Karl Rove's Favorite Terrorist: Professor Sami Al-Arian

[jopiter]

Presidential Candidate Bush posing with the Al-Arian Family in Florida, 2000 (Source: Washingtonpost)
http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/images/I45418-2003Feb21L

From the White House to the jailhouse
If the government has long known that Sami Al-Arian was supporting terrorism, why did the controversial professor win an invitation from Karl Rove?
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2003/02/25/al_arian/index_np.html

For more on the links between George Walker Bush and Professor Sami Al-Arian, see :

http://www.bushwatch.com/samibush2.htm
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0302/S00207.htm
http://www.nationalreview.com/frum/diary022103.asp
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31172
http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/ariana.htm
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1601.htm


Sami Al-Arian Case Tests U.S. Patriot Act
By VICKIE CHACHERE Associated Press Writer
January 19, 2004
http://news.findlaw.com/ap_stories/other/1110/1-19-2004/20040119001503_1.html

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - For nearly a decade, the FBI tapped Sami Al-Arian's telephones and faxes, keeping what they learned about the University of South Florida professor a secret - even from their own colleagues.

The law at the time didn't allow the agents to share what they knew with fellow FBI agents who later began investigating possible criminal charges against Al-Arian, accused of aiding terrorists.

That all changed in the spring of 2002 when the Patriot Act, the law enacted in the weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, gave the government greatly expanded surveillance and search powers.

Now, nearly a year after Al-Arian and seven others were named in a 50-count racketeering indictment, the case is shaping up to be a test of the act, which helped rip down the wall between the two investigations.

Former FBI Agent Joe Navarro, who had been assigned to the criminal side of the investigation, recalls the meeting when the scope of the other FBI probe became clear.

"It was 'Holy moley! There's a lot there!'" he said.

"It was just one of those awesome moments when you realize how much there is," Navarro added. "When you realize there is literally a room full - not a box full or a filing cabinet full - of evidence. It sort of shocks you."

Al-Arian, Sammeh Hammoudeh, Hatim Naji Fariz and Ghassan Zayed Ballut face trial in 2005 on charges they used an academic think tank, a Muslim school and a charity as a cover for raising money for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is believed to be responsible for the deaths of more than 100 people in attacks in Israel.

Four other men have yet to be arrested.

Attorney General John Ashcroft has cited the Al-Arian case as one of the successes of the Patriot Act as he toured the nation in recent months in defense of the law.

Al-Arian, a Palestinian who was born in Kuwait, has said his charity, school and think tank were legitimate enterprises designed to aid Muslims and foster greater understanding between Americans and Arabs.

Al-Arian's defense attorney, William B. Moffitt, has said he intends to challenge every aspect of the new law as the case heads to trial and has called the Patriot Act the product of a "frightened society," overreacting to the horrific events of Sept. 11.

"What we have done is precisely what the people who attacked us on 9/11 hoped we would do," Moffitt said shortly after being hired last fall as Al-Arian's attorney. "Even the notion it's called the Patriot Act is an interesting idea."

Investigators point to the Al-Arian case as a classic example of law enforcement being hampered by the previous rules that governed how agents could use evidence gathered under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the post-Watergate law that sought to reign in potential abuses of electronic surveillance.

At the time, there was widespread concern presidents could use the FBI to monitor political enemies or outspoken groups under the guise of "national security" and FISA was offered as a solution.

Enacted in 1978, the act required the FBI to seek permission from a secret court to monitor the communications of suspected foreign spies or terrorists. Because agents could obtain those warrants by meeting a lesser standard than what's needed for wiretaps in criminal cases, the evidence gathered under FISA couldn't be used to bring a criminal case.

It was under FISA that the FBI began taping Al-Arian and colleague Ramadan Shallah's phones and intercepting their faxes. Over the years, the government acquired 152 wiretaps in the Al-Arian case, which generated more than 21,000 hours of intercepted telephone calls, prosecutors have said.

Former government agents who spent years investigating Al-Arian tell of a frustrating investigation hindered in part by the inability of intelligence agents to share what they knew until the Patriot Act became law.

"Everything changed," said Barry Carmody, who was among the team of agents working the criminal case against Al-Arian. "We needed to be able to gamble with 52 cards, not half the deck," he said.

One agent who knew the full gamut of the government's evidence against Al-Arian and his brother-in-law, Mazen Al-Najjar, was William West, who worked at the time for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

West was the lead agent in the effort to deport Al-Najjar, who was held for more than three years on the then-classified evidence linking both him and Al-Arian to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Government agents and attorneys were sharply criticized for holding Al-Najjar, who was eventually deported months before Al-Arian and the others were indicted. Al-Najjar is named as an unindicted coconspirator in court documents.

"It was terribly frustrating because from the perspective of the classified information we could use, we knew all along we were on the right track and we were pursing the right people," West said.

2004-01-19 07:54:58 GMT

Ex-Agent: Al-Arian Monitored For Years

The Associated Press

TAMPA -- The government tapped former university professor Sami Al-Arian's phones, planted microphones at his think tank and intercepted his faxes and computer conversations because they suspected him of terrorism ties, a retired FBI agent testified Monday.

Julian A. Koerner, who retired last year from the FBI after a long career in foreign counterintelligence and counterterrorism, testified he could not specifically recall the substance of the conversations the government overheard between Al-Arian and his co-defendants. They are on trial on federal terrorism charges for allegedly raising money for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a group that has killed more than 100 people in Israel and the West Bank.

Koerner said that toward the end of the nine-year investigation, he thought the FBI was able to determine what was being typed on computers "on a very, very limited basis." Before that, the technology was not available, he said.

Al-Arian and three co-defendants face a 53-count indictment that includes charges of racketeering, conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists. Five other men have been indicted but are not in custody.

Prosecutors allege the men used the think tank Al-Arian founded at the University of South Florida and a Palestinian charity he also started as fundraising fronts for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050628/NEWS/506280396/1004

Alleged Terrorist Met With Bush Adviser

The former university professor, indicted as a terrorist leader, attended a 2001 group meeting in the White House complex with President Bush's senior adviser, Karl Rove.

George and Laura Bush met with Sami Amin Al-Arian during the 2000 campaign in Florida.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44894-2003Feb21.html

Bush's Ties to Al-Arian are the Tip of the Iceberg

"The arrest of Sami al-Arian on terrorism charges marks an epoch not only in the War on Terror, but in the history of the Bush administration... Not only were the al-Arians not avoided by the Bush White House - they were actively courted. Candidate Bush allowed himself to be photographed with the al-Arian family while campaigning in Florida.

Candidate Bush denounced the immigration laws that detained - and ultimately deported - [al-Arian's brother-in-law] Mazen al-Najjar... The al-Arian case was not a solitary lapse. The Bush campaign in 2000 very determinedly reached out to Muslim voters. Indeed, Muslim-Americans may have tipped the election to Bush... That outreach campaign opened relationships between the Bush campaign and some very disturbing persons in the Muslim-American community. Many of those disturbing persons were invited to stand beside Bush at post-9/11 events, like his meeting with Muslim community leaders at the Massachusetts Ave. mosque."

http://www.nationalreview.com/frum/diary022103.asp

Did Karl Rove Overrule the Secret Service to Invite Terror Suspect Al-Arian to the White House Briefing?

Insight, the Moonie magazine, reports that Sami Amin Al-Arian was invited to a White House briefing on 6-22-01 led by Karl Rove (Cheney cancelled at the last minute due to negative publicity) despite being under investigation for a leadership role in Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Al-Arian's name would have set alarms ringing at the Secret Service, so how did he get an invitation the White House? An anonymous associate of the GOP's top Islamic influence-peddler, Grover Norquist, insists he specifically warned the White House about al-Arian. So who ignored Norquist and overruled the Secret Service? There's only one person with the power to bring a suspected terrorist right into the White House - Karl Rove. We demand a full investigation!

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31172

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