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The Case of Sami al-Arian
We take a look at the case of Palestinian Professor Sami al-Arian, who has been imprisoned for over a year and is awaiting trial on charges of racketeering and conspiracy to commit murder. We speak with his attorney Linda Moreno.
At 5:30 am on a February morning in 2003, officers from the FBI and Joint Terrorism task Force raided the south Florida home of Professor Sami al-Arian. The officers grabbed him and took him from the house as his wife and 3 children watched in horror. At a press conference later that day, Attorney General John Ashcroft accused al-Arian of funding the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, calling it "one of the most violent terrorist organizations in the world."
That day, the Justice Department handed down a sweeping 50-count indictment against Al-Arian and seven other men, charging them with conspiracy to commit murder, giving material support to an outlawed group, extortion, perjury, and other offenses.
An indictment against Al-Arian had been rumored for months, but the one returned by a federal grand jury in Tampa was more expansive than most observers had expected. It accused Al-Arian of masterminding a terrorist support group that thrived in south Florida for nearly 20 years.
Sami Al-Arian was a tenured professor of computer science at the University of South Florida. In his personal life, he was known as an outspoken Palestinian activist and frequently spoke on college campuses. He had had previous encounters with the FBI in the mid-1990s, when the office of a group he established was raided by federal agents and al-Arian was under investigation on suspicion of aiding terror groups. Though Al-Arian was investigated for two years, he was never detained or charged with a crime and continued to work for the school...that is, until he got a call from the FOX News Channel.
In late September 2001, al-Arian was invited to be a guest on The O'Reilly Factor. Al-Arian thought he was going to be discussing Arab-American reactions to the attacks. Instead, host Bill O'Reilly went on a tirade against him, basically accusing al-Arian of supporting terrorism and terrorist groups. O'Reilly dug up comments al-Arian had made 15 years earlier and suggested that he should be followed everywhere he went. All of this on live international television and just weeks after the 9-eleven attacks. Here is an excerpt of that program on September 28, 2001. O'Reilly begins by referring to al-Arian's connections to former colleague Ramadun Abdullah Shallah who later resurfaced as head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
(Tape)
The O'Reilly Factor, September 28, 2001.
Beginning the next day, the University of South Florida, where al-Arian worked was barraged by hundreds of threatening letters and emails. Thirty-six hours after the interview, the university put Al-Arian on paid leave. In October of 2002, a few months before his house was raided and he was put in prison, I had a chance to interview Sami al-Arian at an antiwar demonstration in New York, commemorating the one year anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan.
(Tape)
Interview with Sami al-Arian October 6, 2002.
Sami al-Arian has now been in jail for more than a year and his trial is set to begin in January 2005.
Linda Moreno, lawyer for Sami al-Arian, who is imprisoned and awaiting trial on charges of racketeering and conspiracy to commit murder.
LISTEN TO AUDIO
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/09/144245
That day, the Justice Department handed down a sweeping 50-count indictment against Al-Arian and seven other men, charging them with conspiracy to commit murder, giving material support to an outlawed group, extortion, perjury, and other offenses.
An indictment against Al-Arian had been rumored for months, but the one returned by a federal grand jury in Tampa was more expansive than most observers had expected. It accused Al-Arian of masterminding a terrorist support group that thrived in south Florida for nearly 20 years.
Sami Al-Arian was a tenured professor of computer science at the University of South Florida. In his personal life, he was known as an outspoken Palestinian activist and frequently spoke on college campuses. He had had previous encounters with the FBI in the mid-1990s, when the office of a group he established was raided by federal agents and al-Arian was under investigation on suspicion of aiding terror groups. Though Al-Arian was investigated for two years, he was never detained or charged with a crime and continued to work for the school...that is, until he got a call from the FOX News Channel.
In late September 2001, al-Arian was invited to be a guest on The O'Reilly Factor. Al-Arian thought he was going to be discussing Arab-American reactions to the attacks. Instead, host Bill O'Reilly went on a tirade against him, basically accusing al-Arian of supporting terrorism and terrorist groups. O'Reilly dug up comments al-Arian had made 15 years earlier and suggested that he should be followed everywhere he went. All of this on live international television and just weeks after the 9-eleven attacks. Here is an excerpt of that program on September 28, 2001. O'Reilly begins by referring to al-Arian's connections to former colleague Ramadun Abdullah Shallah who later resurfaced as head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
(Tape)
The O'Reilly Factor, September 28, 2001.
Beginning the next day, the University of South Florida, where al-Arian worked was barraged by hundreds of threatening letters and emails. Thirty-six hours after the interview, the university put Al-Arian on paid leave. In October of 2002, a few months before his house was raided and he was put in prison, I had a chance to interview Sami al-Arian at an antiwar demonstration in New York, commemorating the one year anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan.
(Tape)
Interview with Sami al-Arian October 6, 2002.
Sami al-Arian has now been in jail for more than a year and his trial is set to begin in January 2005.
Linda Moreno, lawyer for Sami al-Arian, who is imprisoned and awaiting trial on charges of racketeering and conspiracy to commit murder.
LISTEN TO AUDIO
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/09/144245
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By pandering to anti-Arab hysteria, NBC, Fox News, Media General and Clear Channel radio disgraced themselves -- and ruined an innocent professor's life.
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/01/19/bubba/
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/01/19/bubba/
As you peruse the articles on the Democracy Now website, you will see one article on the Lexington Hearld's July 4 edition which finally printed the news and photos of the civil rights movement of the 1960s in Lexington as front page news! The person typing the transcript for the Democracy Now story obviously is too young to remember, so from those of us who can never forget as we were part of that civil rights movement that existed all across the US, including San Francisco, where blacks were not hired as automobile salespeople on Auto Row on Van Ness until we had mass picket lines in 1964:
CORE = Congress of Racial Equality, one of the two prominent civil rights organizations of that time (incorrectly spelled corps).
To add to your knowledge:
SNCC = Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (pronounced snick).
Both CORE & SNCC were integrated, non-violent civil rights organizations with a primary focus on eliminating segregation and winning the right to vote for blacks in areas where they were denied the right to vote with poll taxes, absurd tests and outright refusal to let them register to vote. These 2 organizations were most active in the 1960s.
Black Panther Party: Black organization that was active from 1966 to 1974 primarily in northern cities engaged in various charity activities in the medical and education areas, feeding hungry people (breakfast program for children), as well as exposing police brutality, greedy landlords and other problems of capitalism. It did not have a class perspective in that it did not focus on labor of all colors; it focussed on all black people, regardless of class, although the problems they addressed were mostly the problems of the black workingclass.
Angela Davis was never a member of the Black Panther Party, she was a member of the Communist Party for some 25 years or so, mostly a member of its Central Committee. The Communist Party, on paper, had a labor perspective, organizing people of all color who are members of the workingclass. She was and still is outspoken on the racist prison system, and defended the Black Panther Party from constant police frame-ups. Like every other progressive activist of the 1960s-1970s, Davis was part of the peace movement, the women's movement and the gay & lesbian liberation movement.
Getting back to the subject of the original article, the frame-ups we are witnessing would make Hitler proud. We are reliving both the 1950s in the US and the 1930s and 1940s in Nazi Germany. Both the Democrats and Republicans are actively promoting war and fascism, as always. That is why you should only vote for the socialist candidates on your ballot and if there are none for a given position, skip that position. The most important items on the ballot are the propositions.
The latest horror of the Democrats is to unite with the Republicans in defense of Israel's Apartheid Wall, just denounced by the International Court. Hillary Clinton was one of those Democrats who joined the American puppets, Israel, in opposing international law. John Kerry also proudly defends Israel's Apartheid Wall. Every single Democrat and Republican office holder at every level of government, including San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano, supports Israel and its Apartheid Wall, which means they are not progressive but reactionary and do not care about us workers because they would rather spend $4 billion annually on the US military base in the Middle East to protect US oil profits, namely Israel, then on social services at home. You cannot have guns and butter.
Start voting your conscience. Stop voting for any Democrat or any Republican for any office. We cannot advance and the world cannot tolerate the nightmare of US imperialism if you continue to vote for any Democrat or any Republican. Vote socialist now.
CORE = Congress of Racial Equality, one of the two prominent civil rights organizations of that time (incorrectly spelled corps).
To add to your knowledge:
SNCC = Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (pronounced snick).
Both CORE & SNCC were integrated, non-violent civil rights organizations with a primary focus on eliminating segregation and winning the right to vote for blacks in areas where they were denied the right to vote with poll taxes, absurd tests and outright refusal to let them register to vote. These 2 organizations were most active in the 1960s.
Black Panther Party: Black organization that was active from 1966 to 1974 primarily in northern cities engaged in various charity activities in the medical and education areas, feeding hungry people (breakfast program for children), as well as exposing police brutality, greedy landlords and other problems of capitalism. It did not have a class perspective in that it did not focus on labor of all colors; it focussed on all black people, regardless of class, although the problems they addressed were mostly the problems of the black workingclass.
Angela Davis was never a member of the Black Panther Party, she was a member of the Communist Party for some 25 years or so, mostly a member of its Central Committee. The Communist Party, on paper, had a labor perspective, organizing people of all color who are members of the workingclass. She was and still is outspoken on the racist prison system, and defended the Black Panther Party from constant police frame-ups. Like every other progressive activist of the 1960s-1970s, Davis was part of the peace movement, the women's movement and the gay & lesbian liberation movement.
Getting back to the subject of the original article, the frame-ups we are witnessing would make Hitler proud. We are reliving both the 1950s in the US and the 1930s and 1940s in Nazi Germany. Both the Democrats and Republicans are actively promoting war and fascism, as always. That is why you should only vote for the socialist candidates on your ballot and if there are none for a given position, skip that position. The most important items on the ballot are the propositions.
The latest horror of the Democrats is to unite with the Republicans in defense of Israel's Apartheid Wall, just denounced by the International Court. Hillary Clinton was one of those Democrats who joined the American puppets, Israel, in opposing international law. John Kerry also proudly defends Israel's Apartheid Wall. Every single Democrat and Republican office holder at every level of government, including San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano, supports Israel and its Apartheid Wall, which means they are not progressive but reactionary and do not care about us workers because they would rather spend $4 billion annually on the US military base in the Middle East to protect US oil profits, namely Israel, then on social services at home. You cannot have guns and butter.
Start voting your conscience. Stop voting for any Democrat or any Republican for any office. We cannot advance and the world cannot tolerate the nightmare of US imperialism if you continue to vote for any Democrat or any Republican. Vote socialist now.
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