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Former USF professor didn't plan or know about terrorist attacks, attorney says

By Mitch Stacy
The Associated Press

November 9, 2005, 2:26 PM EST

TAMPA -- An attorney for Sami Al-Arian concluded his closing arguments Wednesday, telling the jury that the former university professor had relationships with people in a Palestinian terrorist group but never planned or advocated violent acts.

Attorney William Moffitt countered federal prosecutors' contention that Al-Arian, a former University of South Florida computer engineering professor, led a Tampa cell of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad that raised money and helped determine the direction of the notorious terrorist group.

"Any discussion of Sami Al-Arian being the most powerful man in the PIJ is fantasy," Moffitt said near the end of the five-month trial. "He never had control of the money, he never made any decisions."

Al-Arian spoke and wrote strong words about the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and associated with people who would have key roles in the PIJ, but there is no evidence that he was involved in planning terror attacks or knew they were going to take place, Moffitt said.

Prosecutors say that Al-Arian, 47, and three co-defendants -- Sameeh Hammoudeh, Ghassan Zayed Ballut and Hatem Naji Fariz -- used an academic think tank, a Palestinian charity and school founded by Al-Arian in Tampa as fundraising fronts and covers for the PIJ, which has been blamed for hundreds of deaths in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza strip.

The Tampa cell acted as the communications arm of the organization, the government contends, spreading the word and raising money as they fueled the cycle of suicide bombings.

The defendants are charged in a 51-count indictment with, among other things, operating a criminal enterprise, conspiracy to murder and maim people outside the United States, and conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization. Five other men were indicted but have not been arrested because they are out of the country.

Prosecutors, who likened the PIJ to the Mafia and characterized Al-Arian as one of its "crime bosses," built the complex case around hundreds of pages of transcripts of wiretapped phone calls and faxes.

The conversations and correspondence, intercepted by the FBI from the mid-1990s to about 2003, included discussions about the direction and financing of the PIJ. Other times, the participants appear to celebrate suicide attacks that killed Israelis and speak glowingly of the Palestinian "martyrs" who carried them out.

Moffitt said Al-Arian might have celebrated what he saw as triumphs for the oppressed Palestinian people, but he noted that none of the intercepted correspondence tied Al-Arian to specific attacks.

"At the end of the day, when you think about wiretaps, think about what's not there," Moffitt said. "There's not one discussion of planning violent activity."

The men raised money, the attorney said, but it was for legitimate charities and for the scholarly pursuits of the World and Islam Studies Enterprise, the pro-Palestinian think tank Al-Arian founded at USF.

Moffitt acknowledged that Al-Arian lied to newspaper reporters and immigration officials about his associations with PIJ members but did so to protect the legitimate organizations he had established in Tampa.

Al-Arian was born in Kuwait to Palestinian refugee parents. Reared mostly in Egypt, he has been in the United States since 1975 and started teaching computer engineering at USF in 1986. He was fired after he was indicted in 2003.

Attorneys for the other three defendants will now deliver their closings. The case could go to the jury late this week or next.