Government loses key court test of Patriot Act
Acquittal, hung jury for Florida professor accused of terrorism called 'serious setback' for Justice Department.
By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com
Two years ago, when former Florida professor Sami al-Arian was charged with being part of a Tampa, Fla., terrorist cell that helped fund attacks against Israel, John Ashcroft, then-Attorney General, hailed it as "a milestone in the war on terror." The Tampa Tribune writes that when a jury in Tampa yesterday acquitted Mr. Arian of eight of 17 charges against him, including the major charges of conspiring to commit murder abroad, money laundering, and obstruction of justice, and deadlocked on the other nine charges, the Justice Department's case "crumbled" right before their eyes.
The Tribune reports that the verdicts "mark a stunning defeat for federal prosecutors." Along with Arian, his codefendants Sameeh Hammoudeh and Ghassan Ballut were acquitted on all counts. Hatim Fariz was acquitted on the counts on which jurors could reach a verdict.
"This ranks as one of the most significant defeats for the US government, for the Justice Department since 9/11," said Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University Law School who has represented other terrorism defendants. "The Justice Department spent copious amounts of money and time to make the case against Al-Arian."
Prosecutors presented evidence from 20,000 hours of phone conversations and hundreds of faxes obtained through the government's expanded 'search and surveillence' powers under the Patriot Act, to try to prove that Arian and his codefendants were providing money to Islamic Jihad, a group that has been on the US terrorism list for about 10 years. CNN reports that the government had taken separate cases against Arian, including a "years-long secret foreign intelligence probe of the professor's activities," and combined them into one case against him.
The BBC reports that Arian argued that he was charged only because of his opinions about the state of Israel and its treatment of Palestinians and Palestinian rights. Arian, a US resident for 30 years who was born in Kuwait of Palestinian parents, says he never advocated violence against others and has always denied connections to terrorists.
He was one of the founders of a think-tank, the World and Islam Studies Enterprise, and a charity, the Islamic Committee for Palestine, formed in the late 1980s and 1990s to support an independent Palestinian state.The indictment charged that he had used the groups as fronts to funnel money to terrorists. Mr. al-Arian says the money was sent to help Palestinian children in refugee camps
The St. Petersburg Times, in a detailed Q&A about the case against Arian, reports that jurors felt the government didn't do enough to justify a conviction.
Several jurors said that, despite the massive evidence produced by the government, there was not enough proof to support convicting the four men. Said one: "The dots didn't connect." One juror called the trial difficult and complex. The government offered 80 witnesses, a fair amount of dry testimony and 400 transcripts of wiretapped conversations and faxes. Much of the case was circumstantial. As the trial progressed, even prosecutors agreed with defense attorneys that there were no direct links between the defendants and violence.
The New York Times reports that a spokeswoman for the Justice Department said officials were disappointed with the verdicts, and insisted that the government had a strong record of success in prosecuring alleged terrorists, including recent convictions against a northern Virginia student and a Pakistani immigrant in New York on charges of supporting Al Qaeda.
"We remain focused on the important task at hand, which is to protect our country through our ongoing vigorous prosecution of terrorism cases," said Tasia Scolinos, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department. "While we respect the jury's verdict, we stand by the evidence we presented in court against Sami al-Arian and his co-defendants."
The Los Angeles Times reports that although the Patriot Act provisions used in this case were not controversial, "the setback for the government is likely to result in further scrutiny of Justice Department claims that the tools are vital to defend the country."
Even before the law was enacted, "if they had found that Al-Arian was doing anything criminal, the evidence could have been disclosed to prosecutors and introduced against him in court," said James Dempsey, executive director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington advocacy group.
Added David Cole, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington: "They say the Patriot Act allows them to connect the dots. But they failed to make the most important connection, which was to tie Mr. Al-Arian to some violent or criminal act. It should make the government rethink its reliance on these very broad theories of guilt by association," he said.
The St. Petersburg Times reports that Arian and Mr. Hammoudeh will remain in jail until the government decides if it wants to retry them on the deadlocked charges. Arian's lawyers say they will soon ask that he be released on bail while the government ponders its moves.
Mr. Turley of George Washington University told the Tampa Tribune that it's extremely likely the government will retry the nine charges on which the jury could not reach a decision.
"I think the government's in this for a penny or a pound," he said. "This is an enormous embarrassment to the government. The government is so enormously invested in convicting al-Arian, it's hard to believe they will walk away. There are too many résumés at the Justice Department at risk."
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said they would also seek to deport Arian, probably sending him to Israel, the country he has often criticized, since he is a Palestinian. Arian's attornies called this move "totally vindictive" since their client had not been convicted of any charge.
Ahmed Bedier, regional director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, told the Washington Post that the trial would have repercussions in the larger Muslim world.
"It will not only restore faith in the justice system by American Muslims but also by Muslims all over the world who doubted justice in America," Bedier said. "This sends a very positive message that Muslims can receive a fair trial in America."
Neal Abid, president of Orlando's Arab American Community Center, told the Orlando Sentinel that it shows why America is a great country and that the justice systems works for all Americans.
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