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Political Prisoner Dr. Rafil Dhafir Free at Last

Written by Subject: Police State

US Political Prisoner Dr. Rafil Dhafir Free At Last

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

Targeted by the Bush/Cheney regime for what activist Katherine Hughes called his "crime of compassion," oncologist Dhafir was wrongfully convicted on 59 of 60 phony charges.

Because none were committed, invented ones included tax fraud and money laundering, along with mail and wire fraud.

Dhafir was fined over $865,000 and sentenced to 22 years imprisonment, including a number of years in so-called Communications Management Unit (CMU) confinement in Terre Haute, IN — established to mistreat Muslims for praying to the wrong God.

In an article titled "Crime of Compassion," Hughes explained that Iraqi national Dhafir "lived in the US since 1974 and has been an American citizen for almost 30 years" at the time of his unlawful 2003 arrest.

In the aftermath of 1991 US aggression against Iraq, the so-called Gulf War, Dhafir founded the Help the Needy charity to send food and medicines to suffering Iraqi civilians under genocidal sanctions, spending over a million dollars of his own money to help along with donations from others.

Instead of honoring his humanitarian efforts, the Bush/Cheney regime called him a terrorist, a false accusation not included in charges against him.

Hughes sat through Dhafir's entire trial. Community activist/Peace Council Advisory Committee member Magda Bayoumi was also there through the proceedings, saying the following:

Being in the courtroom "opened my eyes in many ways. It showed me how the government can manipulate and twist the truth." 

"It also showed me how I could be searched and watched anytime without even knowing it." 

"The government taped Dr. Dhafir's private conversations, and even attempted to plant cameras in his house." 

"They tapped his phone, intercepted his email and faxes, and even searched his trash."

"I also got the sense that the prosecutors and the judge were bit players, while the real decision makers were back in Washington DC."

All of the above was done was to manufacture fake evidence to assure Dhafir's conviction and longterm imprisonment.

Ahead of his trial, Dhafir was denied bail four times despite no credible evidence of guilt and no flight risk — held behind bars for 19 months before trial, his defense impeded, his license to practice medicine lost.

Redoubtable anti-war/Voices for Creative Nonviolence activist, three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Kathy Kelly earlier said the following about Bush/Cheney's aggression against Iraq:

"I try to point out to the mainstream journalists that they (suppressed) the horrors the United States has committed" in Iraq."

"(W)hat the US public doesn't understand and will possibly never comprehend is that the greatest violations of human rights in Iraq since the (1991) Gulf War have happened as a result of US-led UN economic sanctions against (the) Iraq(i) people."

"(T)hree senior UN officials living and working in Iraq resigned because they considered the sanctions to be a 'genocidal' policy."

Since January 1991 alone, millions of Iraqi civilians perished, UN oil for food head Denis Halliday, saying:

He was "instructed to implement a policy that satisfies the definition of genocide: a deliberate policy that has effectively killed well over one million individuals, children and adults," including 5,000 Iraqi children under age-5 monthly.

Establishment media ignore the Iraqi genocide, Bush I, the Clinton co-presidency, and Bush/Cheney responsible for one of history's greatest crimes.

The so-called oil for food program was an instrument for causing mass human suffering and depopulation — the US fully responsible for what happened.

Activist Rafil Dhafir's "crime" was  wanting to relieve Iraqi suffering as best he could.

Arrested in February 2003, wrongfully convicted in October 2005, sentenced to 22 years in prison for his "crime of compassion," he was freed at last on May 15 after over 17 years behind bars in the US gulag prison system.

Not pardoned or paroled by the Trump regime, he was given a compassionate release to return to his home near Syracuse, NY.

On her website dhafirtrial.net, Hughes explained that he's "very happy to be home and thanks everyone for their support."

Age-71, his health greatly deteriorated in prison confinement, affected by diabetes and other health issues.

Like countless others over many generations in the self-styled "land of the free and home of the brave," Dhafir's injustice, a man of supreme compassion for others in need, bears testimony to the scourge of US imperialism, its war OF terror on humanity — its rage to smash nations to control them, their resources, and populations, no matter the human cost.

Throughout new millennium years and earlier, it's been the wrong time to be Muslim in America.

In his book titled "Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People," Jack Shaheen explained how they've been defamed and vilified throughout decades of cinematic history.

From silent films to current ones, prejudicial attitudes are encouraged, while reinforcing so-called notions of Western values, high-mindedness, and moral superiority — ideals that don't exist. 

Post-9/11, Muslims were vilified as dangerous gun-toting terrorists, establishment media operating as press agents for state-sponsored propaganda.

The US needs enemies to pursue its imperial agenda. Since none existed post-WW II, they've been invented — notably the mythical red menace and nonexistent homeland Arab Muslim terrorism.

Like countless others, including many thousands in US global gulag confinement today, Dhafir was victimized by a nation state that's hellbent to achieve unchallenged global dominance by brute force.

Before sentencing in 2005, he said the following:

"Why are we still staying away from the real issue? The real issue is the thousands and thousands of people who died in Iraq…the children in Iraq" who perished.

"That's what you and I should be talking about. That's what you and I should be weeping about… My anger, if there is any, is for those Iraqi children and those cancer patients who did not need to suffer."

Out of sight and mind, millions of people suffer horrifically from the scourge of US aggression, atrocities, and other hostile actions.

From its genocidal slaughter of Native Americans to its endless war on humanity at home and abroad today, that's what self-styled "America the beautiful" is all about.

A Final Comment

The Koran reflects what the true spirit of what Islam is all about.

As the primary source of Muslim faith and practice, it teaches love, not hate; peace, not violence; charity, not selfishness; and tolerance, not terrorism.

Its five pillars include profession of faith, prayer five times daily, fasting during Ramadan, charity, and performing the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime for those able to afford it. 

Instead of explaining the above, the US falsely reinvented Islam as a national security threat to unjustifiably justify its endless wars on humanity that rage with no prospect for world peace in our time.

VISIT MY WEBSITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

My two Wall Street books are timely reading:

"How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion, and Class War"

https://www.claritypress.com/product/how-wall-street-fleeces-america/

"Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity"

https://www.claritypress.com/product/banker-occupation-waging-financial-war-on-humanity/

www.universityofreason.com/a/29887/KWADzukm