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Shakir Hamoodi
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LINKS
Hamoodi Family
Website
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Tom Sager's
Remarks on Sentencing
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Hamoodi Family Caught in Sanctions Nightmare
(PRI's The World)
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Chert Hollow Farms
on Shakir Hamoodi
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Steve Jacobs
on Shakir Hamoodi
(Columbia Tribune)
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Aline Kultgen
on Shakir Hamoodi>
(Columbia Missourian)
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Cathy Salter
on Shakir Hamoodi
(Columbia Tribune)
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Hamoodi Supporters
Gather at Rock Bridge Christian Church
(Columbia Missourian)
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Iraq War Sanctions
Run Amok
(The Daily Beast)
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September 3, 2013
Letter from Hamoodi Support Group
Please write to president Barack Obama and request commutation of Shakir Hamoodi's three year prison sentence to time served.
The month of September provides a unique opportunity to bring this request before the president. Please mail your letter as soon as possible.
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Dear Friends and Supporters
As of 8/28/13, Shakir Hammodi has been incarcerated at Leavenworth Federal Prison for 1 full year. We feel a renewed urgency to work together as a community in our efforts to gain Shakir’s release through Executive Clemency. Here’s how you can help in the next two weeks:
Please write a personalized, 1-page letter to President Barack Obama. Use letterhead and titles as appropriate. If you already wrote a letter in the past, then simply editing it to reflect the one-year term already served would suffice.
Your letter should include a sentence like: "Dr. Hamoodi is currently in Federal Prison at the Federal Prison Camp in Leavenworth, KS, and his inmate number is 21901-045."
Here is a sample letter, which you can personalize.
Address the envelope to:
Ms. Kathryn Ruemmler,
White House Counsel to the President
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500
Appeal to the President to use his unique power to grant clemency to “commute the sentence of Dr. Hamoodi to time served.”
Become familiar with the following points, using those which are most comfortable for you and what you believe will be persuasive, in your letter:
1. You are adding your voice to Dr. Hamoodi’s original, extensive formal Appeal for Commutation of Sentence filed with the Office of the Pardon Attorney the day Shakir began his sentence. You support his claim that his action was only for humanitarian purposes, and believe his sentence was excessive, disproportionate.
2. Through the sympathetic, personal intervention of Sen. Claire McCaskill, Shakir’s official petition packet was advanced to White House Counsel Ruemmler last December, with the Senator’s conclusion that it “deserved the President’s attention.” On 8/28/13, we again contacted Sen. McCaskill, asking her to again contact the President, with a favorable recommendation for clemency.
3. Support for Shakir and his family remains strong in Columbia, Missouri, his home community to which he has given so much positive leadership for almost three decades. On 8/28/13, Henry J Waters III, editor of the Columbia Tribune, published a lead editorial urging Hamoodi’s immediate release.
4. In the same week there were two other published pieces persuasively arguing for compassionate release:
Cathy Salter’s Notes From Boomerang Creek, Columbia Tribune, 8/26/13.
Sunday Op-Ed Columbia Tribune, 9/1/13, by Owais Abdul-Kafi, Shakir’s oldest son.
5. Attorney General Eric Holder has initiated a review of sentencing practices, particularly concerning those convicted of nonviolent offenses, and also older prisoners. Dr. Shakir Hamoodi ideally fits both categories.
6. There is increasing public criticism of the President’s failure to fully and effectively use his unique Constitutional powers of Clemency. Most recently is the syndicated article by Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative journalist George Lardner Jr. showing a
bewilderingly low number of pardons and commutations.
7. Previously a highly critical editorial about current clemency practice appeared in the New York Times, particularly citing the unhelpful role of The Pardon Attorney. Immediate Executive action commuting Dr. Hamoodi’s sentence to time served would be an excellent way of restoring credibility and respect for the President on this issue.
Conclude your letter with a summary sentence urging Presidential commutation in the interest of Justice, compassion, and good public policy, helping the Hamoodi family and returning Shakir Hamoodi to the community of Columbia. Include a CC to your senators and representative. Below are addresses for Missouri's two senators and our 8th Distrct Representative:
Office of Sen. Claire McCaskill
United States Senate
Hart Senate Office Building, Ste. 506
Washington, D.C. 20501
Senator Roy Blunt
United States Senate
260 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Representative Jason Smith
United States House of Representatives
2230 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Please email us when you have sent your letter, so we’ll know the likely impact of our renewed campaign. We want a strong wave of letters to arrive in mid-September. If you can have your letters postmarked by Monday, September 16, it would be great. Thank you in advance.
Our grateful thanks,
Shakir Hamoodi Support Group
(minor editing of letter by Yusha Sager)
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