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Sami Amin Al-Arian (Arabic: سامي العريان) (born January 14, 1958) is a Palestinian-American computer engineer and former university professor who was arrested by the United States government in 2003 on charges of funding terrorists. On December 6, 2005, after 13 days of deliberations, he was acquitted on eight of 17 counts, including criminal charges related to immigration violations, supporting terrorism and perjury and immigration violations, while the jury remained deadlocked on the others. He remains in custody pending a decision on whether to retry him on the deadlocked charges. Dr. Al-Arian's lead defense attorney is Linda Moreno.
On April 17, 2006, court papers were unsealed in which Al-Arian admitted he raised money for the Islamic Jihad and conspired to hide the identities of other members of the terrorist organization, including his brother-in-law, Mazen Al-Najjar. He also admitted knowing "that the PIJ achieved its objectives by, among other means, acts of violence."
Biography
Sami Amin Al-Arian was born in Kuwait. He emigrated with his family to Egypt in 1966, and traveled to the United States in 1975 at the age of 17 to complete his university studies. 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. He was employed in 1986 as a professor in the Computer Sciences Department at the University of South Florida in Tampa. He was chosen in 1993 as the best professor in the Faculty of Engineering, and as the best professor on the level of the entire university in 1994. Dr. Al-Arian is married to Nahla Al-Arian and has five children.
Dr. Al-Arian has played a prominent role in establishing a number of Arab and Islamic institutions over the past quarter of a century. These include the Arab Muslim Youth League in 1977, the Islamic Community Center in Tampa, and the Florida Islamic Academy, which is an Islamic school for students in Tampa and its suburbs. A devout Muslim, he was also imam of his mosque. He is considered to have been among the most active lecturers in North America in the 1980s and 1990s on the subjects of the Palestinian cause, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the relationship between Islam and the West. He helped to found the World Islamic Study Enterprise (WISE) and the Islamic Committee for Palestine (ICP) in 1990, which sought to set up a serious dialogue between scholars and men involved in the Islamic movement and Western Orientalists. Over a period of five years, WISE and ICP issued 20 volumes and several books, as well as sponsoring several conferences. Accusations that WISE was a front for terrorists were made in a series of articles in the Tampa Tribune. Al-Arian was suspended with pay while an investigation was conducted for the university by William Reese Smith, prominent attorney and former president of the American Bar Association. The Smith investigation discovered no evidence against Al-Arian, who resumed teaching. At that time, federal authorities were unable to comment on Al-Arian's status.
In the 2004 Florida U.S. Senate campaign, former USF president Betty Castor was attacked for failing to fire Al-Arian at the time of the WISE flap. She replied that, acting on the information available at the time, there was insufficient evidence to justify firing a tenured professor.
In February 2003, the FBI accused al-Arian and seven others of being involved since 1984 in a criminal organization that assists the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement. The authorities added that this organization had been responsible for hundreds of terrorist acts in Israel, resulting in over 100 deaths, and that Al-Arian was the jihad movement's chief of operations in the United States. Al-Arian denied any connection with terrorist activities. Following the publicity regarding his non-academic activities as well as the criminal allegations, he was suspended with pay from his university position. Shortly thereafter, the university formally notified him of its intent to terminate his employment. As Dr. Al-Arian was a tenured professor, both the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and United Faculty of Florida (the faculty union) have opposed the actions of the university administration in Al-Arian's case. After announcing its intent to fire Dr. Al-Arian, the case hung in suspense for many months. The university did not actually fire Dr. Al-Arian until shortly after his Federal indictment and arrest. Actions in his case were also raised in 2004 primary and general election campaigns in the United States involving Betty Castor, former president of the USF.
Investigation
The FBI began investigating Al-Arian's alleged connections to Islamist groups on the US list of terrorist organizations in the early 1990s, establishing its first wiretaps for Al-Arian in 1993. In 1995, the FBI began requesting information on Al-Arian and two other professors from USF campus police while refraining from providing the local authorities with any details of the investigation. In 1996, USF officials received more information on the investigation that led university president Betty Castor to suspend Al-Arian, but no charges were brought against him. Investigators did not share recordings and other information gathered for intelligence purposes with the criminal staff of the FBI in the late 1990s, and the university's internal report by Tampa lawyer William Reece Smith did not suggest any grounds for USF to dismiss him.
After his brother-in-law, Mazen Al-Najjar was imprisoned on secret evidence, Al-Arian became politically active in the United States. He campaigned against the use of secret evidence in immigration cases and was for George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential election, and was photographed with Bush that year in Plant City, Florida. The following year, Al-Arian's son, Abdullah, became a congressional intern, but was by a mistake kicked out of a White House meeting, sparking a walkout by twenty other Muslims in attendance. However, President Bush soon apologized to the Al-Arian family for the incident. On June 20, 2001, Sami Al-Arian's attended Eisenhower Office Building for a briefing, led by Karl Rove, with 160 other Muslim leaders.
Al-Arian appeared on the popular television show The O'Reilly Factor on September 26, shortly after the September 11th attacks. On the program, host Bill O'Reilly, resurrected charges from fifteen years prior that alleged Al-Arian had used a now-defunct university-affiliated Islamic think tank that he headed as a front for Palestinian "terrorist" organizations. Though Al-Arian denied all links to terrorists O'Reilly claimed he believed Al-Arian had terrorist connections.
Following the airing of the program, USF received several death threats for Al-Arian. University president Judy Genshaft placed Al-Arian on paid leave and barred him from the campus on September 27, saying it was for his own safety and the safety of others at the university.
On December 19, 2001, Genshaft initiated proceedings to revoke Al-Arian's tenure and terminate his employment at the university. Genshaft refused to speak publicly about the Al-Arian case; a spokesman indicated that Genshaft was attempting to fire Al-Arian for supporting terrorism and damaging the university's reputation.
The University filed a lawsuit seeking a pre-emptive judgement that firing Al-Arian would not violate his First Amendment rights in August of 2002. The suit was summarily dismissed on December 15, 2002, with the judge indicating that such an advisory ruling is not within the scope of the court's function.
Arrest
On February 20, 2003, the FBI arrested Al-Arian after indicting him and seven others on 50 charges including some related to terrorism. United States Attorney General John Ashcroft alleged at a press conference that Al-Arian was the North American head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and the secretary of the PIJ's international organization. His trial was set for May 16 2005. Al-Arian's lawyers stated that the delay between arrest and trial constitutes a violation of Al-Arian's right under the United States Constitution to a speedy trial. In response, Judge James Moody cited what he believed to be the complexity and uniqueness of the case as reasons for setting the trial in 2005.
On February 26, Genshaft announced that Al-Arian had been fired on the basis that his non-academic activities created a conflict of interest with the university. Allegations from his indictment were also cited.
Al-Arian also co-founded the Islamic Association for Palestine in 1981. Its daughter organization is the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. InfoCom Corporation, another organization affiliated with IAP, had its offices raided by the U.S. government.
Trial
Al-Arian's Federal District Court trial in Tampa commenced in June, 2005. On December 6, 2005, after 13 days of deliberations, the jury acquitted him on eight of 17 counts, while remaining deadlocked 10-2 in favor of acquittal on the other nine. Of all the 51 charges against the four men, not one was judged as guilty. Al-Arian, however, remains in custody pending a decision on whether to retry him on the deadlocked charges.
Deportation
On April 17, 2006, court papers were unsealed in which Al-Arian pled guilty and agreed to be deported.
External links
- SITE Institute Fact Sheet on Sami Al-Arian
- Sami Al-Arian, in his words
- Free Sami Al-Arian Site
- FOX News transcript of O'Reilly interview- September 26 2001
- US Department of Justice press release regarding arrest- February 20 2003
- USF'S Official Al-Arian Case News Archive
- Judge Tosses USF Suit Against Al-Arian- Ben Feller, The Tampa Tribune, December 17 2002
- Al-Arian Demands USF Restore his Standing- Anita Kumar, The St. Petersburg Times, January 7 2003
- Jury selected for ex-professor- May 16 2005
- Ongoing trial coverage from the St. Petersburg Times
- Al-Arian Likened To Don In Mafia by Micheal Fecter, published in the Tampa Tribune November 8, 2005
- Al-Arian Admits His Role in Jihad published in the Tampa Tribune April 19, 2006