Queen Rania Fights stereotypes (part 5?)

Queen Rania fights Stereotypes #4

Queen Rania Fights Stereotypes part 3

Queen Rania fights stereotypes

Free Sami Al-Arian

Background

Dr. Sami Al-Arian, whose Palestinian parents were forcibly exiled from their homeland in 1948, immigrated to the United States at the age of 17 to pursue higher education. Al-Arian, 49, was a tenured professor of computer science at the University of South Florida until after 9/11, when the school’s administration, in accordance with Gov. Jeb Bush, attempted to fire him for his outspoken views, work for Palestine, and activism for civil liberties. In February 2003, he was arrested with much fanfare, and charged in a bloated terrorism conspiracy case. He spent two and a half years in prison, in solitary confinement and under the most atrocious conditions before he was finally given his day in court.

Following a six-month trial that featured over 70 government witnesses (including 21 from Israel), 400 intercepted phone calls (the results of a decade of surveillance and half a million phone calls recorded), and hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars spent on the investigation, the jury acquitted Dr. Al-Arian of most of the serious charges against him. On the remaining charges, jurors voted 10 to 2 in favor of acquittal. Two co-defendants were acquitted completely. The defense rested without calling a single witness or presenting any evidence since the government’s prosecution was purely of First Amendment-protected activities. Taking a page out of Orwell, the government’s evidence against Dr. 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. In one instance, the evidence consisted of a conversation a co-defendant had with Dr. Al-Arian in his dream.

Since his acquittal in December 2005, Dr. Al-Arian has remained in prison. Following the trial, the government indicated its intention to retry him on the remaining charges, which is unprecedented given the jury’s overwhelming rejection of the case.

In contrast, the government refused to retry a wealthy businessman in Tampa (the founder of Hooters) on tax evasion charges because the jury was hung 6 to 6, claiming the proportion was too high to realistically expect a conviction during a retrial. As we’ve known all along, Dr. Al-Arian’s case is purely political. This was confirmed in a December 2005 Time magazine article, in which an anonymous FBI source stated that former Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered the indictment, and that many federal officials were puzzled by the order.

Plea Agreement

In late April 2006, following pressure from the government and on the advice of his attorneys, Dr. Al-Arian agreed to a plea agreement to finally put an end to this ordeal, especially to end the suffering of his family.

The terms of the plea agreement were in line with Dr. Al-Arian’s long-standing contention, despite the government’s accusations, that he never contributed to the violent actions of any organization. The government was forced to abandon its accusations and settle for a watered-down version of a charge (a single count) of providing services to people associated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The Statement of Facts in the agreement includes only these innocuous activities: (1) hiring an attorney for his brother-in-law, Mazen Al-Najjar, during his deportation hearings in the late 1990s (2) filling out immigration forms for a resident Palestinian scholar from Britain, and (3) not disclosing details of associations to a local reporter.

Another central issue of the plea negotiations was Dr. Al-Arian’s insistence that he would not be subject to any further prosecution or called to cooperate with the government on any matter. This was also reflected in numerous places within the plea agreement, including the government’s own recommendation that he be sentenced to the lowest possible sentence, allowing him to leave the United States within weeks of the agreement’s finalization.

Defying all reason, in May 2006, Judge James Moody ignored the government’s recommendation and proceeded to sentence Dr. Al-Arian to the maximum, relying mainly on his prejudicial assessment of the Middle East conflict and a complete rejection of the jury’s findings. Furthermore, his comments were in no way supported by information or recommendations in the pre-sentence report or the plea agreement, which included a statement by the Department of Justice that Dr. Al-Arian’s actions involved NO violence, NO victims, and NO support for a forbidden, “terrorist” organization (rather support for people “associated” with such a group and in this country association is still constitutionally-protected. Moody’s decision prolonged Dr. Al-Arian’s imprisonment by an estimated 11 months, projecting his release and deportation in April 2007.

Continued Harassment

Last October, a government prosecutor in Virginia, recently revealed to have made numerous racist and anti-Muslim statements, called Dr. Al-Arian to testify before a grand jury investigating an Islamic think tank.

Following an initial hearing in which Dr. Al-Arian refused to testify, defense lawyers argued that the grand jury subpoena was a violation of the plea agreement. The issue was then referred back to Florida and the court that oversaw the trial and subsequent plea negotiations.

On October 26, attorneys for Dr. Al-Arian filed a motion calling on Judge Moody to enforce the plea agreement by quashing the subpoena. The motion provided both factual and legal reasons to the court and even included affidavits by the attorneys who participated in the negotiations.

Among the reasons provided in the motion: “The overarching purpose of the parties’ plea agreement was to conclude, once and for all, all business between the government and Dr. Al-Arian.”

In fact, defense attorneys “made clear to the government that Dr. Al-Arian would never enter into a plea agreement requiring his cooperation. [They] were adamant on this point and the government did not take a contrary position. Because the parties understood at the outset of plea negotiations that Dr. Al-Arian would not cooperate with the government, the issue of cooperation was immediately taken off the table and never raised again.”

The defense expressed concern that the subpoena was essentially a perjury trap. Based on past experiences, as well as the private comments by the prosecutor in Virginia, there was little reason to believe the government was genuinely interested in Dr. Al-Arian’s testimony, as much as it was interested in continuing to punish him following his vindication.*

The perjury trap notion is further supported by the revelations of a conversation last fall between Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg and Dr. Al-Arian’s attorney, Jack Fernandez. During the conversation, Mr. Kromberg referred to the plea agreement as “a bonanza,” and proceeded to make racist statements. Because Dr. Al-Arian would not be called before the grand jury until six weeks later, Mr. Fernandez requested to delay his transfer to Virginia until after the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which was to begin a few days later. Dr. Al-Arian sought to stay near his family during this special time and to avoid the grueling ten-day journey it would take the U.S. Marshals Service to transport him to Virginia.

In response to the request, Mr. Kromberg said: “If they can kill each other during Ramadan, they can appear before the grand jury; all they can’t do is eat before sunset. I believe Mr. Al-Arian’s request is part of the attempted Islamization of the American justice system. I am not going to put off Dr. Al- Arian’s grand jury appearance just to assist in what is becoming the Islamization of America.”

Defense attorneys called the prosecutor’s objectivity into question, even going so far as to recommend that he recuse himself from the investigation based on his outward biases. It does not matter what Dr. Al-Arian says; it will be in this rogue prosecutor’s discretion to charge him with perjury if he does not like what he says. This is exactly what he has already been done with another Muslim defendant. And then he will face a perjury indictment which will just prolong an already unjust period of incarceration.

Furthermore, defense attorneys cited numerous legal opinions stating that upholding plea agreements are a crucial part of maintaining “honor of the government, public confidence in the fair administration of justice and the effective administration of justice in a federal scheme of government.”

Also, any oral promises made by the government during plea negotiations must be kept. In the Al-Arian negotiations, a government attorney bound the Eastern District of Virginia in particular to the plea agreement.

Activist Judges

Despite the overwhelming arguments put forward in Dr. Al-Arian’s motions, on November 6 Judge Moody added to his dubious record by denying the defense motion without any justification. During the brief hearing, attorneys for the government and the defense agreed that Moody did not have the jurisdiction to decide the issue, but he asserted his right to do so anyway. Defense attorneys then called for an evidentiary hearing to discuss the issues raised before the court, in addition to the testimony of witnesses involved in negotiating and executing the plea agreement. Moody denied that request and issued his inexplicable ruling shortly thereafter.

On Nov. 16, Dr. Al-Arian was brought before the judge overseeing the grand jury proceedings in Virginia and was placed in civil contempt for his refusal to testify.

According to the law, Dr. Al-Arian must be removed from the status of contempt if the grand jury is closed or if the judge is convinced that no amount of prison time will coerce him into testifying. Dr. Al-Arian can be held up to 18 months more on this basis, with reviews every 6 months. In addition, the remaining time he has left on his original sentence is suspended until after the end of the contempt. Given this fact, the government has potentially delayed his release from this April to October 2008.

Hunger Strike

One month after Dr. Al-Arian was placed in civil contempt, the grand jury term expired. However, less than a month later, on January 22, a new grand jury was once again impaneled by rogue federal prosecutor Kromberg. Dr. Al-Arian appeared before the new grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, where he was subpoenaed to testify a second time in the same case. After Dr. Al-Arian expressed his ethical stance against testifying, a judge in the Eastern District of Virginia held him in civil contempt, once again prolonging his suffering and imprisonment by up to 18 months.

To protest this relentless government harassment and the prolongation of his imprisonment, Dr. Al-Arian, who is diabetic, went on a hunger strike. February 26 marked the sixth week of his water-only hunger strike, in which he has lost 40 pounds and has grown considerably weaker. On the 23rd day of his hunger strike, Dr. Al-Arian collapsed and hit his head; he has since been moved to a federal prison medical facility in Butner, North Carolina.

National and International Support

In recent months, support for Dr. Al-Arian has intensified across the country and around the world. In early February, Amnesty International sent a letter to Attorney General Gonzales to express “concern about the treatment while in federal custody of Dr. Sami Al-Arian.” The letter cited the horrendous, inhumane treatment that Dr. Al-Arian has faced in recent months, including being moved in a trip that took him through five states “during which he had none of his personal possessions and was again held in 23-hour lockdown, and his exposure to unsanitary conditions and rats in Atlanta Federal Correctional Institute.

Two weeks ago, Al-Arian supporters, including representatives from human rights and civil rights groups, met with congressional staffers about his current status. People all over the world are asking the Department of Justice and Gonzales to keep their promise and release Dr. Al-Arian in April.

The critically-acclaimed, award-winning documentary on Dr. Al-Arian’s case, USA vs. Al-Arian, which recently premiered in Norway, is raising the profile of the case internationally. Dr. Al-Arian’s family attended the premiere in Oslo and met before the Norwegian Parliament and the Nobel Peace Center.

Conclusion

These latest developments are a troubling confirmation of Dr. Al-Arian’s words that his case is inherently political. Despite a legal process that took its course, ending with his acquittal, Dr. Al-Arian continues to be imprisoned 14 months following the verdicts in his trial. In spite of an agreement intended to resolve his case once and for all, the government has continued to harass Dr. Al-Arian and mire him further in a legal purgatory.

Based on the performance of the officials involved in the case, one is led to conclude that the unending pursuit is politically motivated and often based purely on Dr. Al-Arian’s ethnic background and religious beliefs.

In accordance with the plea agreement, Dr. Al-Arian has already agreed to leave the country upon conclusion of his sentence, though he has lived here as a Palestinian refugee since 1975. He embodies much of what is described as the “American Dream.” His success in academia and activism, including founding productive institutions, and advocacy on behalf of his people both here and in Palestine, will hopefully outlast the terrible injustice that has been inflicted on to him.

* In 2000, while testifying at an immigration hearing for his brother-in-law, a prosecutor asked Dr. Al-Arian if he “believed in the use of violence to free Islam.” Dr. Al-Arian answered “No” to this absurd question. Three years later, one of the charges against Dr. Al-Arian in the 53-count indictment was an obstruction of justice count based on his response to that question. The jury acquitted Dr. Al-Arian of this charge.

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