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St. Petersburg Times – July 15, 2005
Lawyers at Al-Arian trial argue over translations, meanings
By MEG LAUGHLIN
TAMPA - Jurors at the terrorism-related trial of Sami Al-Arian got a lesson in Arabic 101, Thursday (July 13, 2005).
Among the things they heard: "Brigade" does not mean "pancakes." Sometimes "books" are just "books," not code for something else. "Jihad" has several meanings, including "striving for the utmost," as well as "holy war," depending on the context. And talk of "slaughtering and butchering" - especially during the winter holidays - might refer to what's for dinner.
With FBI-contracted linguist Tahsin Ali on the witness stand, federal prosecutors and defense attorneys argued semantics, disputing the meanings of Arabic words heard in seized videos and eight years of FBI wiretaps, which Ali translated for prosecutors.
The prosecution is being built substantially on wiretaps, speeches, papers and other records that are in Arabic. Ultimately, in an already complex case, it will be up to the jurors to decide whose translations to accept. Al-Arian and his three co-defendants are charged with conspiring to fund terrorism.
Both sides agreed that "chickpeas" added up to "hummus." But they parted on whether "hummus" was code for the terrorist group "Hamas." They also couldn't agree on whether an Arabic word that sounded like "ka-tuh-yee" referred to "brigades" or "pancakes." As a general rule, federal prosecutors argued that the defendants' words had violent meanings, or were code for something sinister related to terrorism, while defense attorneys argued that they were mild, innocuous words.
The translator fell somewhere in the middle. He flipped through his English-Arabic dictionary and the original Arabic in transcripts to explain why he sometimes capitalized the words "jihad" and "intifada" and sometimes didn't. "I capitalized the event - the battle - but not the general word, "jihad,' " he said. He said uncapitalized "jihad" meant "striving to the utmost to achieve a goal." Uncapitalized "intifada" was a "general uprising." Capitalized "Intifada" was the Palestinian uprising.
Defense attorney Linda Moreno pointed out several times in a transcript (of a 1991 Al-Arian speech in Cleveland) when Ali didn't capitalize "jihad," suggesting that Al-Arian didn't mean a physical battle…..
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/07/15/Hillsborough/Lawyers_at_Al_Arian_t.shtml
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