detentions were tragic for many. Mohammed represented 29 detainees. He says some were behind bars for eight months, despite accepting orders to be deported after just a few days in jail.

Mohammed says one of his clients lost 36 kilograms while in jail. Another man discovered that his parents had died during his detention, while he says another man's wife suffered a miscarriage related to the stress she endured while he was being held.

The report by the inspector-general lays out 21 recommendations for the Justice Department to improve its handling of such cases in the future.

Ashcroft's office has said little about the report, stating only that it did not conclude that any of the department's actions were illegal. Some of its officials have been quoted as saying the department will adopt at least some of the report's recommendations.

Scardaville of the Heritage Foundation acknowledges that there may have been some abuses. But he believes they were mainly due to a bureaucratic backlog during an extraordinary time in U.S. history.

"These people had engaged in some sort of violations. Typically, in this case, we're talking of immigration violations. When you rope in a lot of people, that's going to make it difficult to process everybody. So I do think that that needs to be taken into account," Scardaville says.

The report deals only with those held on immigration charges in the U.S. after 11 September 2001. It does not take into consideration other controversial cases of U.S. detainees, such as prisoners captured during the war in Afghanistan and held at a U.S. military facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Some activists have accused the U.S. government of failing to respect the rights of those captured in Afghanistan, as well.

Mohammed, the immigration lawyer, laments that these cases are bad publicity for Washington as it seeks to lobby for human rights improvements in other states, especially in the Middle East.

"The lesson that comes out is: We don't respect our own laws. We don't respect our own constitution. How can we expect others to follow a fair and democratic way of life when we ourselves, who are supposed to be the champions of freedom and respect for the law, go out and behave in this manner?" he says.

Patten of Human Rights Watch agrees. Of the Guantanamo Bay and the U.S. immigration detainees, Patten says, "I think the two cases do raise a similar question, and that is: will the United States, as well as other governments around the world, pursue their legitimate objectives of countering terrorism in a way that upholds basic human rights?"

But Patten also sees a positive side. She says what is remarkable is the U.S. government was able to conduct a critical investigation of itself, and make those findings public.

The next step, she says, is to follow up on its own recommendations.


Copyright © 2003. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org