Jihad Jane: A Special Trip To Visit an Islamic Woman in Prison who Threatened Cartoonists of Prophet Muhammad, Pbuh.
On Saturday, May 7, 2016 I traveled to Tallahassee, Florida's Federal Correctional Institution to visit Colleen "Fatima" LaRose, also known as "Jihad Jane." She was sentenced to ten years for conspiracy to commit murder overseas, for her role in a 2009 failed plot to kill Lars Vilks, the Swedish cartoonist who mocked the Prophet Mohammad (pbuh). She spent four years in solitary confinement but now resides in general population in a unit containing 60 women.
Fatima was very surprised to see me, as she has not been receiving any mail for two months, ever since I sent her the article I wrote about her for New Trend. Oddly enough, the prison counselor never received my visitor request form in the mail either. Thankfully, he was very kind and expedited the approval process after I overnighted him a second form. Fatima has not received a visitor in years. She greeted me warmly with a long, tight embrace. The 52 year old convert to Islam wore a khaki prison suit with a white hijab. She was in good spirits and seems to be well-liked by the guards and the co-prisoners. The guard had joked to her laughingly, "Are you gonna behead me?" She calls the other women, most of whom are much younger than herself, "my babies." "I never had children before I came to prison," she laughs.
We shared a delightful 1 ½ hour visit eating cookies and drinking soda from the vending machine in a visiting room full of families sitting at round tables. There were also tables outside in the courtyard, but Fatima preferred to stay in the air conditioning. She had me cracking up, telling me a lot of funny stories about life in prison. For example, she likes to sneak food from the kitchen. One time she had a bra full of eggs and another inmate came up to her and gave her a big hug! She was later caught bringing a tomato to a cellmate, and lost her kitchen job. She is now relegated to the dishroom but occasionally sneaks into the kitchen to help her friends cook.
She spoke of her admiration for Br. Osama bin Laden. "You can see from his face that there is a light about him." She does not believe the news about Osama being killed by US forces and dumped into the sea. She hopes that he is still alive somewhere. I mentioned to her that he is likely to have died from kidney failure. Regarding 9/11, she said, "Osama explained to the Jews and them that the Muslims don't want your western ways and you need to get your troops out of our lands. He told them again and again. They were forewarned." She listens to the news and continues to be very interested in ongoing developments such as ISIS.
"I want to support them," she said, "But I think they've gone too far, burning that guy alive." I explained to her what I had learned from New Trend, that the man was a fighter pilot whose plane had gone down after he had firebombed people. "Oh, I never knew that!" she exclaimed. "In that case, he deserved it."
She said there are about 15 Muslim sisters in her prison, who attend jummah prayers. She is the only one keeping hijab. "They all call it 'high-jab!'" she laughs in her charming southern accent. She wears a black hijab to work and the white one other times.
Fatima has a very sunny disposition, she is energetic and friendly to everyone and seems to be respected and loved by the women in her unit. She has found a way to bridge the gap between Muslims and non-Muslims by staunchly refusing to back down from her own beliefs and values at the same time as graciously and lovingly accepting other people for who they choose to be - one of her favorite people to socialize with is a Spanish-speaking religious Jew who is also transgender. She introduced me to a pretty young black woman passing by. "Her husband is my baby." The "husband," Fatima's cellmate, is injecting male hormones and growing a beard.
"There's a lot of that going on in here!" she whispers, laughing cheerfully at the juicy gossip.
Fatima, who is expected to be released in Pennsylvania in 2018, is looking forward to becoming a part of a real Muslim community. Her interaction with the Ummah was almost entirely online. Fatima had become obsessed with jihad after learning about the situation in Palestine.
Fatima said people often asked her if she will do anything jihad-related again, once she is released but she says no. "They are not going to ask me to do anything else. I have already proved myself," she said of her mentors, whom she believes to be with al Qaeda. "I was very honored as a woman to be chosen for a mission. Usually they give those kinds of jobs to the brothers. I don't like that I'm in prison, but it's not that bad." She has always been very patient with the decision of Allah, even when she was in the Special Housing Unit (SHU) in solitary.
Regardless of what one believes about her choice of action, it says a lot about her character that she was willing to sacrifice herself in order to stand up for her brothers and sisters around the world, that she had never met, who had done nothing for her. Fatima's future plan upon release is to grow flowers and vegetables. For now, she is looking forward to fasting for Ramadan.
[New Trend urges readers to write to the sister.]
COLLEEN LAROSE
Register Number: 61657-066
FCI TALLAHASSEE
FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION
501 CAPITAL CIRCLE, NE
TALLAHASSEE, FL 32301
Showing posts with label prison. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prison. Show all posts
Sunday, September 4, 2016
Detroit, Michigan: The Shocking Case of Lacino Hamilton
It was July 1994 when Lacino Hamilton's foster mother was shot and killed inside her home. The Detroit woman who had raised Lacino was named Willa Bias, but he called her "Mom." Lacino, who was 19 at the time he was found guilty of the murder, is now 41 and imprisoned at Thumb Correctional Facility in Lapeer, Michigan, serving a sentence that will not expire until he is at least 71. He has always insisted that he loved his foster mother and that he is not the murderer. He was convicted based on the testimony of a "jailhouse snitch" in exchange for a lighter sentence, and a coerced confession from a friend who later refused to testify against him in court, but they still used the written confession.
In a personal letter, Lacino demonstrated a deep sense of self-reflection. He told me that while he is innocent of the murder, he was not "innocent." He was a drug dealer participating in the gangster lifestyle. Investigators speculate that Willa was murdered for the $70,000 cash Lacino had been storing in the basement. Lacino hopes that upon his release, he could work with urban youth to teach them positive alternatives to crime. He has spent his two decades in prison reading and writing many thoughtful essays addressing the problem of the "school to prison pipeline" and the irrational US policies that marginalize the poor.
"How some of us live is not a mistake; neither is it the product of a broken system. We live like that because it is profitable to a lot of people businesses: pawn shops, pay-day loan services, slum lords, creditors, social services and others who traffic in misery," he wrote.
Lacino also wrote letters to thousands of journalists, lawyers and colleges hoping someone would listen to his story of wrongful incarceration. Finally he heard back from Claudia Whitman, the director of the National Death Row Assistance Network, which recommends cases to the Innocent Project. At last an attorney, Mary Chartier, agreed to take on the case pro bono. If all goes well, Lacino will receive a retrial next year and hopefully be released.
In 2013, an investigator looking into Lacino's case contacted Christopher Brooks, who decided to finally speak out about Lonnie Bell, the man he saw exiting Willa Bias' home shortly after the murder, now that Lonnie is dead as a result of gang warfare. Lonnie had admitted to Christopher over lines of cocaine that he had committed the murder "because she was supposed to be dead." Lonnie also told Christopher that if he said anything, he would kill him too. Spooked, Christopher moved to Monroe, Michigan, a town near the Ohio border, to avoid Lonnie.
The informant, Olivera Rico Cowen, who is responsible for Lacino's false conviction, died of AIDS after he got his sentence reduced from 15 years to one year in exchange for "cooperating" with homicide detectives. Even though Olivera was the key witness in six other murder convictions, his testimony was accepted in lieu of evidence, leading to Lacino's 80 year sentence.
"In many cases, even if all the witnesses have recanted, or if a person claims innocence, it's still difficult to [overturn a conviction]. The courts are more concerned with whether the trial has been procedurally proper," Attorney Mary Ownes told Truthout.
However, US police, and in particular the Detroit Police Department, are coming under increasing scrutiny from the Federal Department of Justice and the public. Detroit police are notorious for withholding evidence from trials, that would prove the suspect's innocents. Detectives routinely provide witnesses with prewritten statements to memorize. Corruption in the homicide department led to the closure of the DPD's crime lab in 2008, while the FBI discovered that Detroit's former mayor, Kwame Kilpatric, who is now imprisoned, was discovered having a romantic affair with the federal monitor on police reforms, who had been sent to look into a report that Detroit police committed the highest number of fatal shootings compared to all other police forces in the US.
"Thinking broadly about the ways incarceration is constructed and reconstructed, or alternatives to incarceration, is complicated by networks of social control. Which operate to legitimize who has the authority to speak about incarceration, what can be said about incarceration, and what is sanctioned as true about incarceration," writes Lacino in the introduction to a book he is writing.
"One important mechanism for challenging the system of incarceration, then, is incarcerated men and women, and the communities in which they come from, must begin to speak for themselves. Incarcerated people can articulate an analysis of incarceration from the particular vantage point of lived experience. Use this to analyze policies and practices that support incarceration. And generate alternatives to caging people for part or all of their lives.
"These subjugated analyses about the world of incarceration define that world and possibilities differently. Thus, listening to and learning from the analyses and experiences of incarcerated men and women can help the broader society get a clearer understanding of the ordeal of retribution style justice; and suggest more imaginative alternatives for repairing harms caused in our society," Lacino concludes.
Lacino's investigative attorney team continues to track down witnesses and collect affidavits and push for a retrial. Please keep him and other wrongfully incarcerated people in your prayers.
Lacino Hamilton #247310
Thumb Correctional Facility
3225 John Conley Dr.
Lapeer, MI 48446
This article is based on a report by Aaron Cantu entitled "Ring of Snitches: How Detroit Police Slapped False Murder Convictions on Young Black Men," published March 31, 2015 in Truthout.
In a personal letter, Lacino demonstrated a deep sense of self-reflection. He told me that while he is innocent of the murder, he was not "innocent." He was a drug dealer participating in the gangster lifestyle. Investigators speculate that Willa was murdered for the $70,000 cash Lacino had been storing in the basement. Lacino hopes that upon his release, he could work with urban youth to teach them positive alternatives to crime. He has spent his two decades in prison reading and writing many thoughtful essays addressing the problem of the "school to prison pipeline" and the irrational US policies that marginalize the poor.
"How some of us live is not a mistake; neither is it the product of a broken system. We live like that because it is profitable to a lot of people businesses: pawn shops, pay-day loan services, slum lords, creditors, social services and others who traffic in misery," he wrote.
Lacino also wrote letters to thousands of journalists, lawyers and colleges hoping someone would listen to his story of wrongful incarceration. Finally he heard back from Claudia Whitman, the director of the National Death Row Assistance Network, which recommends cases to the Innocent Project. At last an attorney, Mary Chartier, agreed to take on the case pro bono. If all goes well, Lacino will receive a retrial next year and hopefully be released.
In 2013, an investigator looking into Lacino's case contacted Christopher Brooks, who decided to finally speak out about Lonnie Bell, the man he saw exiting Willa Bias' home shortly after the murder, now that Lonnie is dead as a result of gang warfare. Lonnie had admitted to Christopher over lines of cocaine that he had committed the murder "because she was supposed to be dead." Lonnie also told Christopher that if he said anything, he would kill him too. Spooked, Christopher moved to Monroe, Michigan, a town near the Ohio border, to avoid Lonnie.
The informant, Olivera Rico Cowen, who is responsible for Lacino's false conviction, died of AIDS after he got his sentence reduced from 15 years to one year in exchange for "cooperating" with homicide detectives. Even though Olivera was the key witness in six other murder convictions, his testimony was accepted in lieu of evidence, leading to Lacino's 80 year sentence.
"In many cases, even if all the witnesses have recanted, or if a person claims innocence, it's still difficult to [overturn a conviction]. The courts are more concerned with whether the trial has been procedurally proper," Attorney Mary Ownes told Truthout.
However, US police, and in particular the Detroit Police Department, are coming under increasing scrutiny from the Federal Department of Justice and the public. Detroit police are notorious for withholding evidence from trials, that would prove the suspect's innocents. Detectives routinely provide witnesses with prewritten statements to memorize. Corruption in the homicide department led to the closure of the DPD's crime lab in 2008, while the FBI discovered that Detroit's former mayor, Kwame Kilpatric, who is now imprisoned, was discovered having a romantic affair with the federal monitor on police reforms, who had been sent to look into a report that Detroit police committed the highest number of fatal shootings compared to all other police forces in the US.
"Thinking broadly about the ways incarceration is constructed and reconstructed, or alternatives to incarceration, is complicated by networks of social control. Which operate to legitimize who has the authority to speak about incarceration, what can be said about incarceration, and what is sanctioned as true about incarceration," writes Lacino in the introduction to a book he is writing.
"One important mechanism for challenging the system of incarceration, then, is incarcerated men and women, and the communities in which they come from, must begin to speak for themselves. Incarcerated people can articulate an analysis of incarceration from the particular vantage point of lived experience. Use this to analyze policies and practices that support incarceration. And generate alternatives to caging people for part or all of their lives.
"These subjugated analyses about the world of incarceration define that world and possibilities differently. Thus, listening to and learning from the analyses and experiences of incarcerated men and women can help the broader society get a clearer understanding of the ordeal of retribution style justice; and suggest more imaginative alternatives for repairing harms caused in our society," Lacino concludes.
Lacino's investigative attorney team continues to track down witnesses and collect affidavits and push for a retrial. Please keep him and other wrongfully incarcerated people in your prayers.
Lacino Hamilton #247310
Thumb Correctional Facility
3225 John Conley Dr.
Lapeer, MI 48446
This article is based on a report by Aaron Cantu entitled "Ring of Snitches: How Detroit Police Slapped False Murder Convictions on Young Black Men," published March 31, 2015 in Truthout.
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Taliban prison break supported by locals
On September 14, 2015 at 2:30am Taliban fighters liberated hundreds of prisoners from a prison outside the city of Ghazni, killing four policemen and wounding seven. 148 of the 355 freed prisoners are said to be milit.ants charged with "national security crimes," including a few local Taliban leaders. 80 prisoners were left behind, and three escaped prisoners were recaptured.
"Around 2:30am six Taliban insurgents wearing military uniforms attacked Ghazni prison. First they detonated a car bomb in front of the gate, fired an RPG and then raided the prison," deputy provincial governor Mohammad Ali Ahmadi told the Associated Free Press.He also said one militant blew himself up at the prison gates, allowing others to force open cells.
Three of the attackers were killed, one of whom was a former inmate who had been released. The prison raid was one of ten other Taliban attacks on the city that same night.
"We are the Taliban. We have come to free you from this jail," shouted the six men who entered the compound after breaking the locks. The attack lasted several hours.
Nasir Ahmad Faqiri, a member of the provincial council, said that there had been indications that day that the Taliban were preparing to attack. The Afghan intelligence service was trying to move 20 senior Taliban prisoners to Kabul, but they protested and wanted more time in Ghazni.
"The prison does not meet even 10 percent of standard — it is soft, old and built of mud," Mr. Faqiri said.
Three years ago, 500 Taliban fighters were freed from Sarposa Prison in Kandahar through a tunnel dug from the outside, which took five months to dig and was equipped with electricity and piped in air. In 2008, militants released 1,200 inmates from the Kandahar prison in a double suicide attack where two explosive trucks were driven into the entranceway, killing 15 guards.
These prison break stories are the stuff of legends. These brave men risked and even donated their lives for the sake of their fellow man, to help their brothers escape from the torturous conditions of Afghan prisons, which make the holocaust look like a birthday party! Freeing prisoners of war is one of the most important aspects of true faith.
The fact that only three of the 355 released prisoners were recaptured demonstrates that the general population must be hiding them in their homes. The general public is actually aiding and abetting the fugitives. They are not calling the police to turn them in. The Taliban prison break clearly has widespread popular support. Even though most of the released prisoners were not even political prisoners, instead of fearing the criminals on the loose, the locals seem to be more offended by the use of the prison by an occupying government to oppress the population, keeping everyone living in fear. Though in truth, if the tables were turned the prison could possibly be turned into a torture den for anti-Taliban military men in a tit-for-tat situation.
In the absence of true governance, the powers that be can resort to kidnapping and murdering their political opponents or anyone they feel like kidnapping and murdering, or locking them in a dungeon. Once there, there is no due process. No way to get out. No lawyer who is going to get you off. No laws about treatment of prisoners. Even when the prisoner is an American-educated woman such as Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, there is no legal way to take her out of an Afghan prison except to isolate her in an American prison. Why? Is it because she has seen too much and could tell all to the American public if given a chance? In any case, the people who live around the prisons know all about what goes on in there and they are surely celebrating the release of their countrymen, in order that they can fight another day for the liberation of their country.
http://newtrendmag.org/ntma1621.htm
"Around 2:30am six Taliban insurgents wearing military uniforms attacked Ghazni prison. First they detonated a car bomb in front of the gate, fired an RPG and then raided the prison," deputy provincial governor Mohammad Ali Ahmadi told the Associated Free Press.He also said one militant blew himself up at the prison gates, allowing others to force open cells.
Three of the attackers were killed, one of whom was a former inmate who had been released. The prison raid was one of ten other Taliban attacks on the city that same night.
"We are the Taliban. We have come to free you from this jail," shouted the six men who entered the compound after breaking the locks. The attack lasted several hours.
Nasir Ahmad Faqiri, a member of the provincial council, said that there had been indications that day that the Taliban were preparing to attack. The Afghan intelligence service was trying to move 20 senior Taliban prisoners to Kabul, but they protested and wanted more time in Ghazni.
"The prison does not meet even 10 percent of standard — it is soft, old and built of mud," Mr. Faqiri said.
Three years ago, 500 Taliban fighters were freed from Sarposa Prison in Kandahar through a tunnel dug from the outside, which took five months to dig and was equipped with electricity and piped in air. In 2008, militants released 1,200 inmates from the Kandahar prison in a double suicide attack where two explosive trucks were driven into the entranceway, killing 15 guards.
These prison break stories are the stuff of legends. These brave men risked and even donated their lives for the sake of their fellow man, to help their brothers escape from the torturous conditions of Afghan prisons, which make the holocaust look like a birthday party! Freeing prisoners of war is one of the most important aspects of true faith.
The fact that only three of the 355 released prisoners were recaptured demonstrates that the general population must be hiding them in their homes. The general public is actually aiding and abetting the fugitives. They are not calling the police to turn them in. The Taliban prison break clearly has widespread popular support. Even though most of the released prisoners were not even political prisoners, instead of fearing the criminals on the loose, the locals seem to be more offended by the use of the prison by an occupying government to oppress the population, keeping everyone living in fear. Though in truth, if the tables were turned the prison could possibly be turned into a torture den for anti-Taliban military men in a tit-for-tat situation.
In the absence of true governance, the powers that be can resort to kidnapping and murdering their political opponents or anyone they feel like kidnapping and murdering, or locking them in a dungeon. Once there, there is no due process. No way to get out. No lawyer who is going to get you off. No laws about treatment of prisoners. Even when the prisoner is an American-educated woman such as Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, there is no legal way to take her out of an Afghan prison except to isolate her in an American prison. Why? Is it because she has seen too much and could tell all to the American public if given a chance? In any case, the people who live around the prisons know all about what goes on in there and they are surely celebrating the release of their countrymen, in order that they can fight another day for the liberation of their country.
http://newtrendmag.org/ntma1621.htm
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