BS: Free Benamar Benatta

Subject: BS: Free Benamar Benatta
From: Bobert
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 10:10 PM

Seems that John Ashcroft, and others, have been taking 9/11 out on a guy who, they now admit kbnew nothing about it, but also if deprted back to Algeria, will be executed...

Yep, Benamar Benatta, trained as a pil9ot in Algeria and being trained in the US when 9/11 occured, has been detaoined ever since. No charges. Very little leagl help. The Justice Department continues to bore down on him as if he were Osoma but hasn't come up with one thread of evidence. A Federal majistrate, Judge H, Kenneth Schroeder has thrown up his hands in disgust at John Ashcrofts folks for continuint to imprison Mr. Benatta yet, in spite of his innocence, he is still imprisioned today... Why?....

The man tried to get asylum in Canada before 9/11 because he knew if he was returned to Algeria he would be killed...

Yet, here he sits in John Ashcroft's jails... He has spent most of this time in solidary confinment. Hre has been abused by guards. He has be sleep deprived for months. He has been cut off from the world for months... He has been made to sleep in a cell with lights on all day and night... He has been awakened every half an hour. He has ben called a terrorist and more....

But, hey, like it or not, he ain't a terrorist. It's been proven... He a good guy... But yet.... the beat goes on for Benamar Benatta..

Welcome to John Ashcroft's America....

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Free Benamar Benatta
From: Teribus
Date: 01 Dec 03 - 06:12 AM

POLICE FINALLY RELEASE MAN ARRESTED ONE DAY AFTER SEPT. 11TH ATTACKS; CRITICS CITE VIOLATION OF HUMAN AND LEGAL RIGHTS--AP/KNM--10--11-03:

BUFFALO, N.Y.---Federal authorities have dropped their criminal prosecution of an Algerian man who has been held since a day after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

U.S. Attorney Michael Battle said Friday he dropped two criminal charges against Benamar Benatta, 28, a former technician with the Algerian air force who was arrested by Canadian authorities at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls on Sept. 5, 2001. Magistrate Judge Kenneth Schroeder Jr. said last month the government failed to observe the Speedy Trial Act, and criticized officials for keeping Benatta in a high-security Brooklyn jail for terrorism suspects even after the FBI cleared him of involvement with terrorist activities.

In November 2001, FBI agents concluded that Benatta had no ties to terrorism, but authorities continued to hold him in the Brooklyn facility for another five months. He was transferred to the federal detention center in Batavia in April 2002, where he is still being held. Benatta faces noncriminal immigration charges that could result in deportation.

The U.S. Justice Department's inspector general in June issued a report citing mistreatment of some of the hundreds of foreigners detained after the 2001 terror attacks. Last month Justice Department inspectors said the government was not moving quickly enough to address the problems. Battle said he made his decision after examining Schroeder's ruling and the facts surrounding Benatta's case.

``After consideration of (Schroeder's) ruling, we've decided the appropriate action is to drop the charges,'' Battle told The Buffalo News. Benatta and other members of the Algerian air force had participated in an aviation training program in the United States. After the training ended, Benatta overstayed his visa and was arrested when he tried to go to Canada to request political asylum.

The two felony charges filed against Benatta said he was carrying two pieces of false identification when he was arrested by Canadian customs officers. If convicted of those two charges, court officials said, he probably would have faced, at most, a few months in prison.

``Dropping the charges against this man is long overdue,'' said John A. Curr III, assistant regional director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. ``It shouldn't have taken more than two years. It shouldn't take a ruling from a federal magistrate to make our government do the right thing.''

Subject: RE: BS: Free Benamar Benatta
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 01 Dec 03 - 10:50 AM

Perhaps it's a case of "Out of the frying pan into the fire" if he's likely to be deported back to Algeria. He might have preferred to stay in prison.

Subject: RE: BS: Free Benamar Benatta
From: Bobert
Date: 01 Dec 03 - 01:15 PM

Yo T:

Saturday's Washington Post reported in a front page story that Benatta is still being detained ("A Prisoner of Panic After 9/11", Novemeber 29th) at the Batavis Detention Center in Batavia, N.Y....

bOBERT