Deep Blade Journal

A political prisoner fights back

Maybe the Islamophobes within the US government who continue to persecute former University of South Florida Professor Sami Al-Arian view his 54-day hunger strike as “an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us,” as the US military did those unfortunate souls who hung themselves last summer in their Guantanamo dungeon cells.

The inability of these persecutors to obtain any convictions after waving a parade of trumped-up terrorism charges before a jury drawn from an O’Reilly-propagandized public during a six-month trial in US District Court in Tampa evidently royally has pissed them off. So much so that, according to a heartbreaking story today on Democracy Now!:

Sami Al-Arian has spent the past four years in jail despite a jury’s failure over a year ago to return a single guilty verdict on any of the 17 charges brought against him. He eventually signed a plea deal with the government in exchange for being released and deported.

This past January, with just three months left before his scheduled release, a judge found him in contempt after he refused to testify before a Virginia grand jury. The date of his release could now be extended by a year and a half. On January 22nd, Al-Arian - who is a diabetic - stopped eating in protest. Last month he was transferred to the Federal Medical facility in Butner Virginia as his health deteriorated.

It’s well worth listening to this whole story, and also reading a March 3 piece on Al-Arian by Alexander Cockburn, who describes the trial,

The government’s evidence against Al-Arian consisted of speeches he gave, magazines he edited, lectures he presented, articles he wrote, books he owned, conferences he organized, rallies he attended, news he heard and websites no one accessed. One bit of evidence consisted of a conversation a co-defendant had with al-Arian in his dream. The defense rested without calling a single witness or presenting any evidence since the government’s case rested entirely on First Amendment­protected activities.

The man presiding over al-Arian’s trial was US District Court Judge James Moody, a creature from the dark lagoon of Floridian jurisprudence. Hospitable to all testimony from Israelis, Moody ruled that al-Arian and his associates could not say a single word about the military occupation or the plight of the Palestinian people…

This is the picture of a political prosecution–the attempted condemnation of a man because he spoke and wrote in favor of justice for the Palestinians.

Gore was “arrogant” in 2000
Quite a twist on this story is Al-Arian was a big supporter of candidate George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential campaign. Nahla Al-Arian, Sami Al-Arian’s wife explained to Juan Gonzales and Amy Goodman today why she and her husband supported Bush, rejected Gore, and are now betrayed and persecuted,

JUAN GONZALEZ: Throughout this long ordeal, what’s your sense or your opinion about why your husband has been targeted in this way by the federal government?

NAHLA AL-ARIAN: Well, I feel, first of all, because he was very effective in talking about the Palestinian cause and in establishing ties with the larger society and in empowering the Muslim community, making them integrate into the larger society and exercise their political rights. Sami was very good in talking to everybody, helping and working with everybody, and what made things worse –

AMY GOODMAN: Also very good in supporting President Bush in his first run for office. The pictures of him and President Bush as they campaign through Florida — as Bush campaigned through Florida, Sami was with him.

NAHLA AL-ARIAN: Because Bush deceived us. Bush lied to the Muslim community. Bush gave us a picture of a compassionate person, and that’s completely the opposite. Later on, unfortunately, we found out. Al Gore was so arrogant, and he rejected talking to the Muslim community and addressing the issues that the Muslim community was worried about, such as the use of secret evidence against Muslims and Arabs. So that’s why, you know, we went to support Bush, because he’s the one who, in the second debate, came out and said we should support or we should stop the use of secret evidence and we should stop profiling Muslims and Arabs, so he was very outspoken. And that was unfortunately, you know, a very deceitful act. It wasn’t coming from his heart, as we found out later.

Of course they are not alone in the parade of those betrayed by President Bush. But it is highly illustrative to see how hostile the Democrats were towards Muslims in 2000, and have been since, doubtlesly at the relentless urging of the Israel lobby.