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Jury Acquits Jailed Palestinian Professor of Several Charges
in Major Blow to Bush Administration
Thirty Years After the Indonesian Invasion of East Timor,
Will the U.S. Be Held Accountable for its Role in the Slaughter?
Extraordinary Rendition Under Fire: Lawsuit Charges CIA with
Kidnapping and Torture of German Citizen
Jury Acquits Jailed Palestinian Professor of Several
Charges in Major Blow to Bush Administration
A federal jury on Tuesday failed to return a single guilty
verdict on any of the 51 criminal counts against former Florida
professor, Sami Al-Arian and three co-defendants accused of
helping to lead a Palestinian terrorist group. He remains
in jail. We speak with his daughter and a journalist who has
closely followed the case. [includes rush
transcript]
A federal jury on Tuesday failed to return a single guilty
verdict on any of the 51 criminal counts against a former
Florida professor and three co-defendants accused of helping
to lead a Palestinian terrorist group.
In a major defeat for Bush administration prosecutors, Sami
Al-Arian was acquitted on eight of the 17 counts against him
and the jury deadlocked on the rest. Three co-defendants,
Sameeh Hammoudeh, Hatem Fariz and Ghassan Ballut, were also
cleared of most of the charges against them.
The jury in Tampa, Florida deliberated for thirteen days
before delivering its verdict. Al-Arian's five-month trial
was seen as one of the biggest courtroom tests of the search
and surveillance powers granted under the Patriot Act.
Sami al-Arian will remain in jail until prosecutors decide
whether to retry him on the deadlocked charges. He was arrested
in February 2003 and has been imprisoned ever since. The government
accused him and eight others of racketeering, conspiracy and
providing material support to terrorists. The government alleged
that Al-Arian used an Islamic academic think tank and a Palestinian
charity to illegally funnel money to the militant group Palestinian
Islamic Jihad.
Until his arrest, Al-Arian was one of the most prominent
Palestinian academics and activists in the United States.
He was invited to the White House during both the President
Clinton and Bush administrations and he campaigned for President
Bush during the 2000 election.
His indictment in 2003 was hailed by then-Attorney General
John Ashcroft as one of the first triumphs of the Patriot
Act. The government's case was built on hundreds of documents,
including thousands of hours of wiretapped telephone calls,
intercepted e-mails and faxes and bank records gathered over
a decade. Justice Department spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos said
"While we respect the jury's verdict, we stand by the
evidence we presented in court."
In October 2002, just four months before he was arrested
and charged, I spoke with Sami Al-Arian at an antiwar rally
in Central Park. I asked him what his thoughts were about
America.
- Sami Al-Arian, interviewed
October 6, 2002, New York City.
For the latest on the case of Sami Al-Arain we are joined
by two guests:
- Laila Al-Arian, eldest daughter of Sami Al-Arian.
- John Sugg, senior editor for Creative Loafing, an Atlanta-based
alternative weekly newspaper. He has closely followed the
Sami Al-Arian for the past 10 years and interviewed him
last month.
Previous coverage:
- Jailed
Palestinian Prof. Sami Al-Arian Dominates Florida Senate Race
- The
Case of Sami Al-Arian
- Outspoken
Palestinian Professor Sami Al-Arian Indicted Yesterday By
Ashcroft On Charges of Material Support to Terrorists
- INS
Arrests a Palestinian Teacher in Florida for Supposed Involvement
with Terrorist Organizations
Thirty Years After the Indonesian Invasion of East
Timor, Will the U.S. Be Held Accountable for its Role in the
Slaughter?
Thirty years ago today, on December 7 1975, Indonesia invaded
East Timor. Over 200,000 East Timorese lost their lives in
one of the worst genocides of the 20th century. A recently-completed
East Timorese commission of inquiry into human rights abuses
during the occupation makes use of extensive documents that
show the US government knew in advance of the invasion and
worked behind the scenes to hide it from public scrutiny.
The East Timorese government has asked parliament to withhold
the report. We speak East Timor's ambassador to the UN and
the US, and a professor at the National Security Archive.
[includes rush
transcript]
Thirty years ago today, on December 7 1975, Indonesia invaded
East Timor. This began a brutal occupation that lasted almost
a quarter of a century and led to the deaths of over 200,000
people. Even the C.I.A. has described it as one of the worst
mass-murders of the 20th century.
Indonesia invaded East Timor almost entirely with U.S-made
weapons and equipment. Newly released documents
by the National Security Archive show the U.S government knew
this and explicitly approved of the invasion. The formerly
classified documents show how multiple U.S administrations
concealed information on the invasion in order to continue
selling weapons to Indonesia.
The documents show US officials were aware of the invasion
plans nearly a year in advance. They reveal that in 1977 the
Carter Administration blocked declassification of a cable
transcribing President Ford and Secretary of State Kissinger's
meeting with Suharto on December 6, 1975 in which they explicitly
approved of the invasion.
The National Security Archive handed over the documents to
an East Timorese commission of inquiry into human rights abuses
that occurred between 1975 and 1999. Last week East Timor
President Xanana Gusmao gave the commission's report to the
Timorese Parliament but wanted it withheld from the public.
Opposition politicians and human rights activists have called
for the documents to be made public.
- Jose Luis Guterres, East Timorese ambassador to the United
Nations and United States.
- Brad Simpson, assistant professor of history at the University
of Maryland and a research assistant at the National
Security Archive.
Links:
- Declassified
U.S. documents
- East Timor Action Network
Extraordinary Rendition Under Fire: Lawsuit Charges
CIA with Kidnapping and Torture of German Citizen
On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal
lawsuit on behalf of a German citizen who says U.S. agents
mistakenly kidnapped him and sent him to a secret prison in
Afghanistan where he was tortured. We speak with British journalist
Stehen Grey who helped expose the CIA rendition program of
flying detainees to secret prisons around the world.
On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal
lawsuit on behalf of a German citizen who says U.S. agents
mistakenly kidnapped him and sent him to a secret prison in
Afghanistan.
The suit was filed against former CIA Director George Tenet
and three companies that operate CIA aircraft.
This marks the first time the federal government has been
sued for the secretive practice known as extraordinary rendition
where CIA agents essentially kidnap people overseas and then
transport them to overseas prisons.
The victim in this case - Khaled El-Masri - says he was first
detained while on vacation in Macedonia. Once in CIA custody
he says he was repeatedly beaten, roughly interrogated by
masked men, detained in squalid conditions and denied access
to an attorney or his family.
He was only released after the CIA realized they had detained
the wrong man. After the ACLU announced the lawsuit on Tuesday,
Khaled El-Masri spoke to reporters by videophone from Germany.
- Khaled El-Masri, speaking December 6, 2005.
Khaled El-Masri was unable to attend the ACLU's Washington
press conference because he had been refused entry to the
United States after arriving Saturday in Atlanta on a flight
from Germany.
His lawsuit comes at a time when the Bush administration's
secret practices are coming under intense scrutiny in Europe.
Investigations are underway throughout the region over the
CIA kidnappings as well as the possibility that the U.S. has
operated secret prisons inside Europe.
ABC News reported earlier this week, the U.S. was operating
two such prisons as recently as last month. The men were moved
ahead of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's trip to Europe
and are now being held in a secret prison in North Africa.
On Tuesday President Bush defended his administration clandestine
operations.
- President Bush, speaking December 6, 2005.
We speak with British journalist Stephen Grey, who helped
expose that the CIA was flying detainees to secret prisons
around the world.
- Stephen Grey, has written extensively on these secret
CIA programs for the Sunday Times of London, New Statesman,
New York Times and other publications.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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