Inventing-Terrorists-study

Hashmi was extradited to the U.S. in 2007, where he was placed insolitary confinement in the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) inNew York for nearly three years under extremely harsh pre-trial conditions,including Special Administrative Measures (SAMs), and essentially washeld incommunicado. Although he had been a model prisoner in London,the government justified imposing SAMs on Hashmi by citing his“proclivity for violence,” notwithstanding that he had no criminal record,had not been charged with a violent act, and had not tried to incite violenceinside or outside of the prison or at any other time. Other prisoners atMCC––murderers, rapists, and gang members with records of violence––were not subjected to SAMs. Why, then, was Hashmi? Since prisonerscharged with terrorism who were subjected to SAMs pre-trial were almostexclusively Muslim, it seemed clear that both the prosecutor and the courtswere following the theory that merely to be charged with a terror-relatedcrime was the equivalent of a conviction. Thus Muslim defendants wereguilty until proven innocent.Prosecutors hinted that what they really wanted was for Hashmi to“cooperate” with them, and that he would be tortured with solitaryconfinement until he did what the government wanted. Hashmi refused,and later said at his sentencing, “In all reality, I had nothing to cooperateabout.” That the government did this suggests that it had applied thesedraconian pre-trial measures not because it considered Hashmi a high-levelterrorist, but to induce his cooperation or conviction.By 2010, Hashmi was struggling to keep his sanity, and his lawyerswere concerned about their ability to communicate with him and about hisability to cooperate in his defense. The government then disclosed that ithad been following Hashmi for some time before his arrest, secretlyB-17