ACLU - Proxy Detention (Abroad) lyrics

The federal government has an obligation to come to the aid of American citizens arrested in foreign countries, and the State Department has said that a**isting Americans incarcerated abroad is one of its most important tasks.270 Federal law requires that: Whenever it is made known to the President that any citizen of the United States has been unjustly deprived of his liberty by or under the authority of any foreign government, it shall be the duty of the President forthwith to demand of that government the reasons of such imprisonment; and if it appears to be wrongful and in violation of the rights of American citizenship, the President shall forthwith demand the release of such citizen, and if the release so demanded is unreasonably delayed or refused, the President shall use such means, not amounting to acts of war and not otherwise prohibited by law, as he may think necessary and proper to obtain or effectuate the release; and all the facts and proceedings relative thereto shall as soon as practicable be communicated by the President to Congress.271 Yet the FBI appears to have requested, facilitated, and/or exploited the arrests of U.S. citizens by foreign governments, often without charges, so they could be held and interrogated, sometimes tortured, then interviewed by FBI agents. The ACLU represents two victims of the FBI's proxy detention activities. Amir Meshal is an American m**m born and raised in New Jersey.272 He traveled to Somalia to study Islam in 2006, but had to flee with other civilians when the country became engulfed in civil war at the end of that year. A joint American, Kenyan, and Ethiopian force arrested him at the Kenya border in early 2007. Meshal was subsequently subjected to more than four months of detention, often in squalid conditions. His captors transferred him between three different East African countries without charge, access to counsel, or presentment before a judicial officer, all at the behest of the U.S. government. While foreign officials showed little interest in talking to Meshal, FBI agents interrogated him more than thirty times and told him he would not be permitted to go home until he confessed to being part of al Qaeda. They took his fingerprints and a DNA sample and tried to coerce his confession by threatening him with torture, forced disappearance, and rendition to Egypt, Somalia, or Israel for further interrogation. The FBI agents refused his requests for counsel and did not allow him to make any phone calls to let his family know where he was. The FBI agents made Meshal sign Miranda waivers, telling him that if he refused he would not be allowed to go home. After a Kenyan court was poised to hear habeas petitions filed by a Kenyan human rights group on behalf of foreigners seized at the border, Meshal was forcibly transferred to Somalia and then to Ethiopia, where he was again repeatedly interrogated by FBI agents, including one who interrogated him in Kenya. During this entire period Meshal was never charged with a crime nor provided access to counsel or the Red Cross. Meshal was only released and allowed to return home after media reports regarding his prolonged detention led to inquiries from Congress. Naji Hamdan, a Lebanese-American businessman, was contacted and interviewed by the FBI several times while he was living in Los Angeles over many years, and he was often stopped and interrogated at U.S. airports but he was never arrested or charged with a crime in the U.S.273 In 2006, he and his family moved the United Arab Emirates where he established a business. In July 2008, FBI agents from Los Angeles summoned him to the U.S. Emba**y for an interview. Several weeks later, in August 2008, Hamdan was seized by U.A.E. security forces, held incommunicado for nearly three months, beaten and tortured, and forced to confess to being a**ociated with several different terrorist groups. At one point an American participated in his interrogation, who Hamdan believed to be an FBI agent based on the interrogator's knowledge of previous FBI interviews. Believing the U.S. government was behind Hamdan's detention, the ACLU of Southern California filed a habeas corpus petition in federal court on his behalf, alleging Hamdan was in the constructive custody of the U.S. A week later on November 26, U.A.E. officials transferred Hamdan to criminal detention in the U.A.E.. He was charged with vague terrorism-related crimes and later convicted based on his coerced confessions, but he was sentenced only to time served and deported to Lebanon, where he lives with his family. Documents obtained by the ACLU demonstrate the State Department and FBI were closely monitoring Hamdan's case from the beginning of his detention. These proxy detentions appear to be continuing under the Obama administration. In December 2010, American teenager Gulet Mohamed was jailed in Kuwait when he went to renew his visa after spending several months in the country visiting family. According to The New York Times, Mohamed said he was beaten and threatened by his Kuwaiti interrogators and later interviewed by FBI agents who said “he could not return to the United States until he gave truthful answers about his travels.”274 The New York Times confirmed the U.S. had placed Mohamed on the No Fly List.275 After the media reported his detention, Mohamed's family hired a lawyer to represent him, who alleged the FBI continued to interrogate Mohamed repeatedly without counsel while he remained in Kuwaiti custody, stranded because the U.S. put him on the No Fly List.276 Mohamed was never charged with a crime and returned to the U.S. in January 2011. An FBI official admitted in a July 8, 2011, email to Mother Jones Magazine that the FBI may elect to share information with foreign governments and that those governments “may decide to locate or detain an individual or conduct an investigation based on the shared information.” The FBI official went on: Additionally, there have been instances when foreign law enforcement have detained individuals, independent of any information provided by the FBI, and the FBI has been afforded the opportunity to interview or witness an interview with the individual.277 If the FBI is providing information to foreign governments to arrest Americans abroad when there is not sufficient evidence to bring U.S. charges, it may be a violation of constitutional due process rights and an abrogation of the government's obligation to defend the rights of U.S citizens. This conduct is particularly problematic where the cooperating governments have records of abusing human rights.