It was Jan. 22, 1994, and the organization was on the verge of breaking up. There was infighting, financial problems and philosophical differences.

The phone lines between Tampa and Damascus, Syria, were red-hot as Sami Al-Arian worked to hold the organization together. He proposed financial reform and a general conference. In that one day, he talked twice to the organization's treasurer and had conversations with its spiritual leader and secretary general.

He was on the phone from 12:45 a.m. until 5:11 p.m.

This picture emerged in a federal courtroom Thursday as prosecutors in Al-Arian's trial read for jurors portions of transcripts of wiretapped telephone conversations and intercepted faxes.

Al-Arian is standing trial, along with three co-defendants, on charges that they helped organize and finance the Islamic Jihad, which has claimed responsibility for dozens of suicide bombings in Israel and the occupied territories.

Involvement in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad was not illegal in the United States until January 1995. However, the prosecution is presenting evidence of the earlier activities claiming they were part of a continuing criminal conspiracy.

A few months after Al-Arian was granted tenure as a computer science professor at the University of South Florida in the spring of 1993, counterintelligence operatives secured permission from a secret court to wiretap his telephones. Within days, the evidence began to crackle over the wires, officials said.

``Jan. 22, 1994, is going to be a very long day for us,'' FBI Agent Kerry Myers told jurors before the transcripts were read. There were ``five lengthy, lengthy telephone calls, most of them which frame in detail the financial crisis of the Islamic Jihad.''

Other subjects, he said, included dissatisfaction with the Beirut Agreement, or restrictions that had been put in place by Iran, the Islamic Jihad's chief financial backer. There were proposals to fix the agreement, Myers said, and discussions over the effect the lack of money was having on the Islamic Jihad.

They also discussed the shura council, or the Islamic Jihad's board of directors, and the positions of different members on issues, Myers testified.

According to the government evidence, Al-Arian spoke at 1:22 a.m. to Fathi Shikaki, the Islamic Jihad's secretary general. According to the transcript, Shikaki expressed his intent to disregard the wishes of the shura council and do what he wanted. This seemed to upset Al-Arian.

``You are forsaking everyone, my brother,'' he said. ``You are forsaking me, you are forsaking Mukhtar, you are forsaking Ahmed and you are forsaking Al-Shaer.'' According to Myers, Mukhtar is Mazen Al-Najjar, Al-Arian's brother- in-law. Ahmed is Bashir Nafi, a co-defendant and alleged official in the Islamic Jihad living in England. Al-Shaer is Ramadan Shallah, then an adjunct professor at USF and later the secretary general of the Islamic Jihad.

In his last telephone conversation of the day, Al-Arian spoke to Muhammed Tasir Hassan Al-Khatib, whom Myers described as treasurer of the Islamic Jihad. It is in that call that Al-Arian allegedly spelled out for the first time his proposal to reform the organization's finances.

The proposal, as interpreted by Myers, was to pull control of the Islamic Jihad's money out of the Middle East and put it the hands of two committees outside the territories. The committee that would receive and distribute the money would include Al-Arian, Al- Najjar and Shikaki. The committee that would supervise the budget included Al-Arian, Shallah and Al-Najjar.

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837.