US Indymedia has posted a short story on the July 22 vigil held at New York City's federal building to mark the one-year anniversary of the passing of Farouk Abdel-Muhti. That was the same spot where Farouk's friends and supporters had gathered weekly to demand his release during the two years the local Palestinian spokesman and activist was illegally held by federal immigration authorities. Farouk had been released in April 2004 following a long legal struggle and activist campaign. Here is what Indymedia wrote up on the memorial, but go to their website for photos:

Well, the (supposedly) final design for the "Freedom Tower" that is to rise where the World Trade Center stood has been unveiled after a long, tortuous process. And the design, a brutalist product of politics and paranoia without even a whiff of human spirit, renders the tower's name more Orwellian than ever. Such a ghastly construction can only be understood in the context of the new anti-terrorist police state; indeed, this is probably the first major public building explicitly designed under the direct influence, and with the veto power, of a city police department.

The latest sorry debacle over the slow and tempestuous redevelopment of New York's Ground Zero concerns plans for an International Freedom Center on the site. Survivors groups are protesting that the museum will not be exclusively dedicated to the 9-11 disaster, but will also feature material on Nazi and Soviet tyranny, American slavery and the Native American genocide. As one survivor at a "Take Back the Memorial" protest at Ground Zero told Bloomberg news June 20, "Instead of being immersed in 9-11, we'll be discussing world politics."

Freedom's on the march. That's why a South Asian man gets detained by the police for taking photos on the streets of New York. Gotta love the irony. Thanks to the Independent Press Association's Voices That Must Be Heard, "the best of New York's ethnic and immigrant press," for passing this along.

Four years after scores of rescue workers were injured in the smoldering wreckage of the World Trade Center, the federal government plans to rescind $125 million that was allocated to help them, and many of those who requested compensation are finding their claims being disputed at 10 times the rate that typical workers face.

The New York Police Department is requesting funds to install hundreds more video cameras throughout the city to help fight crime and combat terrorism. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly wants to put up some 400 surveillance cameras on high-crime and high-traffic streets to record action to be reviewed later if a crime occurs in the area. Locations for cameras have not yet been finalized but areas likely to be targeted for surveillance include Manhattan's Herald Square, Times Square and 125th Street in Harlem. There are already 80 such cameras in place, many installed during last summer's Republican Convention. Additionally, more than 3,000 cameras monitor the city's Housing Authority projects.

New York City's tabloids are having a field day today with the arrest of a Bronx martial arts instructor, Tarik Ibn Osman Shah, on charges of "providing material support" to al-Qaeda. The NY Post does not fail to emphasize that Osman Shah is the son of Lieutenant X, a key aide to slain Black Muslim leader Malcolm X, according to "police sources." "It is particularly gratifying that someone using New York City as a base for terrorist support is now in custody," said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. Also arrested was Dr. Rafiq Sabir, a Columbia medical school graduate in Boca Raton, FL. Both men are US citizens.

WW4 REPORT readers are aware that the monthly Critical Mass bicycle ride in New York City has been facing a severe police crackdown for the past several months, with hundreds arrested, bicycles confiscated, and now a threatened injunction against the ride's perceived organizers. Ironically, this crackdoown comes as several have been killed this year in a wave of reckless accidents by city motorists.