Robed Muslim clerics kicked off U.S. flight after pilot refuses to take off with them (and they were en route to conference on Islamophobia)
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 10:47 PM on 7th May 2011
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Two Muslim religious leaders were asked to leave a commercial airliner in Memphis - and were told it was because the pilot refused to fly with them aboard.
Masudur Rahman and another imam had already been allowed to board their Delta Connection flight from Memphis, Tennessee, to Charlotte, North Carolina before they were asked to get off the plane.

onically, the two men were headed to a North American Imams conference discussing Islamophobia or fears of Islam and discrimination against American Muslims.

Racism? Masudur Rahman and Mohamed Zaghloul were removed from a flight to North Carolina because the pilot did not want to fly with them
'It's racism and bias because of our religion and appearance and because of misinformation about our religion.' Mr Rahman said. 'If they understood Islam, they wouldn't do this.'
Mr Rahman said he and Mohamed Zaghloul, of the Islamic Association of Greater Memphis, were cleared by security agents and boarded the plane for an 8.40am departure.
The aircraft pulled away from the gate, but the pilot then announced the plane must return, Mr Rahman said.
When it did, the imams were asked to go back to the boarding gate where they were told the pilot was refusing to accept them because some other passengers could be uncomfortable.

Don't deport Fatme Kamkar

OTTAWA — Fatemeh Kamkar is someone who could make a contribution to this country — the kind of immigrant the federal government always says it wants.

Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/Federal+tape+snarled+hopes+Iranian+student/5827143/story.html#ixzz1h3ZUnUFG

OTTAWA — Fatemeh Kamkar is someone who could make a contribution to this country — the kind of immigrant the federal government always says it wants.

A student at the University of Ottawa since 2005, when she arrived here from Iran, Fatemeh is a year away from her doctorate in cellular and molecular medicine. She is looking forward to a career as a medical scientist, following in the footsteps of her younger sister, Maryam, now a Canadian citizen who lives in Ottawa and works for U of O’s faculty of medicine as a researcher.

She applied for her permanent resident visa around the same time as Maryam and her brother-in-law, Bahram Zargar, both of whom arrived in Canada in 2003. The couple became permanent residents in 2007, and that opened the door to Canadian citizenship.

But unlike Maryam and Bahram, Fatemeh’s visa application got caught under the wheels of the federal bureaucracy. And in the end, the government’s snail pace in processing her application determined her fate. Unless Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney intervenes, Fatemeh will be booted out of the country after she graduates because late in the application process, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

“Her application was delayed, and it took (immigration) a long time to respond, and by the time they did, she had cancer,’ says Rezaur Rahman, her immigration lawyer. “This is a very sad story. She’s the face of a lot of (immigrants).”

Fatemeh’s cancer was discovered by her doctor in November 2009, more than four years after she applied to become a permanent resident, and more than two years after undergoing and passing her first immigration department medical. A criminal-background check was done in 2006, and though she was originally led to believe in 2007 that she would not be subject to a lengthy interview with immigration officials, she was asked to undergo the questioning in July 2009. Questions included what she thought about terrorists.



Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/Federal+tape+snarled+hopes+Iranian+student/5827143/story.html#ixzz1h3Zou6Ag

Prisoners' claims of torture shed new light on IDF interrogation methods

Prisoners' claims of torture shed new light on IDF interrogation methods
Reserve army colonel in Unit 504 provided information about interrogation methods and torture allegations against an interrogator known as Captain George.

By Tomer Zarchin


New revelations have come to light on the methods of Unit 504, the Intelligence Corps unit in charge of interrogating prisoners. The methods became public following claims of torture by Iraqi refugees questioned in Israel and by Mustafa Dirani - a captor of Israeli airman Ron Arad.

Arad went missing during a mission over Lebanon in 1986, while Dirani was affiliated with a Lebanese Shi'ite militia and was captured by Israel in 1994.

A reserve army colonel in Unit 504 who is only identified by the Hebrew letter Het provided information about the interrogation methods in general, and about torture allegations against an interrogator known as Captain George, who was at the center Dirani's complaint.

On Thursday, an associate of Captain George denied all of Het's allegations against him. The complainants were represented by attorney Zvi Rish.

Het alleged that he was present at an interrogation in which Captain George inserted a baton up a suspect's rectum. After Het spoke with Rish, Het was apparently questioned under caution by the Israel Police, meaning the police were considering criminal charges against Het.

Captain George, who has never been questioned, now works as Arab affairs adviser to the head of the Jerusalem district police. George is expected to file a lawsuit against the army, which chose not to renew a contract with him due to the complaints against him.

Deputy State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan opened the investigation against Het following a complaint against Captain George in 2007.

The investigation was conducted that year and was closed in 2008 for several reasons. Het, who was surprised to learn that he had become a criminal suspect, retracted the most important allegation of his account. Prosecution was also barred for not having been pursued in time, and friction between Het and Captain George cast doubt on the reliability of the complaint.

An associate of Captain George told Haaretz on Thursday that allegations of improper interrogation methods against Dirani or Iraqi refugees would not be successful and were an effort by senior officers who were aware of the unit's interrogation methods and approved them.

George, the source said, never used violent methods against interrogation subjects and is still employed by the state. The source added that Het retracted an accusation regarding the use of the baton.

In 1999, Het contacted Rish and allegedly told him that he was seriously ill and wished to discuss his unit's interrogation methods to "clear his conscience." Het also allegedly insisted that their conversation be taped in case efforts were underway to have him recant his account.

Het said Captain George played a role in every interrogation. "He would just come in, burst into the room, grab the suspect, shake him, get him onto the floor, punch him in the chest, yell and threaten," Het said. Het added that George would enter with a baton, hit the suspect and threaten to insert it into his rectum if he "continued to lie or not talk."

Het also recounted an interrogation in which George allegedly stripped a suspect naked and forced him to drink tea or coffee from an ashtray full of cigarette ashes and then forced shaving cream or toothpaste into the suspect's mouth. "I simply walked out," Het said.

Het said George dealt with almost every case involving an infiltrator into Israel from a neighboring country, including Iran, Iraq and Syria, but also in special circumstances such as the interrogation of Dirani. Het recalled an instance in which he inserted a baton into a suspect's rectum and asked him to sit on the baton unless the suspect was willing to speak.

Het said George's interrogation methods were never stopped because they extracted information. But, Het added, "it could be that that same simple [suspect] was clean and had no connection with what they were casting suspicions about."

Read this article in Hebrew: קצין בכיר שחשף עינויים ביחידה סודית נחקר באזהרה