WASHINGTON, 23 July 2005 — The US Federal Bureau of Prisons says it has 119 prisoners with "specific ties" to international terrorist organizations.
But it has no full-time Arabic translators or a formal method to monitor their communications, even though its 119 inmates include 40 prisoners thought to be members of Al-Qaeda, with 23 who are "identified as linked to 9/11," according to a document released by the Bureau of Prisons.
"Convicted terrorists from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing were put into their prisons general population where they radicalized inmates and told them that terrorism was part of Islam," said the BOP's inspector general.
The whistle-blower warning of this serious problem is Hikmat "Joe" Mansour.
Mansour, a US citizen born in Beirut, Lebanon, has worked the past four years at a federal prison in Lee County, Virginia, as a dispute resolution specialist, mediating issues between the staff and management to avoid lawsuits.
But in April 2003, Mansour wrote a letter to his supervisors and the Bureau of Prisons Washington, D.C. office, voicing his concerns that prison staff was not screening Arabic letters from inmates.
Mansour, who had volunteered to translate at his prison, said he translated some high-profile terrorism cases, and warned that many "Arabic letters and phone calls are unmonitored due to a lack of Arabic-speaking staff."
"In my opinion, nothing should come out of these prisons without being monitored. Nothing," said Mansour.
The letter was given to Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, who released it to "NBC Nightly News." As a result of their own investigations into the issue, Sen. Schumer and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said the Bureau of Prisons needs at least 30 to 40 Arabic translators.
"It's ludicrous to think that the Bureau of Prisons doesn't have a single full-time translator to monitor their communications," Sen. Grassley recently told reporters, calling the current situation "a recipe for disaster."
Mansour is leading the campaign to ensure the Bureau of Prisons hires the translators it so clearly needs.
Mansour told Arab News by telephone Monday that he has accumulated over 60 awards while working for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. One is a national award from the Department of Justice, recognizing his success in translating a prisoner's letter that contained information related to the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
However, he says this has not made him immune to being stereotyped and harassed. His colleagues at the prison are unhappy with the sudden attention that his letter has generated
"It really shocked me," said Mansour. "I thought people were educated enough to realize (terrorists) are extremists, and to me they're thugs."
Mansour says his harassment at the federal prison began immediately following the terrorist attacks of 2001. On Sept. 12, he says a co-worker told him his "brothers were at it again." Two days later, a note left on his car declared: "Death to all Muslims."
Over the past three years Mansour says he has received many anti-Semitic and ethnic e-mails sent throughout the prison.
"My supervisor even called me a terrorist in front of the staff," said Mansour.
"I've provided key information to the country, and yet they call my loyalty into question."
The most disturbing events that happened while working, said Mansour, was when another staff member called him a terrorist and then physically attacked him during a SWAT team exercise; and when his office was ransacked last March. Among the items missing from his office were pictures of his family - two children and his Christian wife.
"It has affected me at home. It has affected me with my children. It has affected me with my wife," Mansour said.
According to Mansour's civil rights attorney, Jason Ehrenberg of Bailey & Ehrenberg PLLC, based in Washington, D.C., the most disturbing fact in the case is the Department of Justice's treatment of such a valuable resource as Mansour, whose translation skills are vital in the war on terror
BOP officials suggest that Mansour is attempting to align his whistle-blowing onto a 2004 discrimination complaint in which he charged harassment and discriminatory treatment from prison officials and employees because of his Arab ethnicity.
Ehrenberg told Arab News such allegations are "ridiculous and clear attempts by the Bureau of Prisons to shield the public from the truth."
As for Mansour, he says he is simply trying to do the right thing.
"I'm getting killed with media requests," said Mansour, saying he agreed to speak to Arab News because he found it difficult to turn down a request from an Arab paper, adding: "I haven't received any support from the Arab-American community, which is hard."
But, said Mansour, he has received "several hundred letters and e-mail of support from Americans and from people working from other government agencies." (Mansour's e-mail address is: [email protected].)
"I'm an Arab-American fighting to serve this country. But the minute I became known, and when Sen. Schumer warned the agency over the need for more translators, I became a target."
"I work and live in a small community, and after this harassment, I've requested over 60 transfers, but until now, nothing has been granted."
Mansour said his decision to move is due to his children. "Now the discrimination is being carried over to my son at school. The school has failed to anything to help him, even though he has received serious threats."
"I want the world to know that not every Arab-American is a terrorist, and not every Muslim is a terrorist," said Mansour who says the Arab-American community needs to be more proactive: "We need to stop whining, we need to go out and show America that we're good people who love our country."
US prison officials said last week that they had hired a full-time Arabic translator and plan to hire more in the near future. Undoubtedly pressure from members of Congress and the media helped in that decision.
"After years of warning the BOP about the problem, they just now hired an Arabic translator," Mansour said adding he plans to apply for a similar job.
