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February 17, 2003
Some of you are on my "other" lists - so if you
get this message double, or even triple, please bear with me. It's been 12
days since Ernst was arrested, and they haven't been pleasant days, as you
can imagine. Somehow, we held our own.
But today I could feel myself getting weak in the knees, for
there was, all of a sudden, a very strange, eerie silence. I know it is a
holiday, but the silence, after all the phone calls in the past few days,
was beginning to get to me.
I thought that today was my day to visit the Detention
Center, but having gotten the runaround before, I thought I'd better call.
The operator said that Mr Zundel was no longer there. He
didn't know where. He didn't know why. He said to call INS.
I called INS, and I called whoever I could think I should
call, and other people started searching, running into brickwall after
brickwall. After three assassination attempts on his life in the past, I was
beginning to worry.
It is now 6:20 pm. I just got off the phone with Ernst. But
listen to this - you will not believe it:
INS agents took him by plane from Knoxville to Canada with a
judge's order that he was BARRED FROM ENTERING THE US FOR THE NEXT TWENTY
YEARS!
For having missed a hearing???
At any rate, that is the story now.
Ernst was in Canada for about an hour. Lots of shouting,
gesticulating and wringing of hands, and then they shipped him BACK!
Which means they themselves violated the judge's ruling
within an hour's time!
Can you believe this turn of events? What on earth do they
think they are doing? Or is this a setup for something?
He is in Batavia Federal Detention Facility now, apparently
a smallish town near Buffalo. It is a much more humane place than where he
spent the past 12 days. He has been told that Canada has now agreed to take
him back after the paperwork is done. He thinks it might be several days
until they move him once again across the border where he spent two-thirds
of his life.
At any rate, we have gained a little maneuvering time. I'll
be in touch - but I am so relieved!
Ingrid
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