Communications Bulk Of Case
Published: Oct 28, 2005
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TAMPA - -- In a "Law and Order" world, the terrorism conspiracy trial of Sami Al-Arian and three other men is a ratings dud.
Prosecutors rested their case Thursday, offering no eyewitness who could tell jurors about the alleged support Al-Arian, Ghassan Ballut, Hatim Fariz and Sameeh Hammoudeh provided to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Unlike television dramas, there was no singular piece of evidence that anchors the case, no one witness able to tie it all together.
The government's case ended much the way it started -- with a witness testifying on a dry technical point. FBI Agent Kerry Myers testified briefly about Al-Arian submitting evidence at a 2003 detention hearing.
For much of the trial, the defendants' own words dominated the government's four-month presentation. The nature of the evidence -- tapes seized via search warrants and secretly intercepted telephone calls and faxes -- led to tedious testimony by FBI agents verifying the material, translators who created English transcripts and prosecutors who spent weeks reading the transcripts aloud.
Al-Arian was shown on a 1991 videotape accepting an introduction as the leader of the Islamic Jihad's active arm. He then extolled the Palestinian uprising, which he said was triggered by Islamic Jihad actions.
"Thus is the way of martyrdom," he said. "Thus is the way of blood, because this is the path to heaven."
The transcripts show Al-Arian discussing a series of internal reforms with Islamic Jihad founder Fathi Shikaki in 1994. Prosecutors contend Al-Arian was secretary to the group's governing board.
Those calls and faxes, along with just about all the intercepted communications, are cryptic andsometimes open to interpretation. Each man answers to several pseudonyms, including "Abu," which means father in Arabic, and the first name of each one's eldest child. Al-Arian answers to "Abu Abdullah."
The men are charged with four conspiracy counts, including racketeering, providing material support to terrorists and conspiring to commit murder abroad.
Defense Says Evidence Outdated
Al-Arian's defense attorneys have emphasized that most of the evidence against their client came before January 1995, when President Clinton signed an executive order banning transactions with terrorist groups including Islamic Jihad. To convict on the material support counts, jurors must conclude the activity continued after that order and a 1997 State Department designation of the Islamic Jihad as a terrorist group.
In a pretrial ruling, U.S. District Judge James Moody said the government must show the defendants knew the support they provided "would further the illegal activities" of the Islamic Jihad.
Prosecutors tried to do this by defining a "terror cycle," in which the Islamic Jihad commits an attack and claims responsibility. Al-Arian and his associates then spread the message and raised money for future attacks. Among the evidence presented to support the theory:
Al-Arian and his associates closely monitored Islamic Jihad activity, directly received communiqués and claims of responsibility within a day of an attack. The group's secret manifesto, which urges "the rejection of any peaceful solution for the Palestinian cause, and the affirmation of the jihad solution and the martyrdom style as the only option for liberation," was found in offices Al-Arian controlled.
In his opening statement, prosecutor Walter E. Furr described "a pension program" the defendants helped run for the family of "some guy who's gone out and blown himself up." There was only one clear case presented: four $2,000 payments Al-Arian personally sent in 1993 to families of Islamic Jihad members jailed for a February 1992 attack on an Israeli army base.
The men privately celebrated Islamic Jihad attacks. "Pride and glory overwhelmed us," Al-Arian wrote in a fax to the group's Syrian headquarters following a November 1994 suicide bombing. "May God bless your efforts and accept our martyrs."
Fariz and Ballut sent thousands of dollars to an Islamic Jihad-run charity in the occupied territories called the Elehssan Society. In one case, Fariz told his contact there not to use the correct name on a receipt. "Do they know what kind of society we are?" the contact asked.
"No, no, no," Fariz said. "They understand that it goes to people who give to charities, and that's it."
A Circuitous Flow Of Money
Bank records show tens of thousands of dollars flowed from all the defendants to the Middle East, usually through a circuitous series of bank and wire transfers. Defense attorneys say it was for humanitarian help.
Records also show $1.8 million coming into Tampa bank accounts controlled by Al-Arian and his associates between 1990 and 1993. An FBI agent who analyzed dozens of bank accounts said most of that money stayed here and often was spent on personal items.
Hammoudeh, who has been jailed without bail since the February 2003 indictment along with Al-Arian, appears on the fewest intercepts. Most money he sent went to his father or other relatives with references to helping a charity for blind women and to specific book purchases.
Defense attorney Stephen Bernstein may bring Hammoudeh's father from the West Bank to vouch for the benign use of money transfers from his son. Bernstein has portrayed Hammoudeh as a political moderate, affiliated with the Palestinian Authority.
But on the day of their arrest in February 2003, Hammoudeh reassured Al-Arian that he would not turn his back on anyone. Unaware they were being recorded while they sat in a police car, Al-Arian warned Hammoudeh that "they could use you against me, my brother. ... They will try to influence you that we will help you -- we will help you and all that talk."
"We are not kids, Abdullah," Hammoudeh said.
