The years are adding up for those detained with the help of our tax dollars at Guantanamo Bay without right to habeas corpus.
Adel Hamad is a father and family man who was working with local, community-based non-profit projects in health and education serving the Afghan people.
He is typical of so many of the educated middle class professionals that I knew when I was working with United Nations agencies in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
A victim of the war on terror, Adel Hamad has been detained for four years without being charged.
Now, as his case is taken up by the Federal Public Defenders Office based here in Portland, we can take action. The back page section, Act Now: Steps you can take to make a difference mobilizes the power of Street Roots readers around an issue that is both local and global — the need to restore the constitutional right to habeas corpus.
We were called to the day room at the “safe” shelter, a real tragedy, the dorm monitor said. Bunk 21, an overdose, won’t be coming back. Then she went on about God and something about every breath we take. But she took our breaths away. As I write this, “Big Log,” by Robert Plant, is playing in the radio leading me on, leading me down, driving me on, driving me down. How strange, we know you as Tina, one of us, lost, broken, someone’s daughter, our comrade. I’m so sorry you won’t be back. We all are. I hope you’re happier now, you’ll never be homeless again in the arms of God.
Another woman with the faraway eyes, all your sisters of the shelter, farewell Tina.
