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St. Petersburg Times - August 17, 2005
Evidence covers five years quickly
A day of testimony in the Al-Arian trial presents
a range of information gathered from 1995 to 2000
By MEG LAUGHLIN
TAMPA - Prosecutors picked up the pace in the federal trial of Sami Al-Arian Tuesday, spanning five years in five hours.
The day in court began with evidence from October 1995, when Ramadan Abdullah Shallah became the leader of the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, with people in Tampa reacting with stunned disbelief. It ended in June 2000 with FBI wiretaps of Sameeh Hammoudeh, a co-defendant who worked for Al-Arian in Tampa.
In the morning, prosecutors played a video of Shallah delivering a fiery eulogy at the funeral of Fathi Shikaki, the PIJ leader whom Shallah replaced when Shikaki was assassinated by Israeli intelligence agents Oct. 26, 1995.
Said Shallah: "Fathi Shikaki is the sacred duty ... the revenge inhabiting our blood around the clock, in minutes and seconds. ... He will come suddenly upon you as an irresistible blaze and explosion ... at any moment from any place in our usurped country Palestine."
Before leaving Tampa in June 1995, Shallah ran World & Islam Studies Enterprise, an Islamic think tank in Tampa founded by Al-Arian. He also had been an adjunct professor at the University of South Florida. So, when he became the new leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Syria four months later, the community was stunned.
WISE quickly issued a disclaimer saying that "WISE has never served nor does it lend itself to serve as a political advocacy group. ... WISE denies any knowledge of Dr. Abdullah's (Shallah's) association or affiliation with any political group or agency in the Middle East."
Nevertheless, USF broke connections with WISE.
Prosecutors on Tuesday also played a Nov. 2, 1995, FBI wiretap of a phone conversation between Al-Arian and St. Petersburg Times reporter Jim Harper, who told Al-Arian that "some people ... say, well, maybe it's time the FBI (looked) into (Shallah's) associates, including Dr. Al-Arian. ... Are you are of whether or not you are under any sort of investigation?"
Al-Arian told Harper: "If they're doing it, they're doing it on their own. ... I am not aware of anything at all."
Al-Arian didn't tell Harper that he had previous contact with the FBI, refusing to become an FBI informant on Islamic activity in the Tampa area, after being repeatedly asked by an FBI agent in 1992, information that has since come out in the trial.
A month after Shallah became head of the PIJ, the Treasury Department added his name to its list of "specially designated terrorists." Oddly enough, at the same time, the Iranian government stopped funding to the PIJ because of suspicions that Shallah was a U.S. intelligence informant, according to a Dec. 11, 1995, story in U.S. News & World Report.
Meanwhile, back in Tampa, FBI agents had arrived at dawn at the WISE offices, Al-Arian's office at USF and Al-Arian's home to seize books, papers, photos, computer files and videos. Al-Arian and three co-defendants - Hammoudeh, Ghassan Ballut and Hatem Fariz - are charged with conspiring to provide "material aid" to the PIJ. Some of the materials seized in the Nov. 21 and 22 searches of Al-Arian's offices and homes are now in evidence against him and the others.
Prosecutors ended the day by reading transcripts from 1999 and 2000 FBI wiretaps of Sameeh Hammoudeh's phone conversations. In them, Hammoudeh repeatedly talked to his parents in the occupied territories about sending them thousands of dollars for orphans and the blind. Prosecutors will try to convince jurors that the money was linked to the PIJ…..
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/08/17/Hillsborough/Evidence_covers_five_.shtml
Tampa Bay Tribune - Aug 18, 2005
Al-Arian lied to help in-law, prosecutors say
By MICHAEL FECHTER
TAMPA - Sami Al-Arian desperately sought evidence that could spring his brother-in- law from jail.
He needed receipts for contributions made a decade earlier. He needed witnesses for an August 2000 immigration hearing to say his charity, the Islamic Committee for Palestine, sent money abroad for clinics, orphans and other needy people.
Prosecutors say that scramble was riddled with lies to conceal Al-Arian and Mazen Al-Najjar's involvement with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group.
Obstruction of justice is one of 53 counts against Al-Arian and three other men. Transcripts of secretly recorded telephone calls by Al-Arian and his fellow defendants read to jurors Wednesday showed the effort's urgency.
The men also are charged with racketeering, conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists.
Al-Najjar had been jailed for more than three years pending a deportation order based on secret evidence that linked him to the Islamic Jihad.
Al-Najjar and Nafi, who live abroad, also are charged with perjury for testimony they gave in the immigration hearing. Al-Najjar was released in December 2000 after an immigration judge found no evidence the charity was connected to terrorism.
He was arrested again in November 2001 after his deportation appeal was rejected. He left the United States in August 2002 and his whereabouts is unclear today….
http://news.tbo.com/news/MGBI943DICE.html
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