Without warning, Al-Najjar jailed

St. Petersburg Times ^ | November 25, 2001 | MIKE BRASSFIELD

[Cincinatus' Wife]

TAMPA -- With his wife at work and his three daughters still in bed, Mazen Al-Najjar walked out of his apartment Saturday morning to get quarters to do his laundry. Outside, INS agents were waiting to take him away.

Al-Najjar, a former University of South Florida teacher who was jailed for 31/2 years on secret evidence allegedly tying him to terrorism, was rearrested Saturday for overstaying his visa. After spending nearly a year in freedom, he is in federal prison.

His arrest Saturday was not based on new evidence or classified information, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

Al-Najjar, who entered the United States from Gaza in 1981 and overstayed his student visa, has been fighting deportation since 1996. A federal appeals court affirmed a deportation order against him on Nov. 15, and that's why the INS detained him, federal authorities said.

However, Al-Najjar is a stateless Palestinian who says no country will accept him because his name has been unjustly linked to terrorism. It's unclear whether he could be deported to another country or whether he would simply stay behind bars in the United States indefinitely.

His lawyers say Al-Najjar shouldn't be imprisoned, and they're vowing to take his long-running case to the Supreme Court.

"Why detain a person who has never been accused of a crime, who has already lost 31/2 years of his life to an unconstitutional detention and who has nowhere to go?" said David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor who represents Al-Najjar. "It would be one thing if they had a country in mind. But it's unlikely they're going to be able to deport him."

Al-Najjar was being held Saturday at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex near Bushnell, about 75 miles north of Tampa Bay in rural Sumter County.

His arrest is the latest chapter in a seven-year controversy that started with accusations that he and others at a USF-affiliated think tank were funding the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group responsible for suicide bombings in Israel.

Al-Najjar was detained without charges for 1,307 days on the basis of secret government evidence that he has never seen. He was never charged and always maintained his innocence. His detention became an international cause.

In May 2000, a U.S. district judge in Miami ruled that Al-Najjar's rights were violated because the government wouldn't share enough of its evidence to allow him to defend himself. Then-Attorney General Janet Reno ordered his release in December 2000.

When he walked out of an INS detention center in Bradenton 49 weeks ago, he embraced his family as members of his Tampa mosque chanted "Allahu akbar! God is great!"

But on Saturday, worshipers at the Islamic Society of Tampa Bay Area Mosque were observing Ramadan without him.

"The brother was very active here. We're very sad and very shocked," said Dr. Baha Alak, a Tampa infertility specialist. "There was a big celebration here last year when he was released. Now we are back to our feelings of injustice and the inhumane treatment of his case in particular."

After an appeals court gave the go-ahead for Al-Najjar to be deported, his family knew he could be arrested. Government officials did not say what they planned to do. Al-Najjar's wife, Fedaa, had been reluctant to leave him to go to her job in St. Petersburg, but she went to work Saturday.

"You never expect it to happen on the weekend," she said.

Al-Najjar told his three daughters that he was going to a gas station for quarters. He never came back. He asked INS agents to call his brother-in-law, Sami Al-Arian, who went to Al-Najjar's home to tell the girls, ages 6, 11 and 13, what had happened.

"The family has suffered enough. There was no need for this detention," Al-Arian said. "He has no place to go. He is willing to cooperate. If they find him a country, he'd be more than willing to relocate."

Al-Najjar wants to be given political asylum in the United States but has been denied.

Deportation orders would send him to the United Arab Emirates and his wife to Saudi Arabia, their last residences before moving to the United States in the 1980s. But their lawyers say neither country will accept them.

Al-Najjar's lawyers are arguing his case in court, and now they'll be fighting his detention. They say the government is using Al-Najjar as a test case for expanding its antiterrorism powers in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Justice Department released a statement Saturday reiterating its accusations against Al-Najjar, but the evidence that purportedly links him to terrorism remains a mystery.

"This case underscores the Justice Department's commitment to address terrorism by using all legal authorities available," the statement said.

-- Times staff writer Tim Grant and photographer Stefanie Boyar contributed to this report.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Martin Schwartz, an attorney for Al-Najjar, said he would fight the decision. ``The government is using him as a guinea pig to test their powers to detain foreigners,'' Schwartz said. ``The government is aware Dr. Al-Najjar has no travel documents allowing him re-entry to the United Arab Emirates or any other country.''

He looks like a good guinea pig to me.

[cgbg]

then ship him out to the first country that is willing to take him

If he is stateless and has violated our immigration laws and funded and supported terrorists why deport him?

Try him in a military court for supporting terrorism and execute him.

[RobbyS]

Try him in a military court for supporting terrorism and execute him. Unlikley that a court martial would result in a death sentence. For one thing, there is automatic appeal and executions are rare. Send him to Texas!

[fjsva]

Dump him in Afganistan...let the N. Alliance take care of him.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Send him to Texas!

Bump!

Don't Mess with Texas!

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Love your screen name. I drive to the hill country in the spring whenever I can arrange it. My name is a trifle less lovely, but LC would certainly know what to do about this guy.

[Colorado Doug]

I feel for the poor fellow. I think we could find a place for him if we really tried, perhaps Iraq. Of course we would have to bomb them immediately for harboring a known terrorist.

[Magician]

I Al-Najjar is a Palestinian with terrorist connections, send him back to that paradise on earth, GAZA. He'll be in his element there.

[Flipyaforreal]

Hope this bump works. I was looking everywhere for this to be posted. I searched "Tampa", "Florida" and "Al Najiar" (which is how it is spelled on CNN.com) and looked for it at *JIA, to no avail. I found it by pure luck after wondering all day if anyone was going to post it.

This man has made me very nervous since he was profilied on "Primetime Live" weeks ago. Glad to see he is not "raising funds" anymore or doing anything else he might be mixed up in. Good riddance.

[bootyist-monk]

A Palestinian with links to terrorists is being defended by a lawyer named Martin Schwartz?

Oy!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Bump!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Thank you for the LINKS!

(Nov. 26, 2001)--Supporters Want Freedom For Al-Najjar-- Al-Arian would not comment Sunday, saying he and other members of the Islamic Community of Tampa Bay were upset with press coverage, most recently a Tampa Tribune article about Muslim students. Al-Arian said his wife, Nahla, had arranged for the students to be interviewed by a reporter about harassment they have endured after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Al-Arian said the interviews did not focus on the students' political views, but the story emphasized them. ``They were presented, and later in a page of Sunday letters, vilified as disloyal Americans,'' Al-Arian said. He said the Tribune ``always treats us as suspects.''

(Nov. 15, 2001)--Bay Area Students' Words Echo Mideast Suspicions-- Some Middle East experts say while Americans may find the students' views surprising, they should be considered in context. ``Unfortunately, the concept of conspiracy with a capital `C' runs rampant among some in the Middle East,'' said Eric Hanne, who teaches Middle East history at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. ``This is an example. ``Some people in America may be upset hearing these ideas, but they need to listen.''

[All-American Medic]

"Al-Najjar was detained without charges for 1,307 days on the basis of secret government evidence that he has never seen. He was never charged and always maintained his innocence. His detention became an international cause." I say get rid of the bum for the immigration violation, but the statement above should make everyone a little nervous.

[NautiNurse]

I agree with the row boat idea. However, for this 'man without a country' I was thinking more along the lines of 500 miles out in the Atlantic with 3 days ration of bread and water.

Could it be more than a coincidence that the U.S. Central Command for the Middle East is in Tampa, along with the infestation in and around USF?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

(November 26, 2001)--For Al-Najjar family, uncertainty Returns-- By DEBORAH O'NEIL

[Full Text] Fedaa Al-Najjar called home from work Saturday afternoon to say hello to her three daughters and her husband, Mazen Al-Najjar. What she heard horrified her.

Her children, ages 6, 11, and 13, were crying and pleading for her to come home. Their father left more than an hour earlier and had not come back.

"What do you mean he's gone?" Mrs. Al-Najjar asked, panic rising. Her oldest told her, "Mama, I think dad was taken again."

Al-Najjar, 44, was re-arrested Saturday at his Tampa home by federal authorities seeking to execute a deportation order against him. The arrest came almost one year after Al-Najjar was released after 3 1/2 years in jail on secret evidence the government says links him to terrorism.

For Al-Najjar's family, the arrest is a nightmare begun anew.

Sunday afternoon they had not heard from him and were concerned about his health. Al-Najjar is a diabetic who has been fasting for Ramadan.

"I woke up thinking, 'It can't be true, it can't be true,' " said Sami Al-Arian, Al-Najjar's brother-in-law who ended up picking up Al-Najjar's daughters Saturday after the arrest.

Al-Najjar's wife said she doesn't know what to do next.

"In the beginning, I didn't think it would last four years," said Mrs. Al-Najjar, 37. "I lived day to day (thinking), 'He's coming tomorrow.' I was much younger. Now, I'm exhausted. I don't think I'm going to make it again. I don't want to do this again, suffering and crying."

The Justice Department indicated in a statement that Al-Najjar's arrest was not based on classified evidence. This time, his arrest concerns his visa.

Al-Najjar has overstayed his student visa and has been fighting deportation since 1996. Agents from the Immigration and Naturalization Service picked him up to execute a final deportation order affirmed Nov. 15 by a federal appeals court.

He is being held at a federal prison in Coleman, about 75 miles north of Tampa. The INS can hold him for 90 days while it tries to deport him, said David Cole, Al-Najjar's lawyer and a Georgetown University law professor.

The problem, Cole said, is that no country will have him. Al-Najjar, a stateless Palestinian, plans to appeal his deportation to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"We don't have a place to go," Mrs. Al-Najjar said. "If we did, we'd have been gone a long time ago. You think it's better for him to be in jail? These kids are orphans without their father."

Al-Najjar has not been the same since coming home from jail almost a year ago, his wife said. He's quiet and pensive, she said.

But he has been spending time with his three daughters, helping them with homework and attending birthday parties. The prospect of once again raising her girls alone left Mrs. Al-Najjar, his wife of 14 years, in tears.

"I still have young kids," Mrs. Al-Najjar said Sunday, weeping inconsolably. "I don't want to raise them by myself. It's too much."

[DJ88]

I live near Tampa and was listening the other day to WFLA radio and they said that USF is a hotbed for terrorist activities.

Good riddance to this guy. The guy they were interviewing painted a very scary picture of what's going on at USF.

[All-American Medic]

This whole secret evidence thing makes me nervous. If there is evidence, then what is it?? Why is it necessary to keep it secret?

[JimRed]

...his brother-in-law, Sami Al-Arian,...

The other terrorist criminal on a state university payroll? Kind'a says it all!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

If there is evidence, then what is it?? Why is it necessary to keep it secret?

When the N.Y. bombers were on trial, all sorts of info, like what kind of jets couldn't bring down the Trade Center and tid bits like that came out. We don't need to be giving out names of possible informants and other sensitive info. They don't give us and edge. I'd error on the side of "loose lips sink ships" before I'd give non-Americans all the rights and privileges of citizens.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Bump!