From: Patricia Lay-Dorsey
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 16:44:00 -0400
To: <letters@freepress.com>
Subject: Questions about the Rabih Haddad case

Dear editor

Now that Rabih Haddad and his family have been deported (July 29 Detroit Free Press), some might think that ends the question of whether or not he and his Global Relief Foundation had terrorist ties to members of Al Qaeda.

It does not.

If anything, the deportation of this Muslim cleric and charity worker who was detained for nineteen months with no charges and no trial, bears more examination now than during his imprisonment. The American people have the right to know:

If Rabih Haddad and the Global Relief Foundation had ties to terrorists, as was consistently reported in the Detroit Free Press and other news sources, why were they never brought to trial? If the Justice Department was unable to find evidence of such ties during a nineteen-month investigation, why was Rabih Haddad kept in jail with no bond and treated like a convicted criminal? Since when are immigrants jailed for nineteen months and then deported because of a visa violation that is normally punishable by a fine? If Rabih Haddad had been any nationality and religion other than Arab Muslim, would he have been treated this way?

Sincerely

Patricia Lay-Dorsey