Sir,

Thank you for contacting me and for the work you are doing. Forgive me, for I have sent you a novel. A lot of what I have written brings back memories that I would have much preferred to forget, however I have spent a night and a day recounting painful experiences. If you need to clarify anything, please do not hesitate to contact me. I will give you an introduction to myself, my work and what I have experienced in the Field. I will attempt to make some of what I put down relevant to what you're doing. However, I do have to clarify that my experiences in the Field are not precisely related to religious intolerance, but a mixed bag of a lot of rotten elements. I have looked for an Emile Zola for a while, but have realized that there is none. The existence of your organization is very reassuring and hopeful in defending our constitutional rights and integrity.

I am an ethnic Afghan, a Muslim woman and a very proud American. For people like myself who are not economic refugees - but gave up property, power and privilege for an ideal, namely the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence, it is a horrific abomination to witness the undermining of these very institutions that make America the great Nation that she is.

My father was commissioned in the British Military as a young Officer, his first Unit was the Royal Scots Regiment. He subsequently spent almost four years as a prisoner of war of the Japanese. His imprisonment - which included torture and almost a year in solitary confinement - left an indelible impression on him. My mother was the first "pashtun" (her ancestral village is in the heart of Taliban territory) woman that we know of, who was sent to a British boarding school - in her case an Irish convent.

My parents early years inculcated a deep sense of activism in them. My father had an illustrious Military and diplomatic career which took us all over the World. My parents were posted to Washington in the 50s, where my father received the Legion of Merit from then President Eisenhower. All this was a long time before I was born, but it gave my family a sense of belonging and allowed them to develop relationships here that would later make their move to America much more inevitable.

After my father retired, my parents decided to move back to the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan and fight for human rights and democracy. I was ten years old at the time and spent the next few years of my life visiting one or the other in jail. Again my father was tortured and I credit Amnesty International with saving his life. He was declared a "Prisoner of Conscience" and my mother was aided in filing a "habeas corpus" petition, after my father vanished. Needless to say, with the help of my father's old military connections - who by now were fairly influential in Washington - my parents were encouraged to move back to the US and obtained citizenship.

For my part, I remember reciting the Declaration of Independence by heart as a twelve year old. My sisters and I would sometimes huddle together while we would be subjected to most harrowing phone calls in which we'd hear a man screaming in agony - we were told it was our father. I was subsequently captured by members of the notorious Military Intelligence (akin to Nazi Germany's SS) and a second attempt was made to take me. Both times I ran away. Tragically, the children of other dissidents who kidnapped, were unable to break free and were killed. Obviously, a childhood lived in this manner motivated me to appreciate a system and values that respected individual rights, whether political, religious or pertaining to basic humanity.

When my family moved to the US, I stayed in Europe to attend school. I did however, leave for Afghanistan to fight in the war effort against the Soviets in '88 and '89. The experience impacted me profoundly and I continued working very closely with NGOs and non-profits. As a political analyst I worked in war and conflict zones and although an American citizen since my school years, permanently moved from Europe to the US in 2000.

I had recently established the Middle East and Asia Task Force for the United Nations Association in Washington and was working on Landmines for the United Nations Foundation, when the horror of September 11 occurred. At the time, as a volunteer EMT with my local Rescue Squad, we were part of the rescue effort at the Pentagon. It was obvious to me that the onus was on those of us who hailed from that part of the World and were now citizens here, to help bridge the gaps of culture and misunderstanding that were being fostered and exploited by the likes of bin Ladin. I therefore decided to give up my life here and dedicate myself to whatever effort was undertaken in the Middle East and South Asia on our part. Very soon after that I left for Afghanistan after attending the Bonn Conference. Upon my return to the US a few months later in 2002 I found a big change in the mentality here. Apart from the inevitable paranoia, there was a discernable amount of xenophobia and intolerance as well. Keep in mind that my work was however very positively received here both personally and professionally. I continued advising both Congress and DoD. Ken Adelman, a conservative member of the Defense Advisory Board and a Wolfowitz friend, wrote an article on my work. Fox News did a blurb on my work while I was in Afghanistan. Secretary Wolfowitz consulted with me for several hours in a private setting on both Afghanistan and Iraq. All this time I was also advising DIA - and refused to be paid, considering this a duty to my country. I was also instructing senior Government management on counter terrorism and current affairs. My students included: DoD, CIA, The fledgling Dept. of Homeland Security, Depts. of State and Interior etc. I was holding speeches, instruction and presentations at all kinds of Government and Government related entities from the CIA to AUSA.

The first of several attempts to convert me to a very radical form of Christianity started after that. Please remember that I come from one of the worst places in the World for religious extremism. The two countries that I called home as a child - Afghanistan and Pakistan - were relatively secular. However, before my eyes both Nations were increasingly radicalized by an influx of Saudis during the Soviet occupation, with the tacit approval of and help by the CIA. Since I had experienced the awful results of that, this whole "Christianization" thing was alarming.

My Iraq "experience" started in April 2003. I got to Baghdad a couple of days before Iraq fell. Initially, my presence was welcomed in the increasingly high handed, out of touch "Green Zone." I lived in the Iraqi community but at the behest of several Military commanders shifted my focus from working purely as an NGO/non-profit worker, to help be a Civil Military liaise (much like a one woman C-MAC). I found myself - in the words of several Military Officers in the Palace - their eyes and ears on the ground. In essence communicating to them the needs and problems of the local population. Conversely I worked on convincing the locals that working with the Americans was in their own best interests.

I felt vaguely uncomfortable, when invited to Green Zone events - yes, and there were too many parties with a lot of drinking and all the inherent misbehaviour associated with decadence indicative of a dictatorial ruling class - I would refuse to drink. I'd hear the whispers of "she's a Muslim, are you sure she can be trusted?" I shrugged it off, assuring myself that my character and work spoke for themselves and that I was providing an invaluable service to our succeeding in Iraq. I was part of a group at one gathering, which was told by a powerful political appointee - and yes, there were also too many of them ordering everyone else around and making oodles and oodles of money both legally as well as illegally - that Iraqis and Muslims in general were incapable of ever being civilized since they hadn't undergone the civilizing influence of the Greeks (he was a Greek American) and that we would have to deal with them with an iron hand and forget about treating them as equals. He became increasingly nasty to me, after I refused to be "influenced" by him. I was often told "quietly" that I needed "male" protection, since "I was too young and too attractive to spurn the advances of more powerful men in the Palace hierarchy" - since I am a middle aged woman and have never found myself particularly attractive, this was simple hogwash. Besides, even had I been young and pretty - why would it have made a difference? What century are we living in and why are Americans behaving like the Taliban? Besides, the Taliban may have wanted to kill me, they did not however at any time show disrespect towards me!

In the interim, three unrelated Iraqi businessman told me separately from each other that every time they had to sign a contract with the CPA, they also had to pay Americans in the Palace, kickbacks and bribes. Since they went to great lengths to absolve the uniformed Military of being involved, I gave their accusations credence. Since it would be easiest to blame the Military as the most visible sign of the occupation. Upon further questioning, I surmised that the list of people supposedly misbehaving were in the following order from bad to worst: contractors, civilian Intel and Security types and the worst by far - political advisors and appointees. My reaction, was to go to the Palace and inform a few people. My position was that I had no idea if indeed anything was going on, but if it was, then they should act upon it since it wasn't my place to look into financial impropriety but that if something weren't done about it, then would not only undermine my work but our whole mission in Iraq. Those I spoke to included the Office of Force Protection and the above mentioned political appointee. Within a week all hell broke loose - at least in my life! In the words of one of my Marine Colonels, I was picked up by a couple of unidentified, armed American men in civilian clothes and dragged into a room by myself - where I was asked sexually explicit questions for hours on end. I was asked very accusingly about both my religious and ethnic background. Other examples: When I told them that I was an American citizen and that they needed to identify themselves, they replied that "we are not in America!" It was however, our Palace Headquarters in the Green Zone. At one point in the beginning, one of the two said to me, "you would do anything for a buck!" It was interesting that he said that to an American who was not paid anything for her work. Towards the end, after I had yelled at them and told them that they were undermining the constitution and everything we were there for, they seemed very confused as to why I had been singled out. At any rate after many hours, I was stripped of my badges and my telephone (which had been approved for me by the United Nations) and allowed to leave the Green Zone. Later I was given copies of the "Spot Report" which basically called me a spy, a slut and a subversive. In the meantime, my work continued on our Military FOBs in the Field in the worst areas of the Sunni Triangle. This incident happened in October 2003.

I sent out a mass e-mail to all my friends in the Green Zone - mostly Military about what had transpired. They were horrified and I have several e-mails from them expressing their regret and repugnance at what I had confronted. More interestingly, I was contacted by an employee of the Department of the Army who told me that he was Iraqi-American, his name was Joe and he had been given my information by an American Government Official in the Green Zone. He was scared and confirmed to me something I had heard about but not given too much credence to before. He and his immediate boss, a Marine Colonel had been in the process of looking into brothels in the Green Zone. These houses were being expressly run for the pleasure of senior American officials in the Palace. When they broke into the first house, the only "male" in the house quickly called one of his benefactors in the Palace. Promptly, the CPAs Chief of Staff - an unworthy Military Officer whom I shall only refer to as the "enabler" - had both Joe and his superior picked up and put on an aircraft back to the US the same day! From what I was told the Marine Colonel had trumped up nonsense reported about him and came back to a career in tatters. I asked Joe if he would ask the Colonel if I could talk to him and he agreed to call me the next day. The next day, I found a very frightened message on my answering machine from Joe. He told me that he had been told that as an Arab American he should watch his back and be careful about whom he speaks to. I could hear the tremor in his voice. He begged me to understand and that he did not have my guts. He had a family and would try to simply forget everything that he had seen in Iraq! I was appalled, but could do nothing. Unknown to Joe, I had the name of the Marine Colonel but decided not to contact him. It was fairly obvious that everyone was scared and didn't wish to talk.

Once back in the US, I told several people about what had happened. Everyone was scared and told me to forget what had happened! Then I spoke to a retired three star General - former head of DIA and a close personal friend - he told me that I had to understand that whereas I did not look like the traditional "religious" extremist, a modern Muslim woman like myself, definitely could be a "suicide bomber!" If this is the ignorance level of an Intel Chief, what can be expected of anyone else? This for me was a phenomenal look at how American justice was working or NOT working. I saw more fear and cowardice than I had ever seen in some of the worst areas of the World. This however was supposed to be America, with all her constitutional guarantees of fair play, tolerance and justice. Basically, we're playing right into bin Ladin's hands. This America is his vision of where he wants us to be - scared, paranoid, divided by prejudice and in a mad rush to undo our founding principles.

Upon legally following up on the incident - it had originally been denied, but I had a copy of the Spot Report in my hands! - I was told that there was nothing against me and that I was free to continue my work (which I was doing anyway) However the total lack of any apology or accountability was extremely troublesome. In any case, in January 2004 - I had been invited to the Green Zone by an Army Officer - and was accompanied by two newsmen from Los Angeles (this was a favour that a Marine Colonel had asked of me) who were to do positive propaganda on the work being done by Americans in the Green Zone. I was picked out during this visit and interrogated in the Palace for approximately eight or nine hours - possibly longer. Forgive me if I choose to lose track of how long exactly, but it is an awfully dehumanizing experience. I was taken at approximately 10 am and let go at night - somewhere between 9 and 10 pm. I prefer not to think of the details. Again I was stripped of my telephone and this interrogation was a lot worse than the first one. I kept asking for my Officer friends to be present - a British Colonel and an American Captain and was refused. I was kept alone in a room with anywhere from one to nine male interrogators at any given time. I was repeatedly asked about my religion and ethnicity in the most sinister, rude, insulting manner. My passport was checked and rechecked since they were so sure that it must be fake! They were however assured by a female State Department official - who did not have the decency to come and check on me, knowing that I was a lone female - that I was indeed an American. Most interesting was that it was the civilians who were in charge. The three Military Officers who showed up from time to time, seemed cowed and confused. While alone with one of them, a Marine Major - he and I would talk in hushed tones while he tried to get to the bottom of what was happening. He was very polite and very nice and obviously apologetic. He quietly told me that I was accused of this "very suspicious background and spoke too many languages, had lived in too many places across the globe and knew too many people!" My response was that apart from not being aware that it was criminal to be from a well traveled international, military and diplomatic family, I was definitely guilty of one sin. He perked up at once and I told him that I was actually guilty of not only meeting too many people but that I actually liked people. He was immediately embarrassed and simply mumbled that it wasn't he who had made these ridiculous "non" allegations. He was only informing me. This is an illustration of how, while people were dying in the Field, both American and Iraqi - the Green Zone "fiddled" and enabled a virulent backlash in the form of insurgency, terrorism and just plain terror to fill the moral void created by the powers that be in charge. After I yelled at the State Department guy running the show and told him that the only thing he had against me was religion and ethnicity and that any tangible allegation he made, would be a figment of his own imagination, he turned brick red, trembled and had to make an obvious effort to control his visible fury. He pushed a piece of paper in front of me and told me that I just needed to sign it and I would be free to go. By now I was physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted. Add to that - something I never wish to admit - I was scared of what this creep would do. No one knew where I was and he and his lackeys could have made up anything. So without reading the paper or thinking about it, I quickly signed - knowing it was the only way out. I did however, have the presence of mind to have the Marine who escorted me out to make me a copy of the paper. He quietly did. I was then put out of the Green Zone, late at night - with a curfew in Baghdad, my poor driver who had been hysterical and didn't know what had happened to me, had finally left and rushed home ahead of the curfew. The above mentioned Marine Major was very worried, but there was little he could do to override decisions made by the civilians in charge. My question is how can commissioned Officers in the US Military be so emasculated by State Dept., CPA and contractor hirelings who behaved little better than a bunch of jack booted thugs? I will not go into the details of that night, but I suffered the worst attack of any in a War or conflict zone. When I woke up the next morning and realized I was alive, that was the miracle for me. I had to make a very deliberate decision to stay in Iraq and continue my work in the Field. I could not allow these bastards to scare me off. I believe that the incident expedited my father's death. I had been prepared for the "bad" guys on the other side, I was not prepared for the ones on our side.

I was in the US after the death of my father in Spring 2004. I was told by a Marine Colonel - a gentleman I did not know, but had heard of - that the reason for my being singled out was that I had been the first person to talk about corruption in the CPA. When I responded very bewildered that I didn't have any facts, I had simply reported rumour and innuendo, he said that with that I had touched the tip of the iceberg and that anyone looking for impropriety, would have started there. He also informed me that he was involved in the newly created IG for Iraq's office and that he would need my help. He insisted that I lodge a written report in his office and he gave me the name of a trusted ex-Marine whom he told me to contact. He himself was off to Iraq to start working on his new assignment almost immediately. While all this was happening, I had become a folk hero of sorts for people returning from the CPA - which was now in the midst of being transitioned into the US Embassy. Individuals would meet with me secretly and having made me promise to keep their names out of things - they were mostly Government employees - started telling me about corruption, mismanagement and incidents of deliberate racism and religious intolerance on the part of US Government officials, that had led to attacks and at least in a couple of cases to the death of soldiers guarding convoys or accompanying embassy officials as retaliation. I was proud of the documents and information I had compiled for the Marine Colonel in the Special IGs office.

By now I had developed a very good relationship with the Marine who took my report. Just as I was ready to leave for Iraq again and proud to give the Marine Colonel in Baghdad my information, the individual who had taken my complaint told me in confidence that the Marine Colonel had done such a good job on the ground, that he had been framed, railroaded and sent back - his once illustrious future, uncertain. This Colonel had been a decorated officer from the first Gulf War and those thugs in the Palace could do this to him. The person who took my report tried contacting the Colonel several times, without any luck! In the meantime, he also gave me the name of an agent in Baghdad, the only one he himself trusted and told me to only talk to him. Once in Iraq, I did just that. This agent and his partner were so fearful for my safety that they would meet me in secret at the Al-Rasheed Hotel, which was on the other side of the Green Zone. They also told me that I should make no mention of what I experienced upon being thrown out in Baghdad that awful night during curfew. They told me that everything else I had was very factual and had several witnesses to back things up. However, this particular incident did not have any witnesses - at least none that were favourably inclined towards me. I looked at the Agent shocked and asked him how many incidents he knew of where people were beaten up, raped, killed and otherwise assaulted that witnesses were invited to - and he said that whereas he agrees with me in principle, in fact he was telling me for my own good that I would be discredited and destroyed. So I've had to remain silent on one of the worse abominations any individual has had to bear. However, I am grateful to be alive, sane and able to continue my work without fear! Oh and by the way, the official who had taken my report was told to cover it up! He is willing to go public with all the various cases he was told to ignore. In disgust he resigned from the Special IGs office. The Agents on the ground were told in the course of their investigation that there was no report in the Palace/Embassy on me and that they didn't need to worry - such documents had been thrown out when the CPA was officially disbanded. This later turned out to be a lie. Therefore, Palace officials and inhabitants are lying to federal investigators and no one is held accountable!

In September 2004, I was captured by Zarkawi's guys outside of Fallujah. The Americans knew I had been taken captive because I was talking to a friend in the Green Zone on the telephone when my car broke down as a result of being shot up by American soldiers/Marines - honest mistake, they couldn't have known who I was and they were shooting at random! However, until my escape eleven hours later, although harrowing - this was nothing like the disrespect and dishonour I had felt at the hands of American interrogators. A Special Forces team was being mobilized to get me, but I got away before they left. I was then debriefed by the FBI in the Green Zone and the Marines I worked with in Fallujah. (This is not part of any unpleasantness, just an interesting detail in the chronology.)

Please forgive me for giving you so many details, but I would rather give you too much than too little. However, at this point all this does take an emotional toll. I try not to dwell on the past. After all this, I was interrogated twice more. The next time in April 2006. I had been invited to Camp Victory at Baghdad International Airport to liaise with a couple of Colonels who wanted me to help them work with Iraqi companies, specially women owned businesses. While waiting for my helicopter to leave, I was singled out by a Lt. Colonel and an MP Sergeant. They had both decided that I was a "local national" with a "fake" American ID - this based upon my non Anglo Saxon looks! I insisted that I was an American citizen and wished to contact the two Colonels who had invited me there. I was roughed up and told to shut up. I implored someone to help me, the whole hall was filled with American men, not one came to my aid. God bless him, a young Specialist whispered in my ear - while bundling me into the back of an SUV that he had put my telephone next to my hands which were bound tightly behind my back. I simply pressed the last button that I had dialed hoping that someone would be able to hear what was happening to me. Luckily, the person whom I had dialed turned out to be the MP Colonel who had been in Abu Ghraib during the scandal. According to what he told me later, he listened to fifteen seconds of what was going on and thought in horror, "we've learned nothing from Abu Ghraib!" He called the female Colonel whom I'd been with earlier and she rushed to the place I was being held. By the time she got there, I was hysterical and screaming and yelling at everyone. A Major came hurtling out of the building cursing and shouting that my hand cuffs should be removed at once. He tried to mollify me, but by now I was crying and yelling at him. I didn't realize that the Brigade Commander had called him and given him an earful about who I was. The female Colonel grabbed my ID out of the hands of a couple of civilians - Intel contractors who were not backing off. She told them to buzz off and grabbed my ID back. In my shock, I didn't realize that the couple of hours that my hands had been shackled, the cuffs had been put on so tight that I had welts and bruises for days. Much later, upon my return to the States I was diagnosed with severe carpel tunnel syndrome due to trauma and a fractured wrist which has healed with a jagged bone edge sticking out. I feel it through my skin. I have to now wear cumbersome splints to sleep at night. In the meantime, I heard that the Lt. Col. was blaming the MP Sergeant and the Sgt. was blaming the Lt. Col. and off course no one was man enough to say sorry - it's only a five letter word! No one was held accountable. Again who are these sinister civilian contractors who are above all authority?

An Iraqi friend of mine,who ran a beauty parlour for Americans in the Green Zone, quietly begged me to allow her to change the colour of my hair and to wear coloured contact lenses. She was convinced that my physical resemblance to Iraqis, targeted me. I politely refused. In addition to everything else, this severely impacted my work. Every time I would painfully build Iraqi alliances and get NGOs, IOs and other non profits to work with Americans in the Field, they would see what had happened to me and back off. Years of work got undone in this manner. After this particular incident, I didn't even bother to report it. What's the point? No one's held accountable and it costs me in time and nerves. Everyone assures me that the Lt. Col. in the above mentioned incident is much hated and known for his insufferable arrogance, ignorance and xenophobic etc. etc. etc. What I don't understand is, why is someone like that in Iraq? He is apparently a disbarred lawyer on top of everything else. We are supposed to send the best and the brightest to succeed in a mission of this sort. The best in knowledge, courage and honour. Instead we have that kind of garbage running things there. Where do they manufacture creatures like this?

The last interrogation took place in May 2006. I had been invited to the Palace by a retired Special Forces Colonel for a meeting. This gentleman now worked as a senior State Dept. official. While in the meeting with him and an active duty Marine Colonel, we were surrounded by State Dept. security who insisted upon taking me down into the "dungeons" again. This time, my host insisted upon accompanying me but he was emphatically turned down! This interrogation was more a farce. I had a couple of State Department security officers there, who seemed more in awe of me than anything else. One of them even gushingly told me that I was quite a celebrity for them. The other said that I was the most fascinating woman he'd ever met. I just looked at these two half wits. It was like a recurring bad dream. I think they thought they'd caught the Muslim version of Mata Hari. In fact, after my first interrogation - my military friends referred to me as Mata Hari in jest. By now I was used to the usual nonsense. Here at least they finally got a woman to sit in on things. Then they called an abrasive, Warrent Officer with a very limited intellect and obviously no knowledge of his surroundings in the Green Zone. He started off very arrogantly telling me that I had quite a "rap sheet" - his words. Interestingly he was referring to the same documents that the federal investigators had been told did not exist. He went on to say that they had been warned that I was too intelligent and absolutely fearless. I offered to put in a good word for him with the Taliban since they expect "good" women to be gutless and witless as well. That didn't help my case much. However, by now I didn't care. He then belligerently asserted that one of the NGOs I worked with on a regular basis, didn't exist. I told him that they not only existed, they were two short streets down from the Palace, within the Green Zone and were working under a US Government contract and were regularly visited by the US Ambassador. He insisted that couldn't be true, because he would have known about that! Where did we find such incredibly moronic creatures? He then went on to ask me the inevitable question, was I a Muslim. I replied that I didn't think it was any of his business what my religion was, but that If he must know even though I was Muslim by descent, I personally was agnostic. I don't think he understood the word. In any case he nodded foolishly a couple of times and said something like, "hmmm Muslim" - it's too stupid to even recount. He assured me that he would have my citizenship revoked and I told him that I would love to see him try. He insisted that I give him my address in America, which I was reluctant to do because I had a house mate who had been harassed by contractors while working in Iraq. At this point he said he would charge me with obstruction of justice, for failing to reveal my US address. I reluctantly gave it, but explained to him that after "dyncorps" personnel had held guns to my house mate's head, she was suing them and I didn't want any one to know where she lived. This triggered something in him. He jumped up without a word, raced out of the room and conferred with the State Dept. agents out of earshot for about an hour. The SD agents then came back without the idiotic interrogator and informed me that he felt he could no longer question me. However, he did manage to take my DoD ID away from me. After this two women from the consular section came down and tried to gently "pressure" me into leaving Iraq for my own good! I politely refused. Again, I have not lodged any complaints - it's no use.

The poor Colonel who had invited me to the Palace that day was waiting in the hall outside. He told me that I had been questioned for a little over four and a half hours. I had lost track of time. A sort of routine numbness starts taking over when I'm in these situations. My only effort is to remain lucid and calm and wait for the inevitable release, which always follows after a lot of breast beating and noise on the part of interrogators who keep dreaming of catching the "perfect" spy. While these people play their stupid little games, their actions cost us in lives in the Field. At any event, the Colonel took me to the parking lot and in the presence of a good friend of mine told me to leave Iraq if I wanted to live. His words: "Please get out. I fear that the bullet with your name on it will come from one of our own. They (Palace inhabitants) have declared war on you. It's not the 9 billion missing that you've been yelling about, but 21 billion and counting. Those who did terrible things under the CPA are now back to cover their tracks because of all the ongoing investigations. Your fight is now in Washington." Well I did not get out. I actually stayed right in the Green Zone and Baghdad until returning to the US later that year.

Interestingly, through it all - all the good officers who were so supportive, were also very often religious nuts. The MP Colonel who came to my aid in Camp Victory was an ardent evangelical who propagated religion all the time. The Colonel who warned me to "get out of there" in the parking lot, is as extreme a catholic as they come. He has chided me for both my religious as well as political views. In most of what I have recounted - I wanted to give you a picture of what I have been exposed to. However, I have not even touched upon how on the FOBs, there is almost unbearable pressure on the part of the evangelicals to conform. One of the worst officers I came across, was a corrupt unpopular Civil Affairs Major who openly asked me for a bribe. It was an open secret that he tried to get his hands on various pots of cash. Anytime, one of his subordinates - officers or enlisted tried to complain, he played the God card and people backed down! I didn't and I don't comprehend the acceptance of such behaviour. How can this be even considered being American? I am sick and tired of the jingoism both of religion as well as of nationalism. I know I've left a lot of detail out and I also know that I'll remember something that I should have put down, but this way you know who I am and where I'm coming from.

I should hope that any God/Gods/gods anyone believes in would be powerful enough to fight his/her/it's/their own battles and gracious enough to accept everybody regardless of what their concept of worshiping him/her/it/them is. So while we are distracted and divided by abstract perceptions of a God none of us has seen, we have a real World to contend with - with real problems and tangible issues.

In the meantime, my work goes on. I continue my instructing and advising Marines, Army, NATO, Congress etc. I have just received news that a friend and ally Congressman Tom Lantos has died. I am deeply saddened, but I hope the legacy he fought for - continues.

Gentlemen, you and your organization offer hope and have the spunk necessary to defending the ideals of my long dead "soul mates" - the likes of Tom Payne, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, George Mason ............. it's difficult to stop - the list of excellence is so long. Yet where are individuals like that today? What a disservice we do their legacy by promoting mediocrity, intolerance, hypocrisy and eventually the demise of a great Nation. I'm certainly going to fight for the only hope I saw as a twelve year old. If you will accept me as a friend and collaborator, I would be honoured to wage the "good" war with you! Forgive me, I don't wish to sound corny but I am passionate in this belief. The only "bible" we can hold up on a national scale, is that of unity and equality - our Constitution. Like I told you Mikey, the America of the blind, the deaf and the dumb is not America.

Regards, Hali (Jilani)

SUPPORT MRFF

As we continue to fight in the courts, the media,
and in the minds and hearts of our fellow citizens,
we need your ongoing support.

Make a secure donation of $25 or more.

Both Click and Pledge and PayPal accept most major credit cards. PayPal account not required for donation.

Your generous tax deductible pledge will help protect religious freedom in America