Operation Free Dhafir

Stop the Crusade
By madis senner
315-463-5369 Email me

If you broke the Iraqi sanctions join other's that wrote a letter to Judge Mordue telling him that you did so like Dr. Dhafir.
Voices in the Wilderness
Fellowship of Reconciliation
Conscience International

We ask for your aid in helping free Dr. Rafil Dhafir, a 56-year old oncologist of Arab descent who was arrested February 26, 2003, for breaking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (Iraqi Sanctions) in Syracuse, NY by sending humanitarian assistance to Iraq. He is believed to be the only person ever to be jailed for sending humanitarian aid to Iraq.

We cannot let the War on Terror become a Crusade against Arab-Americans and Muslims!

On the day of his arrest, up to 150 Muslim families were raided and inappropriately interrogated regarding their contributions to the charity Help the Needy(HTN). The raid, to date, was the largest interrogation of Muslims in the U.S.A. at one time . Many of the questions posed to them were not about the charity, but about details of their faith, their relationship to the local Masjid and family overseas (Questions such as; " Do you celebrate Christmas?, How often to do pray?, Where do you pray? Do you have family in the Middle East?").

Syracuse Post Standard Editorial
Sunday, August 08, 2004

Fear and Dhafir

Gov. George Pataki unfairly smeared a Central New York doctor Thursday when he linked Rafil Dhafir and his charity for Iraqis to terrorist organizations. Pataki's public remarks seemed to confirm what Dhafir and his supporters have been saying all along - that the federal case against Dhafir is a political prosecution as well as a criminal one.

Dhafir, 56, is the Manlius oncologist who was charged in February 2003 with violating U.S. sanctions by sending humanitarian aid to Iraq without a license. He also faces charges of diverting some of the $5 million he raised for Help the Needy for his own purchases of properties in Syracuse, plus counts of Medicare fraud, tax evasion, mail fraud and wire fraud. But prosecutors have been careful not to allege that Dhafir, who was born in Baghdad, or his charity assisted terrorist organizations.

That didn't stop Pataki, a loyal Bush Republican eager to point to successes in the War on Terror. When a federal sting operation busted two men in Albany Thursday for their alleged willingness to aid in a fabricated terrorist plot, the governor stepped up and proceeded to undermine Dhafir's right to a fair trial.

"We've seen in Lackawanna, with the arrest of the Lackawanna Six, terrorist supporters living among us," Pataki said, referring to a group of young Muslims near Buffalo accused of training with al-Qaida. "We saw with the arrest in Syracuse of money-laundering efforts to help terrorist organizations. And today we see here, again, in the capital region those among us who seek to help terrorists to conduct horrible acts against the people of America and against our freedom."

Just last month, Dhafir told Post-Standard reporter Renee Gadoua in a jailhouse interview that the government's case against him relies on fear and anti-Muslim sentiment in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

"They don't have to use the T-word," said Dhafir. "It is there. We have ample evidence this is what they're after."

Pataki's remarks amount to Exhibit A for Dhafir's argument. Dhafir's lawyer, Devereaux Cannick, was correct to label Pataki's remarks "highly inflammatory."

"When you have the governor of the state and other officials making such irresponsible statements," Cannick said, "we have very little confidence that we can find any jurors in the entire state that have not been affected by this continuous and 'willful' taint."

Pataki, who is trained in the law, should stick to the facts and not contribute to the climate of fear.

Dr. Dhafir has been denied bail four times while investigators have lodged numerous charges against him --Medicare fraud, tax evasion and using charitable funds for personal uses. Muslim chaplain Captain Yee of Quantanamo Bay has received similar treatment. (Muslim Chaplain Captain Yee was charged with terrorism for his work at Quantanamo Bay. When the terrorist charges appeared dubious the government charged him with adultery and the downloading of pornography.)

The recent dismissal motion filed by Dr. Dhafir's lawyers states that he is the only person ever to be jailed for sending humanitarian aid to Iraq, although there are many individuals and organizations that also have sent aid to Iraq. Corporations such as UBS and Chevron-Texaco that violated the sanctions not to send humanitarian aid, but for profit and no one was arrested. Even in the case of UBS that knowingly exchanged hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars to Iraq and had employees falsify monthly government reports, no one was arrested ("UBS Fined $100 Million Over Trading of Dollars", NY Times, May 12, 2004). One must wonder what distinguishes Dr. Dhafir from all the others. Possible reasons:

  • Dr. Dhafir's charity was viewed by the Bush Administration as a covert means of funding terrorist activity and, as such, was considered a viable target in the war against terrorism. Attorney General John Ashcroft noted in his statement the day of Dr. Dhafir's arrest 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. Those who covertly seek to channel money into Iraq under the guise of charitable work will be caught and prosecuted." (Click to read statement)
  • Unlike other organizations involved in charitable giving, Dr. Dhafir's name, ancestry and religious tradition fit the profile of a potential terrorist: In other words, philanthropists of Iraqi or Arab descent and the Islamic faith are treated as potential terrorists, but those who are Christian, born in the USA or are affiliated with a multinational corporation are not.

  • WE MUST NOT LET THE WAR AGAINST TERRORISM BECOME A CRUSADE AGAINST ARAB AMERICANS AND MUSLIMS.

    What you can do

    1) Send a letter to the Judge telling him that you like Dr. Dhafir defied the sanctions aginst Iraq:
    Judge Norman A. Mordue
    US District Judge
    United States Court-Northern District of NY
    100 South Clinton Street
    12th Floor
    Syracuse, New York, 13261

    2) Send a copy of the letter to the: Syracuse Post Standard, Readers Page, Box 4915, Syracuse, NY 13221
    By email--Type Post Standard Letter in the text box
    Make sure to include your address and telephone number for verification purposes

    3) Send a copy to madis senner, 321 Burns Ave, Syracuse, NY 13206, or email me
    Please include your address and telephone number.

    4) Send a copy to your local paper as a letter to the editor. Please make sure to include a preface to the letter that talks about the injustice of Dr, Dhafir's arrest.
    For example: I have sent the following letter to Judge Mordue in Syracuse NY to protest the injustice of arresting Dr. Dhafir, a Muslim and Arab American that broke the sanctions against Iraq by sending humanitarian. Many non-Muslims like I similarly defied the sanctions and have not been arrested. He is the only person to be jailed for breaking the sanctions

    5)Feel free to write Rafil; Jamesville Correctional Facility, P.O. Box 143, Jamesville, NY 13078

    6) Call me, madis senner, 315-463-5369 with questions.

    The second goal of Operation Free Dhafir is to expose this double standard of justice in our country for Muslims and non-Muslims in the fight against terror. The Bush Administration's policy is little more than a crusade against Arab Americans and Muslims. We cannot let our country repeat its history of anti-American behavior as seen with the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII or McCarthyism.

    With the elections looming and the fight for terror becoming a major campaign issue, it is in our favor to make a statement as Dr. Dhafir’s trial date, September 27th, approaches. Devereaux Cannick (718-426-0444), Dr. Dhafir's lawyer, has said that he will do everything possible to expose the government's prejudicial targeting of Dr. Dhafir and the prejudicial treatment of the Muslim families that donated to his charity.

    Help us free Rafil and expose the prejudice of the government's fight against terrorism. If you traveled to Iraq or gave aid to an organization that defied the sanctions we ask that you join Kathy Kelly of Voices in the Wilderness and send a letter (see below) to Judge Mordue telling him that you defied the sanctions and were not charged.

    We ask that you send a copy of this letter to Syracuse Post Standard, to your local paper, and a copy to us for the record.


    Testimonials.Click on the links below to read the statements of Dr. Dhfir's patients, supporters and friends.

    Rafil Rally
    Testimonials
    Letters to the Editor-2003
    Letters to the Editor-2004
    Was My Mom a Terrorist

    To raise awareness around the country please also send a copy to your local paper as a letter to the editor. Please include a header to indicate that you have sent the following letter to the Judge Mordue to protest out the injustice of arresting Dr. Dhafir a Muslim and Arab American that broke the sanctions against Iraq by sending humanitarian aid. Point out that many non-Muslims similarly defied the sanctions and have not been arrested.

    If you regularly send out press releases we ask that you send a copy of your letter out.

    We look forward to adding your letter to the one's below.


    Our Fundamentalist President

    President Bush talks of ecumenism but his minister of choice for his inauguration and the 9-11 memorial, Franklin Graham, called America "a Christian Nation" at both events. Later in the wake of 9-11 Reverend Graham said "Islam attacked us", and other ugly remarks. It took several months for president Bush to distance himself from Reverend Graham.

    The President says that he is a devout Christian and that Jesus is his personal advisor. Yet he ignores God's call to Love and Jesus' central teaching of 'do unto others' and 'love your enemy'. Instead he chooses to define his faith through the condemnation and persecution of 'evil-doers'. Like Urban II that called for the Crusades the President is trying to unite us by 'the directing of destructive group differences outward on a third party that then serves to consolidate the cohesion and identity of the primary group."


    Letter from Kathy Kelly


    Dear Judge Mordue,

    I am writing from Chicago, IL where I help coordinate Voices in the Wilderness, a campaign which worked to end the economic sanctions against Iraq by bringing medicines and medical relief supplies to Iraqi children and families, in open and nonviolent violation of the economic sanctions.

    We organized 70 delegations to visit Iraq, beginning in 1996. We also worked in close companionship with other US groups dedicated to "the further invention of nonviolence" as they sent relief materials to Iraq, openly challenging the sanctions and relying on those who traveled to Iraq to bring back greatly needed attention to the suffering endured by people there who had no control over their government.

    The following groups sent delegations to Iraq:

    Veterans for Peace, Pax Christi USA, the American Friends Service Committee, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Metro Detroit Committee to End Sanctions Against Iraq, (led by Bishop Thomas Gumbleton), the Order of St. Dominic (Dominican sisters and priests), Citizens Concerned for Iraq (Seattle based), Conscience International, Global Exchange, Middle East Children's Alliance, Life for Relief and Development, Education for Peace in Iraq and the International Action Center.

    Americares, led by Val Kilmer, also traveled to Iraq and delivered medicines.

    When we traveled to Iraq, we were deeply troubled by the brutal and lethal punishment imposed on civilian people who were not responsible for the actions of their government. It was clear that these people were in no position to change that government, given the miserable results of previous efforts. We could easily understand why Iraqis living in the US would feel morally obliged to help the people whom they'd left behind in Iraq.

    To see a list of the hundreds of people that traveled to Iraq with Voices click on Voices in the Wilderness

    Sincerely,

    Kathy Kelly
    Voices in the Wilderness
    1460 West Carmen Avenue
    Chicago, IL 60640
    773-784-8065
    Voices in the Wilderness


    Fellowship of Reconciliation
    Box 271
    Nyack, New York 10960

    August 12, 2004

    Dear Judge Mordue

    I am writing with respect to the case of Dr. Rafil Dhafir because I believe that he has been wrongfully incarcerated and denied bail repeatedly. A respected oncologist with many years of residence and medical practice in New York state, his whole life has been turned upside down with spurious charges that his humanitarian organizaton, Help the Needy, was not only in violation of the sanctions on Iraq but was really a front for terrorist activities.

    I do not believe that this would have happened had Dr. Dhafir not been a Muslim of Arab descent. Isn't it strange, to say the least, that no one else has been arrested for extending humanitarian aid to needy Iraqis? I know many, many religious people-clergy and lay-- who travelled to Iraq durng the sanctions with humanitarian aid. I myself was part of an interfaith delegation that did so. We did it because of our belief in the supremacy of conscience and the imperative to help those in need. Seeing the children in the cancer wards of Baghdad and Basra made it obvious that desperate human needs in Iraq were being created as a result of the sanctions.

    Isn't it also strange that multinational corporations that violated the sanctions, not out of conscience, but to make profits, have not been punished in any way? Again I ask, why was Dr. Dhafir singled out?

    Thank you for your careful consideration of his case.

    Respectfully,

    Rev. Richard Deats
    Editor, Fellowship magazine


    August 16, 2004

    Dear Judge Mordue,

    The Supreme Court's Motto, "Equal Justice Under Law" has been egregiously violated in the case of Dr. Rafil Dhafir, whose case is now before your court. Apparently Dr. Dhafir was selected for prosecution because of his ethnic and religious background as an Arab American and a Muslim. This is plainly unconstitutional.

    I am sure that when the case is reviewed at the highest level, perhaps years from now, you will want to be on the right side of the law and the constitution. The violation of Dr. Dhafir's constitutional rights has been extreme. He has been jailed for many months for activities many other Americans have engaged in without penalty. Numerous Conscience International volunteers, primarily doctors, nurses, and public health experts, took humanitarian aid to Iraq during the period of sanctions.

    We did so at the urging of UN Security Council resolutions about Iraq during 1996-98, by which the Council urged all governments and humanitarian agencies to provide aid to Iraq, because of what they described as an urgent "humanitarian crisis." The US has solemn treaty obligations under the UN Charter, and in fact voted for these resolutions. How then can Dr. Dhafir be convicted of delivering humanitarian aid under a US statute that contradicts clear US policy at the time, as well as international law?

    Contra bonos mores is the principle of international law which declares that any treaty or rule is illegal if it violates fundamental morality. The European Journal of International Law, in an article on the contributions of Alfred Verdross, says that "There exist certain norms that cannot be derogated from by the will or consent of States, …[to set] limits to the validity of certain norms of positive law, depriving them of their claim to authority, whenever they evidently and grossly contradict the postulates of justice."

    We and other human rights organizations will surely be attentive to the outcome.

    Sincerely yours,

    James E. Jennings, Ph.D., President

    5388 Mt. Vernon Way, Atlanta, GA 30338


    Letter from Ahmad Tansheet, Muslim Civil Rights Center


    Dear Judge Mordue:

    From February to April 2003, before, during and after the U.S. invasion, I worked in Iraq with the Chicago-based human rights group Voices in the Wilderness. Voices sought to educate the U.S. public and its government about the crime against humanity of forcing U.S./UN sanctions upon the Iraqi people. For this campaign Voices and its founder Kathy Kelly were three times nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

    According to the UN's own research, since they were imposed in 1990, the sanctions led to the premature deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis - mostly infants and children, the ill, elderly and infirm.

    Since 1996 Voices has led over 70 delegations to Iraq made up primarily of U.S. citizens. The United States government has prosecuted none of the several hundred individual delegates for breaking the sanctions. All went to Iraq knowing that in doing so we were violating U.S. law.

    Many of us brought medical material to Iraq to distribute to Iraqis suffering from the sanctions' ban on such material. This too, I'm told, was illegal. Our guilt, our criminality, was shared by all those in our communities who helped us collect such material and who helped finance our travel.

    We participated in this protracted Civil Disobedience, not as scofflaws nor out of any disrespect to our fellow citizens, but in response to the claims of humanity, in response to the demands of our conscience.

    I am alarmed that the federal government has chosen to selectively prosecute and imprison Dr. Rafil Dhafir for the alleged "crime" of violating the sanctions. Never having met or communicated with Dr. Dhafir (although I have heard very good things about this prominent and respected physician from those who know him), I cannot speak to his character. I can only try to communicate to you my dismay that the U.S. government has chosen to single this man out for prosecution and prolonged incarceration.

    If Dr. Dhafir weren't of Islamic or Middle Eastern background, wouldn't he be free today - just like me and the hundreds of other Voices in the Wilderness sanctions violators?

    Sincerely,

    Ed Kinane
    Syracuse, NY


    Dear Judge Mordue,

    This letter concerns the status of Dr. Rafil Dhafir and sharing with you thoughts and facts that may be helpful to you in decisions concerning Dr. Dhafir.

    During the past one and a half years, bail was denied every time it was brought to the court's attention. A person's freedom is supreme in carrying out one's life here on earth and in society.

    At this time in History, we see and hear the word used a lot. Our Government chose to use it twice to name both of our present wars. In Afghanistan, OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM and also by OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM for Iraq. It seems like the number one thing for going to war.

    Having been incarcerated myself for a short period of time, I still remember the profound effect of having my personal freedom removed. I could not take a shower, listen to the radio, or even get a cup of coffee without permission. It must be extra hard for one not officially guilty to prepare for trial. The simple needs of paper and pen could be difficult at times and excess to one's lawyer and paper work would be very limited.

    Historically, it would be interesting to find out just how many people fled the country with similar charges as Dr. Dhafir faces and also how many were denied bail on similar charges?

    The second part of this letter has to do with some historical facts and of selective prosecution of people. I share with you some events in my life.

    I watched the 60 minutes program in 1996 as Ms Albright, then Secretary of State, did not dispute the UNICEF report that 5,000 Iraqi children die each month. She said it was necessary to "contain" Saddam Hussein. Trying to get a perspective on the Country of Iraq, I went to the local Library and from the World Almanac found out that the square miles and population was identical to the State of California.

    In 1997, I read the appeal from Six religious leaders in Iraq. (enclosed is a copy of that letter) So I continued to inform myself on the situation there and also tried to convince people that to continue to support the sanctions was morally wrong. In January 2001, I had an opportunity to go to Iraq with an international organization, Conscience International. Five of us from the Syracuse Area went for two weeks. We brought medicine and medical equipment with us from the support of many in our community.

    While there, we were invited to a Christian Conference in May 2001 which I attended with three other people from this area. The local Catholic Bishop was supportive. My two trips gave me first hand testimony of the suffering and death going on due mainly to the UN Sanctions.

    The situation of Dr. Dhafir points out my experience as to the handling of people who engage in trying to stop the innocent suffering of our brothers and sisters in this world. The School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia had in its training manual methods of torture and most of its graduated were implicated in many of the killing in Central and South America. I joined hundreds of others crossing the 'Line' and was apprehended. Many were second time offenders. However, only twelve were charged. It is sort of like a lottery.

    The intend of this letter is inform and aid you in your future decisions regarding Dr. Rafil Dhafir.

    Thank you for your time and consideration of the above.

    Sincerely,

    Richard J. Keough
    Syracuse, NY


    Re: Dr Rafil Dhafir

    Dear Judge Mordue,

    I gave money to a traveler to Iraq to aid the people of Iraq in September of 2002. I was never arrested or charged with breaking the sanctions. It is outrageous to think that Dr. Dhafir has been arrested and denied bail four times for doing the same thing. Justice should not discriminate between ones origin of birth or religious beliefs.

    Sincerely,

    madis senner
    321 Burns Ave
    Syracuse, NY 13206


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