Posted on 10/27/2005 9:59:03 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
TAMPA, Fla. - An attorney defending a fired college professor against federal charges of aiding Palestinian terrorists rested his case Thursday without calling a single witness to refute nearly five months of prosecution testimony.
Defense attorney William Moffitt called the prosecution an "all-out assault on the First Amendment" and the right to free speech, and then rested his case for Sami Al-Arian.
Attorneys for three co-defendants began presenting their cases, which could take weeks more. Because the trial was continuing, neither side was immediately available for comment.
Al-Arian, 47, who was fired from the University of South Florida, and his co-defendants — Sameeh Hammoudeh, Ghassan Zayed Ballut and Hatem Naji Fariz — are accused of using Palestinian charities and educational entities as fundraising fronts for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad to support suicide bombings that killed hundreds.
The men deny they supported violent acts and say they are being persecuted for views that are unpopular in the United States.
Five other men have been indicted but have not been arrested. They are out of the country.
Moffitt's announcement that he was resting his case came the same morning that federal prosecutors wrapped up a case that included testimony from more than 70 witnesses and hundreds of pages of transcripts of wiretapped phone calls and faxes.
The communications, intercepted by the FBI from the mid-1990s to about 2003, included discussions about the direction and financing of the PIJ. Other times, the participants appear to celebrate suicide attacks that killed Israelis and speak glowingly of the Palestinian "martyrs" who carried them out.
U.S. District Judge James S. Moody Jr. said he will instruct jurors that prosecutors must have proved that each defendant did something illegal with the "specific intent to further the illegal activities" of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
However, Moody said he also tell them that they can find defendants guilty if prosecutors showed that they sent money to the group knowing that it would or could be used for terrorist acts.
The puke is guilty.
"I can't disprove the facts of the case, so I'll just whine in the media with the standard liberal mantra in hopes of generating sympathy from the anti-America crowd."
It'll probably work unfortunately.
The AP is getting their writers from the American public school system, I see.
This man, Sami Al-Arian, taught at my university. He taught in the same classrooms I frequented, in the same building, using the same resources available to faculty and staff. Just knowing I probably occupied the same space this filthy rat did gives me a feeling like I've been dipped in raw sewage.
''This man, Sami Al-Arian, taught at my university.''
... and he had American enablers, if not accomplices... among them is the prez of the faculty union
The Al-Arian case brought to light many aspects of FloriDUH's decades of decadent Democratic rule. Thanks to the PC speech, PC behavior requirements, generations of Marxism impaired faculty, ad nauseam, and the imbecilic behavior of then USF President Betty Castor, even FBI warnings about Al-Arian were ignored.
Betty Castor refused to act against Al-Arian after a personal briefing by the FBI. That's why we Floridians call her 'Betty Boop'.
Hopefully, the judy will convice Al-Arien.
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