Friend David Finke wrote to the committee:

“I gladly call to your attention this situation of an eminent leader in our Islamic community. I believe he deserves support from every person with a concern for Justice.” Here is the letter he has request you read and reflect on:

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Dear Friend,

I never yet have obeyed the “Send this to everyone you know!” command when getting a passionate e-mail appeal.  Aren’t you glad?  But this message, originating with me alone, is one that I hope you will both read and act upon, and I’m urging it to everyone I know.

A friend of Nancy’s & mine here in Columbia must start serving a 36-month federal prison sentence in just 2 1/2 weeks. His “crime” to which he had to admit in a plea agreement (to avoid an even longer sentence) was that he sent money to his family in Iraq during the UN/US sanctions regime: 1990-2003.  His mother was going blind; his sister lost a baby because they couldn’t get $10 worth of antibiotics.  As so many in this town have been saying since we were stunned to learn his sentence several months ago, “Who among us wouldn’t have tried to do the same?”

Shakir Hamoodi’s only chance for not having to be separated from his family for the next 3 years is to be granted Executive Clemency.  We don’t expect that the President will act on this request until after the fall elections, and in fact the appropriate documents can’t be filed until Shakir is locked up.  But a highly committed group in town — including people who have never been “political” before — is organizing to do our best to bring this to President Obama’s attention, including working with the cooperative staff of our Senator McCaskill.

There’s more about this case that I’d be happy for you to read, and I’m giving links at the end.  We’re delighted how much positive publicity Shakir, as a community leader, has gained. At the very least, I hope you’ll take the next minute to click this link to read more, then consider adding your name to the 3,500 plus signatures we have on an electronic petition.

Many hard-copy petitions have also been circulated.  From these we are working on collecting the best several dozen personalized letters of support and testimonial to add to the official Petition to be filed August 28th with the Justice Department’s “Office of the Pardon Attorney.”  I feel honored to be part of this work, and also to serve as trustee of the “Hamoodi Family Benefit Trust” established to help the family during their breadwinner’s absence.

Our friend Shakir is a naturalized American citizen who came from Iraq to the U.S. to study nuclear engineering, for which he has a doctorate and on which he was teaching at the “Mizzou” campus here.  I find it significant that he chose not to return to Iraq where his skills might have been used to build weapons for Saddam Hussein.  Our government has “thanked” him for this service by having raided his home and seized records 6 years ago.

However, after 5 years of searching through them with Shakir’s full cooperation, they found no evidence that any of the money he transmitted went for anything other than humanitarian relief to individuals.  And then, for reasons that we’ll probably never know, the “Team A” of FBI and federal prosecutors was suddenly replaced earlier this year by “Team B” which recommended a sentence of 5 to 6 years.  So much for cooperation with the expectation of probation — which, in fact, has been given in similar cases even to defendants who moved much greater amounts of money and who took a percentage for themselves.

I will get off my soapbox now (while preparing for 2 testimonial/send-off dinners in Shakir’s honor) and simply ask you to respond — with your signature at least, and a monetary gift if possible (details on request.)  It will be important to mention in our filings how many individuals have gone on record asking respectfully for Executive Clemency.

This is as clear a case as I’ve ever witnessed of the necessity for concerned citizens to come together with compassion to try to undue a manifest injustice.

Whatever you decide to do, I send you greetings, and hope to stay in touch.

In peace,    -DHF