William Alford

A University of South Florida computer science professor was arrested on February 20 in conjunction with a federal indictment for facilitating terrorism. The professor, Dr. Sami Al-Arian, was charged with raising funds and managing finances for an international terrorist organization that orchestrates violence primarily in Israel.

The 50-count indictment released by the Justice Department named Al-Arian as the worldwide financial director and North American leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The PIJ was designated a terrorist organization by a 1997 Presidential Executive Order and was described by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft as “one of the most violent terrorist organizations in the world.”

Al-Arian, along with seven other individuals, is also charged with “operating a racketeering enterprise from 1984 until the present,” using charitable and educational organizations that he founded as front groups for money laundering on the PIJ’s behalf.

Al-Arian initially attracted national attention following a television appearance on “The O’Reilly Factor” that aired shortly after September 11, 2001. During that segment, O’Reilly aired a series of videos of the professor’s speeches dating from the late 1980’s. One showed him shouting in Arabic, “Victory to Islam, death to Israel. Revolution, revolution until victory. March, march towards Jerusalem.” Saddam’s defeat in the 1991 Gulf War occasioned these comments: “God cursed those who are the sons of Israel, through David and Jesus, the son of Mary… Those people, God made monkeys and pigs.” At another forum he offered, “Let us damn America, let us damn Israel, let us damn them and their allies until death.”

Upon questioning, Al-Arian explained the Israeli “monkeys and pigs” reference as a Koran quote referring to those who incur divine wrath. He claimed that he didn’t mean to “damn America” literally, “I was very surprised to hear myself say that, and I’ve never said anything like that again,” he commented. Al-Arian asserts that he no longer says “death to Israel,” but holds that it is a “racist, apartheid state” that “has no moral or legal right to exist.”

A backlash soon erupted against USF; some called the school “Jihad University.” Threats of violence, e-mailed computer viruses, cancelled classes and a 5 percent drop in alumni support were among the immediate effects. Citing these disruptions and Al-Arian’s failure to adequately distinguish his positions from those of USF, the Board of Trustees voted 12 to 1 on December 19, 2001 to suspend him with pay for the second time in his career.

Al-Arian had previously been suspended from his position at the University from 1996-1998, when organizations that he founded under USF auspices came under FBI scrutiny. Al-Arian’s World and Islam Studies Enterprise [WISE] and the Islamic Concern Project [ICP] were suspected of being terrorist front organizations. USF conducted its own investigation, which did not have access to the materials found in Al-Arian’s home and his WISE/ICP offices. USF subsequently reinstated him, citing insufficient evidence.

The 2001 suspension impelled many students and faculty to rally to Al-Arian’s defense. Bill O’Reilly was vilified as being the true guilty party for choosing that time to air the videos. Invoking First Amendment violations, the American Association of University Professors [AAUP] threatened USF with censure and a lawsuit. Petitions demanding Al-Arian’s reinstatement circulated. A typical one alleged “a disturbing intolerance for controversial points of view” to be the motivating factor behind his dismissal. According to the petition, the negative effects that the O’Reilly appearance precipitated were not to be considered the professor’s responsibility and to do so would be akin to “punish[ing] the victim.”

In Sept. 2002, Al-Arian appeared at a free-speech rally at Georgia Tech, denouncing his accusers for racial and religious profiling and declared, “I will do my best to make sure free speech and academic freedom will win the day.” In a subsequent Atlanta Journal-Constitution interview, he “vehemently denied” that charity funds managed for orphans were actually going to Islamic Jihad and HAMAS. Al-Arian went on to compare himself to the outspoken American Patrick Henry in reference to his ‘pro-Palestinian’ statements and berated those investigating him for confusing “zealotry with patriotism.”

In August 2002, USF President Judy Genshaft announced a lawsuit against Sami Al-Arian to determine if firing the still-suspended professor would violate his First Amendment rights. School officials hoped that a ruling would then stave off a threatened lawsuit by the AAUP. Declining to hear the case’s merits, US District Judge Susan Bucklew ruled on Dec. 16, 2002 that the court had no role in determining such a labor dispute and suggested that the matter be settled in arbitration. USF was thus faced with the choice of expending further resources on an appeal, reinstating Al-Arian or terminating him, which would likely result in censure and further litigation.

Al-Arian’s labor union, the United Faculty of Florida, filed a grievance on his behalf on January 5, 2003. USF was charged with violating his academic freedom based on his religion, politics and ethnicity. Insufficient evidence of any danger or criminality by Al-Arian was cited as grounds for his immediate reinstatement.

With the release of the 121-page federal indictment, the amount of evidence indicating Al-Arian's guilt grew substantially. The document reveals detailed evidence, including information from a large body of “now-declassified national security wiretaps.”

• A series of intercepted phone calls, faxes and bank transactions demonstrate that Al-Arian used WISE and ICP bank accounts as surreptitious conduits for money transfers. These transactions involved the PIJ, the Iranian and Syrian governments, HAMAS [another federally designated terrorist organization] and ‘sources’ in the Sudan. Al-Arian was also recorded on several occasions advising how to dupe unsuspecting donors into providing funds for specifically outlawed terrorist groups.
• Phone calls and faxes documented Al-Arian facilitating PIJ tactical coordination with HAMAS. Agreement was reached and a deadly bus bombing in Israel subsequently occurred, utilizing a PIJ “boy” who deployed a HAMAS car loaded with HAMAS explosives.
• An intercepted phone conversation between Al-Arian and a prospective donor recorded the professor gloating over a January 22, 1995 double suicide attack in Beit Lid, Israel that killed 21 and injured 59. More such bloodshed was promised for money.
• Bank records, faxes and phone conversations showed Al-Arian’s direct participation in long-term financial support for the families of past suicide bombers as well as budgeting for future ones.
• Phone and fax records spanning several years demonstrated Al-Arian arranging false documentation for known terrorists entering the US. He then counseled them on circumventing federal scrutiny and using university affiliation as cover.
• In exchanges of intercepted faxes, Al-Arian edited a PIJ manifesto that Ashcroft says, “refers to the United States as ‘the Great-Satan America’ and indicates that the only purpose of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad is to destroy Israel and to end all Western influence in the region.”

Subsequent to the indictments and arrests, a formal USF Termination Notice was issued to Al-Arian on February 26. It noted the school’s lack of access to the above information during the 1995 investigation, which led to the professor’s reinstatement. USF President Judy Genshaft issued an official announcement the same day, recounting how “for almost a decade, the faculty, students and staff of this institution have worked under the burden of accusations about the conduct and actions of Sami Al-Arian.”

Genshaft asserted, “Dr. Al-Arian has repeatedly abused his position” and has issued “false and misleading statements” about his activities and “has misused the university’s name, reputation, resources and personnel,” including fundraising for terrorist organizations under USF’s rubric. USF’s purpose was to officially “sever all ties to Sami Al-Arian once and for all,” so that he will be unable to further “hide behind the shield of academic freedom.”

After a February 20 federal hearing, defense attorney Nicholas Matassini characterized the 50-count indictment as a “work of fiction” and declared that his client Al-Arian is “a political prisoner right now as we speak.” Al-Arian has been on a hunger strike since his arrest and was briefly hospitalized on March 1 for symptoms that caused the jail physician “concern.” Citing privacy considerations, jail officials would not discuss details of Al-Arian’s symptoms, but stated that his continued refusal of food may invoke the need for a court-ordered intervention.

Ashcroft lauded the federal Patriot Act of 2001 for removing the institutional obstacles toward Al-Arian and the others’ prosecution. Some observers, such as St. Petersburg Times columnist Robyn Blumner, questioned the Justice Department’s explanation for the time lag. Much of the cited evidence was in federal possession since the mid-nineties, but no action was taken. Blumner wondered if there would have been such a delay if Americans rather than Israelis had constituted the majority of the victims. “Federal agency infighting, official disinterest, and a lack of Arabic translators” were also named as possible reasons for such inertia.

Others chose the occasion of Al-Arian’s arrest to question the Patriot Act’s constitutionality altogether. Sean Kinane, chairman of the USF’s Alliance of Concerned Students, called for its repeal. Omali Yeshitela of the Florida Alliance for Peace and Justice declared, “this arrest is the most recent duct tape and plastic scheme that the government has come up with to try to terrorize people.”

Despite the overwhelming evidence indicating the professor’s guilt, many on campus remain Al-Arian’s staunch defenders. “You may have thought that this indictment was your golden opportunity, but you misconstrued the implications of your actions,” wrote student Layelle Saad in a letter directed at USF President Genshaft, which was printed in the campus paper, The Oracle. “The professor is still innocent until proven guilty, and what you did today will have horrible consequences for the university and also your moral conscience.”