By
Today, I am in Brooklyn at U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, delivering my Victim Impact Statement at the sentencing of Robert Mustaq John, who sent me photos of Daniel Pearl in mid-beheading and telling me–“JEWgirl”–that I would be next. Here is the text of my statement:

Deborah K. Schlussel
writedebbie@gmail.com
May 18, 2007
The Honorable Joan M. Azrack
United States Magistrate Judge
Eastern District of New York
225 Cadman Plaza East
Brooklyn, New York 11201

RE: Victim Impact Statement
United States v. Robert Mustaq John
Docket No. 06-CR-854
Dear Magistrate Azrack:
I am writing this in the hope that you will take this into account when you sentence Robert Mustaq John for sending me death threats to my e-mail address. I would like you to know how I have been negatively impacted and affected by Mr. John’s actions. I am his victim and the object of his hate, Debbie Schlussel.
When I first opened the e-mail from Mr. John, I was shocked, outraged, and very afraid for my personal safety and that of my family members. That has not changed, to date. Mr. John’s e-mail featured the subject line, “JEWgirl, you might be next.” It featured photos of the late Jewish journalist Daniel Pearl in various states–with a gun to his head and in mid-beheading with blood gushing over his chest from his neck being sliced. Above it, in big, blood-red capital letters, Robert Mustaq John‚Äôs e-mail screamed: “KILL ALL KIKES.”
As I am sure Robert John is aware, Daniel Pearl was assassinated by Al-Qaeda because he was a Jew and an American. Not only was he beheaded, but when they found his body, it was cut up into ten pieces like a slaughtered chicken. This is what Robert John wanted me to fear. And he has succeeded in spades.
For almost four years, I have had horrible nightmares of having my residence broken into by the likes of Mr. John. I have woken up just as my mind was dreaming of masked men pulling out swords and getting ready to behead me–just like on the Al-Qaeda video of Daniel Pearl’s murder–and just like in the pictures in the e-mail Mr. John sent me. That is a dream that haunts me now, constantly, since I’ve received Robert John’s e-mail.
I have never met with nor have I ever had any contact with Mr. John, other than being the victim and recipient of his anti-Semitic, bigoted death threats and hate. I never asked him to contact me, and I most certainly wish he had not. It would have saved me almost four years–so far–of nightmares and distress. Four years of headaches and anguish.
I am in a constant state of fear. My residence, which has several windows, has the shades drawn, day and night. I never get to see the sun shine in because I am afraid of snipers shooting at me. I constantly leave through back and side doors and time-consuming alternate routes and am constantly looking all around me on the rare occasions that I travel in and out of my residence. It is, as I said, a constant state of fear and hyper-awareness. And I have to limit my trips outside because I never know when someone like Mr. John or one of his associates will be looking for me. Any noise, any slight abnormal sound in the middle of the night keeps me up indefinitely because I never know if it is Mr. John or one of his friends, relatives, or allies. This will never change. Mr. John changed my life forever, for the worst.
I have had to tell my parents, including my father who is not well, about these threats, for their personal safety as they are frequently in my presence. My father is now very seriously ill. He was not in such a condition before I told him of Mr. John’s threats to my life and limb. Although there are many factors that contribute to our health, stress like that which Mr. John has caused my family has certainly contributed negatively to the health conditions of both of my parents.
My grandparents, survived the Holocaust and Nazi-occupied Europe. My mother is an immigrant from that life, who was born in Bergen Belsen Camp in Germany. My family thought they left that life of hatred and violence against Jews behind. But now, with Mr. John uninvitedly entering our lives, we see that Nazism didn’t die. It just took a new form and a new geographic location.
My experience with this whole disturbing episode that never ends has been extremely negative on the so-called “Justice” side, as well.
It is bad enough that I was a victim of Mr. John, but I was also victimized by the Justice Department. After I received Mr. John’s death threat, I immediately called the Detroit office of the FBI. Instead of a swift investigation, I was stonewalled and mocked by two FBI agents–Robert Ouellet, the Special Agent originally assigned to the case, and his supervisor, Bill Edwards. Both of them belittled the threat and threatened me. Agent Ouellet–on his initial phone call to me–told me that his daughter didn’t like the women at a Jewish sorority and that the Jewish sorority girls at the University of Michigan, where his daughter was a student, are spoiled, haughty, and obnoxious. I was not sure why his anti-Semitism–on top of Mr. John’s threat–was expressed when he was supposed to be investigating an anti-Semitic death threat against me. In the months thereafter, he was too busy writing a book on our tax dime to investigate Mr. John. He told me that he, as an FBI agent, gets death threat every day and hung up on me. His supervisor, Agent Edwards threatened me not to write about my mistreatment on my website. He told me that Mr. John didn’t really mean it, and that I should just forget about it and not pursue it. Gee, why didn’t that excuse work for John Dillinger? Mr. John only “didn’t really mean it” when he got caught and interviewed by federal agents. Agent Edwards told me it would be too difficult to indict Mr. John because then he’d have to pay to fly from New York to Detroit to be arraigned and Federal Marshals would have to accompany him. Not only was that a lie, but I–the victim–have been victimized again, as I am not a wealthy person, but paid to come here to pay tribute to this criminal with my presence to speak to you, Your Honor, at his sentencing.
Then, the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Michigan, decided not to pursue the case because politically correct U.S. Attorneys Jeffrey Collins ad, later, Stephen Murphy–a current Bush nominee to the Federal Court of Appeals‚Äîdid not want to upset the Islamic community. Is this what our “Justice” Department has become–an instrument of political correctness at the hands of the religion of the hijackers, the religion of the murderous beheaders of Daniel Pearl? My case would have died in the great American abyss, but for the fact that I spoke out about it on my website and in media forums. If I did not have a voice, Mr. John would remain without a criminal indictment, without a criminal record. During the almost four years that I have waited for justice against Mr. John, I’ve watched an extremist imam, Hassan Qazwini, who is an open supporter of terrorism and proud friend of Hezbollah spiritual leader Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, get swift justice against two non-Muslim e-mailers who sent far more benign e-mails to him than that which Mr. John sent me. I read articles about how Mr. Qazwini’s e-mailers had their homes raided by the FBI–one of them was a quadriplegic veteran–while Mr. John has been treated with kid gloves.
I watched and waited in 2004 as the men were swiftly indicted and pled guilty, while I had to whine and cajole and complain to deaf ears, finally getting justice years later because I had the fortune of getting a new FBI agent and dedicated Justice Department attorney finally working on the case and pursuing it. But even then, I first had to endure 9 months of rude questioning from an incompetent Justice Department attorney, Lisa Krigsten, who did nothing on the case and harassed me along with Detroit’s U.S. Attorney’s Office, asking me about my writings and questions at public events, critical of the U.S. Attorney’s softness for extremist Muslims. Ms. Krigsten had an FBI agent call and repeatedly question and harass me about these things, which are completely unrelated to Mr. John’s death threats against me. When a new Justice Department civil rights attorney–a competent one–finally picked up the slack, he told me that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit was using up all of the Grand Jury time to prevent this case from moving forward. It is bad enough that lawyers had to fly in from Washington to pursue this case that a politically-motivated U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit would not.
Mr. John, I am told, is a Muslim foreign alien who is trying to obtain citizenship in the United States. He is Exhibit A that the so-called “Religion of Peace” is not so peaceful. We were told after the 9/11 attacks that those who committed them were “hijacking their religion,” that this is not Islam. But, in my experience, based on Mr. John’s actions, it seems that the religion is certainly populated by a disproportionate share of so-called “hijackers of a religion”–and far too many of them have one thing in common: their hatred for Jews and their desire to see them killed by Al-Qaeda, as Mr. John quite expressly wants to see happen to me. He sent me that e-mail specifically because he is a Muslim and specifically because I am a Jew, as evidenced by his words in the e-mail and on its subject line and the photos of a well-known Jew being executed by beheading by the most well-known terrorist group.
Mr. John got my e-mail address either from my well-read website or from a New York Post column I wrote at the time. It was my public address. He wrote me to silence me, to get me to stop writing about Islamic terrorists and thugs like himself, who want to take away our First Amendment rights. It will not work. But since he has certainly instilled fear in me for the safety of myself and my friends and family, he has achieved part of his goal. He may have never contributed to funds for terrorism or planned a bombing, but his e-mail to me was a different kind of terrorism. And we cannot tolerate it here in the United States of America.
Your Honor, Mr. John is not the type of citizen we want or need in the United States. He needs to be sent a message, as do all Muslims in our country and around the world: Third World bigotry and anti-Semitism is not acceptable on American soil. Islamic barbarism, like the beheading and dissection of Daniel Pearl–a human being, is not something to be cheered on and celebrated in our country. It is something to be condemned and punished to the fullest extent of the law. It is bad enough that he was allowed to plead to only a Misdemeanor, while the benign e-mailers to the Muslim extremist leader in Detroit are now convicted felons. I guess when you are a Jew and the perpetrator is a Muslim, equal punishment does not exist for the same crime. Now that he has pleaded to a Misdemeanor, please don’t let Mr. John get off completely without a harsh punishment to fit his crime and the harm it has caused me and my family.
Today, I hope you send a message to Robert Mustaq John, to his co-religionists, to the murderers of Daniel Pearl, to all who will learn of this case that you strongly condemn his actions by sending him to prison and doing whatever is necessary so that our authorities at Citizenship and Immigration Services, at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and at the Executive Office of Immigration Review will all know that Mr. John is not the type of potential citizen who should be welcomed and remain free on American soil. Mr. John’s continued freedom makes the rest of America–especially “JEWgirls” and “KIKES” like me–extremely unsafe. With me, it was an e-mail he sent, with someone else, he may carry out his threats.
Thank you for your time in reading this statement and considering my plight. I hope you will sentence Robert Mustaq John to at least a year in prison, if not a much harsher punishment.
Sincerely,
/s/
Deborah K. Schlussel