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Only Feds Could Make Al-Arian Look Like Victim

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By DANIEL RUTH

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 17, 2008

In the immortal words of Agent 86 Maxwell Smart, Sami Al-Arian "missed it by that much," in an effort to get out of the hoosegow earlier this week.

Thanks to U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, the defrocked former University of South Florida professor had been granted $350,000 bail on pending contempt charges, which would have freed Al-Arian from federal custody for the first time since 2003 when he was arrested on numerous terrorism counts.

On Monday, according to George Washington University law Professor Jonathan Turley, Al-Arian's son, Abdullah, was told by the federal district court clerk's office in Washington that he could pick his father up.

Indeed Al-Arian, who had been brought to the clerk's office to await the arrival of his son, was literally minutes away from walking out of the federal courthouse when agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement "... came in a grabbed him," Turley said.

Who would have ever guessed? Who would have ever remotely imagined that one of Tampa's more reviled, loathsome, reprehensible characters could become a grudging sympathetic figure?

Only the federal government could pull off that feat of duplicity.

Black Hole

Because of a black hole in Al-Arian's original 2006 plea agreement in which he admitted to raising money for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad he knew would be used for acts of violence, the ol' professor has found himself spending more time behind bars than he ever expected.

Al-Arian was acquitted in a 2005 federal trial on eight counts of raising funds for the PIJ and other related charges. The jury deadlocked on nine other charges, which eventually led to a plea agreement and a sentence of 57 months in prison followed by deportation.

With credit for time served, by now Al-Arian should have been enjoying the blissful charms of Cairo. Instead he has remained in the slammer because of a dispute over his plea agreement.

No Wording

Al-Arian has insisted the plea deal did not require him to cooperate with authorities in subsequent investigations.

However, there is no wording to be found either in the plea deal itself, or during his sentencing hearing, which lets him off the hook.

Turley reasoned it is the very absence of any wording requiring Al-Arian to cooperate which protects him against testifying. That's his argument and he's sticking to it.

And thus, although Turley has insisted his client has cooperated to a degree by submitting affidavits in response to federal inquiries and has even agreed to take polygraph examinations to substantiate his credibility, Al-Arian has refused to participate in grand jury proceedings, which he sees as a ruse on the part of the government to retry the original Tampa case.

"The case against Al-Arian has been reduced to raw thuggery," Turley said. "There is no reason to hold him."

Ah, but there is a reason. Turley noted ICE took Al-Arian into custody out of concerns, "... he would not appear for a deportation hearing." Yes, insert a "Duh!" right about here.

"It's hard to argue he's a flight risk when he's desperate to be deported," Turley sighed.

Aren't we better than this? Better than Sami Al-Arian?

Despite the seriousness of the charges against him, the government's ham-handed treatment of Al-Arian has transformed a relatively minor academic into a cause celebre.

"There's no question his treatment has made him an international symbol of abuse," Turley said. But Sami Al-Arian has become another sort of symbol, too.

Our system of justice ultimately is about basic fairness. Regardless of what you think about Al-Arian, he was subjected to the laws of this nation.

He had his day in court. So did the United States.

Al-Arian and the prosecutors agreed to a deal. He's served his time.

And isn't it eventually better to leave this country as the hapless ex-con that he is, rather than an international superstar political prisoner created courtesy of the federal government?

Keyword: Book of Ruth, to read and comment on Daniel Ruth's blog.

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