Mr Al-Arian has been the focus of investigation for some time
Al-Arian trial set to begin Monday
BY PEDRO RUZ GUTIERREZ
The Orlando Sentinel
Posted on Sun, Jun. 05, 2005
TAMPA, Fla. - (KRT) - A former college professor is set to enter Tampa's federal courthouse in shackles and handcuffs Monday, taking center stage in one of the most anticipated trials of a young and fearful century.
Former University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian faces terrorism charges along with eight co-defendants in a case that began percolating a decade ago but took on new meaning and controversy after Sept 11, 2001. Only four of the nine will be in court as opening arguments begin - the rest are still at large overseas.
Al-Arian and the others face 53 counts including racketeering, conspiracy to kill civilians, money laundering and giving material support to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group. The PIJ has claimed responsibility for at least 100 deaths in Israel, including several Americans. The group is led by former University of South Florida instructor Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, one of the defendants still at large.
But the Al-Arian case has grown to be about more than the people sitting at the defense table. Fueled by debate about civil liberties and homeland security, the saga became a major issue in Florida's U.S. Senate race last year. And it has prompted concerns that such prosecutions inflame anti-Muslim sentiments.
The 47-year-old Al-Arian, in court documents and in statements after his arrest, argues the government has sought to criminalize his speech and muzzle his unpopular political views. He calls himself a political prisoner.
His wife, Nahla, said in an interview Friday that the case only proves that civil liberties and academic freedom are under siege by an overzealous government after Sept. 11.
"Unfortunately, the government exploited the atmosphere of fear, hatred and suspicions," she said. "The great Constitution of this country is under attack."
But prosecutors are adamant that the indictment is not about Al-Arian's First Amendment rights to freedom of expression and association. In a trial expected to last at least six months, jurors will have to decide how far Al-Arian took his speech and private conversations, hours of which were secretly recorded by FBI intelligence units.
According to the government, two nonprofits he founded in Tampa - the Islamic Concern Project and the World Islam Studies Enterprise - were used by him and others to secretly fund suicide bombings and to provide cover for suspected or known terrorists who visited the United States in the 1990s. ICP, also known as the Islamic Committee for Palestine, and WISE were once affiliated with the University of South Florida and held annual scholarly conferences and fundraisers.
It was at one of these gatherings in 1988 that Al-Arian was videotaped shouting, "Death to Israel!" In a 2002 interview with the St. Petersburg Times, he claimed his quote was taken out of its cultural context and he only meant "death" to Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands.
Al-Arian's arrest in February 2003 capped years of surveillance by FBI agents whose wiretaps and intelligence work were not allowed in criminal cases before the USA Patriot Act of 2001. That law, passed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, broke down the barriers between intelligence and criminal investigations and broadened the reach of government prosecutors.
"It's going to be tough to overcome all those wiretaps and all that other evidence, especially when it's his own words," said Bill West, a retired immigration agent who helped launch one of the Al-Arian investigations in 1995. "When the government is going to present evidence in his own words, and he will be praising those very terrorist acts. How do you reconcile those? He wanted his day in court. That's what he wanted, and that's what he will get."
Al-Arian, who has been held without bail since his arrest, is a permanent U.S. resident but is not a citizen of any nation. Born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents, he was raised and educated in Egypt and eventually obtained advanced computer-engineering degrees at North Carolina State University and the University of South Florida. His application for U.S. citizenship is pending.
For much of the past 10 years, Al-Arian was accused and suspected of being a terrorist sympathizer, but he was never charged with actively supporting terrorism. The suspicions were first aired in a series of articles by the Tampa Tribune in 1995 and picked up momentum later through coverage of the government's detention in 1997 and subsequent deportation of Al-Arian's brother-in-law, Mazen Al-Najjar.
Al-Arian became the subject of controversial TV spots in Florida's senatorial campaigns last year, when candidates traded jabs over his treatment.
GOP Senate candidate Mel Martinez's staff criticized his Democratic opponent, former University of South Florida President Betty Castor, for not doing enough in the 1990s to remove Al-Arian from campus. They used Al-Arian's case to portray her as soft on terrorism.
But Castor's camp shot back that Al-Arian was such a low security threat that he was able to cozy up to then-presidential candidate George W. Bush for a photo at Plant City's Strawberry Festival in 2000 and was invited to the White House after Bush won.
As the trial gears up, Tampa Bay's Muslim community of about 40,000 is uneasy. Ahmed Bedier, director of communications in Florida for the Council on American Islamic Relations, said he recently met with law-enforcement agencies, fearing a possible backlash.
"We were concerned about how this trial is going to impact anti-Muslim sentiment, and whether that's going to provoke individuals' anger and hate crimes against us."
Bedier said his national organization does not defend or condone Al-Arian or his co-defendants, but they want to ensure they are treated fairly.
"It's difficult for a Muslim to have a fair trial in America, especially when you play the terrorism card," he said. "It scares people even though this case has nothing to do with 9-11."