[Ppnews] Pack the Courtroom July 28 for Sheikh Mohamad Al-Moayad and Mohamed Zayad

[PPnews at freedomarchives.org]

Urgent Call to Supporters of Justice:

POLITICAL PRISONERS SHEIKH MOHAMMED AL-MOAYAD AND MOHAMED ZAYAD WILL
BE SENTENCED THURSDAY, JULY 28. THEY NEED TO KNOW WE ARE WITH THEM!
THE STATE NEEDS TO KNOW IT TOO!

BE IN JUDGE STERLING JOHNSON'S COURTROOM
EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK FEDERAL COURT 4TH FLOOR
225 CADMAN PLAZA IN BROOKLYN
9 A.M. THURSDAY, JULY 28.
WEAR A KEFFIYEH IF YOU HAVE ONE.



Background on the case of Sheikh Mohamad Al-Moayad and Mohamad Zayad


On March 10, 2005, Sheikh Mohamad Al-Moayad and Mohamad Zayad were 
convicted on charges of providing "material support" to Hamas, in one of 
the more egregious frame-up cases of the U.S. government's so-called "war 
on terror." Far from being a prosecution aimed at safeguarding the United 
States, the government sought out two Yemeni citizens, well-known for their 
numerous charitable endeavors, and brought them to the U.S. for the sole 
purpose of prosecuting them for their entirely legal activities in Yemen, 
at the sole instigation of a notoriously unreliable informant who has 
repeatedly pressured the FBI itself for more money for his services. During 
the trial of these men, the government attempted to block the entry of a 
Palestinian-born defense attorney into the case, alleging that her 
"foreign-born" status posed an "increased risk." The prejudice and racism 
of the prosecution was revealed on numerous occasions, including one 
prosecutor's reference to a Qu'ranic verse as the "terrorist verse." This 
case is a microcosm of the reality of the "war on terror" inside the U.S., 
what has proven to be a "war of terror" against Arabs and Muslims.

Please read the summary of the case below to learn about the background, 
and to find out what you can do to support these victims of persecution.

Sheikh Moayad: Father of the Orphans

Sheikh Mohamad Al-Moayad's love for the oppressed and indigent was born in 
his childhood years. Sheikh Moayad was born in May of 1948 to a peasant 
family in Safya, a suburb of Sanaa, Yemen, the son of a village teacher who 
was paid by the village parents with only meager amounts of food or 
personal effects. He soon shared in his father's tradition of service to 
the community; in the 1970s he built the first dam in Sanaa, to help 
distribute water more effectively.

The Sheikh moved to Madinat Al Asbahi, Yemen, in the early 1980s and, after 
noticing the town lacked a mosque, he opened his home to the community for 
worship and prayer. He soon successfully petitioned the Yemeni government 
to provide land so he could build a house of worship, and began by digging 
and developing a basement prayer room that would later find use as a 
community shelter during the Yemeni Civil War. The longer he stayed in 
Madinat Al Asbahi, the more he saw the need for community development in 
many areas, and expanded his religious endeavors and community service to 
fulfill those needs. He expanded his mosque to build a women's section, and 
later turned his basement room into a small elementary school.

By the early 1990s, Sheikh Moayad's reputation for honesty, charity and 
grassroots activism was widespread. He founded a charity operation, the Al 
Ihsan Charitable Organization, which became something akin to a welfare 
system for the people of the area, and which was widely supported by the 
government and many other charitable donors. He opened a bakery which fed 
eight hundred families per day and, to be sure that none suffered out of 
shame or humility, he asked community men to make note of which families 
looked indigent and provided for them without request. Knowing bread, no 
matter how fortified, could not alone sustain life, he opened a charitable 
market where the indigent paid wholesale prices for food and provided a 
steady water supply for those who could not otherwise afford water from the 
well he had dug for the Ihsan Mosque.

The Sheikh then began to focus his energy on education hoping that it would 
provide a lasting means to eradicate the poverty in the community. He 
expanded his school until it accommodated students from kindergarten 
through high school, as well as established a girls' school and personally 
intervened in cases where families withheld their daughters from schooling. 
He knew the value of skill building and developed specialized trade 
schools. The Sheikh's initiatives were almost endless and addressed all 
aspects of daily life, individual and communal - from the orphan fund 
project, blanket distribution, and full meal provisions during the month of 
Ramadan, to coordination of group weddings for indigent groomsmen, to 
holistic healing, computer training courses and a free medical clinic.

Sheikh Moayad is father to seven children, the youngest of whom is now 16. 
However, he eventually came to be known as the 'Father of the Orphans' 
throughout the Sanaa area. Because of his widely known reputation for 
charity, he was eventually appointed as the honorary supervisor of the Al 
Aqsa Foundation. But it was long before this appointment that he was an 
avid supporter of the Palestinian struggle for liberation and return. He 
visited the refugee camps of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan and resolved that 
true justice could not be attained without full implementation of the Right 
of Return. Through the Al Aqsa Foundation, Sheikh Moayad helped raise money 
for Palestinians in refugee camps and those in the most devastated areas of 
Palestine, often in the form of tangible supplies, such as schoolbooks and 
book bags, nutritional supplies and clothes.

Upon his arrest for charges based upon his well-known and widely respected 
charity work, the whole of Yemen was aroused to action, especially the 
people of Sanaa and Madinat Al Asbahi. Thousands of men and women took to 
the streets over a two year period in numerous demonstrations demanding the 
release of the Sheikh and his assistant, Mohamad Zayed. The Yemeni 
President, Ali Abdallah Saleh, made clear that the Sheikh was never 
suspected of having links to Al Qaeda, and further noted that if the Sheikh 
had ever supported Hamas, it was legal for him to do so, as in Yemen all 
support the Palestinian struggle on Palestinian terms. In vain, the Yemeni 
government made several public demands for the return of Sheikh Moayad and 
Mohamad Zayed.

Background of the Case:

Sheikh Mohamad Al-Moayad and Mohamad Zayed were arrested in Germany on 
January 10, 2003 after being set up by the U.S. Federal Bureau of 
Investigation. One of the FBI's Confidential Informants, Mohamad Al Ansi, a 
known con man with a long history of theft, fraud, burglary and financial 
problems, who later set himself on fire in front of the White House in 
November 2004 in an attempt to garner more money from the FBI, initiated 
the operation against Sheikh Moayad and Mohamad Zayad. Al Ansi had a long 
history of defrauding Islamic organizations and charities in the eastern 
region, stealing their property, running up phone bills, using public and 
private services of individuals and masajid for his and his family's 
luxury, before, after and during his 'employment' by the FBI. Al Ansi, a 
then out-of-status immigrant, saw the danger of deportation and found an 
escape hatch in the horrors of 9-11, contacting a novice FBI agent, one who 
had just joined the Terrorism Task Force and was eager to find 'targets' in 
his patriotic way.

Al Ansi told the FBI of a Sheikh who was famous in Yemen, and claimed that 
this Sheikh was supporting Al Qaeda and mujahidin in various parts of the 
Muslim World; at one point Al Ansi even included North Korea as one of the 
Sheikh's benefactors, clearly taking his cues from the Bush 
Administration's reports and, likely, from the needs of the FBI Agents. 
Within approximately one month of their first meeting, the FBI sent Al Ansi 
to Yemen to begin his investigation. It should also be noted that neither 
the FBI nor the Yemeni government, which had well-publicized interactions 
with Sheikh Moayad, had ever suspected Sheikh Moayad or his charity of 
anything prior to having met Mohamad Al Ansi, even though both the U.S. and 
Yemeni governments were actively waging the "war on terror," publicly 
pursuing any challenge to U.S./Israeli interests in Yemen.

During the year that followed, Al Ansi and the FBI agents based in Yemen 
were able to produce only four pieces of "evidence:" three receipts from 
donations sent to Palestinian charities which were not designated as 
Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), and one thirty-minute video shot 
from a five-day group wedding in Yemen, at which the Hamas representative 
to Yemen spoke. According to the FBI, this scanty "evidence" was sufficient 
to charge Sheikh Moayad and Mohamad Zayad with providing material support 
to Al Qaeda. Essentially, the FBI's logic must have flowed in one of two 
ways: that there is no differentiation between support for Palestinian 
charitable organizations and support for Al Qaeda, as both stand in the way 
of U.S. interests in the Arab world; or, that the use of "Al Qaeda" was 
merely a cover for the FBI's targeting of individuals and organizations who 
support Palestinian charitable organizations or have affiliations with 
Hamas, who must be targeted in order to enforce the adoption of the U.S.'s 
position on Palestine throughout the Arab world and suppress Arab support 
of the Palestinian struggle.

This led to a very expensive trap in Germany. Another Agent became 
involved, Agent "Sharif", who was told to pose as a former Black Panther 
who supports "Jihadist causes," such as, in the words of as FBI Agent BM, 
supporting the 'civil rights movement.'

At the meeting arranged in Germany by the FBI, Agent "Sharif" said that he 
has money and has heard of the Sheikh's establishment and wants to support 
him. Al Ansi relayed this information to the "targets," Sheikh Moayad and 
Mohamad Zayad, and told them also to "play along" with "Sharif," who he 
described as "a little crazy." All the while, Al Ansi repeatedly 
mistranslated to both Agent "Sharif' and Sheikh Moayad and Zayad, as he was 
the only linguistic link between the parties. As "Sharif" reads the Qu'ran, 
stating that it is the basis of their meeting, Sheikh Moayad and Zayad 
smile and agree, thinking he is a holy man who wants to help them support 
their charity work. When it becomes clear that "Sharif" wants them to 
direct the funds to activities other than the charitable center, Moayad and 
Zayad expressed their disapproval, to which "Sharif" responded, 'I know 
what you're here for and I will give you what you want if you give me what 
I want.' Sheikh Moayad and Zayad were intimidated and clearly expressed 
their fear and apprehension, and from the scant recordings that exist of 
this meeting, it is evident that they are plotting to avoid following Agent 
"Sharif's" orders and are planning to use the money to build their 
charitable center. And although the only incriminating conversations they 
had were with Agent "Sharif," through the translation of Al Ansi, Moayad 
and Zayad were arrested in Germany by masked officers three days after 
their arrival in the country.

They were held in Germany for approximately six months and deported to the 
United States in November 2003. Attorney General John Ashcroft 
hyperbolically announced the arrest, claiming that Moayad was the "big 
fish" they had been looking for, conveniently just in time for the upcoming 
U.S. elections. As the evidence against Sheikh Moayad and Zayad was 
revealed, the lie was put to Ashcroft's claims, as he was only able to show 
that Moayad supported Palestinians in Palestine and surrounding Palestinian 
refugee camps in Arab countries, and that Moayad knew of Hamas figures in 
the Arab World, both legal acts throughout the Arab World, Africa and some 
European states. Perhaps, however, he did meet his real goal, not of 
"combating terrorism," but of suppressing Arab advocacy and support for 
Palestine.

What Went Wrong: Elections, Israel, World Policing and Uncontrolled Power

The Defense Attorneys: Government Paid and Delayed

Sheikh Moayad filed complaints against his attorney for a year and a half, 
yet the judge did nothing to address his complaints. Moayad made clear that 
his then-assigned counsel was interested in nothing but cutting a deal with 
the FBI, having Moayad become a government informant, and convincing Moayad 
to accept money and a plea bargain in exchange for his right to be judged 
by the law of his own land -Yemen. When independent counsel became 
involved, it was only weeks before trial. None of the tapes in Germany had 
been transcribed and no investigative work had been initiated. The new 
attorneys begged for time to prepare, to no avail. Furthermore, a 
Palestinian-born attorney was kept from admission to the case and court for 
approximately one month after the new attorneys appeared because as the 
government said, "as a foreign-born attorney, she posed an increased risk 
of passing messages from the Sheikh." She was also administratively 
prevented from meeting with the Sheikh outside of the courtroom for several 
weeks after she was finally admitted, which the government claimed was a 
mere administrative faux pas. Despite the efforts of the new, independent 
legal team, the effects of a year of almost no trial preparation were 
devastating. The court-appointed attorney was not relieved and was allowed 
to make strategic decisions, the new counsel worked tirelessly but 
fearfully, and the Palestinian attorney was censored.

The Extradition: FBI lies and racism

In his affidavit, FBI Agent "RF" swore that he had evidence that Al Moayad 
sent millions to Al Qaeda and Hamas. The agent was never held accountable 
for these allegations, which were proven false at trial. In fact, the 
government only showed that little more than $30,000 was sent to 
Palestinian organizations, none of which were designated as FTO's. In fact, 
one of the receipts explicitly thanked the Al Aqsa Foundation for its 
donation of school bags. The government failed to show that any money had 
ever gone to Al Qaeda, and the only connection they showed between Sheikh 
Moayad's charitable work and the U.S. were phone calls and a donation from 
a Sheikh in New York to Sheikh Moayad, amounting to less than two thousand 
dollars over a period of several years. The only allegation the government 
confirmed was that Al Moayad had indeed fundraised for Palestinian charities.

The allegation that these charities may be connected to Hamas, although 
untrue, would not suffice for extradition to the U.S., as Hamas' charitable 
wing is still lawful in Germany and has a public presence there. The 
foundation for the extradition was in fact non-existent. Furthermore, the 
FBI translator-agents repeatedly mistranslated the Arabic language. One 
translator-agent said the word "jihad" can only mean "holy war against 
non-Muslims" and translated the word "students" as "female slaves" at one 
point. The FBI used these dubious translations to pursue extradition from 
Germany. Furthermore, the FBI's practices were not uncommon to their German 
equivalent, the BKA. In fact, one of the German-Arabic translators used had 
previously testified to fabricating conversations, or as he said, 
"re-constructing" conversations, in a previous case, yet he continues to 
work for the BKA.

The Trial of Terror: Prejudice, Poor Goliath and No Jurisdiction

The prosecution made it clear that this trial was indeed political, and 
furthermore, was indeed about Palestine. Various events in Palestine were 
brought into the trial on the basis of dubious and tenuous connections to 
the actual facts of the case. One prosecutor actually cried in court as she 
recounted a 2001 bus bombing in Tel Aviv. The prosecution was able to bring 
in such issues with no connection to the defendants, because the Hamas 
representative to Yemen who was present at the group wedding, which was 
also attended by numerous Yemeni government officials, mentioned it right 
before he read poetry at the group wedding. Several days later, she issued 
headphones to pre-pubescent Yeshiva children who lined the courtroom in 
what was a clearly orchestrated sympathy ploy with no connection to Sheikh 
Moayad or Mohamad Zayad. This prosecutor also opened the Qu'ran and forced 
the timid Muslim court interpreters to translate what she called the 
"terrorist verse." It is also known as Surat Al-Bakarah and is known for 
teaching readers how to avoid conflict.

The FBI: Desperate and Powerful Witness Tampering & Intimidation:

Aside from limiting the participation of the Palestinian attorney, the 
Government repeatedly intimidated witnesses and prevented witnesses for the 
defense from appearing. Two of Zayed's witnesses were scared out of 
travelling after their first visas were given and subsequently revoked, and 
the two who were allowed into the US were harassed, their evidence and 
their belongings violated, and allowed no privacy, even when meeting with 
defense attorneys. The witnesses came with pictures of Moayad's charitable 
institutions, half of which were destroyed at the airport where FBI agents 
met and interrogated the Yemeni witnesses. On their return trip, one of the 
witnesses' suitcases disappeared. During their stay, they were in the full 
custody of the FBI, held in a hotel room that was tapped, and prohibited 
from making from outgoing phone calls - even to their families. They were 
not allowed to leave the hotel or have any visitors, and were only allowed 
to meet and prepare with the attorneys in those same rooms the FBI was 
monitoring.

Moayad's witnesses were never allowed into the US at all, and the Court 
refused to adjourn until the witnesses were allowed visas; perhaps the 
Court knew that the visas would never be given. The government complained 
repeatedly about its court expenses at trial, but managed to bring to the 
U.S. six German witnesses who testified to two things: that the defendants 
were followed and their hotel rooms tapped. They were placed in hotels, 
allowed to travel freely, make unmonitored phone calls and had no problems 
getting visas.

Another defense witness who had possession of copies of the surveillance 
tapes and the equipment necessary to identify manipulated footage was 
visited by the FBI at his home late Sunday evening two days before he was 
to testify. He was interrogated about his testimony and personal history, 
and was asked about the confidential conversations he had with the defense 
attorneys. Two weeks after the trial ended, his home and office were burned 
down under mysterious circumstances.

The Tapes: Inaudible Arabic

The most crucial piece of evidence in the case was the surveillance 
footage. According to the plethora of German witnesses, the recordings were 
complete, contained no missing segments, and were clear. The German 
technicians found no errors in the tapes until after the tapes were in the 
custody of American intelligence, the FBI. According to the German 
technicians, it was the FBI who alerted them to the "problem areas" which 
German technicians claimed to have attempted to correct. Portions of 
seemingly incriminating conversations were loud and clear but conversations 
where Sheikh Moayad and Mohamad Zayed plot to leave Germany and the set-up 
are full of gaps which make the conversation almost completely inaudible. 
No one was able to provide a consistent explanation as to the reason for 
these gaps. In fact, conversations that lasted for close to a minute 
contained only a few decipherable words. This was representative of the 
footage taken outside the presence of the government agents; that is, the 
footage that is necessary to establishing culpability. Furthermore, 
although the government claimed over and over again that a code was 
established for communication, not a single tape before, during or after 
the sting in Germany contained any conversation in code. What the 
government trumpeted as evidence of a code was a clip where Sheikh Moayad 
reads to Mohamad Zayed from a millenia-old book as they sat hostage in 
their hotel rooms in Germany. Ultimately, the jury was convinced of the 
allegations despite the unreliability of the sole witness. This witness, 
according to his own testimony, failed to explain what the alleged codes 
meant and never reported such a code to the FBI agents during the 
"investigation." His history is that of a career liar and defrauder who, at 
one point, threatened to blow up a woman's business. Furthermore, according 
to the government, conversations outside the rooms were recorded via 
microphones on Al Ansi's body and in the car they used, yet the government 
refused to submit those recordings or the recordings of the conversations 
in the undercover agent's rooms. In addition, the government translators 
mistranslated Arabic conversations repeatedly, gave everyday terms 
incriminating meanings, and selected snippets of conversation out of their 
contexts to emphasize and dilute the real meanings conveyed in the entirety 
of conversations. When the defense attempted to have an expert witness 
testify as to the unreliability of the government's transcripts, the 
government objected and was sustained, leaving the jury to make the most of 
transcripts which were incomplete, artfully mis-tailored, and highly 
misleading. This was all the more damaging as the government only submitted 
approximately eight hours of the three-day surveillance and the defense 
alas was not allowed an adjournment to prepare transcripts of the few 
remaining portions that the government did turn over.

Throughout the case, the behavior of the U.S. government has been nothing 
short of criminal. Today, Sheikh Moayad and Mohamad Zayad are imprisoned in 
the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, awaiting 
sentencing after their conviction for providing material support to Hamas, 
despite acquittal on charges of providing material support to Al Qaeda. 
They are held in solitary confinement without visitors, while all their 
phone calls, even to their attorneys are recorded, and without a way to 
express their needs and demands as they can't even speak English. Yemeni 
citizens with scant interaction with the U.S., they were nonetheless tried 
under U.S. laws in a courtroom tainted by a poisonous racism and 
anti-Muslim rhetoric. Sheikh Mohamad al-Moayad and Mohamad Zayed join many 
other Arabs and Muslims persecuted under the guise of the "war on terror" 
amid the criminalization of Arab political activity and Muslim charitable 
work. However, the stories of these prisoners of conscience remain widely 
unknown in the United States - allowing the government ever more free reign 
in its campaigns of persecution.

Your support is urgently needed. Please sign on to and send the 
<http://www.al-awdany.org/politicalprisoners/prisonercampaignletters.html>letters 
provided to the judge on the case, the warden and to the Yemeni government. 
Our voices must be heard to support Arab and Palestinian political 
prisoners in the United States, lest the voices and the work of many 
"fathers of the orphans" be lost in U.S. prisons.


The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
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