ZGram - 2/17/2003 - "Sit down, because you'll need to...!"

irimland@zundelsite.org irimland@zundelsite.org
Mon, 17 Feb 2003 17:30:53 -0800


ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

February 17, 2003

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

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