Roberto Lovato, from his blog, Of América
June 18, 2008
Imran Ahmad (a pseudonym), a 29 year-old Pakistani computer scientist who can see the Statue of Liberty from his studio apartment in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood, says he no longer believes in the symbol of freedom cast in copper. "Freedom is relative. It depends on things like where you're from and what you look like" says Ahmad. He reached this conclusion, he says, because of what happened to him as a orange-uniformed detainee held for more than 3 years in numerous federal detention facilities: the denial of habeas corpus (his constitutional right to plead his case before a judge), facing growling dogs, watching friends languish and die while in custody, the "subtle torture" of living for months in a tiny, windowless white room while a nearby TV set blared American Idol or "24."
After a fellow detainee died under mysterious circumstances, which were covered up by detention facility authorities, Ahmad says he was threatened with lines like "We don't want you to tell or speak to anyone about this" and "We have cameras and people [detainees] who are watching you, monitoring you." Though Ahmad was released, he is still in deportation proceedings.[...]
Read the full article:
http://ofamerica.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/the-guantanamization-of-immigrant-detention/
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