The Washington Post this morning published an article on the continuing struggle of Dr. Sami Al-Arian in his refusal to testify in a Virginia grand jury.
Any attention to the case is welcomed. However, the article contains some inaccuracies that should be corrected. It is true that Dr. Al-Arian lost six pounds in 36 hours on his hunger strike. Yet, the article did not report that he has now lost 30 pounds and remains in a highly diminished physical state.
Also, the article runs a quote from me after a line noting “Arian, who taught computer engineering at the University of South Florida, said he is declining to testify against the charities because he thinks they were falsely charged . . . ” The specific text reads:
Former university professor Sami al-Arian wants to finish serving his prison sentence for a terrorism-related crime next month so that he can be deported to the Palestinian territories. But the Bush administration is threatening to keep him behind bars until he does something he has steadfastly refused to do: testify before a grand jury investigating allegations that Muslim charities aided terrorism organizations.
Arian, who taught computer engineering at the University of South Florida, said he is declining to testify against the charities because he thinks they were falsely charged, “and he doesn’t want them to be persecuted the way he was,” said Jonathan Turley, his attorney. As a result, Arian is to be held at the Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Va., on civil contempt charges.
Arian started a hunger strike early this month to protest his subpoena, and he was recently transferred to a prison medical center in North Carolina after losing six pounds in 36 hours. He went on a previous hunger strike that lasted months.
No one on the legal team has publicly discussed the target of this investigation or what specifically was stated in the grand jury proceeding. My statement that follows in the same line (”and he doesn’t want them to be persecuted the way he was”) did not refer to the specific targets of this investigation but to anyone who might be the target of any grand jury investigation. Dr. Al-Arian accepted a longer sentence to avoid being used to persecute anyone the way that he has been persecuted.
This may have been a simple error in editing. However, the juxtaposition of the quote leaves the impression that this information came from counsel, which it did not. Such information can be ordinarily revealed by a witness or family members, but counsel has refrained from such discussions. Moreover, Dr. Al-Arian’s position against testifying applies to any grand jury investigation regardless of the target.
The article does accurately reflect the central issue. Dr. Al-Arian specifically agreed to a longer sentence because he refused to assist the government in destroying the lives of others — as it had the lives of his family. While a cooperation provision was removed from the plea agreement, trial counsel at the time did not consider it necessary to have an express statement of no cooperation given the understanding of the prosecutors and defense attorneys. It should be obvious that with the removal of the cooperation provision and the longer confinement agreed to by Dr. Al-Arian was the result of an understanding on the cooperation question. Yet, the Florida court refused to allow an evidentiary hearing where counsel could present such testimony to establish the intent and representations of the parties.
Dr. Al-Arian is continuing his appeal in the Eleventh Circuit to try to have an evidentiary hearing to show that this express promise was made to him as the basis for his plea agreement. Courts have ruled that such evidence may be considered as “parol evidence” under standard contract principles. Dr. Al-Arian is currently waiting for a decision on his request for an en banc hearing — a hearing before the entire Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
If the Eleventh Circuit decides not to review the panel decision, we would be left with only the possibility of an appeal to the United States Supreme Court.
For the article, click here (This site requires registration).
Perhaps counsel should write to the WaPo publicly correcting that mischievious interpolated “quote”
Otherwise it is good to see some public airing of this situation.
This correction is now posted under Comments at the Post website.
The Eleventh Circuit panel decision is posted online at:
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/circs/11th/0616008p.pdf
Does this mean that if two people rob a bank, one can get off scott free off the other agrees to a longer sentence in lieu of testifying against his companion?
LOL.
I have never heard of such a ridiculous weak argument. This is just another example of how high buck attorneys convolute and twist our judicial system into a meaningless mass of statutes that, depending on the amount of time & money you have, you can work to the criminals advantage.
msnbc bs, I think it is important to evaluate a statement on its merit. It doesn’t matter if we despise another person, they may still be telling the truth.
There have been a number of muslim charities whose records were seized under a false claim of terrorism. As an American, these raids are of great concern to me. I do not want my govt. in the business of intimidating its people. Itimidation and false claims have been made by this govt. Those actions are completely disrespectful of the rule of law.
I am not stupid enough to believe that no charity has ever been involved in financing terrorism. Certainly some have. I do believe that it is possible to stay within the laws as they are written to make a clear, legal case for prosecution.
Thanks for hearing me out on this.
Jill
The ‘call / write’ team was the creation of Roger Ailes back in the Nixon dark-ages. Whether volunteers or disgruntled under-achievers, they use the safe-cover of their ostensible anonymity in order to pretend they have worked long and hard in developing their ability to participate in reasoned discourse.
Today they are Internet graffiti artists that reject discourse and prefer to snicker in darkness. Freedom has has its challenges much like owning a freshly cleaned car. Occasionally a bird will leave evidence that it too, is part of the landscape. Shaking one’s fist at the offending avian might be interpreted as encouragement.
An old joke from from
the “Foo” Bird of Happiness…
In ancient times there was a community known as the Goodnu’s. As all communities did in these times the Goodnu’s lived right on the river bank for trading, transportation and sustenance. Water was almighty and worshipped as a God. One day there was a tremendous hurricane far out in the ocean. It’s ferocity blew a large flock of “Foo” birds way off course sending them inland many hundreds of miles and in the vicinity of the Goodnu’s community. The Goodnu people had never seen a “Foo” bird and were quite curious as to it’s sudden and obviously evil presence. The “Foo” bird, as we all know, is a very ugly, evil-looking bird. This caused the Goodnu people to become very uneasy believing they did something wrong to God and that this bird should be avoided. One day a “Foo” bird flew overhead and screeched: “Foo, Foo” and sh*t on a Goodnu’s head. The man ran screaming into the river believing the Holy powers of the river would cleanse him of this evil turd and its consequences. As soon as the man washed this unholy turd from his ear canal he suddenly keeled over and died. The Goodnu’s were now convinced of the “Foo” bird’s evilness. The next day a woman was outside and heard: “Foo, Foo”. Before she could react the “Foo” bird dropped a bomb landing a syrupy turd across her face. Shocked and panicked she ran into the river furiously washing her face of this sloppy stew. The village watched in horror as this woman also died once cleansed of the runny turd. The very next day a village wiseman heard those famous words: “Foo, Foo”. He like others had witnessed the terrible deaths of two of his villages’ people in the last two days. He too was struck right in the forehead by the “Foo” birds accurately guided turd missile. His first reaction was confusion and he sprinted towards the river. However, he stopped short and thought of his obvious demise should he cleanse the turd wafer from his forehead. He did not cleanse the poo pile from his forehead and lived. So the wiseman went to the other people of the village, gathered them around and stated to them: “There is an obvious lesson here my good people. The moral of this story is:
‘If the Foo sh*ts, wear it.’”.
http:// www-personal.umich.edu/~bbowman/birds/humor/foo_bird.html
So Sami made himself a bad bed to sleep in. Wish him well.
I am amazed at all the wannabe Jeffersons, Madisons, Franklins that flock to these terrorist cases thinking this is how they will get their own names in the history book of those great protectors of Americas freedoms. Trouble is each of those people that actually did some good in history would look at you as the crazies you are if they met you today. They would ask why are you intent on bringing down this great creation called America under some pretense of violating the Constitution for your own egotistical needs.
msnbder:
I thought your comment looked familiar, and, after a little research, I now must chide you for plagiarism Here’s the actual translation and the true author:
“Why of course the people don’t want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don’t want war …. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” –Herman Goering
It is unclear to me why Dr. Al Arian plead guilty to any charges brought by fascist elements currently running DOJ. The Bush administration aids Israeli state terror (assuming you accept that Zionist-occupied Palestine constitutes a state; apparently it’s recognized by international law, something that Israel continually violates).
msnbc bs, while your statement is agreable, it is totally irrelevent Al Arian’s case. He refuses to testify because he believes that the charges being brought against others have as much validity as his own (that is to say: very little) and he does not want to testify on charges that he believes are untruthful. Especially when, as Sami said himself, the prosecutors can just say he was lying-under-oath, as they have tryed to do before.