Sami Al-Arian: From Exoneration to Criminal Indictment - by Stephen Lendman
A personal note. I've twice before written about Al-Arian and discussed his case on my radio program with his wife and daughter. Since February 20, 2003, he's been unjustly imprisoned. The FBI hounded him for 11 years. It falsely accused him of backing organizations fronting for Palestinian Islamic Jihad - a 1997 State Department-designated "Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO)." It's one of 30 organizations so-designated that year. In 1999, three were removed. Another was added in 2001 for a total of 28. Sixteen of them are Arabic/Muslim and include Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Hezbollah and Al Queda. Their ideologies differ from western standards. Washington thus calls them FTOs that "engage in terrorist activity (and) threaten the security of US nationals or the national security of the US."
In August 2001, Palestinian Islamic Jihad's (PIJ) General Secretary, Dr. Fathi Shikaki, agreed to be interviewed. He called the organization "an independent, Islamic, and popular movement with Islam (advocating) grassroots popular action and armed struggle (for the) liberation of (Occupied) Palestine." In this respect, it's no different from the Vichy French resistance. They were renown freedom fighters. So were the Mujahideen (when they were on our side) against the Soviets in Afghanistan and Serbia in the Balkans.
As Michel Chossudovsky noted in a September 2001 Global Research.ca article titled "Who is Osama Bin Laden?:" ....while the Islamic Jihad - featured by the Bush administration as "a threat to America" - is blamed for the (9/11 attacks), these same Islamic organizations constitute a key instrument of US military intelligence in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union." In other words, they're (unwittingly) used to further US interests and at the same time justify Washington's war on Islam (aka the "war on terrorism").
Shikaki denied that PIJ or the Islamic Jihad Movement (IJM) practice "terrorism." On the contrary, "terrorism is practiced by a state (Israel) that is fully supported by the West. (It and especially America back) dictatorial regimes that are tyrannical, oppressive and practice human rights abuses on massive scales....Tens of thousands of Islamists have been arrested and....held under severe conditions." However, "only a small segment used violence against the state-sponsored and state-supported violence."
How can Palestinians be called terrorists. We "scream from pain and suffering and (are) defending (our) land against Jewish soldiers....We are calling for peace based on justice, rights and dignity. We must be dealt with as equals and as carriers of a great civilization. Only then will peace prevail in our region and the whole world....Our state is Palestine....As for the Jews, they have lived peacefully with us for centuries....They could (always) live among us freely, but not as a political entity....We don't espouse throwing the Jews into the sea (but) there will be no peace unless Palestine is returned to the Palestinians."
Al-Arian: Falsely Targeted For Supporting "Terrorism"
Because of his faith, ethnicity, political activism and prominence, Al-Arian became a prime target. He was falsely vilified for supporting terrorism. Then at the behest of Governor Jeb Bush and despite his tenured status, the University of South Florida fired him following his February 20, 2003 arrest. Ever since, he's been imprisoned and held in brutalizing and dehumanizing confinement in over a dozen maximum and other federal prison facilities. Only his spirit sustains him.
His June 2005 trial was a travesty. It lasted six months, cost about $50 million, and in the end Al-Arian was exonerated on eight false terrorism charges. On nine lesser ones, jurors were deadlocked 10 - 2 for acquittal.
Al-Arian is a Palestinian refugee, a distinguished professor and scholar, community leader and civil activist. His crime - being an activist Muslim at the wrong time in America. After his exoneration, prosecutors planned to retry him but instead struck a secret plea bargain with his lawyers. It stipulated:
-- he neither engaged in or had any knowledge of violent acts;
-- that he would not be required to cooperate further with prosecutors;
-- and that he would be released on time served and deported voluntarily to his country of choice.
He remained in custody pending sentencing and deportation on May 1, 2006. Yet he's still imprisoned and his ordeal continues. In October 2006, assistant prosecutor Gordon Kromberg violated plea bargain terms by subpoenaing Al-Arian before a grand jury. It was to entrap him on perjury and obstruction of justice charges through clever and manipulative questioning.
At the time, he said this about all Muslims that should have automatically disqualified him: "If they can kill each other during Ramadan, they can appear before the grand jury - all they can't do is eat before sunset. I believe Mr. Al-Arian's request is part of the attempted Islamization of the American Justice System. I am not going to put off (his) grand jury appearance just to assist in what is becoming the Islamization of America." Following these comments, Al-Arian's attorney accused Kromberg of anti-Muslim bias and asked him to recuse himself. He denied the request and called Al-Arian before the grand jury.
He refused to testify and was held in contempt. He refused again before a newly convened grand jury, was again held in contempt, and had his sentence extended without mitigation until April 7, 2008. On March 3, 2008 (three weeks before his scheduled release and deportation), Al-Arian was again ordered to appear before another March 19 grand jury. He again refused, remained imprisoned, and on June 26 was indicted on two counts of criminal contempt.
I am a 72 year old, retired, progressive small businessman concerned about all the major national and world issues, committed to speak out and write about them.
Mr. Lendman, I salute you as usual. I wrote about this case several times ( not in detail) and you are certainly right- Al- Arian personifies what we had become.
Thanks
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Mark Sashine (47 articles, 19 quicklinks, 235 diaries, 3360 comments)
on Monday, July 14, 2008 at 8:02:18 AM
got off a lot easier than Riad Elsolh Hamad, he was found floating in the Colorado river in Austin Texas wrapped in duct tape. Law enforcement has blocked My request for the autopsy report. Clearly they are hiding something. Things get swept under a rug so easily when we have an enemy under every rock.
Good job Mr. Lendman, God bless You for Your efforts on behalf of the "guilty until proven innocent".
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john riggs (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 395 comments)
on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 9:01:54 AM
These individuals are held in jail by a police state just because they are muslims? I do not know the details of these cases but I seriously doubt that they would be tried and convicted for just being muslims even in our terrible, nasty police state. There are a lot of muslims in this country and although I do not have any figures I would bet their rate of incarceration is less than other minority groups even though our police state is probably spending millions monitoring each and every one of them.
If I thought I lived in a police state I would book an early flight tomorrow morning to return to my homeland where I could live in peace and security.
As far as Palestinians being terrorists I agree with the author. All Palestinians aren't terrorists. Some are. Is terrorism a legitimate way to wage war? If it is then those who practice it should not complain when they and the people who support them are held responsible for the needless civilian deaths they cause.
