Speaks out from Egypt about civil rights abuses

First of a kind Questionable evidence Hopes for Obama & civil liberties

After three decades of living and working in the US, Egyptian American physicist Moneim El Ganayni leaves because of civil rights abuses

CAIRO (Marwa Awad)

Nuclear physicist Dr. Moneim El-Ganayni was happily working as a senior scientist at a nuclear laboratory in Pennsylvania when his security clearance was abruptly suspended without explanation and he was denied an appeal out of concerns about “national security.” Although an American citizen, he decided to return to Egypt after three decades of living in America, out of principle.

“Everything I strived for all my life ended suddenly without a chance to defend myself,” El-Ganayni, 57, told AlArabiya.net, breaking his silence for the first time since he returned to his native Egypt in hopes of clearing his name and bringing to light civil rights violations he suffered at the hands of his adopted country before his upcoming Feb. appeal hearing.

" My case proves that holding an American citizenship does not mean that I am treated as one. I am only a citizen when my rights are protected and this cannot happen in an environment of fear and tyranny under the name of national security " Moneim El Ganayni, Egyptian American physicist “My case proves that holding an American citizenship does not mean that I am treated as one. I am only a citizen when my rights are protected and this cannot happen in an environment of fear and tyranny under the name of national security,” said Gaynani from his brother’s home in Cairo, where he is staying until he sorts out his new life. A naturalized American citizen, Ganayni was also active in his community, doing outreach at local prisons and helping to establish Pittsburgh’s Islamic Center and a mosque. Following the repressive laws and profiling after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, he became an outspoken critic of American policy towards Muslim Americans, the Iraq war and the Bush administration. That is when the interviews with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and DOE began, said Ganayni, who passed routine clearances and never got a negative performance evaluation in nearly two decades of work on national security matters. “Any Muslim who lives in the west knows the serious clash between U.S. and Muslims because of narrow interest of U.S. Many Muslims took positions, some avoided trouble and others did not and paid heavy price for their stance," said Ganayni. "Many Muslims took action by writing and speaking out against injustice.. It was not well received and they were targeted by U.S. government's misguided policy.”

" Now every Muslim who works in America will think a 100 times before he says a word about something he does not like whether it is a civil rights issue or foreign policy " Moneim El Ganayni For 18 years Ganayni worked at Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory, rising to the level of senior scientist, and held a security clearance from the Department of Energy (DOE) until it was inexplicably suspended in October 2007 and revoked without a hearing due to “national security” in May 2008, when he was subsequently fired from his job. His suspension was a red flag to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which charged in its lawsuit on Ganayni’s behalf that the DOE took away his clearance to retaliate against him for publicly criticizing U.S. foreign policy and the FBI and sought to cover up its retaliation against his constitutionally protected speech by invoking "national security" against the foreign-born American Muslim. “The clearance will not break my mind. It is an injustice and I will fight it. But now every Muslim who works in America will think a 100 times before he says a word about something he does not like, whether it is a civil rights issue or foreign policy,” Ganayni said, likening the paranoia in America to previous regimes in Egypt. “They [Muslims] are caught in between a policy conducted by United States that everyone in the world knows is unjust and between trying fit and live their lives without losing their jobs and being considered as enemies of the society. There was also hysterical environment in the media, in which Muslims were portrayed as terrorists, violent people,” he added.

Ganayni is appealing his case after it was dismissed because DOE refused to cooperate Despite its own policies the DOE refused to give him a hearing to contest the revocation and refused to disclose the reasons behind it, citing "national security" and thus barring him and his lawyers from seeing any evidence in the case. The case was dismissed by the district court as a result and Ganayni has filed an appeal. “Our contention is that the reason the DOE invoked national security in Mr. El Ganayni’s case is to relieve themselves of the responsibility of having to tell us what the basis of revoking his security clearance is,” Witold Walczak, one of Dr. Ganayni’s lawyers and legal director of the ACLU in Pennsylvania told Al Arabiya.net. “The Energy Department knows it cannot admit that it revoked Dr. El-Ganayni’s clearance because he has been an outspoken critic of the U.S. government’s treatment of Muslims, so it is hiding behind ‘national security’ to avoid having to explain itself,” he said.

First of a kind Walczak (L) says the case raises the issue of whether the justice system has jurisdiction over gov The lawsuit does not seek to overturn the DOE's revocation but contests its invocation of “national security” and demands that the government reveal the evidence of security breach against Ganayni, which both he and his lawyer contend does not exist. Citing the upcoming appeal the DOE refused to “discuss the case outside of court.” “His opening brief in the appeal is due in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on February 17,” Department of Justice public affairs officer Charles Miller told AlArabiya.net. Ganayni said his situation was the first of its kind in U.S. history. “This is the first time in the history of America that the government declares a complete blackout on a case using national security as a reason. Taking the clearance of someone without providing anything specific to indicate what he did wrong is unheard of till now,” he said. Although the arguments of the case will remain the same, the appeal contests a much larger issue. “The issue now turns on whether the court has jurisdiction to question and assess the government’s decision to shroud Mr. El Ganayni’s case in secrecy through declaring national security status thus deprive him of all due process,” Walczak explained.

Questionable evidence DOE used this book which Ganayni distributed to prison inmates as proof that he is a security threat At the heart of the case is an apparent lack of evidence against Ganayni, who said that in all his interviews with DOE security and FBI they never asked him about potential security breaches. Instead they probed his political and religious views, including a section of an innocuous book he distributed to prison inmates. “During the interviews my constitutional rights were seriously violated. They asked about my views about an Iraqi man blowing himself up and whether I consider him a shahid—martyr— they asked about my views on the Quran and about why I do not fully embrace the American way of life. These questions have nothing to do with my actions at work,” Ganayni argued. The investigators were specifically concerned about a section in a book about ants by the Muslim creationist writer Harun Yahya, “The Miracle of the Ant,” alleging Ganayni had dangerous intentions when he distributed the book among inmates as part of his weekend job as prison imam. Harun Yahya’s book was an Islamic interpretation of a scientific Harvard Press book entitled “Journey to the Ants,” and contained a quote from the Harvard book about the biological defense mechanisms of ants who commit suicide to save the colony in times of danger. “If the situation was not serious to the point that it has cost me my job and security clearance, and that I was threatened by FBI during interviews, I would have laughed at such 'evidence’ and its foolishness,” Ganayni said.

Hopes for Obama & civil liberties " It is hoped that the new presidential administration which has already shown a greater commitment to and sympathy for civil liberties will review the position of the government in this case " Witold Walczak, ACLU lawyer An annual report issued by CAIR about the state of Muslim civil rights in the U.S. found that 52 percent of rights violations in 2007 involved legal or immigration cases and hate propaganda. A survey by the Pew Research Center found that 53 percent of Muslim-Americans believe the government “singles out Muslims for increased surveillance and monitoring.” Both client and lawyer expressed hope that the President Barack Obama’s new administration would restore American civil liberties to their rightful place following severe violations by the previous administration of George W. Bush. “It is hoped that the new presidential administration which has already shown a greater commitment to and sympathy for civil liberties, will review the government’s position in this case,” Walczak said. Ganayni sees Obama as a force for change but noted that the responsibility for change also lay with Muslims. "The reason why Obama's inauguration speech reached out to the Muslim world is because the American government knows that it has went beyond any reasonable limit in its oppression of Muslims (in America and abroad)," said Ganayni.

" Without real change from people who live in the Muslim world the destructive policy of United States which has been set over the past decades will continue " Moneim El Ganayni “He will be capable of change because he is popular. He will be able to change the oppression of Muslims in the U.S. and he will end the foolish policy of using excessive force,” he told Alarabiya.net. “Without real change from people who live in the Muslim world, the destructive policy of United States which has been set over the past decades will continue.” Ganayni stressed that without the full resolution of his situation he would never feel like a full-fledged American citizen with all the rights that accords and would not return. "I am an American citizen, my wife is an American citizen and we hold passports. But being citizen is not a piece of paper or the right to live there. It means that I live in that country as a full citizen enjoying the same rights and privileges and have same obligations like everyone else. Without this sense of real citizenship, I will not go back," he promised as he returned to his search for a physics professor position at a Middle Eastern university.