| Hatem Naji Fariz | Hatem Naji Fariz | Palestinian Islamic Jihad | Home Front: WoT | 20050608 |
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| Prof. Sami Al-Arian Gets 18 Months More in Terror Case |
| 2006-05-01 |
| TAMPA, Fla. -- A judge sentenced former professor Sami Al-Arian on Monday to another year and a half in prison before he will be deported in his terrorism conspiracy case. Al-Arian, 48, was sentenced to four years and nine months, but he will get credit for the three years and three months he has already served while being held. He signed a plea agreement April 14 in which he admitted providing support to members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a State Department-designated terrorist group responsible for hundreds of deaths in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Al-Arian took the plea deal despite a jury failing to convict him of any of the 17 charges against him after a six-month trial last year. His family said he agreed to the deal to get out of jail and end their suffering. It was not immediately clear where Al-Arian would be sent. Born in Kuwait to Palestinian refugee parents, he was reared mostly in Egypt before coming to the United States 30 years ago. He has been jailed since his arrest in February 2003 and was fired from the University of South Florida, where he was a computer engineering professor, shortly after his indictment. The failure to convict Al-Arian was a stinging rebuke for the federal government. His case was once hailed by authorities as a triumph of the anti-terrorism USA Patriot Act, which allowed secret wiretaps and other information gathered by intelligence agents to be used in criminal prosecutions. As part of the plea agreement, Al-Arian admitted to being associated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad from the late 1980s and providing "services" for the group, which included filing for immigration benefits for key members, hiding the identities of those men and lying about his involvement. Al-Arian admitted to considerably less guilt than prosecutors tried to prove at trial. They described Al-Arian then as the leader of a North American cell of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, raising money for suicide bombings and spreading the word in what was described as a "cycle of terror." Al-Arian was acquitted in December of eight of the 17 federal charges against him while the jury deadlocked on the rest. He pleaded guilty to one count in the indictment that charges him with "conspiracy to make or receive contributions of funds, goods or services to or for the benefit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad." Two of his co-defendants were acquitted of all charges, which were mostly based on hundreds of hours of intercepted phone calls and faxes. A fourth, Hatem Naji Fariz, was acquitted on 25 counts while the jury deadlocked on eight others. The case against him on the remaining counts is pending. |
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| Fifth Column |
| Acquitting a Terrorist |
| 2005-12-07 |
| By Joe Kaufman âToday, the United States Department of Justice is announcing the indictment of Sami al-Arian and seven co-conspirators.â Thatâs how United States Attorney General John Ascroft began his press conference, back in February of 2003. It was a momentous day in the war on terrorism, a triumph of the Patriot Act. We caught a leader of a terrorist ring based in Tampa, Florida, and he and at least some of his compatriots were going to be brought to justice. Now, it appears justice may not have been served. Yesterday, al-Arian and his three friends were acquitted after five months of hearing testimony that seemed to point to the contrary. Of the 17 counts al-Arian was charged with, he was acquitted on eight of them, including âconspiracy to murder and maim people abroad,â the most serious charge. The remaining nine were considered a mistrial, as the jury was deadlocked on them. Two of his co-defendants, Sameeh Hammoudeh and Ghassan Zayed Ballut, were acquitted of all charges against them. The other, Hatem Naji Fariz, was found not guilty of 24 counts, and jurors deadlocked on the remaining eight. Until we hear from the jurors, itâs hard to say how this could possibly have happened. The judge in the trial, James S. Moody, had stipulated to the jury that the prosecution needed to prove that the money allegedly going from Tampa to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) was sent for the purpose of violence. Is it possible that anything related to PIJ can be disassociated with violence? It is a terrorist organization. Did the defense convince the jurors that this was all one big political demonstration against the âZionistsâ based on the Israeli-Palestinian situation? I cannot envision either of the above occurring, because I attended the trial. Along with the jurors, I watched the video of the 1991 Cleveland fundraiser, in which al-Arian begged his audience to create a Palestine âfrom the river to the sea,â concluding: Thus is the way of jihad. Thus is the way of martyrdom. Thus is the way of blood, because this is the path to heaven. Along with the jurors, I watched Fawaz Mohammed âAbuâ Damra â the individual that founded al-Qaedaâs main American headquarters in Brooklyn â call al-Arianâs Islamic Committee for Palestine the âactive arm of the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine.â Sami al-Arian was present in the video. Did he disagree? Absolutely not. Rest at link. |
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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Florida Professor Acquitted on Some Charges |
| 2005-12-06 |
| Just in from Fox TAMPA, Fla. â A former Florida professor was acquitted on a key charge Tuesday that he helped lead a Palestinian terrorist group that has carried out suicide bombings against Israel. In one of the biggest courtroom tests yet of the Patriot Act's expanded search and surveillance powers, the jury acquitted Sami Al-Arian of eight of the 17 counts against him, including a charge of conspiring to maim and murder people overseas. The jury 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 go back to jail until prosecutors decide whether retry him on the deadlocked counts. Co-defendants Sameeh Hammoudeh and Ghassan Zayed Ballut were acquitted of all charges against them. Another, Hatem Naji Fariz, was found not guilty of 24 counts and jurors deadlocked on the remaining eight. |
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| Home Front: WoT |
| Fired Professor Presents No Defense at His Terrorism-Support Trial in Florida |
| 2005-10-27 |
| TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - An attorney defending a fired college professor against federal charges of aiding Palestinian terrorists rested his case Thursday without calling a single witness to refute nearly five months of prosecution testimony. Defense attorney William Moffitt called the prosecution an "all-out assault on the First Amendment" and the right to free speech, and then rested his case for Sami Al-Arian. Attorneys for three co-defendants began presenting their cases, which could take weeks more. Because the trial was continuing, neither side was immediately available for comment. Al-Arian, 47, who was fired from the University of South Florida, and his co-defendants - Sameeh Hammoudeh, Ghassan Zayed Ballut and Hatem Naji Fariz - are accused of using Palestinian charities and educational entities as fundraising fronts for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad to support suicide bombings that killed hundreds. The men deny they supported violent acts and say they are being persecuted for views that are unpopular in the United States. Five other men have been indicted but have not been arrested. They are out of the country. Moffitt's announcement that he was resting his case came the same morning that federal prosecutors wrapped up a case that included testimony from more than 70 witnesses and hundreds of pages of transcripts of wiretapped phone calls and faxes. The communications, intercepted by the FBI from the mid-1990s to about 2003, included discussions about the direction and financing of the PIJ. Other times, the participants appear to celebrate suicide attacks that killed Israelis and speak glowingly of the Palestinian "martyrs" who carried them out. U.S. District Judge James S. Moody Jr. said he will instruct jurors that prosecutors must have proved that each defendant did something illegal with the "specific intent to further the illegal activities" of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. However, Moody said he also tell them that they can find defendants guilty if prosecutors showed that they sent money to the group knowing that it would or could be used for terrorist acts. |
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| Suspects Not Tied to Terror Group: Lawyers | ||
| 2005-06-08 | ||
 Attorneys for three terrorism defendants told jurors yesterday that the men were never associated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and had innocent explanations for comments that were wiretapped by investigators.
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