[Ppnews] Sami al-Arian - Another kind of America Justice

[Political Prisoner News]

Another kind of America Justice

"If you are caught speeding and if they say this 
was done in furtherance of terrorism, a sentence 
that could normally be two months, could go up to twenty years, thirty years"

Wednesday, 05 May 2010 11:24
http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=58055


By Zeynep Alp, World Bulletin

Sami al-Arian awaits his trial. After seven years 
of injustice and violation of his rights now he 
is waiting to hear if the plea agreement he 
signed with the government upholds or not.

Al-Arian came to the United States for his 
undergraduate studies at seventeen. Originally 
from Palestine he was raised in Egypt and was 
among the hundreds of thousands of stateless 
Palestinians. He completed his PhD in Computer 
Engineering. He was always well aware of his 
Palestinian identity and heritage. Seeing how 
biased the American media was during the first 
Intifada he felt that he had to give the American 
people a different perspective. He wanted to 
display America’s role and its support to Israel; 
giving billions of dollars each year and 
supporting its military. In the late eighties and 
nineties he organized rallies, conferences, 
published newsletters and magazines about the 
conflict. Everything he did was out in the open. 
Although there was no evidence he was imprisoned 
after 9/11 as one of the scapegoats the 
government offered the American public to show 
they were fighting “terrorism”.

We spoke with Laila al-Arian about her fathers 
case and about her new book Collateral Damage.

Laila, tell me how it all started

My father was an activist. He wanted to give the 
American people a different perspective on the 
Palestinian issue. So, he would organize rallies, 
write articles and regularly give speeches on the 
Palestinian issue. During the late eighties and 
early nineties he made some enemies from the 
pro-Israeli lobby and the right wing, hawkish 
supporters of Israel. Especially Steven Emerson, 
a very well known islamophobe, and according to 
some, an agent of Israel, made it his cause to 
attack al-Arian. Eventually the FBI began 
investigating; they wire trapped our phones for 
more than ten years. It was a very stressful and miserable life.

Did you know FBI was investigating your father?

Our house was raided in 1995 by the FBI. I was 13 
at the time. It was very traumatizing. They took 
personal things that had nothing to do with my 
father. They took things like my doodling I did 
as a child, my report cards, home videos, 
everything. You feel like your privacy is being 
invaded. But, after September 11, the Bush 
administration wanted to show that they were 
fighting “terrorism” and they wanted to have 
different cases to sell to the American public 
showing that they were doing something. My father 
was one of the scapegoats and he was arrested in 
February 2003 on charges of supporting a 
Palestinian terrorist group. He was held under 
the most atrocious, inhumane conditions 
imaginable. He was held in solitary confinement 
for twenty three, twenty four hours a day. At one 
point he was denied phone calls for six months 
from his family. We were not allowed contact 
visits. Even though convicted felons had contact 
visits we had to visit my father behind thick 
glass. This was still pre-trial, there was no 
conviction. I think the reason they did that was 
to enforce some sort of psychological torture on 
him before his trial. They try to break you down 
before trial so that you cannot assist in your own defense.

Was he able to cope?

Despite all of this, alhamdulillah his faith 
remained very strong and it helped him get 
through it all. One thing that was difficult 
that, when he was at the special housing unit, 
which is solitary confinement, he didn’t have any 
watches or clocks or a window. So he never knew when the prayer times were.

Wasn’t there a trial?

Yes but it was two and a half years after he was 
arrested. During this trial, the prosecutors 
invested millions of dollars in this case. They 
brought in dozens of witnesses from Israel. They 
flew them in to testify. And what were they 
testifying about? Things that had nothing to do 
with my father! Attacks that happen, bus 
bombings. The prosecutors tried to inflame the 
jury, they tried to have them judge according to 
their emotions instead of the facts. They would 
also bring in websites that none of the 
defendants accessed. Just random websites.

Was he the only one arrested at this time?

No! When my father was arrested, three other 
Palestinian men were also arrested so the 
government can say that there was a conspiracy 
going on to support Palestinians overseas.

How long was the trial?

It was a six months trial which was extremely 
long, very expensive. We had to raise a million 
dollars for our lawyers because we wanted to hire 
the best lawyers who could really do a good job and defend us.

What was put forth as evidence?

Much of the governments evidence were articles my 
father wrote, the speeches he gave, phone 
conversations, everything that are supposed to be 
protected by the first amendment! American’s say 
you are entitled to free speech, to free 
association, etc. but everything the prosecutors 
introduced was covered by the first amendment.

And your defense?

When the time came for us to give our defense our 
lawyer came up and said “on behalf of Sami al 
Arian we give no defense, we rest our case.” 
Basically we didn’t bring any witnesses and it 
was a strong statement to the jury that all of 
this is allowed, where is the crime here? It was 
a very risky strategy but we just new, if you 
answered each charge you are giving them credence 
that these charges are actually valid.

Did this strategy prove to be useful?

I think so! After thirteen days of deliberations 
the jury came back and they completely acquitted 
two of the defendants and the other two, they 
largely said not guilty and they were undecided 
on two of the charges. That’s because two of the 
female jurors to just refused to fully acquit. 
Whenever the other jurors would ask them they 
would say it’s our feeling, they wouldn’t give 
any other reason. These two were my father and another Palestinian.

What did this mean for your father?

Unfortunately, because he was not fully acquitted 
the government could then retry him on the 
remaining charges. We decided we had been through 
enough. The judge very biased. We knew for sure 
that he would try his best if there was another trial to insure a conviction.

My father ended up signing up a plea agreement to 
one very watered down charge and saying “I agree 
to be deported from the country but I just want 
everything to be over with”. They agreed and they 
signed a plea agreement. My father is not a 
citizen so it is very easy for the government to 
deport you. Because of his activism they wouldn’t give him citizenship.

What happened after he signed the plea agreement?

A prosecutor who is very vindictive in Virginia 
brought my father up there. He is very anti 
Muslim. He makes racist comments on the record, 
in the open. For instance, in 2006, it was 
September and it was Ramadan time. Our lawyers 
told this prosecutor that he did not need my 
father to testify for another month, and to let 
him spend Ramadan with his family in Florida. The 
Judge said “If Muslims can kill each other during 
Ramadan they can testify before a grand jury.”

He tried to force (my father) to testify in a 
case of the IIIT (International Institute of 
Islamic Thought) which was another fishing 
expedition. There is nothing against triple IIIT, 
it is a very well respected think tank. So, my 
father told them he had nothing to tell and 
besides it is against his plea agreement to 
testify. Then he was held further in jail for 
eighteen months under civil contempt.

So, what will happen now?

The judge in the case is waiting to rule whether 
there should be a charge on civil criminal 
contempt for not testifying or if she will drop 
the charges and have him deported. That is where we are now.

What are the best and worst case scenarios?

Worst case scenario is she says, actually there 
will be a trial and god forbid he gets convicted. 
After 9/11 they passed this law called Terrorism 
Enhancement. If you are caught speeding or 
whatever, they say this was done in furtherance 
of terrorism, your sentence that could normally 
be two months, three months, nine months could go 
up to twenty years, thirty years.

Best case scenario is she comes back and says 
“I’m dropping these charges because the 
government violated their end of the plea 
agreement”. Then he will be deported.

Where will he go?

We have to find him a country because he is a 
stateless Palestinian. It is unbelievable to 
think that in the twenty first century there are 
people who literally have no place to go.

Were you harassed?

No, alhamdulillah. For the most part we weren’t. 
Most people were very supportive.

Do you get picked up at airports?

No, alhamdulillah! But we think that we are still being monitored.

Was it your father’s case made you go into media?

No, it was actually Palestine. As a child to 
watch or read the American media cover Palestine 
you would think it’s the Palestinians who were 
occupying Israel. I mean, night is day and day is 
night. I believed the only way to change this was 
to be in the media and to have a voice. But 
definitely my father’s case pushed me further 
because I really know the importance of being 
able to advocate and tell a story objectively.

Lets talk about your book Collateral Damage. What made you write this book?

I was interning at the Nation magazine after 
graduate school, a leftist weekly magazine in New 
York. It has a very nice history about being 
against slavery. It is one of the oldest 
magazines in the US. I was encouraged to work 
with Chris Hedges who is my co-author. He is a 
veteran war correspondent. We both interviewed a 
large number of veterans who had served in Iraq. 
We wanted to know that how so many Iraqi 
civilians were killed. Because we heard estimates 
of one million people so we wanted to know what 
was happening on the ground. We thought the best 
way to do that was to interview those who 
returned from the war and give us an objective perspective.

Weren’t the veterans afraid of talking about what went on?

They weren’t afraid anymore. They are not on the 
battle field and they can think very clearly 
about their experiences. A lot of them were 
really conscientious. It is not easy to tell 
these stories, but they told us these gruesome 
stories; civilians being run over by cars, being 
shot, racist things the commanders would say to 
justify this kind of treatment, etc, etc, etc.

Weren’t they worried that the American government or the army would react?

I think there is always that concern but that 
also backfires for the army to really punish 
these guys because then it looks like they are 
punishing their own. I think for the most part nothing has happened to them.

Did anyone of them think that this was justifiable?

Just a few. The vast majority who decided to talk 
to us were very regretful of their actions. A lot 
of them would cry during the interview. One of 
them said to me “whenever I do interviews with 
Muslim journalists I feel really guilty” One guy 
told me “sorry”, he was apologizing so much. I 
was like I am not the person who you should apologize from


How was the reaction to the book?

Unfortunately in the US media there was almost no 
reaction. They just ignored it. This is because 
it is a narrative the US media doesn’t want to 
talk about. The foreign media was excellent. The 
Irish media did a whole segment on it. We had the BBC, BBC World, etc.

How are the sales?

They weren’t too bad for a book. My co-author 
went on C-Span one day and that really boosted 
the sales. It goes to show that if the American 
people were exposed to these kind of stories they 
would be interested but the problem is that the 
media doesn’t give it any time..

We just hope that it is a book that you can pick 
up in ten years and it will still be relevant 
about what happened during the Iraq war.

What do you think Muslims can do?

I think the most important thing for Muslims to 
remain very informed. Not just about Iraq but 
about Afghanistan and all other wars and 
operations that are going on. There are drone 
attacks in Pakistan where civilians are being 
killed. So keep themselves informed, involved, 
writing letters, having discussions, being 
active. But also being constructive because 
sometimes people have their emotions stirred and 
they don’t actually direct them in the most constructive way.

I think knowledge is power.

What do you think about the attitude of the Arab 
world in general? Most of them seem to support the Iraq war

I think it’s more the governments that support 
it. I think the people are very much against the 
war. But, unfortunately the leaders tend to just 
look out for their own interest and how 
specifically the US will serve their interest. 
And it’s to the US’s own self harm, own detriment 
that they are supporting despotic leaders because 
that’s how you anger populations. And populations 
see leaders who are abusing their power, who are 
despotic and treat their own people very badly and the US is supporting them.

Are you thinking about doing books on Pakistan or 
Afghanistan? Because when you say Collateral Damage it all comes into it.

Yes, inshallah. Specifically Afghanistan, because 
of the new increase in the hundred and thirty 
thousand troops so it is very relevant to 
interview many veterans because they are coming 
back with very horrifying stories and I think people need to know. Inshallah.

What did your father think about it?

He was very proud. He always taught us to be 
always politically active and involved so he was very proud.

We will be waiting for many books from you Laila. Thank you for your time.




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