Heartbreak: Terrorist enabler stuck in prison
posted at 9:42 am on March 22, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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Sami al-Arian’s fondest wish is to be deported from the United States to the Palestinian territories. The US government has other plans, however, and will keep him in prison until he testifies to connections between charity front groups and terrorists. The former Florida professor claims he has immunity from further investigations, but somehow his side forgot to commit it to paper:
Former university professor Sami al-Arian wants to finish serving his prison sentence for a terrorism-related crime next month so that he can be deported to the Palestinian territories. But the Bush administration is threatening to keep him behind bars until he does something he has steadfastly refused to do: testify before a grand jury investigating allegations that Muslim charities aided terrorism organizations.
Arian, who taught computer engineering at the University of South Florida, said he is declining to testify against the charities because he thinks they were falsely charged, “and he doesn’t want them to be persecuted the way he was,” said Jonathan Turley, his attorney. As a result, Arian is to be held at the Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Va., on civil contempt charges. …
Arian was at the center of one of the nation’s highest profile terrorism cases, accused of conspiracy to commit racketeering and murder and to aid a terrorist group, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in 2003.
Two years later, a jury acquitted him of eight counts and deadlocked on others, but Arian pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to “make or receive funds . . . for the benefit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad” and was sentenced to 57 months in prison, which included time already served.
Now he wants his release to get out of the US, but the Department of Justice wants his testimony about those groups and their support for terrorism. Al-Arian and his attorneys claim that they agreed to al-Arian serving an additional 12 months in exchange for immunity from further grand jury subpoenas. However — and this is the humorous part — they claim that no one bothered to commit it to paper, because everyone understood that condition.
Ahem. Have you ever heard an attorney agree to a deal that didn’t get committed to paper, especially when the rest of the plea agreement came in written form? If al-Arian expected the government to give him a pass from further investigations, then he needed a set of attorneys who know how to draft it into an agreement. This assertion makes no sense in any case. Would anyone expect the Department of Justice to let a material witness to terrorism flee the country without getting his testimony on the record?
His attorneys accuse Justice of setting a perjury trap. There’s an easy way out of that: don’t commit perjury. Tell the truth about the front groups and their connections to terrorists when the grand jury asks the questions. Of course, if al-Arian did that, he may not find his welcome in the Palestinian territories quite as hospitable.
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Sucks to be him, hahaha! I love it when terrorists outsmart themselves into situations like this.
MalkinFan on March 22, 2008 at 9:52 AM
Could it be? There is something to hide? Seems simple enough to me. Alive in a US jail, or, in a box in the soil Palestine for ratting. Probably would not be a pleasant journey, either.
I wouldn’t count on getting that testimony.
shaken on March 22, 2008 at 9:56 AM
I’d like to see him deported too … to GITMO!
Tony737 on March 22, 2008 at 9:57 AM
Nor, would the prosecution grant immunity without putting it and it’s conditions into writing and presenting it to the other side. This is silly.
Blake on March 22, 2008 at 9:58 AM
Can’t see why there would be any confusion here as everyone knows the Palestinian legal system is modeled precisely on the US legal system.
Ares on March 22, 2008 at 9:59 AM
His second fondest wish is to be deported from the United States to some other place. Any other place.
RedWinged Blackbird on March 22, 2008 at 10:02 AM
“Arian, who taught computer engineering at the University of South Florida …”
But, but I thought *poverty* was the root cause of terrorism???
Tony737 on March 22, 2008 at 10:03 AM
Johnathan Turley the pointy-head liberal law professor at GWU? Didn’t get it in writing?
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! When is Sami going to sue him? That’ll be an indication that Sami thinks there was an agreement.
misterpeasea on March 22, 2008 at 10:27 AM
I say let him go, we’ll just end up killing him in the streets of Baghdad or the mountains of Afghanistan.
THE CHOSEN ONE on March 22, 2008 at 10:40 AM
This will do wonders for Johnathan Turley career as a talking head on the tube.
As for the terrorist. I am confident his future will be a rough one, you know, every dog has his day. And I’m sure Sami the bag man’s day is coming.
Zorro on March 22, 2008 at 10:42 AM
He needs skydiving lessons with a faulty parachute.
funky chicken on March 22, 2008 at 10:44 AM
I had the misfortune to listen to a leftist propaganda show, “Law and Disorder” recently. In the insane parallel universe of “Law and Disorder”, Sami’s lawyer was explaining how Sami is the victim of a government witch hunt and how what is happening to Sami is starting us on the path of losing all our civil liberties. The leftists really do want us all dead.
thuja on March 22, 2008 at 10:56 AM
Call in an extra janitor to mop up his tears.
TooTall on March 22, 2008 at 11:03 AM
I wish.
Connie on March 22, 2008 at 11:46 AM
I am sure that you will find in the transcript of the change of plea:
Judge: Did you read the plea agreement before you signed it?
Defendant: Yes.
J: Is there anything in the plea agreement that you did not agree to?
D: No.
J: Is there anything that you agreed to that is not in the plea agreement?
D: No.
slp on March 22, 2008 at 12:00 PM
Everyone:
I actually interviewed this guy in college, before he was arrested when I was a writer for a local newspaper. He is smooth, educated and very very guilty. I found it hard to write a piece about him, because there was so little on him at the time. But if you have ever looked a hardcore jihadi in the eye, you know that look. He had it in spades. This guy is a true believer and I would not be surprised one bit if he is balls-deep in every cell in the southeast.
Squid Shark on March 22, 2008 at 12:11 PM
It’s funny how a little knowledge of Islam would have cleared all this up in no time. It would make the Holy Land retrial superfluous as well.
Charity money (zakat in Islam) has always been duel purpose funding in Islam. It goes to feed the poor or pay for war (jihad) at the discretion of the cleric or mullah collecting or holding it. So there is no question that this money could go directly to the “terrorists”.
Yet the justice system wants to create a direct and provable trail ignoring or ignorant of the fact that the money finances “terror” as it is meant to all along.
Of course this would make Islam look like something other than the religion of peace and tolerance that our leaders insist it is and so this simple truth of the use of Islamic “charity” money goes ignored.
BL@KBIRD on March 22, 2008 at 12:27 PM
Blackbird is right. Sadly, John McCain has no more intention of telling the truth about Islam than does George W. As long Christians continue to justify Christianity in terms of faith–regardless of the content of that faith–being a good thing, we are going to get lies about Islam from our political leadership. Shouldn’t Christian apologetics tell us why Christinaity is a good idea? I honestly believe that my argument here is a pro-Christianity argument and that Christians have done Christianity a great disservice by refusing to defend Christainity and instead defend “faith communities”.
thuja on March 22, 2008 at 1:43 PM
Yeah, we need to go after those Jews who planned 9-11 and control the worlds banks too…
Squid Shark on March 22, 2008 at 3:22 PM
Good. Squeeze him dry, then send him off to HellZoneOne to play patty-cakes with his nasty little terrorist buds.
Think fast, monkey-boy!
mojo on March 22, 2008 at 3:48 PM
Yeah, lots of people get stuck in prison. I hope his cellmate is named Bubba.
ReubenJCogburn on March 22, 2008 at 4:37 PM
When I read that headline, I thought the worst candidate in this election, Freddy Thompson, was finally arrested for giving legal advice to Libyan terrorists.
tommylotto on March 22, 2008 at 7:55 PM
Sounds pretty open and shut to me.
Hog Wild on March 22, 2008 at 8:01 PM
OK McCain, please tell us what YOU would do with scum like this guy and his foreign terror buddies.
And if you were to close Gitmo?
shooter on March 22, 2008 at 9:16 PM
I wouldnt torture him, he is not a foreigner. He was arrested on US soil, teaching at a US university.
Squid Shark on March 22, 2008 at 11:02 PM
Hey, if he refuses to talk to the Grand Jury, just put out at statement that he has been helpful to the investigation, then deport him.
How long do you think he would last, especially if we make sure that he goes to Gaza?
schmuck281 on March 22, 2008 at 11:21 PM
Screw this guy, I dont think he has any info, but he has done nothing but raise money.
Squid Shark on March 22, 2008 at 11:23 PM
This rotten nation is full of jihadophobes and the media has a CLEAR ant-terrorist bias.
ronsfi on March 23, 2008 at 4:39 AM
No, you don’t understand. Al-Arian will go to the terrortories [sic], and then he will admit that he was doing what he was doing all along. However, don’t expect him to suffer in poverty. He’ll be in one of those million-dollar villas that Arafat and his cronies built with the aid money that was supposed to feed their people.
If he was innocent, he would not have agreed to any kind of plea bargain. You don’t spend five years in jail so you can get the govt. off your back and get on with your life.
Meryl Yourish on March 23, 2008 at 10:04 AM
We need to let it slip that he ratted out several top Al Quida people.
If you know what I mean.
TheSitRep on March 23, 2008 at 10:26 PM