SYED FATAH HASHMI

RE: "The Ongoing torture of SyedFahad Hashmi", by Bill Quigley, www.Counterpunch.com

Who might Syed Fahad Hashmi be? And why should we care?

Today as well as for almost the last three years, Syed Fahad Hashmi has been kept in total isolation under constant video and audio surveillance. He is not allowed to communicate with anyone except his lawyer, nor allowed to write letters or make calls. Heis not allowed to have an attorney of his choice; only a lawyer investigated and approved by the U.S.

Under our constitution, people are entitled to be presumed innocent until

the matter is decided in a court of law. The 8th amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. After all we are not savages are we?

According to Quigley "He is not allowed to look at any translated documents unless the translator is pre-approved by the government. He is not allowed any contact with the media at all. One member of his family can visit through the heavy screen for one hour every other week unless the government takes away those visits to further punish him. The government took away his family visits for 90 days when he was observed shadow boxing in his cell and talked back to the guard who asked what he was doing.

Under international standards for human rights, extended isolation is considered a form of torture and is banned. The conditions and practices of isolation are in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the U.N. Convention against Torture, and the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

In 1995, the U.N. Human Rights Committee stated that isolation conditions in certain U.S. maximum security prisons were incompatible with international standards. In 1996, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture reported on cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment in U.S. supermax prisons. In 2000, the U.N. Committee on Torture roundly condemned the United States for its treatment of prisoners, citing supermax prisons. In May 2006, the same committee concluded that the United States should “review the regimen imposed on detainees in supermax prisons, in particular, the practice of prolonged isolation

Mr. Hashmi is accused of helping al Qaeda by allowing rain gear (raincoats, ponchos and socks) that were going to Afghanistan to be stored in his Queens apartment, he allowed his cell phone to be used to contact al Qaeda supporters and he made post-arrest threatening statements. "The U.S. Constitutio

This is why we should care: "The U.S. Constitution and International Human Rights plus just good old common decency forbid torture or any form of coercive treatment of prisoners. Our government has a buzz word alQaeda and treats the name of this amorphous group as if it were a nation, not individuals organized to oppose U.S. and Western aggression.

Are we Americans or a nation of freedom and justice for all or paranoid psychopaths?

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN