Man held 3 years on terror suspicions facing possible deportation

10/21/2005, 7:14 p.m. ET
By M.R. KROPKO
The Associated Press

CLEVELAND (AP) — <snip>

The U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals in Falls Church, Va., on Monday overruled an immigration judge's decision last December that had stopped Ashraf al-Jailani's deportation on the grounds that he would be persecuted or tortured if he is forced to return to Yemen.

Al-Jailani, 41, of Kent in northeast Ohio, had successfully argued that the United Nations Convention Against Torture prevents his return to Yemen. Al-Jailani has not been charged, and he says he is being held without cause. <snip>

Federal investigators first became interested in al-Jailani in 1999, when his business card was discovered with a suspected terrorist in New York.

Sethna this week released a statement from al-Jailani that says he does not want to leave the county and misses his wife and three children in Ohio, whom he is not allowed to see. <snip>

http://www.pennlive.com/newsflash/pa/index.ssf?/base/news-31/1129920548257490.xml&storylist=penn

A suspected--not proven--terrorist had his business card. (Since when do people engaged in criminal activities exchange business cards? Are terrorists now also advertising in the Yellow Pages?)

He made phone calls to New York to which a money launderer also called. (I'm sure I must have also called numbers at some point that a white collar criminal has called.)

He may have known the brother of one of the 9-11 hijackers. (I've known, personally, at least one thief, one crooked cop, one arsonist, one rapist/murderer. And too many druggies to count. Watch out world! I'm dangerous! I actually have known criminals and been at the same parties with them! Al-Jailani is nothing, what with the best he's ever been able to pull being to maybe, but not definitely, know the brother of someone reprehensible.)

On the basis of so little evidence, the government wants to deny an American woman her husband and American children their father? For shame.

A rally will be held today from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at the Islamic Community Center on Steels Corners Road in Stow in observance of the third anniversary of Al-Jailani’s detention.

The rally, organized by the Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network, will include presentations from Julio Pino of Kent State University; Greg Coleridge of American Friends Service Committee; Farhad Sethna, Al-Jailani’s attorney; Linda Park, Vice President of the Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network; Julia Shearson, director of the Cleveland office of the Council on American Islamic Relations; and Katie Daley and the Detainees who will perform the “Ballad of Ashraf Al-Jailani.”

http://www.recordpub.com/article.php?pathToFile=/articles/news/&file=_news3.txt&article=1&tD=

nominating for:
Amina 9, Layla 7, and son Sami 5