|
Whatevs. As long as he remains locked up until he is sent back to whichever pit he emerged from, I’m good. And his little “American” wife, too. [ToloNews] Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian activist arrested by U.S. immigration agents in March, met his month-old son for the first time on Thursday before an immigration hearing, his attorneys said.
A Damascus-born Palestinian with dual Algerian citizenship, highly connnected, possibly an MI6 asset, Mr. Khalil, 30, was a frontman for Columbia University Apartheid Divest, the student coalition that spearheaded violent and vicious anti-Israel protests at the school, hosted at least one specially designated foreign terrorist, and broke into, occupied, and vandalized a university building, which led the Trump administration to treat Columbia like a post-Civil War southern state in need of Reconstruction. He is being represented pro bono by 19 attorneys in his fight against extradition, including CUNY law professor Ramzi Kassem. He was previously vetted by the British government for the Syria office of the British embassy in Beirut, earning a security clearance for their soft power projects, on one of which he worked with his future wife — Lebanese-American dentist Noor Abdalla, 28, who interestingly is a hijabi. After the daylong hearing, Judge Jamee Comans of the LaSalle Immigration Court in Jena, Louisiana, did not decide whether the U.S. government can proceed with deporting Khalil.
She was to rule at a later date. Before the proceedings began Khalil met with his wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, and their baby Deen inside the Jena facility, an encounter made possible by a judge's ruling on Wednesday that Khalil must be allowed to meet with his wife.
"Mahmoud was able to see his baby and hold his baby and talk to his wife and hold his wife this morning," Amy Greer, one of his attorneys, told reporters after the hearing, adding that lawyers allowed the family privacy and were unable to relay details of the encounter.
Khalil, a leader in the Columbia University student movement that has criticized Israel's military campaign in Gaza, has become a central figure in the U.S. debate over the war and Trump administration tactics to use its jailing and deportation powers against political opponents.
The Trump administration has said his presence could harm U.S. foreign policy interests.
Khalil says he is the victim of U.S. repression of free speech.
That’s because he mistakes violence for speech. His son was born after Khalil was arrested on March 8 as the State Department revoked his green card.
|
