Fwd: ZGram - 2/8/2002 - "Arrest Update"
irimland@zundelsite.org
irimland@zundelsite.org
Sat, 8 Feb 2003 20:19:56 -0800
>
>
>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
>