Free Republic

The truth sometimes hurts. Just ask the remaining supporters of Professor Sami Al-Arian. On May 1, 2006, their hero received the maximum sentence available under the plea agreement, in which he acknowledged what he had denied to everyone for over a decade: that he was indeed a secret U.S.-based operative for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). The culmination of the Al-Arian case once again illustrates an underrated function of the American criminal justice system: convincing a stubborn, well-heeled defendant of his own guilt. Sometimes prosecutors have to suffer setbacks like a hung jury to make the criminal realize that the...

TAMPA -- A judge on Monday sentenced former professor Sami Al-Arian to another year and a half in prison before he will be deported in his terrorism conspiracy case. Al-Arian, 48, was sentenced to four years and nine months, but he will get credit for the three years and three months he has already served while being held before and after his trial. His lawyer, Linda Moreno, asked the judge to release her client now, but the judge refused and called Al-Arian ``a master manipulator.''

Comatose Florida teen 'best target we can dream of' Terror leaders rejoice in injuries of boy critical after Tel Aviv bombing -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: April 27, 2006 8:18 p.m. Eastern By Aaron Klein © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com Daniel Wultz JERUSALEM – Daniel Wultz, a Florida teenager lying in a coma after being critically injured last week in a suicide bombing at an Israeli restaurant, is the "best target combination we can dream of – American and Zionist," Abu Nasser, a leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, one of the groups responsible for the deadly blast, told WorldNetDaily. Abu Ayman, a leader...

“[T]he conflict is so clear, so stark there is no middle ground,” said Usman Badar, who in 2005 was President of the Muslim Student Association at Sydney University. “How do you come to middle ground on whether sovereignty belongs to the people or to Allah? You can’t.” Schools down under have begun welcoming Badar and other speakers who, as Sydney Morning Herald reporter Miranda Devine wrote on Sunday, “appear to be fully assimilated, second-generation Australians” who wear conventional Western clothing and speak fluently in “broad Australian accents” as well as Arabic. “But they belong to a political group called Hizb...

Plot for revenge attacks on WestIRAN’S president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, attended a meeting in Syria earlier this year with one of the world’s most wanted terrorists, according to intelligence experts and a former national security official in Washington. US officials and Israel intelligence sources believe Imad Mugniyeh, the Lebanese commander of Hezbollah’s overseas operations, has taken charge of plotting Iran’s retaliation against western targets should President George W Bush order a strike on Iranian nuclear sites. Mugniyeh is on the FBI’s “Most Wanted Terrorists” list for his role in a series of high-profile attacks against the West, including the 1985 hijacking...

Mideast 'axis' forms against WestIran is forging closer ties with countries and groups in the Middle East that share its hostility toward the US and Israel.By Nicholas Blanford Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor April 20, 2006www.csmonitor.com/2006/0420/p01s03-wome.html BEIRUT, LEBANON - Rising tension between the West and Iran is coinciding with the emergence of a loose anti-Western alliance - Israel now dubs it an "axis of terror" - spanning the Middle East, presenting a new challenge to the US's regional ambitions. Centered on Iran, this alignment has hardened in recent months, analysts say, with Tehran shoring up old alliances and strengthening...

After years of denial, Sami Al-Arian has finally admitted it: he has pleaded guilty to a charge of “conspiracy to make or receive contributions of funds to or for the benefit of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Specially Designated Terrorist” organization. He has agreed to accept deportation. In his 2002 defense of Al-Arian, Eric Boehlert wrote: “The al-Arian story reveals what happens when journalists, abandoning their role as unbiased observers, lead an ignorant, alarmist crusade against suspicious foreigners who in a time of war don't have the power of the press or public sympathy to fight back.” Reality is just the...

WASHINGTON, April 17 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Former University of South Florida Professor Sami Al-Arian has pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to provide services to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a specially designated terrorist organization, in violation of U.S. law, the Department of Justice announced today. In a closed proceeding before a federal magistrate at U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Florida last week, Al- Arian pleaded guilty to Count Four of the indictment against him -- a charge of conspiracy to make or receive contributions of funds, goods or services to or for the benefit of...

On Wednesday, January 18, I received an e-mail from someone identifying himself as “Ahmed.” He wrote to me that he was a “Muslim activist” and that he wanted me to come on his radio show to discuss my work, or, in his words, “to give [my] side of the story.” In doing a simple web search on his e-mail address, it turned out that this individual was none other than the Director of Communications for the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Ahmed Rehab. While I didn’t know his motives in contacting me, I had recalled when...

AKRON, Ohio (AP) - Testimony in the trial of an Islamic cleric accused of lying on his application for U.S. citizenship ended Wednesday after federal prosecutors showed video footage of the defendant raising money for a suspected terrorist group. Fawaz Damra, the Palestinian-born imam of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, is charged with lying about his connections to terrorist organizations when he applied for citizenship in 1994. Damra, 41, has pleaded innocent. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to five years in prison, stripped of his citizenship and deported. Jurors watched a 1991 video of Damra speaking at...

Bin Laden cannot be named in Damra trial Judge fears mention would inflame jurors Tuesday, June 15, 2004 John Caniglia Plain Dealer Reporter A federal judge, fearing the mention of Osama bin Laden would prejudice jurors, barred prosecutors from bringing up the terrorist's name during imam Fawaz Damra's trial, which begins today in Akron. Damra, the leader of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, is accused of concealing his ties to terrorism on immigration forms in 1994. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to five years in prison and deported. U.S. District Judge James Gwin's decision helped Damra, 41,...

Imam Fawaz Damra helped lay the groundwork for an organization that ultimately merged into al-Qaida in the late 1980s. He was an unindicted co-conspirator of the terrorists who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993. And he passionately raised money for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which killed dozens of Jews in Israel during the 1990s. Yet Damra, spiritual leader to thousands of Muslims in Northeast Ohio, seemed to fly comfortably beneath the radar of U.S. terror investigators - until Tuesday. FBI agents swooped in on the Palestinian cleric at his Strongsville home, arresting him on a relatively minor - and...

GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian election winner Hamas opened formal talks on Monday with other militant groups in a bid to form a coalition government by early next month, Hamas officials said. Ahead of a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas leaders started talks in Gaza with leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a key group involved in a more than 5-year-old Palestinian uprising. Hamas, which became the majority bloc in the Palestinian parliament on Saturday after a January 25 election victory over Abbas's Fatah faction, was also to huddle with the Democratic Front for the...

U.S. allows Muslim 'fox in the henhouse' Guest panelist threatened America, openly supported terror groups Posted: March 20, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern Editor's note: WorldNetDaily is pleased to have a content-sharing agreement with Insight magazine, the bold Washington publication not afraid to ruffle establishment feathers. Subscribe to Insight at WorldNetDaily's online store and save 71 percent off the cover price. By Kenneth R. Timmerman © 2004 Insight/News World Communications Inc. The congressionally funded United States Institute of Peace hosted an event yesterday in Washington on reforming Islam, with a guest panelist who has threatened the United States and openly supported...

The Lebanese-based terror organization Hizbullah is supported by Iran to the tune of US$100 million per year. $10 million also made its way last year from Iran to the Islamic Jihad. The data on Iranian support for Lebanese and Palestinian Authority-based terrorist organizations was revealed by Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz Saturday night, in a lecture he delivered at the annual Herzliya Conference. Mofaz noted that on Friday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held talks in Damascus with representatives of Hizbullah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine during a visit he paid to Syrian dictator...

DETROIT - A Cleveland imam convicted of hiding terrorist ties has agreed to leave the United States, ending his deportation case, his attorney and government officials said Thursday. The agreement allows Fawaz Damra to resettle in Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Egypt or the Palestinian territories, said Greg Gagne, a spokesman for the Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review. A judge has approved the agreement with the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which will decide his destination. Damra is still in federal custody, said Robert Birach, a Detroit lawyer who negotiated for him. He declined to discuss more...

JERUSALEM – In what is sure to be a major embarrassment for the Palestinian Authority, a group linked to PA President Mahmoud Abbas fired a Qassam rocket that landed yesterday just outside Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's ranch with the intention of killing the Jewish leader, a terror leader whose group also took part in the rocket launching told WND. "That rocket was fired by us in conjunction specifically with the united leadership of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. It was intended to kill Sharon, and thank God we are getting closer and closer to our target," said Abu Abir,...

WND: On Sunday the Israeli Defense Forces found a Qassam rocket just outside Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Sycamore ranch, located a few kilometers from Sderot, the town at which over 20 rockets were fired immediately following Israel's withdrawal from Gaza last month. Do you take responsibility for the rocket? ABIR: The period mentioned by the Israelis regarding that rocket is that it was fired three weeks ago. At that time we and Hamas launched many rockets, and I cannot confirm which of the two organizations is responsible for that specific attack, but it is obvious that the Palestinian resistance has...

There it is. Turn on the news it should be on right about now. His co-conspirators too.

TAMPA - The Palestinian Islamic Jihad planned an attack inside the United States,