Abdul Aziz Hamadi is a resident of Los Angeles, California.
He was born in Pakistan and is a devout Muslim. He first came to the United
States as a student in 1978. He recorded his age on his student visa application
as 18, even though he was only 16, because he did not believe he would be
granted visa to enter a US college until he was 18. He got the visa and was
a very successful student. Mr. Hamadi obtained an engineering degree, a green
card and works in a corporation that designs bombs for the U.S. Air Force.
Mr. Hamadi applied for United States citizenship in 1990 and is presently
going through the process of becoming a United States citizen.
In 1989 he married Alimah Atwa. Mrs. Hamadi is a United States
citizen, born in Los Angeles to parents who immigrated to the United States
from Pakistan in the 1960s. She is a practicing lawyer and civil rights leader
in the Southern California Pakistani-American community. She is presently
a candidate in the primary of the Democratic Party for a seat on the Los Angeles
County Board of Supervisors. Her candidacy has drawn a fair amount of media
attention, in part because she is a female, Muslim political leader, and in
part because her platform is harshly critical of local homeland security efforts.
Her aside in a televised debate, "you call it security, I call it a pretext
for racism," has rallied the base of the Democratic Party's electorate, but
has polarized the community. She is highly critical of the Los Angeles County
District Attorney's Office, which is terribly understaffed and has lost every
high profile case it has prosecuted in the last three years (except for Winona
Ryder's shoplifting trial). She is equally critical of the leadership of the
U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles, which she calls "nothing more than
a waiting room for would-be Republican office seekers." Mr. and Mrs. Hamadi
have two children, a daughter, Fatimah, born in 1990 and a son, Osama, born
in October 2001.
Each year Mr. Hamadi contributes to charity, as his zakat, two and one half
percent of his net worth. The zakat is a year contribution to charity that
Muslims make as part of their religious observances (indeed, it is consider
by believers to be one of the "five pillars of Islam"). Since 1986 he has
contributed this money to an organization called "The Servants of Righteousness,"
[SOR]. SOR funds charitable activities throughout the Islamic world, including
schools orphanages, hospitals, and food banks. SOR has received considerable
media attention in the last few years. Its commitment to charitable work is
undisputed Ð indeed it spends about 87% of the funds it receives on charitable
activities and only three percent of the contributions it receives annually
on overhead. SOR is believed by the governments of the United States, Israel
and by the United Nations to spend 10% of its annual cash receipts funding
terrorist activities throughout the world. In January 2002 the United States
government placed SOR on the U.S. State Department's list of designated foreign
terrorist organizations.
When the FBI began to investigate SOR they discovered that Mr. Hamadi had
made annual contributions to SOR from 1982 until the present date. Further
research discovered several posting on "al-Neda.com" a web site with bulletin
board known to be an Internet gathering place for al-Qaeda sympathizers. One
posting said, "Bush is the true terrorist! Abdul Aziz Hamadi, Los Angeles,
California." Another said, "Rumsfeld is a war criminal. If there were any
justice in this land he would be arrested and handed over to The Hague. A.
A. Hamadi, Los Angeles, California." A posting dated at the beginning of the
month of Ramadan in 2001 stated, "I make my zakat to the Sons of Righteousness.
They do good work for our brothers." Hamadi, L.A." A year later, a posting
signed "Abdul Aziz, L.A." stated, "I have made my zakat to the Sons of Righteousness.
I did it before and I will do it again, because they do good work."
The FBI agent investigating the SOR cross-checked the names of SOR contributors with the State Department Terrorist watch list and discovered that Mr. Hamadi is the first cousin of Ra'id Yasin. Mr. Hamadi and Mr. Yasin grew up in the same village. Indeed, for two years during his childhood, Mr. Hamadi lived in the Yasin household while his mother recovered from a serious illness. Mr. Yasin is the leader of a political party in Pakistan called the "League for Islam," which the Pakistani government recently banned. Intelligence agents in Pakistan and the United States believe that Mr. Yasin is presently living in the tribal regions on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. The CIA and Pakistani authorities believe his organization was responsible for the kidnapping and murder of the wife of United States diplomat in Karachi last winter.
Two weeks ago, Mr. Hamadi received a phone call from Joe Deduces, the INS agent handling his application for US citizenship. He invited Mr. Hamadi to the INS office in LA for a final interview before the government officially granted him citizenship. When Mr. Hamadi arrived for his appointment, an FBI agent took him into custody. Mrs. Hamadi called the INS office shortly before 5:00pm that evening, when Mr. Hamadi still had not returned home for dinner. The secretary who answered the phone was unable to provide any information to her. The next day she called Agent Deduces, who informed her that he was not at liberty to provide any information to her about the whereabouts of her husband. Mrs. Hamadi has subsequently learned through the "grapevine" that the FBI agent who arrested her husband shortly thereafter transferred him to the custody of the Department of Defense.
Mrs. Hamadi then gave a news conference in which she decried the "fascist tactics of the oligarchic regime, which has captured control of the American government." She announced she would immediately begin a hunger strike and would not end it until the "regime of oil gluttons and thugs cease their unconstitutional behavior" and acknowledge where they were holding her husband. Protesting her husband's innocence, Mrs. Hamadi challenged "that racist fanatic, Ashcroft" to "put him on trial if you think he is guilty, release him if you dare not." When asked about Mrs. Hamadi's comments at a news briefing this week, Mr. Ashcroft responded, "why should I care what the defenders of terrorists say or what they eat. Terrorists and their friends, they don't deserve trials." The stories of Mr. Hamadi's detention and the dueling press conferences have been front page and television news stories every night for the last week. Reporters expect Mrs. Hamadi to initiate legal proceedings against the government within the week.
You are a lieutenant in the U.S. Army who is assigned to the Office of General Counsel in the Department of Defense. You are currently being reviewed for promotion to Captain. This morning, your commanding officer called you into her office and told you that Mr. Hamadi was in the custody of the Department of Defense. Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense, has requested a memo which considers whether the DOD should a) turn Mr. Hamadi back over to the custody of civilian officials in Los Angeles, b) detain Mr. Hamadi without trial, or c) try Mr. Hamadi before a military commission. Your memo should explain what you recommend and why. Furthermore, you should defend your recommendation as the most fair and the most effective option of the three that you are considering. Your commanding officer handed you a file, which consists of everything we have read thus far in class, smiled coldly at you, and concluded the interview by saying, "I'm sure you'll make the right decision."
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