Siegfried Verbeke - arrested at Amsterdam Airport, now believed to be also at Mannheim prison, Germany.

While Germar Rudolf, Ernst Zündel, Siegfried Verbeke, et al, are extradited for thought-crimes to Germany, others get away with committing serious crimes. Abe Goldberg celebrates his fame and fortune and does not have to fear extradition from Poland to Australia - read on - Missing magnate surfaces as a Polish property tycoon.

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22 October 2005

Friends:

Here is a summary of Germar Rudolf's situation, based on my telephone conversations with him from jail. This is, up to my abilities to transcribe accurately, his account, not mine. He wants it to propagate widely as an e-mail and web postings.

On Oct. 19 Germar and his wife had a marriage interview at the Chicago office of the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service). It went well and ended with the INS certifying that their marriage was real. As they were about to leave two officers of the INS appeared and claimed that Germar had been sent a letter instructing him to appear at their Chicago office for photographing and fingerprinting, and that he had not complied. Neither Germar nor his lawyer received such a letter, and they have still not been shown a copy of it. The failure to appear would not in itself, however have brought any drastic action; in fact, the INS had had him photographed and fingerprinted long ago at the FBI office in Huntsville. What exacerbated the situation was that recently the German government had made its second request for his extradition and some clerk at the INS, assuming the matter involved a real criminal case, flagged his file. I commented that that is the charitable interpretation. In any case, Germar was detained and sent to a jail about 50 miles from Chicago.

[Arthur Butz]

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26 October 2005 | Previous report

Friends:

A short while ago I spoke to Germar on the phone and here is his report of the situation. Again, he wants this report widely circulated and posted. In this connection, it will be helpful for you to recall my report of Oct. 22 on his arrest and general situation. What are definitely my views, not part of what Germar told me, are enclosed in square brackets [].

The government had until today, Oct. 26, to file with the court its arguments as to why it should be allowed to take over Germar's case and deport him, and Germar had until Nov. 2 to respond. The government filed two days early, Oct. 24, and Germar's lawyers replied today. The court will probably rule in early November. The government has two arguments.

1. When Germar filed his application for an adjustment of status, based on his marriage to a US citizen, he did not anticipate that the government would invoke the 1999 administratively created policy of ignoring the 1960 law; the latter would give Germar the right to the adjustment. He did not challenge the policy then, so he has no right to challenge it now.

[Since there had been no ruling on this question in the 11th circuit, why would it occur to Germar, or his lawyers, to challenge it?]

2. [Since Germar did not file a "frivolous" application for political asylum], his deportation at this time would not exclude his return in the future. [I suppose the reasoning here is that, since everything going on in the German legal system is irrelevant, the fact that he would be imprisoned on return to Germany is also irrelevant.]

[I take this opportunity to correct a small contradiction that somebody spotted in my report of Oct. 22. I wrote

"the highest levels of the executive branch in Washington, in the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, have now intervened and taken over the case from the INS. ... In view of developments this past week the court has, apparently only verbally, given the INS until Oct. 26 to file its arguments"

A correspondent wondered why, if the case had been taken from the INS, it was the INS that was to file.

What happened here is that I wrote a preliminary version of this report on Oct. 21 and then checked it with Germar on Oct. 22. He told me, essentially, that his case had moved to Washington. I should have changed that phrase to "given the government until Oct. 26".

In the future it would be best to say that Germar's adversary is the "government", and some fairly high levels of the government at that. Actually, the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) no longer exists, it having been transformed into an agency with another name within the Department of Homeland Security. However there is still a tendency to refer loosely to the "INS".]

On the matter of adjustments in the operations of his publishing business, Germar believes that, since the time frame is now so short, it would be pointless to implement changes that would have to be rescinded less than a month later.

Best regards,

Arthur R. Butz

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22 October 2005

Friends:

Here is a summary of Germar Rudolf's situation, based on my telephone conversations with him from jail. This is, up to my abilities to transcribe accurately, his account, not mine. He wants it to propagate widely as an e-mail and web postings.

On Oct. 19 Germar and his wife had a marriage interview at the Chicago office of the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service). It went well and ended with the INS certifying that their marriage was real. As they were about to leave two officers of the INS appeared and claimed that Germar had been sent a letter instructing him to appear at their Chicago office for photographing and fingerprinting, and that he had not complied. Neither Germar nor his lawyer received such a letter, and they have still not been shown a copy of it. The failure to appear would not in itself, however have brought any drastic action; in fact, the INS had had him photographed and fingerprinted long ago at the FBI office in Huntsville. What exacerbated the situation was that recently the German government had made its second request for his extradition and some clerk at the INS, assuming the matter involved a real criminal case, flagged his file. I commented that that is the charitable interpretation. In any case, Germar was detained and sent to a jail about 50 miles from Chicago.

A 1960 law specified that marriage to a US citizen is a valid basis for an adjustment of status for somebody involved in deportation proceedings, even if the marriage takes place during the proceedings. However since 1999 the government has been trying to act as though the law does not exist and has succeeded in this to some extent, getting a favorable ruling in one federal circuit and adverse rulings in three others (a "circuit" is a geographical sub-division of the US, defined only for purposes of administration of federal law). The 11th circuit court in Atlanta, which has Germar's case, has not yet ruled on this legal issue. Normally such a situation results in the matter being appealed to the Supreme Court, which is there to resolve contradictory lower court decisions. However subjects in deportation cases have been poor people who could not begin to mount a challenge in the Supreme Court. That is why the government has not been challenged on this since 1999. The government knows that it would lose in the Supreme Court.

The 11th circuit court wants to hear this case to its conclusion but the highest levels of the executive branch in Washington, in the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, have now intervened and taken over the case from the INS. How the matter passed from an anonymous clerk at the INS to the highest levels of the executive branch is unknown. In view of developments this past week the court has, apparently only verbally, given the INS until Oct. 26 to file its arguments on why it should be allowed to take over Germar's case, presumably to deport him forthwith. Germar's lawyers then have until Nov. 2 to file his arguments. The court will probably rule later in November.

The November ruling will be on whether the court's process will remain in place, or the executive branch will take over. Therefore it appears likely that Germar will win in November, as the court has expressed a wish to follow this case all the way to its conclusion. Why would it rule that its own deliberations are unimportant or irrelevant?

Assuming the November ruling is favorable, there is still likely a court hearing around January, which will decide two questions. First, is Germar entitled to political asylum? Second, if Germar is not entitled to political asylum, then is he entitled to an adjustment of status based on his marriage?

I commented on the question of publicity, which Germar is skeptical of but which I believe may be necessary to effectively raise funds in the US. He does not have any name recognition here. Above all, Germar and his lawyers do not want angry denunciation of the INS and/or government. Public demonstrations outside the INS or the court could be fatal.

At present his business operation is shut down and it is not possible to buy books from his website. However the website is still functioning. Germar has arranged for certain others to take over some of the publishing and business operations if he is deported.

The jail Germar is staying in is not an unpleasant place for a jail, and has an atmosphere resembling an army barracks. It has the lowest level of security and there are TV and games for the inmates' amusement, and books for their study. Food is decent.

Best regards,

Arthur R. Butz

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