🚨 Red Alert — Bengal 2X Exposure, Communication Blackout, and Chemical/Biological Warfare Against a Prisoner-Journalist

The summary below is based on Rashid’s published statement, UPROAR’s chemical analysis, and the broader campaign record. These are grave allegations requiring immediate outside pressure, evidence preservation, and investigation.

Retaliatory transfer and threat structure:

• After Rashid exposed Red Onion self-immolations and contradicted official denials, Virginia transferred him to South Carolina in the middle of that backlash.
• He describes violent transport under extreme restraints, solitary confinement on arrival, and continuing punishment tied to his writing and outside communication.
• He states that on May 20, after publishing about his treatment, a disciplinary charge was fabricated to return him to lockup.
• He further reports that Jamie Fergeli, identified as a special agent from the inspector general’s office, threatened him to make “the media” and “my people” stop contacting headquarters and to stop writing more articles about SCDC, or his communication would be cut off and he would be harmed.

Six-cell no-communication unit and Bengal 2X exposure:

• Two days after that threat, Rashid reports he was moved to a six-cell no-communication unit in C-building where signs stated that occupants could not have a phone or tablet.
• He reports being placed in a cell coated with a white sticky powder spread around the sink, window, toilet, walls, and floor.
• He later identified that substance as Bengal 2X fire-ant insecticide, a highly toxic chemical not meant to be used as an indoor coating on a prisoner’s cell.
• He says he became seriously ill almost immediately, developed a respiratory infection, was put on antibiotics and lung medication, and later became sick again after being returned to the same contaminated cell.

Medical neglect, property deprivation, and censorship as one pattern:

• UPROAR’s contemporaneous attorney updates and ActionNetwork letter campaigns from May to July 2025 describe upper lung infection, blocked calls and emails, weight loss, a later untreated dental abscess, false refusal paperwork, and continuing barriers to care.
• Rashid also reports continuing deprivation of legal materials, personal property, communication, and basic tablet and phone privileges as part of an ongoing campaign of suppression.
• UPROAR’s Perry censorship campaign places this inside a larger South Carolina pattern that also includes suppression of the San Francisco Bay View and retaliation after Rashid challenged the denial of Socialist Viewpoint.
• This is why the Bengal 2X exposure cannot be treated as a standalone safety problem. It must be understood as part of a broader campaign to isolate, censor, punish, and silence a prisoner who exposed abuse and refused to shut up.

What we are demanding:

• Independent investigation now: into the Bengal 2X exposure, retaliatory threats, communication suppression, and all related staff misconduct.
• Evidence preservation now: camera footage, housing logs, pest-control logs, chemical records, grievance records, disciplinary records, communications records, and medical records.
• Independent medical evaluation now: full respiratory evaluation, toxic-exposure review, and follow-up care for the dental abscess and any related untreated conditions.
• End retaliation and censorship now: including retaliation for Rashid’s writing, publication, media contact, legal advocacy, and outside communication. Reinstate tablet access immediately.
• Return all withheld property now: including legal materials and personal property being withheld and “played games with.”
• Return Rashid to Virginia now: specifically to the Eastern or Central region, under conditions that protect him from retaliation, isolation, censorship, and further abuse.
• Accountability: remove implicated staff from contact pending investigation, terminate staff found responsible, and pursue criminal referral where the facts support it.