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Posted on 10/07/2001 2:33:38 AM PDT by mercy

townhall.com

Debbie Schlussel
October 6, 2001

In my previous column, I wrote about President Bush's terrorist buddy, Dr. Sami Al-Arian, a University of South Florida professor, who is the Islamic Jihad's frontman in America and, today, roams free.

Since a recent appearance on FOX News Channel's "O'Reilly Factor," Al-Arian has been suspended with pay. He claims it is for his safety – due to threats. But, in reality, it is due to the justified outrage of South Floridians, University of South Florida students and their parents, and other U.S. citizens that a college professor who illegally launders money for Islamic Jihad and helps its leaders and operatives get into the U.S. on temporary visas is allowed to remain on a taxpayer-funded faculty, teaching students.

However, now Al-Arian is on a paid holiday. He does not have to work, but he still gets paid, by us – the taxpayers. This is not the kind of reward we should be giving terrorist operatives. There is another reward that is far more deserved, and it is called "justice." Not the phony justice where a speedy trial and lawyers help this Islamic Jihad puppet-master get off. And not the phony justice of a presidential visit to the Washington, D.C., mosque where we all make nice after a terrorist attack. But real justice, in which a national security problem is treated once and for all like a national security matter, not a trumped-up civil rights matter. And not a political matter to be courted at the White House, like Al-Arian was by President George W. Bush.

New, more damning evidence has come to light on Al-Arian – evidence that has been in the possession of federal law enforcement agencies for at least a year. Evidence – which for some bizarre reason – has not been acted upon. All while he and his son visit the White House.

A very interesting video of Al-Arian has surfaced. Remember the "peace-loving" Islamic mosques to which we've been preached about on an almost hourly basis? Well, in the latest Al-Arian video, his role is not quite the cuddly purple Islamic Barney, and neither are the Muslim clerics that join him. Fawwaz Abu Damra, Imam of the Islamic Center of Cleveland is seen fundraising with Al-Arian, on the night of December 22, 1988.

While most Americans were celebrating Christmas or Chanukkah around this time, Abu Damra was introducing Al-Arian at a fundraising session at the mosque. "Tonight, Dr. Sami Al-Arian he is president of the Islamic Committee for Palestine. A short briefing about the Islamic Committee for Palestine, it is the active arm of the Islamic Jihad Movement. And we like to call it the Islamic Committee for Palestine here for security reasons."

Security reasons – not to mention tax-deductible, U.S. taxpayer subsidized reasons.

Next, the video shows Al-Arian uttering such peace-loving jewels, as "Let us damn America. Let us damn their allies until death. Why do we stop?" Did Al-Arian stop when he was visiting the White House, this past summer? Only he knows for sure.

Then, Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, current chief of Islamic Jihad, based in Damascus, Syria (Syria – our latest, greatest anti-terrorism coalition partner), graces this real-life horror-flick. A former University of South Florida professor, himself, who gained access to the U.S. on a temporary visa obtained for him by Al-Arian, his video sentiments are hardly the Sesame Street variety – unless Bert, Ernie and the Cookie Monster are teaching the ABC's of anti-American terrorism:

"And the sister who is saying, the first solution is to topple the regimes when we call for toppling the regimes, will it be a picnic or Jihad? Now when we go to topple the regimes will it be a picnic, meaning Sunday picnic, or Jihad?" Shallah asks rhetorically. "Now how do we topple the rulers? I say to you, we topple the rulers with Jihad. I propose a way. I say toppling the rulers and rubbing their nose in the dirt and Jihad against them is not terrorism."

Standing under Islamic Jihad banners, Al-Arian expounded on his views of Christianity and Judaism: “God warns us in the Koran and he cursed them. He cursed those who are the sons of Israel through David and Jesus, the Son of Mary, because of their disobedience and they used to assail, they were not held back by any prohibition they committed. Those people God made monkeys and pigs.”

In the background, there are posters hanging in the Cleveland mosque, including symbols of Islamic Jihad and statements, like "It is Jihad. Victory or Martyrdom."

But this Winter 1998 Cleveland mosque episode was not unique. Al-Arian and the Cleveland Islamic leader, Abu Damra, took their secret terrorist fundraising telethon on the road, and law enforcement is in the possession of documentation and videos denoting such appearances throughout the U.S.

A letter from Al-Arian to Isma'il al-Shatti, a fellow Islamic Jihadist, dated February 1, 1995, and translated from Arabic by U.S. government officials also features similar language about the Islamic Jihad's terrorist activities and goals, as well as Al-Arian's goal of obtaining his American passport, "at which time I hope to establish a good relationship between us." Al-Arian, and most of those for whom he obtained temporary visas for entry into the United States, immediately illegally registered to vote, upon entering. Law enforcement knows this to be a common practice among terrorists who can then use their U.S. drivers licenses and voter ID cards as proof of U.S. Citizenship in less scrupulous countries, such as the Caribbean nations, from which to conduct and plan terrorist operations undetected.

Aside from his links to the 1993 World Trade Center bombers, Al-Arian's Islamic Jihad is important for the lists it is on and the lists it is not on. Islamic Jihad – while on the official State Department list of terrorist groups – is not on the Bush list of terrorist groups to be tackled in "Operation Infinite Justice." Apparently the justice is a lot more finite than the name implies, because Flight 93, which crashed near Pittsburgh, featured hijackers in red headbands, symbolic of Islamic Jihad, which takes its orders from the government of Iran. Callers on cellphones all provided accounts of the red headbands to relatives and law enforcement, according to many sources, including USA Today and NBC News.

And this was not the first time that Islamic Jihad successfully targeted Americans for death. Another tragic victim of Al-Arian's murderous religious group was Alisa Flatow.

In 1995, this young, bright, beautiful girl – a U.S. citizen and New Jersey resident – was murdered at the age of 20, never to get her college degree or marry her longtime boyfriend. She was murdered by Al-Arian's Islamic Jihad. Under the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, – which allows families of fatal victims of terrorism to sue its sponsors – the Flatow Family successfully sued the government of Iran that sponsors Al-Arian's Islamic Jihad and that had the gall to include an actual line-item budget item for its terrorist attacks on civilians like Alisa. But Bill Clinton and his various federal bureaucracies refused to enforce the law and prevented the Flatows' seizure of most Iranian assets within U.S. control.

But the Flatows did not know about Al-Arian and his supporters. Now they know, and so do the victims of the WTC attacks. And I know a lot of good lawyers, whose next aim should be to bankrupt this man.

Here is the link to the first FR article from Debbie Schlussel:

Bush's Terrorist Buddy

The WND and FR article had this photo on it taken during the campaign:

Laura and George W. Bush (3rd and 4th from left) with Islamic Jihad frontman Sami Al-Arian
(third from right) and family (son, Abdullah "Big Dude" Al-Arian, is on far left).

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