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Jason Leopold details his exclusive report on the brother of alleged al Qaeda ringleader Abu Zubaidah, who’s been living in the US since 1998 and paid a huge price for having a brother at Gitmo who has been tortured–but never charged or tried.Once again, Jason Leopold demonstrates his investigative skills and Truthout’s commitment to enterprise journalism. As he explains in Part 2 (to be released on 5/30), Leopold was digging for new angles on Abu Zubaidah, when he found a blog comment attributed to his brother, Hashem. Leopold tracked Hashem down, and is the first reporter to tell his story. Hashem was not especially close to his brother, known to the family as Hani, before Hani was taken into US custody in 2002, and unlike his brother, Hashem was chasing the American dream, not waging jihad. His odyssey is fascinating: he landed in Portland, OR where he married and had children with an American wife, Rosalee. After 9/11, FBI agents came calling, and lapped up false information provided by a vengeful Rosalee. Due to rape and harassment charges brought by a friend of Rosalee–which Hashem denied–he was vulnerable to deportation, and spent 2 years in ICE jail. The FBI dangled a green card in exchange for Hesham’s work as an informant, monitoring mosques and Muslims in Portland. The FBI also forced him to testify–ostensibly against his brother–in a trial where he was not able to positively identify pictures said to be of Hani. Hesham has remarried and now lives in Florida, and still aspires to be an American and join our military.