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Dr. Sami Amin Al-Arian was a computer engineering professor at the University of South Florida (USF). Dr. Al-Arian was born in Kuwait to Palestinian refugee parents, and has lived in the United States since 1975. He was placed on involuntary leave from his job after appearing on The O'Reilly Factor, and later terminated from his tenured position after being formally charged with heading the North American operations of Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation began investigating Al-Arian's connections to Islamic terror groups in the early 1990s, establishing its first wiretaps on Al-Arian in 1993. In 1995, the FBI began requesting information on Al-Arian and two other professors from USF campus police, not giving the local authorities any details on the investigation. In 1996, USF officials received more information on the investigation, leading university president Betty Castor to suspend Al-Arian in 1996. Recordings and other information gathered for intelligence purposes was not shared with the criminal staff of the FBI in the 1990s, and the university's internal report by Tampa lawyer William Reece Smith did not suggest grounds for USF to dismiss him.

Following the first investigation, Al-Arian became politically active in the United States. He campaigned heavily for George W. Bush during the 2000 election, and was photographed with Bush that year in Plant City, Florida. The following year, Al-Arian's son, Abdullah, became a congressional intern: Abdullah was kicked out of a White House meeting that year because of suspected terrorist connections, sparking a walkout by twenty other Muslims in attendance. However, Bush soon apologized to the Al-Arian family for the incident, and by June 20, 2001, Sami Al-Arian's record was clean enough to allow him entry to the Eisenhower Office Building for a briefing, led by Karl Rove, with 160 other Muslim leaders.

Al-Arian appeared on the popular polemical television show The O'Reilly Factor on September 26, shortly after the September 11th attacks. On the program, host Bill O'Reilly resurrected 15 year old charges that accused Al-Arian of using a now-defunct university affiliated Islamic think tank that he headed as a front for Palestinian terrorist organizations. Though Al-Arian denied all links to terrorists, O'Reilly made it clear that he believed Al-Arian has terrorist connections.

Following the program's airing, USF received several death threats for Al-Arian. University president Judy Genshaft placed Dr. Al-Arian on paid leave and barred him from the campus on September 27, ostensibly for his own safety and the safety of others at the university.

On December 19, 2001, Genshaft initiated proceedings to revoke Al-Arian's tenure and terminate his employment at the university. Genshaft refused to speak publicly about the Al-Arian case; a spokesman indicated that Genshaft was attempting to fire Al-Arian for supporting terrorism and damaging the university's reputation.

The University filed a lawsuit seeking a pre-emptive judgement that firing Dr. Al-Arian would not violate his First Amendment rights in August of 2002. The suit was summarily dismissed on December 15, 2002, with the judge indicating that such a ruling is not within the scope of the court's function.

The American Association of University Professors indicated that it would formally censure USF if Al-Arian was fired, a move that would have likely dissuaded many top professors from teaching at USF. On January 6, 2003, the United Faculty of Florida, the union representing Al-Arian and other USF professors, filed a formal grievance against Genshaft, alleging that continuing to bar Al-Arian from the campus was tantamount to continued disciplinary action without due process, that the disciplinary actions were a violation of Al-Arian's academic freedoms, and that the university had discriminated against Al-Arian due to his ethnic background.

Arrest

On February 20, 2003, the FBI arrested Dr. Al-Arian after indicting him and seven others on 50 terrorism-related charges. United States Attorney General John Ashcroft alleged at a press conference that Dr. Al-Arian was the North American head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and the secretary of the PIJ's international organization. On February 26, Genshaft announced that Al-Arian had been fired on the basis that his nonacademic activities created a conflict of interest with USF. Allegations from his indictment were also cited. The AAUP indicated that they did not feel due process had been followed in Al-Arian's case, but chose to condemn, rather than formally censure, USF at their 2003 annual meeting.

Al-Arian is being held without bail at Coleman Federal Correction Complex.

His trial is set for January 2005. Al-Arian's lawyers have stated that the delay between arrest and trial constitutes a violation of Al-Arian's right under the United States Constitution to a speedy trial. In response, Judge James Moody cited what he believed to be the complexity and uniqueness of the case for setting the trial in 2005.

Role in 2004 Senate election

Betty Castor, the USF president who had suspended Al-Arian in 1996, later became a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the U.S. Senate election, 2004. In June of that year, the American Democracy Project, a 527 group founded by attorney Bernie Friedman (a friend of Castor's rival, Congressman Peter Deutsch), launched attacks on Castor in Floridian print media, charging that Castor had not moved quickly enough to react to the Al-Arian problem. In response, the Castor campaign stated that no information provided by the FBI was sufficient to allow Castor to fire Al-Arian.

ADP launched a website in July, castortruth.com, with documents allegedly proving Castor's indifference toward Al-Arian. The Castor campaign launched castorfacts.com on the same day in an attempt to debunk these claims.

See: American Democracy Project

External links

• Al-Arian questions loom over Castor bid
• Sami Al-Arian, in his words
• FOX News transcript of O'Reilly interview- September 26, 2001
• US Department of Justice press release regarding arrest- February 20, 2003
• AAUP Resolution Condemning the Administration of the University of South Florida
• USF'S Official Al-Arian Case News Archive
• The United Faculty of Florida's Al-Arian Pagemaintained by the faculty union at USF
• Judge Tosses USF Suit Against Al-Arian- Ben Feller, The Tampa Tribune, December 17, 2002
• Al-Arian Demands USF Restore his Standing- Anita Kumar, The St. Petersburg Times, January 7, 2003