Dear Joe,
I'll say it up front, I'm writing to gloat a little. In early July of 2007 I wrote to you to complain about the massive media smear of two former students of mine, a young Jordanian married couple who were arrested in connection with the botched Glasgow Airport bombing last summer. You kindly printed my letter ("Lies about 'failed terror attacks' in UK") and moderated some of the responses to it. Because the media offered no evidence against them, I was very angry to see their names (Mohammad Asha and Marwa Da'ana) and pictures included among a sort of rogue's gallery of evildoers wherever I looked that week.
Although I had known them slightly as teenagers when I taught in their school for gifted students in Amman, Jordan, my judgement was not based on affection but on the total lack of evidence offered and the psychological tricks used in the media to make the accused seem already proven guilty. For example, footage of previous terror attacks in the U.K. were frequently shown in stories about the case, although those far more deadly atttacks were completely unrelated.
Marwa was freed very quickly and took their baby son back to Jordan.
I watched as suspect after suspect in the case was released, but Mohammad and an Iraqi man were put on trial. I felt at that point there was no hope, though I was still certain of his innocence. A man who knows his wife is in custody and his baby boy with social services can be persuaded to say all kinds of things even without "enhanced interrogation techniques." But not this time. This week I heard he'd been acquitted and cleared of all charges. So Hallelujah, Allahu Akbar and Merry Christmas.
But Joe, at the time not a single American I knew agreed that he might be innocent. There is such a trust in authority that many believe that decent, normal people can't be railroaded and if no evidence is given, well, the police must have their shrewd supersecret reasons. Or maybe they just think an Arab can't be innocent if anyone says he's not. Just the sight of Mohammad's beard was probably enough for most people.
The reaction of the Arabs I knew, both here in Amman, where I live now, and at home in Los Angeles, was very depressing. No one was too alarmed about it, so I asked, "You really think he took part in it?" The answer over and over was no, it's just that governments sometimes grab people and ruin their lives and no one can do anything about it. It's a bit like a dragon in a fairy tale coming by periodically to lunch on a villager. Everyone else just thanks God it isn't them.
I'm so happy about the acquittal that part of me wants to say something nice about the British justice system.
But really, now. Let's calculate what this young man lost. He was a neurosurgeon trainee for the British National Health Service, rather impressive for a man of 26 or 27. As the son of a family of modest means and no connections from a country where connections mean a whole lot, a member of the Palestinian majority in a place where an outsize proportion of the good stuff, like med school places and foreign training, are reserved for Jordanians, he had to be both brilliant and extremely hard-working to achieve the status he had. Now his reputation has been ruined, he has no job and the British government is trying to deport him because he wasn't able to keep his work visa current while he was locked away on false charges. He's fighting it and may just get it all back. Let's hope so. But I can't quite call it justice.
I want to end by copy/pasting a bit of an article about Mohammad from the website of the British paper, The Guardian, posted the day of his acquittal:
At the time of his arrest on June 30 last year, Asha worked for the university hospital of North Staffordshire, in Stoke-on-Trent.
He was preparing to transfer to the Walsgrave hospital, Coventry, to continue his training in neurosurgery.
The court heard evidence from a string of colleagues who paid tribute to his extraordinary skills and learning.
One colleague said he would not be surprised if Asha became the best neurologist in Britain.
Consultant neurosurgeon Rupert Price said he gave Asha a glowing reference, the best he had ever written.
You never know what's behind the beard, do you, Joe?
Here's hoping none of your readers ever feel that warm dragon breath coming too close.
Jennifer
Amman, Jordan and Los Angeles
