More at Bob Belvedere's, "HELP SAVE MOSAB YOUSEF FROM CERTAIN DEATH," and Steven Givler, "Please Support Mosab Hassan Yousef."
Background at Maggie's Notebook, "Mosab Hassan Yousef Homeland Security: Homeland Security to Deport Mosab Hassan Yousef," and WSJ, "Deporting 'Son of Hamas': The U.S. may send an antiterror agent back to the West Bank":
Mosab Hassan Yousef is a best-selling author who wrote "Son of Hamas" about his life as a Palestinian who became an informant for Israeli intelligence. He's probably near the top of every Islamist terror hit list, yet, incredibly enough, the U.S. may soon deport him as a terror threat.RTWT.
In 2007, Mr. Yousef came to the United States, where he converted to Christianity from Islam and applied for political asylum. The request was denied in February 2009, Mr. Yousef says, on grounds that he was potentially "a danger to the security of the United States" and had "engaged in terrorist activity." His case has automatically proceeded to the deportation stage, and on June 30 at 8 a.m. he will appear before Judge Rico Bartolomei in Homeland Security Immigration Court in San Diego.
Homeland Security is well aware of the author's history, and in fact is using it against him. According to Mr. Yousef, a letter from Homeland Security attorney Kerri Calcador cites passages in "Son of Hamas" as evidence of his connection to terrorist leaders and suggests that the work he did for Hamas while spying for Israel provided aid to terrorists. "At a bare minimum, evidence of the respondent's transport of Hamas members to safe houses . . . indicates that the respondent provided material support to a [Tier I] terrorist organization," the U.S. lawyer wrote.
But unless Ms. Calcador knows more than she's saying, this is bizarre. As a spy for Israel, Mr. Yousef had to make his colleagues believe he was a loyal member of Hamas. He used that trust to gain information that he provided to Israeli intelligence, which used it to prevent terror attacks and save lives. One of Mr. Yousef's handlers at Shin Bet confirmed his book's account to the Israeli daily Haaretz, and his father, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, has disowned him from the Israeli prison he has occupied since 2005. (See our Weekend Interview with the younger Yousef, "They Need to Be Liberated From Their God," March 6, 2010.)
The problem seems to be that, under a provision of U.S. immigration law, anyone who is shown to have provided "material support" for terrorist organizations is automatically denied asylum. In the relentless way that bureaucracy works, this is being interpreted as leaving little discretion for deserving exceptions like the case of Mr. Yousef ...
11 comments:
Donald, thanks for this great article.
Isn't it amazing that we can send aid to Palestine that we know gets to Hamas, and that is not material aid?
I've linked you at my place, and of course of Save Mosab Yousef.
Thanks also RWN - they are linked also.
Just have him go to mexico, learn spanish, walk across and they won't touch him. He'd have to change his name to Jose, but hey, he'd be able to stay in California with no problems.
Great contribution, Greywolfe. Love the hat.
I fail to see how this is our problem. He worked for Israeli intelligence against their enemies: let Israel take care of him. Are there no safe houses that government can stash him in? This is another country's problem, we don't need to bring it to the US.
1) Thanks Prof. for all of your help.
2 JBW: Mr. Yousef wants to live in The United States because he wants to enjoy our freedoms and liberties, be a responsible American, and because he knows that he will not be persecuted here - a better set of reasons for allowing him stay, I've never heard. He's already assimilating to the American Way. We are the haven for those who 'yearn to breathe free'. How exactly is Mr. Yousef a problem?
Ah JBW, I forgot about your obsession with my hat. hell, I'd nearly forgotten about you.
Bob, he's a problem because he is a slap in the face to all the liberals that are lining up to kiss Hammas' ass. They can't have a living breathing example of why their idiocy is false walking around, can they?
It's not an obsession so much as it is a way to amuse myself in lieu of reading intelligent comments from yourself, Greywolfe. Good luck trying to forget me again.
Yousef was a spy for a foreign government against another foreign government, Bob. Now he's written a book outing himself and thus claims to need protection as a result. This sounds like a Middle Eastern problem, I don't see why we should be getting involved. Let Israel protect him, he's their spy.
JBW, I'll intrude on this conversation and add that Palestine does not have a government - not even the PA, which has little to do with Mosab.
I'm no Middle Eastern expert Maggie but as I understand it Hamas was elected to a majority of the seats in the Palestinian parliament and they govern parts of Gaza. How sovereign they are or how they're recognized by the UN aside, that was what I was referring to.
We obviously have a stake in this conflict but Israel is perfectly capable of taking care of their own spies. We have enough problems over here as it is without getting needlessly involved in other countries' problems.
@JBW
Civilized nations do not send aliens back to their home country if they know this will result in their being tortured or murdered. This is in a way a test as to whether USA is still a civilized nation. Further, the US is a signatory to an international treaty forbidding this practice.
@JBW, I am rabid against the U.N. The Security Council is run by the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC). They ban together to make anything Western impossible. They will never, never sanction Hamas. In my opinion, the U.N. position is not credible.
Sadly the people did elect Hamas. I guess it's what you do when Hamas provides your food, your home and tells you how to vote. They get fed before the women and children are used as human shields.
When you look at the history, the real history, Israel is not the problem.
The PLO and the PA hate Hamas. If Hamas does not attack Israel and enslave their people, no money comes their way.
World-wide, Liberals need a victim, so the story that Hamas are freedom fighters is one of the most obscene lies of the last decade.
I do understand your position. We can't take care of the world, but I'll add this: Yousef needs no welfare. He can live here and not cost Americans anything, and he will be free to continue to ring the bell. I suggest he not step foot in the Detroit area, though:-)
Are you telling me that the Israeli government doesn't have some kind of witness protection program for their spies and other informants, Pete? That they can't prevent him from being tortured and murdered? I'm not saying dump him in the middle of Gaza, I'm just saying let the Israelis take care of him. Is that going to be our new policy: we automatically take custody of every spy our allies don't want to protect? Again, we have enough of our own problems here. He's Israel's responsibility, they can deal with it.
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