Jeanne Theoharis is the author of an April, 2009 article in The Nation, entitled "Guantanamo At Home, which focuses on the arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment of US citizen Syed Hashmi in a New York City prison with Guantanamo-like conditions. Theoharis holds the endowed chair in women's studies and is an associate professor of political science at Brooklyn College, CUNY.
Syed Hashmi's trial will begin in New York City
on December 1. The website www.freefahad.com
explains that: "Syed Hashmi, known to his family and friends as Fahad, was born
in Karachi,
Pakistan
in 1980, the second child of Syed Anwar Hashmi and Arifa Hashmi. Fahad
immigrated with his family to America
when he was three years old. His father said ˜We knew there would be many
opportunities for us here in the United States.
We came here to find the American dream.' The large Hashmi family settled in Flushing, New
York and soon developed deep
roots throughout the tri-state area. Fahad graduated from Robert F.Wagner High School in 1998 and attended SUNY Stonybrook University.
He transferred to Brooklyn College,
where he earned a bachelor's degree in political science in 2003. A devout
Muslim, through the years Fahad established a reputation as an activist and
advocate. In 2003, Fahad enrolled in London Metropolitan University in England
to pursue a master's degree in international relations, which he received in
2006.
On June 6, 2006, Fahad was arrested in London Heathrow airport by British police based on an American indictment charging him with material support of Al Qaida. He was subsequently held in Belmarsh Prison, Britain's most notorious jail. For more information on the Hashmi case, also visit: www.educatorsforcivilliberties.org.
Jeanne Theoharis: In June 2006, Hashmi, who is a US citizen, was arrested by the British police at HeathrowAirport (he was about to travel to Pakistan, where he has family) on a warrant issued by the US government. In May 2007, he was extradited to the United States, the first US citizen to be extradited under terrorism laws passed after 9/11. Since then, he has since been held in solitary confinement at Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC).
The US government alleges that early in 2004, a man by the name of Junaid Babar, also a Pakistani-born US citizen, stayed with Hashmi at his London apartment for two weeks. According to the government, Babar stored luggage containing raincoats, ponchos, and waterproof socks in Hashmi's apartment and then Babar delivered these materials to the third-ranking member of Al Qaida in South Waziristan, Pakistan. In addition, Hashmi allegedly allowed Babar to use his cell phone to call other conspirators in terrorist plots.
The government has claimed that Babar's testimony is the "centerpiece of its case. Babar, who has pleaded guilty to five counts of material support for Al Qaida, faces up to seventy years in prison. While awaiting sentence, he has agreed to serve as a government witness in terrorism trials in Britain and Canada as well as in Hashmi's trial. Under a plea agreement reported in the media, Babar will receive a reduced sentence in return for his cooperation.
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