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Secretive U.S. Prison Units Used to House Muslim, Animal Rights and Environmental Activists
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The government is using secretive prison facilities on U.S. soil, called Communication Management Units, to house inmates accused of being tied to “terrorism” groups. They overwhelmingly include Muslim inmates, along with at least two animal rights and environmental activists.
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Little information is available about the secretive facilities and the prisoners housed there. However, through interviews with attorneys, family members, and a current prisoner, it is clear that these units have been created not for violent and dangerous “terrorists,” but for political cases that the government would like to keep out of the public spotlight and out of the press.
OPENED QUIETLY AND PERHAPS ILLEGALLY
In April of 2006, the Department of Justice proposed a new set of rules to restrict the communication of “terrorist” inmates. The proposal did not make it far, though: during the required public comment period, the ACLU and other civil rights groups raised Constitutional concerns. The program was too sweeping, they said, and it could wrap up non-terrorists and those not even convicted of a crime.
The Bureau of Prisons dropped the proposal. Or so it seemed. Just a few months later, a similar program (now called the Communication Management Unit, or CMU), was quietly opened by the Justice Department at Terre Haute, Ind.
Then, in May of 2008, a handful of inmates were moved, without warning, to what is believed to be the second CMU in the country, at Marion, Il.
Both CMUs are “self-contained” housing units, according to prison documents, for prisoners who “require increased monitoring of communication” in order to “protect the public.”
WHO IS HOUSED AT CMUs?
The CMUs are less restrictive than, say, ADX Florence, the notorious supermax prison for the most dangerous inmates. The supermax holds al-Qaeda operative Zacarias Moussaoui and Unabomber Theodore J. Kaczynski.
CMU inmates stand in sharp contrast to the Moussaouis and Kaczynskis of the world, though.
• They include Rafil A. Dhafir, an Iraqi-born physician who created a charity called Help the Needy to provide food and medicine to the people of Iraq suffering under the U.S.-imposed economic sanctions. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison for violating the sanctions.
• They include Daniel McGowan, an environmental activist sentenced to seven years in prison for a string of property crimes in the name of defending the environment. He was previously at FCI-Sandstone, a low-security facility, and was transferred without notice to the CMU, and told it was not for any disciplinary reason.
• And, until recently, they included Andrew Stepanian. Stepanian was convicted of conspiring to commit “animal enterprise terrorism” and shut down the notorious animal testing laboratory Huntingdon Life Sciences, in a landmark First Amendment case pending appeal. The government’s case focused on a controversial website run by an activist group that published news of both legal and illegal actions against the laboratory. He was sentenced to three years in prison, and is currently on house arrest in New York City. Stepanian is believed to be the first prisoner ever released from a CMU.
VIOLATION OF DUE PROCESS RIGHTS
Attorneys and prisoners have said that inmates are transferred to the CMUs without notice and without opportunity to challenge their new designation, in what seems to be a clear violation of their due process rights.
“No one got a hearing to determine whether we should or should not be transferred here,” said Daniel McGowan in a letter from the CMU in Marion, Ill.
Similarly, Rafil A. Dhafir said in a letter to his family from the CMU in Terre Haute, Ind., that he was put in isolation for two days before the move. “No one seems to know about this top-secret operation until now,” he wrote. “It is still not fully understood… The staff here is struggling to make sense of the whole situation.”
- A d v e r t i s e m e n t
“We are told this is an experiment,” Dhafir says. “So the whole concept is evolving on a daily basis.”
OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND
The CMU “experiment” limits prisoner contact with the outside world through a list of restrictive policies. According to prison documents giving a skeleton of CMU policies, called institution supplements, they include:
• Phone calls: Only one phone call per week, limited to 15 minutes, live-monitored by staff and law enforcement (according to attorneys, this includes the NSA) and scheduled one and half weeks in advance. It must be conducted in English. Other prisoners get about 300 minutes a month.
• Mail: All mail must be reviewed by staff prior to delivery to the inmate or processing at the post office. This means significant delays in communications (and, in my personal experience, letters frequently not being received by inmates).
• Visits: Four hours of personal visits per month, non-contact, behind glass, and live-monitored by staff and law enforcement. It must be conducted in English. By comparison, at FCI Sandstone (where McGowan was previously housed) prisoners can receive 56 potential visiting hours per month. I have learned from attorneys and prisoners that when a CMU inmate is transferred to the visiting room, the entire facility goes on lock-down.
For many inmates in federal prisons, phone calls, mail and visits are flecks of light in the darkness. Virtually eliminating all contact with family, friends and the outside world can have a devastating psychological impact on prisoners, and raises serious concerns about basic human rights.
WHY ARE THEY THERE?
It is difficult to discern the rationale behind why some inmates are transferred to the CMU and others are not. For instance, John Walker Lindh, the “American Taliban,” is housed at the CMU in Terre Haute. He pleaded guilty to supporting the Taliban and carrying a rifle and grenades on the battlefield in Afghanistan. However, the government announced last month it is actually easing restrictions on his communication.
In the case of Andy Stepanian, he was one of six codefendants, and by the admission of prosecutors he was one of the minor players in the case. He is not accused of any violent crime or any property destruction, and had no disciplinary problems while incarcerated. Stepanian received the second-lowest sentence of the group, and his codefendants are not in CMUs.
Daniel McGowan’s notice of transfer to the CMU gives some indication of the government’s reasoning. It says that he has been identified “as a member and leader in the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and Animal Liberation Front (ALF), groups considered domestic terrorist organizations.”
But in a letter from the CMU, McGowan wrote: “It’s funny–I have like 13 codefs [codefendants] + there are 11 other eco prisoners and I end up here.”
Part of the explanation for his transfer to the CMU, it seems, is that he is a vocal, prominent activist with a large group of active supporters. For McGowan, his near celebrity status within the environmental movement, along with his continued activism, has become a liability. When I attended his sentencing hearing in Eugene, Ore., in 2006, the judge made a point of criticizing his media appearances and his website, SupportDaniel.org.
Attorneys, prisoners and their supporters speculate there may be legal calculations involved as well. The CMUs have been overwhelmingly comprised of people of color since their inception, and lawsuits have been filed alleging discrimination and racial profiling.
“Throwing a few white kids into the mix makes it appear less like an American Guantanamo,” said one attorney who did not want to be identified. “And it also sends the message to the prisoners and to the movements that supporter them. It’s meant to have a chilling effect.”
CONTINUING A TREND
The creation of secret facilities to primarily house Muslim inmates accused of non-violent charges, along with a couple animal rights and environmental activists, marks both a continuation and a radical expansion of the “War on Terrorism.”
First, it is a continuation of the “terrorism” crackdown that Arab and Muslim communities have intensely experienced since September 11th. Guantanamo Bay may be closing. But as Jeanne Theoharis beautifully wrote recently: “Guantánamo is not simply an aberration; its closure will not return America to the rule of law or to its former standing among nations. Guantánamo is a particular way of seeing the Constitution, of constructing the landscape as a murky terrain of lurking enemies where the courts become part of the bulwark against such dangers, where rights have limits and where international standards must be weighed against national security.”
Second, it is an expansion of the lesser-known “terrorism” crackdown against animal rights and environmental activists by corporations and the politicians who represent them. This coordination campaign to label activists as “terrorists” and push a political agenda—the “Green Scare”—has involved terrorism enhancement penalties, FBI agents infiltrating vegan potlucks, and new terrorism legislation like the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, and it all has proceeded unobstructed and unseen. There has been a near-complete media blackout on the Green Scare, and transferring vocal, public Green Scare prisoners to CMUs sends a clear message that the government hopes to keep it that way.
“SECOND-TIER TERRORISTS”
When the CMU at Terre Haute was created, Dan Eggen at The Washington Post described it as a facility for “second-tier terrorism inmates.”
What Eggen was clearly getting at is that the CMU overwhelmingly held Arab Muslim inmates rounded up and smeared by the government as “terrorists,” even though they had not done anything violent or “terrorist.”
But the CMUs are not “second-tier terrorism” prisons. They are political prisons. All of the defendants—Muslim, environmentalist, animal rights activist—are housed there because of their ethnicity, their religion, their ideology, or all of the above.
The mere existence of the CMUs should be yet another warning call to all Americans concerned about the future of this country. If we allow the government to continue widening the net of who is a “terrorist,” and expanding the scope of what punishments are applicable (and what rights are inapplicable) when that word comes into play, it places us all at risk. The reckless expansion of the War on Terrorism didn’t stop with Arabs and Muslims, and it won’t stop with environmentalists or animal rights activists.
The power to create and maintain secretive prison facilities for political prisoners is antithetical to a healthy democracy. If there is one thing that we should learn from history, from governments that have gone down this path, it is this: If there is a secretive prison for “second-tier” terrorists, it will only be followed by a secretive prison “third-tier terrorists,” and “fourth-tier terrorists,” until one by one, brick by brick, the legal wall separating “terrorist” from “dissident” or “undesirable” has crumbled.
Downloads:
• Terre Haute Institutional Supplement
• Daniel McGowan’s notice of transfer, and Marion Institutional Supplement
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April 15th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Brezinksi should be put in there.
heychew Reply:
April 15th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
I made this video about the sick prison slave labor industry most americans havent got a clue about . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....annel_page many american prisons are privately owned and operated today..
Social Viability Reply:
April 15th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
One of the sickest industries, without a doubt.
The prison slave labor industry is the major impetus behind tough sentencing legislation and “crackdowns” on drug abuse and crime.
The more people that go to prison, the more prisons are needed, the more money they extract for their “services.”
There’s a reason that America has the highest incarceration rate in the world.
Don’t fight the system:
Replace it
http://socialviability.com/
sin din din Reply:
April 15th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Otherwise known as FEMA Camps?
WOR Reply:
April 15th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Peace people
Yes the prison system is an absolute disgrace
How the hell can any country call itself free and run a private for profit prison system?
This is insanity
Its not like all these people are lifers, never coming out, the vast majority are coming back to communities all over. So you mix mostly non violent drug offenders with violent people and stuff them in holes for years, does this help them out? rehabilitate them?
The system is so evil you cant even start to address it
God have mercy on our prisoners, however guilty they are of varying charges
God will be the TRUE JUDGE on Judgement Day
all those responsible for the horrible mistreatment of fellow people will recieve a much greater punishment then they could imagine
True Justice is coming
Peace
http://www.soundclick.com/worldcapital
Irish Cherokee All American Reply:
April 15th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Hey brothers and sisters be carefull at the tea party tomorrow i have been hearing talk of FEMA train boxcars heading to DC. .. DO NOT! LET THEM HERD YOU ON TO THEM AND DONT LET OTHER PEOPLE GET ON THEM EITHER !! STOMP THEIR FACES IF YOU HAVE TO
More sweat during peace, less blood during war.
MOAN LABE!!!
Breakin Wind Reply:
April 15th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
well if it isnt mister cut and paste so tell me wich tea party are you attending or are you to busy to put your money were your mouth is
Dirty Deeds...done dirt cheap Reply:
April 16th, 2009 at 8:51 am
If your going to post “come and get them” in greek please spell it correctly. It’s not
MOAN LABE it is MOLAN LABE.
What Will Happen to Alex Jones When Jesus Comes Back???? Reply:
April 15th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
It’s amazing how “Christians” are against the NWO but at the same time they are “waiting” for Jesus to come back. Isn’t Jesus suppose to come back as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? That means he will come back as a Dictator, so the NWO is actually setting the stage for his return. Follow the link to see what we are talking about.
http://confava.com/video/what-…..comes-back
Andrew Jackson Reply:
April 15th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
i got no problem with a dictatorship as long as a dictator does the right thing for the people. i think jesus would make a great dictator
Red Dawn Now! Reply:
April 15th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
No moron, He said He is coming back as a sword, to judge first His own bride,(US, His believers,) then you unbelievers who have, if unwittingly…choose the ways of the wicked one which you ostensible deem freedom.
Messiah is not about being a dictater, He and the Father are about freewill, that is why He has given you the choice to choose His way, or the wicked one who inspires you to evil and as such, to follow its fallen ones to the pit that was created for them for rebgelling.
The Almighty is about freedom, rebelling against the one who wants you and yours to burn for its mistakes…mostly suffering from the vanity of wanting to be like and or greater than its and our creator!
And by the way….He ain’t now and was not then Greek, so He does not now and has never had a greek name, He is and was Hebrew, therefore, His name, being synonomous to the Father is, Yahushua,(Yah is our salvation,) jesus is just an irrelevant Greek name meaning the son of zeus, calling Him that ain’t very cordial. Learn to discern, or die ignorant, your choice!
Rebellion to tyranny is obediance to the Most High YahVeh!
SteveOZ Reply:
April 15th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Yes of course. HE is coming to judge us and damn all the non-believers to hell. Very Christian of him indeed. Perhaps said Messiah needs to “Practice what he preaches”. BTW: Why is it all or nothing? I believe in Jesus and his peaceful doings etc, However I refuse to believe GOD would be a prick. I associate Organised Religion with Organised Crime…..both exist to scam the people. The religon is true, the organisers are crooks and the book is a mis-mash of garbage and scare tactics written by mean old men some 1500 years ago. Had the Bible been written on the day, I would be more likely to believe it is real. Might just write one myself……and start a Church…..PEWK!
Red Dawn Now! Reply:
April 15th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Well, I feel sorry for you, I responded to your nonsensical disertation, but, that satanic powers that be censorihng us here scrubbed it, so… you will have to stay ignorant and die for lack of knowledge,OR, you could edify yourself, get a concordance and learn what the mighty scriptures really say from the Hebrew rather than listening to the rat traitor roman whore pope!
mysty147 Reply:
April 16th, 2009 at 11:07 am
Quote from Red Dawn Now!: dude…use spell checker, its free!
“Messiah is not about being a dictater, He and the Father are about freewill, that is why He has given you the choice to choose His way, or the wicked one who inspires you to evil and as such, to follow its fallen ones to the pit that was created for them for rebgelling.”
IF we were given “free will” by whoever you say gave it to us…why should there be consequences for exercising or given right? Why should we be “judged” for living our lives the way we chose to? This religious bullshit doesn’t hold water….it’s massive brainwashing/conditioning….anyone who doesn’t THINK for themselves is just plain STUPID….sorry, thats the truth!
jim demoret Reply:
April 16th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
the whole thing is chilling, i want addresses though, what are the addresses for these CMU’s?
April 15th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
If you are protesting make sure to protest Fox news!!!
Don’t let them play the self-righteous card!
Always remember they help manipulate the masses into war and helped the bush adminstration!!!!
And now they are claiming to be protectors of the constitution I call Bullshit!!!!!
April 15th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Secret prisons for political prisoner. To hide us away.
Apostle Reply:
April 16th, 2009 at 8:24 am
Very insightful. My thoughts exactly.
Same John Galt as the one from http://www.treeofliberty.com ?
Apostle Reply:
April 16th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Excuse me. http://www.thetreeofliberty.com
April 15th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Be careful at any protests today… Be safe but stand up for your rights…………
Hey guys.
I just wanted to invite you to check out my web site and let me know what you think. http://www.thegrandawakening.com We are trying to get all of our research categorized in one place to help people wake up. It has been very successful so far and we are averaging between 1000-1800 people a day. If 5-10% of those people start their process and start paying attention to what’s going on around them then I will be happy. We are on the link pages of Max Igan’s The Crow House-Nexus 2012 sponsored by Project Camelot-Blossom Goodchild-and many more… We are really happy that we have been received so well by our piers and we hope you like what you see…
Let me know…
Thanks.
Michael
kimpunkrock Reply:
April 15th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Like I said on another article, you are making your website look foolish by promoting that FAKE channel Blossom Goodchild. Get a fucking clue! No wonder why no one trusts the New Age anymore with idiots like you promoting it.
April 15th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Many of the animal activists, notably the SHAC 7 are in jail for running a website against Huntington Life Sciences. IN jail for running a website. Only the punk rock and hardcore music community has been trying to do something for the SHAC 7 (6 people and an organization) who once again are all in jail for RUNNING A WEBSITE?
chemtrailzombie Reply:
April 15th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
mad science and we are all the test subjects they have it covered ,i am not a chemtrailzombie by choice.
RightofRush Reply:
April 16th, 2009 at 2:43 am
Animals serve two purposes: food and fur (warm puppys and cudley cats excepted).
April 15th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
3rd Tier Prisons are when the spooks live en mass en an apartment complex, and they leave a few units open for the people they are monitoring. They can still turn the apartment unit into a torture cell, fouling the water, intercepting all communications, making visitation from outsiders extremely uncomfortable so that in effect, visitation is de facto denied. Hiding in plain site, there are units like this set up in each city, utilized by local police, enhanced by fusion centers, and all they have to do is set you up on some charge, political or otherwise, to steer you to one of these places, since nobody else will rent to you.
April 15th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
USA Gulag:
More people locked up than anywhere.
April 15th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
this is the fall of a republic or this once great democracy fall to its knees and bow down to the one world government beast
chemtrailzombie Reply:
April 15th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
with the mark of the beast,the micro chip!
SteveOZ Reply:
April 15th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
You never had a republic. It was all an illusion. Now the glasses come off and you see what was always there. Reasearch my friend. It stall set you free.
April 15th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
this sounds not good what is next the truth bloggers locked away in a secret camp . why isn’t any one getting locked up for spraying us with chemtrails. the biggest crimes these elite madmen get away with!
April 15th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Who is a cancer dude? How many times have you or ANYONE you know been attacked here in America or abroad without having first been attacked?
ALL the illegal laws we are now suffering under are a result of Eurotrash puppet masters with American puppets!
April 15th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
They’d stick their own in these private jails if it came down to making the last buck !!!
April 15th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
NWO really hates Muslims
April 15th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Islam & Muslims are a big enemy for the NWO, that’s why they are killing so much of them.
Sir Baby De Porky Reply:
April 16th, 2009 at 5:47 am
The Muslims think usury is a sin , their banks don’t loan with interest , that’s how come !!!
April 16th, 2009 at 12:57 am
Join ur state militia
April 16th, 2009 at 1:39 am
See this video and of the world http://de-construct.net/e-zine/?p=2904
April 16th, 2009 at 7:12 am
JUST A THOUGHT………………IF IT’S NOT THE WHITE BULLIES TRYING TO CONTROL THE WORLD , WHO WOULD IT BE , THE CHINESE OR INDIAN BULLIES ?
OR, SHOULD ALL RACES SIMPLY , FIGHT THE BULLIES ?
April 16th, 2009 at 9:35 am
zzzstar, Porky and wupuzz,
The NWO only puts a dent in the Muslims population, Muslims are the best at killing other Muslims. You people don’t beleive this, but there are some EXTREMELY dangerous Muslim fundamentalist.
Muslims are against USERY, ie interest, but they sure will write up a contract in which you would be better off paying a HIGH interest rate compared to their payments schedule. AS for the NWO the Saudi and Dubai money is right at the top. T
They have financed President Carter, Bush I and II , Clinton, and now President Obama and his peeps. The only difference between Bush I and II and Clinton and Obama is that President Clinton and Obama can’t get enough of that Chi-Com money in addition to the Oil Shieks and NWO bucks the Bushes sucked up!
wupzzz Reply:
April 16th, 2009 at 11:12 am
The so called “fundamentalist” kill those who go with the West.
Fundamental Muslim doesn’t even exist in Islam. It’s just Muslims and the Muslim hypocrite(naming himself a Muslim but he/she isnt)
Most Muslims hate the Saud family because they work for the interest of the West and do nothing against Israel.
Sir Baby De Porky Reply:
April 16th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
I was merely pointing out one of the good things about the Muslim world ( there are others !!! )
I’m not saying that they don’t have serious ” Existential ” problems , like stoning innocent
women because they got raped ( while the rapists get away with it !!! ) , or wantin’ to cut your throat cause you’re not muslim , or being opposed to vedic culture !!!
April 16th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
wupzzz, I tried to respond to you in an intelligent manner but Alex Jones site has a string of words with Saudi, Wahabist, Dubai, and others which will keep a post from being printed after it shows up on the thread.
As a student of the Nobel Quran, and have studied the Haydiths and Sira, I have a very good Idea what living under Sharia Law entails, especially us infidels and women.
I will attempt to write again in the future, got to go.
April 16th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Tax truther Ed Brown was imprisoned at Marion, IL for a time. I don’t know if this is the same facility mentioned in this article.
As far as I know, Ed is imprisoned in New Hampshire now for another trial.
April 16th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
get these people out of there
don’t forget them