-----Original Message-----
From: Carl Webb [mailto: webbcarl@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, October 08, 2001 12:30 AM
To: Al-Awda-News
Subject: [AL-AWDA-News] More on Detained Arab American Editor

October 7, 2001

Dear Activists, Colleagues:

I hope all is well. My name is Ramzy Baroud, I am a
Palestinian-American journalist and the Managing
Editor of Middle East News Online. I have been
actively writing about the abuses and misconduct of
the FBI and the INS directed at Palestinians, Arabs
and Muslims in the United States for years. However, I
never thought that such abuse will hit so close to
home.

The President of our company (Middle East News
Service) Mr. Fadi Chahine was detained by the FBI on
Oct 1 and now faces deportation by the INS. His
detention and possible deportation is directly linked
to the wave of hasty reaction to the Sep. 11 attacks.
Although we condemn the terrorist attacks on New York
and Washington, we don’t see why innocent people
should pay the price for it.

I need your help to free our colleague, Fadi, a
well-known human rights activists and a courageous
journalist in North Carolina.

We need you to contact your congressmen or
congresswomen to urge them to sponsor a private bill,
that would halt the deportation procedure. Fadi is
married with two children and have been living in the
US as a permanent residents for the last 20 years.

Here are a list of names that we are trying to focus
on for they are known to be more sympathetic toward
such cases:

Congressman Bob Etheridge (Dan Cunningham)
Congressman David Price (Susan Mers)
Congressman Traficant of Ohio (John Culbertson)
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (Christina
Guillarikas) (the originator of the private bill in
hopes that we can convince her to take it up again).

(Names listed in ( ) are names of congressmen or
congresswomen aides.

Please read the message below from his American wife
and do all that you can do to help.

Thank you and many thanks in advance for taking the
time.

Ramzy Baroud
Managing Editor of Middle East News Online


A message from Priscilla Chahine:

"In January of this year my husband, Fadi Chahine,
lost his last appeal of deportation for the
non-violent offense he committed nearly 10 years ago
and already paid his debt to society. But the 1996
Immigration Laws make him deportable even after
serving his time without any judicial review that
could take into consideration things like his American
wife and children, the fact that he owns his own
business and employees others and all the community
service he has performed since his release 3 years ago
during which time he has not had any trouble with the
law.

After going to Washington D.C. while I was 6 months
pregnant and pleading for some help to prevent his
deportation, I received that help in the form of a
private bill sponsored by Congresswoman Sheila Jackson
Lee of Texas. Everything was moving along fine for the
past 8 months while we gathered the necessary support
for the bill prior to introducing it and in fact I was
told that just after Congress came back into session
after the August break the bill was going to be
introduced.

Then 1 week after the terrorist attack I received the
call from her office telling me they no longer wanted
to support his bill.

As you can imagine, that left my husband vulnerable
and sure enough on Monday, Sept. 24 the FBI picked up
my husband for questioning as they are doing to a lot
of Arab Muslims all across the United States,
especially those with a past record. They asked him a
few questions to which he did not have any information
in regards to the terrorist attack since he had
absolutely nothing to do with it.

They did not charge him but turned him over to the
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) who is
now detaining him until they can deport him.

There are several ways which we are exploring at this
time to have my husband freed. However, I need your
help with one of them: Please help us find another
Congressman/Senator to take over the private bill on
my husband's behalf.

Anyone in Congress can sponsor a private bill for
anyone in the U.S. If you can take a few moments and
call the Congressmen listed above with your support of
my husband to see if they would be willing to take
over and sponsor the private bill from Congresswoman
Lee's office then all it would take is one phone call
to INS from a Congressional office to release my
husband and prevent his deportation until a final
decision is made on the private bill.

We realize that a private bill probably won't pass
right now but if we could at least get it introduced
it could sit in sub-committee until this Congressional
session ends which would give me more time to gather a
ton of support for it or re-open his legal case.

I am certain that even if your Congressman/Senator
seems interested he/she will need more information so
please refer him/her to Christina Guillarakis of
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee's office where he/she
can access a copy of the private bill and all the
background information on my husband. Christina can be
reached at 202-225-4195 or 202-226-1525.

Thank you in advance for all of your help in this most
important matter. I thank you, my husband thanks you
and my children thank you for taking the time to help
my family stay together and put an end to the
senseless suffering of a good, decent, religious,
loving family man who is a shining example of a person
who has been rehabilitated."

God bless each and every one of you.

Priscilla Chahine
Regional Director: Citizens & Immigrants for Equal
Justice
 ciejnc@hotmail.com
(919)575-0007