Saadiq Long, along with his wife and daughter, were being held in a Turkish deportation center. The US government worked to secure Long's release, granting him a waiver from the no-fly list to enable him to return home. He and his family arrived Wednesday night at JFK airport in New York.
— Cempal (@cempalspace) January 25, 2016
In November, a right-wing blog called "Pajamas Media" erroneously reported that Long was arrested in Turkey "as a member of [a Daesh] cell."
Long was never charged with any crime. He was detained after the Turkish government claimed he intended to stay in the country without a proper visa.
"Saadiq and his family's return to the United States confirms, if there was still any doubt, that Turkey does not believe them to be [Daesh] operatives," Gadeir Abbas, Long's lawyer, told The Intercept.
A legal brief filed in December by the US Justice Department, in response to Long's lawsuit demanding removal from the no-fly list, states that Long and his family were detained because Turkish authorities "determined that the three had neither legal residence nor legal employment in Turkey."
The DOJ said that once the Longs made travel plans to leave Turkey, "the US government had reviewed the proposed travel plans and had no objection to those plans.”
According to The Intercept, being labeled a Daesh member in a "fabricated" report by Pajamas Media has done "permanent damage … to Long's reputation and future job prospects."
"This whole spectacle is worth thinking about for what it means to be a US Muslim in the age of the war on terror, and how the most irresponsible anti-Muslim voices regularly disseminate outright falsehoods to advance their toxic agenda," The Intercept reported.
