Sami Al-Arian

Dr. Sami Amin Al-Arian (Arabic: سامي العريان) (born January 14, 1958 in Kuwait) is a professor of computer engineering and civic activist. The son of Palestinian refugees to the United States, in 2006 he made a plea agreement to plead guilty of conspiracy to help a "specially designated terrorist" organization, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Al-Arian was sentenced to 57 months in prison and given credit for time served. He was to serve the balance of 19 months and then be deported. In March 2008 the U.S. Department of Justice subpoenaed Al-Arian to testify before another grand jury. Because he refused to testify, prosecutors charged him with criminal contempt in June 2008. On September 2, 2008, Al-Arian was released from detention on bond. He will remain under house arrest as he awaits a trial on contempt charges.

Life and work

Sami Al-Arian was born in Kuwait He came to the United States in 1975 at the age of 17 to attend university. He obtained his Bachelor's Degree, graduating with honors in 1978 with a major in Electrical Engineering, and completed his Master's Degree and Ph.D. in computer engineering in 1980 and 1985 respectively. In 1986, he was hired as a professor in the Computer Sciences Department at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Dr. Al-Arian is married to Nahla Al-Arian and has five children. His son Abdullah Al-Arian was intern for U.S. Rep. David E. Bonior in 2001. Sami Al-Arian's eldest daughter, Laila Al-Arian, is a producer for Al Jazeera English in Washington DC and a contributor to Huffington Post and The Nation.

Al-Arian was a frequent speaker and lecturer on college campuses, churches, and conferences on interfaith dialogue, community development, and civil rights. He also organized voter registration drives, political candidates and lobbied policy makers. In 1981 he helped establish the Islamic Society of North America. In 1990 he co-founded the World and Islam Studies Enterprise (WISE), an academic institution promoting dialogue between the Muslim and Western worlds. He also helped establish the Islamic Committee for Palestine to raise awareness of the plight of the Palestinians. . In 1997 he cofounded the Tampa Bay Coalition for Peace and Justice which focused on the use of secret evidence and other civil rights violations legislated in 1996 antiterrorism and immigration acts. He also co-founded the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom to oppose the use of secret evidence and was elected its first president in 2000.

As part of his activism, Al-Arian met with then candidate George W. Bush at a campaign event in Florida in March 2000 where Bush and his wife, Laura, posed for a photo with Al-Arian and his family members. Al-Arian later claimed to have spoken to Bush about the government use of "secret evidence" in deportation proceedings against accused terrorists. When Bush subsequently brought up the issue in a debate with Al Gore, Al-Arian was reportedly "thrilled--and began registering local Muslims to vote and promoting Bush's candidacy at local mosques." He also lobbied Congress on civil liberties matters, contributed thousands of dollars to the campaigns of influential members of Congress, and renounced violence during television appearances.

In June, 2001, Al-Arian joined 150 Muslim-American activists in a White House briefing with Karl Rove. His son Abdullah Al-Arian was the subject of national media attention when he was escorted out of the White House event by the Secret Service without explanation, prompting an apology by President George W. Bush.

Conspiracy prosecution

Arrest and Trial

On February 20, 2003 the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Al-Arian had been arrested as "alleged leader" of the Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in the United States and Secretary of the "Shura Council," or worldwide governing group of the Palestine Islamic Jihad. They also charged three others living in the United States, as well as four outside the U.S., including Al-Arian's University of South Florida associate Ramadan Abdullah Shallah. A 50-count indictment charged defendants under RICO with operating a racketeering enterprise from 1984 that engaged in violent activities, as well as "conspiracy within the United States to kill and maim persons abroad, conspiracy to provide material support and resources to PIJ, conspiracy to violate emergency economic sanctions, engaging in various acts of interstate extortion, perjury, obstruction of justice and immigration fraud." The indictment alleged a ten year conspiracy to support PIJ worldwide, help solve internal PIJ disputes and financial problems, help disseminate PIJ claims it was responsible for terrorist attacks in Israel, and to raise funds within the United States for "violent jihad." The indictment alleged numerous PIJ-associated terrorist acts resulting in the murders of over 100 people in Israel and the Occupied Territories. Al-Arian's told reporters “it’s all about politics” and his attorney labeled the indictment a “work of fiction.”

Al-Arian's was tried with codefendants Ghassan Ballut, Hatim Fariz and Sameeh Hammoudeh in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa, beginning in June 2005. At trial, FBI agent Kerry Myers testified that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad had planned an attack inside the United States but said all information about the plot was classified and he could not discuss it. Under cross-examination, Myers admitted that Palestinian Islamic Jihad had never carried out an attack outside Israel and the "occupied territories." Agent Myers also testified that during its 10-year investigation of Al-Arian and his three co-defendants, the FBI intercepted 472,239 telephone calls on 18 tapped lines. However, none involved any discussion of an attack against the United States or show advanced knowledge of any attacks in the Middle East. Furthermore, the conversations occurred before Palestinian Islamic Jihad was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 1995.

The six-month trial featured more than 80 witnesses and 400 transcripts of intercepted phone conversations and faxes. At the end of the prosecution's case, Al-Arian's attorneys rested without offering a defense. On December 6, 2005, after 13 days of deliberations, the jury acquitted Al-Arian on eight of 17 counts and deadlocked on the others with 10-2 favoring acquittal; another co-defendant also was acquitted or faced deadlocks. Two of his co-defendants were acquitted entirely. U.S. Justice Department officials said they were considering whether to retry Al-Arian and co-defendant Hatem Fariz on the jury deadlock charges, one of which carried a life sentence.

Plea agreement

On February 28, 2006, Al-Arian plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to contribute services to or for the benefit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Specially Designated Terrorist organization, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. In return, the U.S. Attorney agreed to dismiss the other eight remaining charges in the superseding indictment, agreed not to charge Al-Arian with any other crimes, entered no recommendation of a fine, and recommended "that the defendant receive a sentence at the low end of the applicable guideline." As part of the deal, Al-Arian agreed to expedited deportation. The plea agreement was unsealed and accepted by Judge James S. Moody on April 17, 2006. Al-Arian's sentencing was scheduled for May 1, 2006. Al-Arian remained in custody pending his sentencing and deportation.

The deal came after 11 years of Federal Bureau of Investigation investigations, wiretaps and searches, three and a half years of trial preparation and process, time Al-Arian spent in jail, most of it in solitary confinement. Amnesty International said Al-Arian's pre-trial detention conditions "appeared to be 'gratuitously punitive'" and stated "the restrictions imposed on Dr. Al-Arian appeared to go beyond what were necessary on security grounds and were inconsistent with international standards for humane treatment.".

At the plea agreement hearing, U.S. Magistrate Thomas B. McCoun said, "... if you're satisfied you're guilty or you believe it's in your best interest to plead guilty ... let me know that." Al-Arian replied, "I believe it's in my best interest to enter a plea."

Al-Arian admitted knowing "that the PIJ achieved its objectives by, among other means, acts of violence."

For its part, the government acknowledged that Al-Arian's activities were nonviolent and that there were no victims to the charge in the plea agreement. Later that day, supporters of Al-Arian stated that the agreement was reached in part to end the suffering of the family and to reunite them in freedom.

Sentencing

U.S. District Judge James Moody sentenced al-Arian to the maximum 57 months in prison and gave him credit for time served. He will serve the balance of 19 months and then be deported, prosecutors said. In his ruling, Moody harshly criticized al-Arian for doing nothing to stop bombings perpetrated by Islamic Jihad. "You lifted not one finger," he said. "You are a master manipulator. The evidence is clear in this case. You were a leader of the PIJ."

Grand jury subpoena and hunger strike

Al-Arian refused to testify to a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, in an investigation of the International Institute of Islamic Thought's alleged financing of terror because he believes, "his life would be in danger if he testified." Further, Al-Arian claims he has no information that could further the investigation and his attorneys argued that the grand jury subpoena violates Al-Arian's plea agreement with U.S. prosecutors. In a verbal agreement that appears in court transcripts, federal prosecutors agreed that Al-Arian would not have to testify in Virginia. These arguments were rejected by a federal judge in Florida and Al-Arian (who is diabetic) began a 60-day hunger strike on January 22, 2007, to "protest continued government harassment." As of March 20, 2007, Al-Arian, who is 6 feet tall, had gone from 202 to 149 pounds. In March 2008 he began another hunger strike, again to protest what he called government harassment. He ended the strike two months later and after his September 2008 release remains under house arrest as he awaits March 2009 trial on contempt charges.

At the January 2009 hearing to schedule the March trial, Al-Arian's attorneys filed documents filed stating Al-Arian "did cooperate and answer questions on IIIT" (International Institute of Islamic Thought) for federal prosecutors. Attorneys alleged Virginia prosecutors are "ultimately not interested in IIIT … but want to revisit the Tampa trial."

In a court motion filed on March 4, 2009, federal prosecutors in Virginia acknowledged that when Sami Al-Arian took the plea deal in early 2006, federal prosecutors in Tampa believed that it exempted him from testifying in other cases. This admission affirms sworn declarations submitted to the court by Al-Arian's Florida trial attorneys, Bill Moffitt, and Linda Moreno.

On March 9, Judge Leonie Brinkema postponed Dr. Al-Arian's Virginia trial, pending a motion by defense attorneys to dismiss the charges in the case.

Film

USA vs. Al-Arian is an award-winning 2007 documentary film by Norwegian director Line Halvorsen about Sami Al-Arian and his family during and after his trial and a commentary on the U.S. justice system under the Patriot Act.

External links

• Professors For Al-Arian, February 24, 2003
• FOX News transcript of O'Reilly interview, September 26, 2001
• News Links and "Sami Al-Arian, in his words" quotations, St. Petersburg Times, February 23, 2003
• USA vs. Al-Arian official site in English and Norwegian.
• Anita Kumar, Al-Arian Demands USF Restore his Standing - St. Petersburg Times, January 7, 2003
• Links to 2006-2007 trial coverage from the St. Petersburg Times
• Micheal Fechter, Al-Arian Likened To Don In Mafia, Tampa Tribune, November 8, 2005
• Melva Underbakke and Paul Findley, Two Views: Sami Al-Arian’s Plea “Bargain”, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July 2006