StopAmerica.org back online! (english)
Tod Zankert 7:03pm Sun Nov 3 '02
address: InterNation, 118 E. Tarpon Ave. , Suite 200, Tarpon Springs, FL
34689 USA phone: 727-417-1407 [EMAIL PROTECTED] article#214669
America.org was taken down three months ago. Anticipating the site going
down after it became clear that James Ujaama would be indefinitely detained
by the FBI, I took it upon myself at InterNation to save what I viewed as
his most important pages, including a link to his statement published just
before his arrest.
A Webmaster myself, I was impressed by Mr. Ujaama's Website long before
he was arrested, mainly as it is professionally built - and fits the topic.
(For the sake of comparison, visit the Website built to counter
StopAmerica.Org, at www.stopamerica.com, supposedly "run by patriots who
love America.")
Further, I was impressed by Ujaama's universal statement of purpose:
We are doctors, lawyers, students, bus and taxi drivers, businessmen and
women; We are Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Catholic; black, white, red,
yellow and brown; African, American, Native American, Caribbean, Jamaican,
Oriental, Asian and European; clergy, sheikhs, rabbis, pastors;
construction workers, grocery store clerks, butlers and bakers, artists,
fashion designers, male and female, poor, rich and middle class. We are
people from all around the world, who look different, think differently,
but who want to see peace, not America's New War.
At the time, he was speaking about the war in Afghanistan, but he might as
well have been speaking about the new war with Iraq. Although no charges
have been filed since Ujaama was detained on suspicions of terrorism, the
government is widening its dragnet to many who dare to dissent. On the
other hand, many (not only government agents) have asked pertinent
questions, such as how Ujaama gained the moneys necessary to travel to
London and Pakistan, or just what sort of "target practice" was going on at
his so-called "jihad training camp" in Bly, Oregon. (Read columnist
Michelle Malkin's column).
A large problem is, that an inquisitive activist/journalist like Ujaama
may very likely have spoken to people who knew people involved in al Qaeda.
The red flag for both British and American authorities apparently went up
when it was learned that he apparently worshipped under the militant Muslum
cleric in London, Sheikh Hamza Al-Masri. Yet Al-Masri is a free man, and
who is to say that worshipping in the Mosque where Al-Masri is teaching,
makes one a terrorist? As to the charges that Ujaama was supplying al Qaeda
operatives with labtops, so far, the public has not been given evidence of
this, anymore than evidence that he was about to begin an Afghanistan
style, terrorist training camp in Bly, Oregon.
A more serious problem than legitimate questions about Ujaama's travels
and associations, is the reality of yet another American citizen arrested
and detained without due process. Not only are his rights lost, but our
right to know (i.e., a jury of his peers, allowed to view the evidence) is
forfeited because as Ashcroft would have it, "we are at war." Yet it is in
such times as war that our civil liberties are especially put to the
test. I say it is time to Stop America not only from committing more
atrocities abroad, but it is time to end the US government's uneven handed
treatment of civil liberties of which I believe Ujaama now epitomizes.
Barely three weeks before he was arrested, Ujaama wrote:
Last year, Congress passed the USA Patriot Act, which allows the FBI and
CIA unimaginable powers to wiretap phones, download computers, sneak into
homes and imprison people who engage in speaking out against their
government. These agencies have committed many crimes against foreign and
American people, abusing their authority. And we are again allowing them to
repeat history and unleash more crimes against innocent people.
Interestingly, to read his words, we learn that he is against war,
whatever its form; and so it seems particularly odious that although he has
not killed combatants or civilians, he faces life in prison as a 'terrorist.'
The best way to understand the mind of Ujaama is to visit his Website.
This is why - after a lot of thought, and quite a few people giving me
caution - that I have placed it on InterNation. What is most clear to me is
that his purported 'association' with terrorists is little next to nothing
in terms of the actual terrorism perpetrated by the "foreign policy makers"
of the United States Government. -Tod Zankert, Editor InterNation
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=214669&group=webcast
