Syracuse's Captain Yee Hit with more charges

The following press release was read at press conference held on April 22, 2004

On Wednesday April 21, 2004 Dr. Dhafir was charged with wire and mail fraud indictment I would like to begin by pointing out that when Dr. Dhafir was arrested last year Attorney General John Ashcroft stated that:

"As President Bush leads an international coalition to end Saddam Hussein's tyranny and support for terror, the Justice Department will see that individuals within our borders cannot undermine these efforts,"stated Attorney General John Ashcroft. "Those who covertly seek to channel money into Iraq under the guise of charitable work will be caught and prosecuted."

Clearly Ashcroft implied terrorism--but to date the prosecution has brought no charges of terrorism. Instead we get Medicare Fraud and now mail and wire fraud--No terrorism.

All of this is reminiscent of another supposed Terrorist--Muslim Chaplain Captain Yee of Quantanamo bay who was charged with mishandling sensitive information (espionage) and aiding terrorist. Like Dr. Dhafir Captain Yee was held without bail.

As with Dr. Dhafir there was never any follow-up indictment or charges for Captain Yee of terrorism or espionage. Instead the government charged him with downloading pornographic material and having an extramarital affair. It is our opinion that the government resorted to these charges because it could not back up to its original claim of terrorism and decided it had to pin something on him. Eventually the government dropped its charges against Captain Yee.

Similarly Dr. Dhafir has not been charged with terrorism but instead with a litany of charges aimed to smear him and sway public opinion.

I ask that all you (the press) take the prosecution to task and ask them why do they continue to deny Dr. Dhafir bail and treat him like a terrorist when people facing similar charges are granted bail and can work on their defense.

As to the charges…On February 28th we heard testimonials at Hendricks Chapel from people that had benefited from his generosity. I am hard pressed to see how such a compassionate, caring and generous individual would commit the crimes the government claims.

By madis senner