Ex-Professor Acquitted on Several Charges

Dec 6, 4:28 PM (ET)

By MITCH STACY

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - In a stinging defeat for prosecutors, a former Florida professor accused of helping lead a terrorist group that has carried out suicide bombings against Israel was acquitted on nearly half the charges against him Tuesday, and the jury deadlocked on the rest.

The case against Sami Al-Arian, 47, had been seen as one of the biggest courtroom tests yet of the Patriot Act's expanded search-and-surveillance powers.

After a five-month trial and 13 days of deliberations, the jury acquitted Al-Arian of eight of the 17 counts against him, including a key charge of conspiring to maim and murder people overseas. The jurors deadlocked on the others, including charges he aided terrorists.

Al-Arian, a former University of South Florida computer engineering professor, wept after the verdicts, and his attorney, Linda Moreno hugged him. He will return to jail until prosecutors decide whether to retry him on the deadlocked charges.


Two co-defendants, Sameeh Hammoudeh and Ghassan Zayed Ballut, were acquitted of all charges. A third, Hatem Naji Fariz, was found not guilty on 24 counts, and jurors deadlocked on the remaining eight.

The U.S. Justice Department had no immediate comment.

Federal prosecutors said Sami Al-Arian and his co-defendants acted as the communications arm of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, spreading the word and raising money that went toward the suicide attacks that have killed hundreds.

Al-Arian was considered one of the most important terrorist figures to be brought to trial in the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. His indictment in 2003 was hailed by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft as one of the first triumphs of the Patriot Act, which was enacted in the weeks after Sept. 11.

The Patriot Act gave the government greatly expanded powers and broke down the wall between foreign intelligence investigations and domestic law enforcement. In the Al-Arian case, officials said, it allowed separate FBI investigations - one of them a yearslong secret foreign intelligence probe of the professor's activities - to be combined and all the evidence used against him.

Al-Arian, a Palestinian who was born in Kuwait, has lived in the United States since 1975. He was granted permanent-resident status in 1989 and denied U.S. citizenship in 1996. He was fired from the university shortly after he was indicted.

The federal jury heard from 80 government witnesses and listened to often-plodding testimony about faxes and wiretapped phone calls.

The government alleged that the defendants were part of a Tampa terrorist cell that took the lead in determining the structure and goals of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which the State Department has listed as a terrorist group.

Prosecutors said Al-Arian and other members of the terrorist organization used the university to give them cover as teachers and students, and held meetings under the guise of academic conferences.

Prosecutor Cherie Krigsman likened the Palestinian Islamic Jihad to the Mafia and named Al-Arian as one of its "crime bosses," like TV's Tony Soprano.

The defendants said that although they were vocal advocates in the United States for the Palestinian cause and may have celebrated news of the terrorist group's attacks, the government had no proof that they planned or knew about any violence. They said the money they raised and sent to the Palestinian territories was for legitimate charities.

Al-Arian's attorney, William Moffit, said the professor was being persecuted for espousing unpopular opinions that should be protected under the First Amendment.

"Any discussion of Sami Al-Arian being the most powerful man in the PIJ is fantasy," Moffitt said in his closing argument. "He never had control of the money, he never made any decisions."

The case was built on hundreds of pages of transcripts of wiretapped phone calls and faxes, records of money moving through accounts, documents seized from the defendants' homes and offices, and their own words on video. At times, the participants appeared to speak glowingly of the Palestinian "martyrs" who carried out suicide attacks.

The jury also heard from the father of Alisa Flatow, a New Jersey student killed in a 1995 bus bombing carried out by the terrorist group in Gaza.

Five others indicted in the case, including Al-Arian's brother-in-law, have not been arrested. The brother-in-law was deported in 2002, and the others also are out of the country.

http://apnews1.iwon.com//article/20051206/D8EB04QO1.html?PG=home&SEC=news

O'Lielly's head is going to explode....hahaha

about O'Reilly. It is almost worth it to watch his show on Faux just to hear him go bananas. Naaah.

Good for those jurors...

And I'm sure that ASSCroft will hit a high note when he hears the news. LOL!!

in the 2004 Florida Senate Race between Betty Castor and Mel Martinez if I recall. An attempt to connect her with being soft on terror. She was University President during the defendant's tenure, I believe.

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at the American Democracy Project for slander?

Castor lost to Martinez by about 1.2% of the total vote. This ad must have been sent to every registered DEM in the State. It had a lot to do with her losing the election.

Makes it sound like Sami Al-Arian had something to do with 9-11:

"Al-Arian was considered one of the most important terrorist figures to be brought to trial in the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. His indictment in 2003 was hailed by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft as one of the first triumphs of the Patriot Act, which was enacted in the weeks after Sept. 11."

Sami Al-Arian was charged with providing support to Palistinian Islamic Jihad, that only carries out attacks in Israel. Nothing to at all with 9-11.

After the prosecution had spend weeks and weeks of presenting their case with hundred of hours of wiretapped conversations, the defense team simply said that the prosecution had proved nothing and therefore never presented a defense.

In my humble opinion, I think the prosecution overdid it and overloaded the jurors with to much information.

I wonder how many millions they spent on this prosecution? And I wonder how many thousands of transcripts they had which they could not use because of exculpatory evidence? Any guesses whether they let the defense see all of that stuff?

hardly.

What about who was behind this -- ongoing for 10 years -- how many agents, man-hours, and resources were devoted to his utter and catastrophic failure of a smear campaign?

who let the media lynch mob in going after this guy.

...while deciding whether to try him again on the deadlocked charges? I mean, it could take YEARS to decide....

We can now hold him without one, so why go to the expense and probably embarrassment of another trial? Just send him back to jail.

As a USF graduate, I was very happy about the verdict. When I went ('70g graduate) to USF it was a liberal university and I credit it for by final liberation from my prior education here in Mississippi.

Martin Kramer and Daniel Pipes are currently having major hissy fits and soiling themselves in anger.

My heart bleeds for those neo-con fascist death eaters... :)

It's not over yet...

His career is ruined, his name is mud, and he will continue to be harangued, targeted and the like by the misguided bigots down here in south florida...

I teach at the same university as Al-Arian. There are several issues we've debated over the last few years. First, Al-Arian's money that went to the mid-east was collected in public for decades just like Catholics collected for the IRA and Jews collected for Zionism, and Hispanics collected for rebels in Mexico, etc., etc....If it's illegal to support anyone overseas who may be engaged in some terror activity - then all or none should be stopped from transferring money.

For what its worth, Al-Arian was a Republican supporter (as were lots of Osama relatives) in Florida. His picture with Karl Rove, Jeb, and GW were common here. As long as he shared the money and contacts - he was their friend. At some point, he was their enemy. All the Saudi's from Orlando flew home on 9-12.

Of the terrorists in Florida (remember - we did most of the flying lessons for the 9-11 crews in Florida), Al-Arian is pretty tame. Florida is an international open door with a quarter of the people here as "undocumented". I can sail from here to Mexico or Cuba without being stopped (done both), and it's silly to think Homeland security means anything as far as boarders. I work for an administrator who is Cuban (Kennedy conspiracies?!?). I employ 2 Brazilians and 1 Polish person. None are here legally.

Guns for drugs? Oliver North? Anthrax? After a while, it's clear that Al-Arian may go to jail or not, but there is no real international policy or plan for the US that makes sense down here. Most of us figure that we're safe from terror attacks in Florida since they are unlikely to kill their own.

I wouldn't rely on their loyalty to their "own" too heavily.

Thanks to the courts, this one time.

6 month trial, 3+ years in jail, and according to NPR, the Feds have been watching this guy and tapping his phones for over 15 YEARS!

Thanks John Ashcroft! Thanks for showing how stupid The Patriot Act is. :argh: :banghead:

Mods: IMHO because of John Ashcroft calling this a win on the War on Terror in 2003 and Mel Martinez attacking former USF President Betty Castor in their 2004 race over her love of "terrorist" for not firing him, I do not consider it an I/P thing but a politicial show trial.

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/12/07/Tampabay/8_times__Al_Arian_hea.shtml

8 times, Al-Arian hears 'Not guilty'

NO CONVICTIONS: The former USF professor and his co-defendants relieved after long, complicated case. DEADLOCK: Jurors can't decide many counts. "Evidence making these guys terrorists just wasn't there."

By MEG LAUGHLIN, JENNIFER LIBERTO and JUSTIN GEORGE
Published December 7, 2005

TAMPA - The judge announced the verdicts, one by one, and Sami Al-Arian's eyes shifted to his family, then back to the bench to take in the words he had waited years to hear.


..cut...

The verdicts were a major defeat for the federal government, which characterized Al-Arian's indictment as a major case against terrorism, and a victory for Al-Arian's attorneys, who considered the government's case so weak they they declined to put on a defense.

..cut..

As it turned out, the great majority of jurors wanted to acquit Al-Arian and the three co-defendants on all charges. But, they say, two to three others held out for conviction,

..cut..




"Because there is a document called the U.S. Constitution - unless we're about to repeal it - it protects Dr. Al-Arian's right to speak, and the government has not proven that Dr. Al-Arian has done anything but speak. . . . The fact that Dr. Al-Arian is a Palestinian deprives him of no civil rights," said Moffitt, explaining the
decision.


..more at link....

Compare the Dem leaning St.Pete Times headline..

8 times, Al-Arian hears 'Not guilty'

to the Repug Tampa Tribune that has spent years attacking him in their paper....

No Guilty Verdicts In Al-Arian Trial

http://www.tampatrib.com/MGBI6ZY5XGE.html

two paragraphs from the second source

"This ranks as one of the most significant defeats for the U.S. government, for the Justice Department since 9/11," said Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University Law School who has represented other terrorism defendants.

"The Justice Department spent copious amounts of money and time to make the case against Al-Arian

If they are thinking about re-filing charges, fine. But, he should be released until new charges are filed.

Forgive the sources, but these are RW sources that have Al-Arian as a friend to Bush.
>>>
Meet the brazen Al-Arian family of Tampa, Fla. Sami Al-Arian a University of South Florida professor and his son Abdullah, a Duke student, who was an intern for Democratic whip, Rep. David Bonior, a Michigan gubernatorial candidate who is very supportive of Arab-American leaders' efforts to block reasonable counterterrorism measures.

Dr. Al-Arian is the author of this speech: "We assemble today to pay respects to the march of the martyrs and to the river of blood that gushes forth and does not extinguish, from butchery to butchery, and from martyrdom to martyrdom, from Jihad to Jihad."

According to the July 16 Newsweek, during a campaign speech in Tampa, last year, candidate Bush singled his son, Abdullah, out in the crowd, something done for specially selected, pre-screened individuals to which a candidate wants to draw attention. Calling Abdullah, "Big Dude" one of his trademark nicknames reserved for close advisors and White House press, Bush and wife Laura posed for pictures with the Arian family, standing right next to Dr. Al-Arian.

http://www.apfn.org/apfn/WTC_profits.htm

and, another source:
In my previous column, I wrote about President Bush's terrorist buddy, Dr. Sami Al-Arian, a University of South Florida professor, who is the Islamic Jihad's frontman in America and, today, roams free.

Since a recent appearance on FOX News Channel's "O'Reilly Factor," Al-Arian has been suspended with pay. He claims it is for his safety – due to threats. But, in reality, it is due to the justified outrage of South Floridians, University of South Florida students and their parents, and other U.S. citizens that a college professor who illegally launders money for Islamic Jihad and helps its leaders and operatives get into the U.S. on temporary visas is allowed to remain on a taxpayer-funded faculty, teaching students.

However, now Al-Arian is on a paid holiday. He does not have to work, but he still gets paid, by us – the taxpayers. This is not the kind of reward we should be giving terrorist operatives. There is another reward that is far more deserved, and it is called "justice." Not the phony justice where a speedy trial and lawyers help this Islamic Jihad puppet-master get off. And not the phony justice of a presidential visit to the Washington, D.C., mosque where we all make nice after a terrorist attack. But real justice, in which a national security problem is treated once and for all like a national security matter, not a trumped-up civil rights matter. And not a political matter to be courted at the White House, like Al-Arian was by President George W. Bush.

http://www.wnd.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=24803

in happier times.

If anyone has posting privileges over there I'm sure posting the above photo would cause a few more heads to explode.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1535145/posts

:nuke: :evilgrin:

also Al-Arian visited the WH in 2001. See link below for info.



The photo, taken on March 12, 2000, at the Florida Strawberry Festival in Plant City, shows Al-Arian holding a child and standing with family members next to George and Laura Bush.

<snip>

Al-Arian was among a group of Muslim activists who met with Bush's senior political adviser Karl Rove in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

Vice President Dick Cheney also was scheduled to meet with the group but canceled after Jewish and conservative activists protested.

At the time, Al-Arian had been under federal investigation for six years for suspected ties to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a group credited with more than 100 suicide-bombing deaths in Israel.

http://www.sptimes.com/2003/02/25/TampaBay/Bush__Al_Arian_photo_.shtml

I don't know much about this trial; but if the charges were brought by ashcroft's Justice Dept and they used the powers of the Patriot Act to gather evidence; then I think this not guilty verdict is a victory for the US.

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/12/07/Tampabay/8_times__Al_Arian_hea.shtml

8 times, Al-Arian hears 'Not guilty'

(excerpts)

A massive federal prosecution against Al-Arian, 47, and three other men accused of financing and promoting Middle East terrorism collapsed Tuesday when jurors found Al-Arian not guilty on eight counts and a judge declared a mistrial on nine others.

Two of Al-Arian's co-defendants were acquitted entirely, and a third was acquitted on most counts, with jurors deadlocked on several others.

In the end, not a single guilty verdict was returned after a six-month trial that included more than 80 witnesses and 400 transcripts of intercepted phone conversations and faxes.

The verdicts were a major defeat for the federal government, which characterized Al-Arian's indictment as a major case against terrorism, and a victory for Al-Arian's attorneys, who considered the government's case so weak they they declined to put on a defense.

:evilgrin:

Repeat that phrase several times: "A jury in Florida didn't buy the terrorist case."

Think about it. What the fuck? How bogus was this case? Shouldn't prosecutors be held accountible for outrages like this?

that the prosecutors are going back to look at some of the deadlocked counts. They didn't say there would be future indictments but that's the impression they left.

http://www2.nea.org/he/heta05/images/2005pg163.pdf

written by two faculty at USF....