Fwd: ZGram - 2/8/2002 - "Arrest Update"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

>
>
>ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny
>
>February 8, 2003
>
>Good Morning from the Zundelsite:
>
>I visited Ernst today in Blount County Jail where he is being held. 
>Persistence won the day.
>
>Here is what happened:
>
>I had called several times to find out when I could visit, and via 
>many runarounds and yet more runarounds I finally figured out that 
>visiting hours are scheduled according to which floor an "inmate" is 
>assigned.  I was first told I could come today, at 11 a.m.  When I 
>called to make double-sure, I was told no, Ernst's visiting hour was 
>Monday at 1 p.m., but my husband would have to indicate he really 
>wanted to see me by signing a visitor sheet.
>
>Perhaps someone ought to inform him? 
>
>Well, did I not know it was a weekend - and people had gone home?
>
>  I put some extra steel in my voice and threw in my doctor's title 
>for good measure.  I told the person on the phone in charge of 
>procedures that word had come to me that Ernst would be shipped 
>"elsewhere" - and was there any way to make an exception?  I simply 
>HAD to see him.
>
>A very curt "Sorry!"  Next Saturday.
>
>I said that really WAS strange - I had been told if not today, then Monday. 
>
>Well, sorry, Ma'am!  Next Saturday.
>
>Serendipity intervened at that point.  A friend who is a minister 
>volunteered his own visiting slot over to me. 
>
>I called again and asked:  could I come?  I KNEW there was a slot. 
>The answer was: "No, only Monday."  All slots had since been filled. 
>
>I said it was odd - I knew for a fact a visiting slot had just opened. 
>
>Well, I was not on the visiting list. 
>
>I said to double-check.  PLEASE double-check.
>
>No doing.  Back and forth.  Back and forth.  And yet more back and forth. 
>
>With gritted teeth I managed to get to some supervisor who, after 
>hearing my story of woe of the Royal Runaround, allowed me to come 
>in at 12:45 - and he gave me his word he would make sure I would be 
>on the all-important list. 
>
>I drove there two hours early, expecting more trouble.  Guess what? 
>I was not on anyone's list.
>
>I said I had been promised.
>
>Sorry.  The supervisor who had promised me had left. 
>
>Yet more to-do - and all this time I was just speaking - and, 
>frankly, zee accent getting pretty zick - a list was found, Eureka! 
>It even had my name. 
>
>Another problem next arose.  Where to find Mr. Zundel? 
>
>He wasn't here.  He wasn't there.  Dr. Seuss comes to mind - doesn't  he? 
>
>Sit DOWN, Mrs. Zundel - and WAIT!
>
>To make a very complicated story short, somehow a miracle occurred, 
>and I was buzzed upstairs.
>
>As far as I can tell, this business with the musical chairs, 
>shifting Ernst from floor to floor, was nothing but harassment.  It 
>was meant to prevent me, and probably others, from seeing and 
>talking to him. 
>
>Those are the times that make you thankful for your ancestors' genes 
>that instruct you exactly just how deep to dig in your heels.
>
>=====
>
>So there was my dear love, behind a glass partition - just like in 
>the movies.  And for what? 
>
>[START]
>
>    AP World Politics
>
>    U.S. immigration agents arrest Canadian neo-Nazi on visa problems
>
>    Fri Feb 7,10:06 PM ET
>
>    By DUNCAN MANSFIELD, Associated Press Writer
>
>    KNOXVILLE, Tennessee - A man notorious for neo-Nazi writings and for
>    running a white supremacist publi shing house in Toronto has been
>    arrested for having an expired visa, immigratio n authorities said.
>
>    Immigration and Naturalization Service agents arrested Ernst Zundel,
>    63, on Wednesday without resistance.
>
>    "He has not been removed from the country, but I can tell you he is in
>    our custody," Sarah Mouw, a spokeswoman for the INS in New Orleans,
>    said Friday.
>
>    Zundel had been living in the foothills of eastern Tennessee's Great
>    Smoky Mountains for about two years. No one answered the phone at
>    Zundel's home in Sevierville Friday.
>
>    "I don't know what his immigration status is but he is a bad boy,"
>    said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
>    "He is an anti-Semite, a Holocaust denier. He is somebody America
>    could do without."
>
>[END]
>
>Ernst and I talked for an hour, and I managed to tell him most of 
>what he needed to know.  Is he well?  Yes, to all appearances.  He 
>isn't treated badly. 
>
>"But everything," he told me, "is unpleasant." 
>
>The food is a disgrace, and very small portions are given.  He 
>shares a cell with only one other person who gets moved back and 
>forth as well.  One night he had to  spend with a howling and 
>utterly deranged schizophrenic.  Now he has a "roommate" who seems 
>to be all right.  If he wants pen and paper, he has to put in a 
>request for it on Monday - and maybe he'll get it on Thursday.  He 
>said his "roommate" had given him a few sheets of paper,  on which 
>he is writing his February Power letter for his worldwide 
>supporters.  If he can get it mailed out, I will type it, format it, 
>have it translated, and ship it out next week.
>
>I won't pretend this is a lark that Ernst can take in stride. 
>During the three years we have been together as a married couple 
>committed to each other, I have become keenly aware of how 
>beauty-responsive and esthetically sensitive Ernst is.  A sunset, a 
>spring blossom can make his entire being just radiate with joy.  He 
>is an artist, through and through - his soul just hungers for 
>beauty.  It must be very hard on him to know that from 5  p.m. to 9 
>p.m. he is allowed to share in the company of whatever else is 
>locked up in that place - and if he chooses not to partake in 
>inanities, he cannot go back to his cell.  Not before 9 p.m., that 
>is!
>
>=====
>
>I believe there is a good chance Ernst will be moved back and forth 
>across America to avoid any meaningful strategy of freeing him in a 
>concerted effort.  There is a name for this treatment - I have 
>forgotten what it's called.  Another possibility, of course, is that 
>he will be shipped to Germany so fast that all we'll see is dust 
>clouds. 
>
>Our best chance is delay - and supporter involvement and outrage! 
>
>Many of you have asked what you can do, and I have stalled with an 
>answer because I wanted to talk to him first.  Ernst feels you 
>should use as many avenues as you can think of to spread the word 
>and tell his story - but, please, always with class and discernment! 
>
>Don't get vile.  Don't get abusive.  Never forget who we are.  Let's 
>leave the filth and violence to our enemies - we have nothing but 
>nothing in common with them! 
>
>I will tell you more tomorrow about our plans and how we can band 
>together and free this freedom-loving man who has already given 40 
>years of his life to this struggle.  I am too tired tonight to do a 
>good job, but I will have strategies ready tomorrow.
>
>=====
>
>You need an upbeat ending - and I have that for you:
>
>Media-wise, it's been a mad-house!  The story of the Zundel arrest 
>is truly all over the globe!  I have had news from as odd a place as 
>Malta!  Huge!  Simply huge exposure!  It is wry fun to let our 
>enemies do our publicity for us!
>
>Briefly, this morning, the Zundelsite was down.  Guess why? 
>
>We manage to resurrect it.  My volunteer webmaster tells me:
>
>So far in Feb,  we have had 670,661 visitors,  which  looked at
>2.3 million different pages on the Zundelsite!!!
>
>By the end of Feb,  maybe we can hit 6 million pages viewed!
>
>Go take a look - and send others there.  The homepage is re-done - I 
>think it looks very effective.
>
>www.zundelsite.org
>
>=====
>
>You guys hang in there, and I will, too.  Tomorrow, I'll rise like a 
>phoenix from the ashes.  I must admit that this prison  visit - my 
>very first ever! - has done a good number on me.  But the line in 
>the sand has been drawn.
>
>With many, many thanks for your wonderful letters and also promised 
>support, I say we are in this together - and we'll win!
>
>Ingrid
>