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"We must scrupulously
guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all
citizens, whatever their background. We must
remember that any oppression, any injustice, any
hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our
civilization." -- Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Ibrahim Parlak is still sitting in a Michigan jail,
and it's a national shame. But with each passing
day, his case picks up a little more steam and
generates a little more outrage. It has gotten the
attention of Republican Congressman Mark Kirk. And
it may soon set up a fascinating face-off between
President Bush's nominee for secretary of homeland
security, Michael Chertoff, and the Chicago office
of his old law firm, Latham & Watkins.
But first, some background:
Ibrahim Parlak is a 42-year-old immigrant from
Turkey who until his arrest last July ran a little
Middle Eastern restaurant in Harbert, Mich., called
Cafe Gulistan. By all accounts, he has been a good
businessman, community member and father of a
7-year-old.
His crime?
Parlak is a Kurd and as such was not welcome in the
country of his birth. As a younger man, he fought
the oppression of the Turkish government back when
our own State Department decried the human rights
abuses by the Turks against the Kurds. He joined the
PKK, a Kurdish resistance movement, and in 1988 on
the Turkey-Syria border got into a skirmish in which
two border guards were killed.
Parlak, charged with separatism, was imprisoned and
tortured for a year and a half. In 1991, he fled
Turkey and sought asylum in the United States. He
provided U.S. officials at the time with newspaper
clippings, police reports and prison documents about
what happened. Given that the newspapers were
government controlled, they were hardly favorable to
Parlak. But U.S. officials were fully aware of the
plight of the Kurds and the Turkish government's
predilection for persecution. Parlak was granted
asylum in 1992.
Today the PKK is known as KONGRA-GEL. Today the
United States has re-classified it as a terrorist
group. The Turkey we once condemned is an ally we
now embrace.
And so Ibrahim Parlak was arrested by federal agents
last summer because the very circumstances for which
he won a grant of asylum are now being held against
him.
It's crazy. And it's unjust. And I'm not the only
one who thinks so.
Drive into Union Pier or Lakeside or Harbert, the
little communities that line the southeastern edge
of Lake Michigan, and you'll find merchants and
residents who have become very public in their
protest of this particular chapter in the federal
government's war on terror.
Milda's Corner Market is a case in point. In bold
letters across the the front of its brick storefront
is a huge hand-painted "Free Ibrahim" sign. Walk in
and amid the muffins and the coffee, you can buy a
"Free Ibrahim" mug with the above quote from
President Franklin Roosevelt. Milda and Linas
Johansonas have been unwavering in their support.
Linas' own parents were Lithuanian refugees who,
threatened with imprisonment in Siberia, fled Russia
during World War II. "My father fought the Russians.
Today would he too be called a terrorist?" asks
Linas.
In December, an immigration judge ordered Parlak
deported. She denied his release on bond pending an
appeal. In her ruling, Judge Elizabeth Hacker almost
word for word recites the government's arguments
that Parlak is a terrorist who lied on his
immigration application about his past.
In a stinging reply, Jay Marhoefer of the Chicago
office of the Latham and Watkins law firm cited 73
errors or distortions in the government's case and
the judge's ruling. His appeal is headed to federal
court and conceivably to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The case of Ibrahim Parlak could become a serious
test of the Patriot Act. As such, it could pit a
powerhouse law firm against one of its most
distinguished former partners, Michael Chertoff, who
awaits confirmation as Bush's secretary of homeland
security.
Chertoff, when he was in the Justice Department
after Sept. 11, helped supervise the detention of
762 foreign nationals charged with immigration
violations. Like Parlak, they were all denied bond
and detained for a long time under constitutionally
questionable circumstances. Chertoff is also one of
the architects of the Patriot Act under which Parlak
has been charged.
Chertoff's old firm, Latham & Watkins, is working
for free in Parlak's defense.
This could make for an interesting showdown.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan mix of Republicans and
Democrats have expressed their concern as well.
Among them are Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and
Illinois' Mark Kirk, the Republican congressman from
Deerfield who is scheduled to meet with Parlak's
team in March.
Through it all, Ibrahim Parlak, who fled Turkey to
find freedom from persecution, sits behind bars
without bond.
Free Ibrahim.
http://www.suntimes.com
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