Palestinian professor sentenced for terrorism in US

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"A Florida judge told a Palestinian computer engineer yesterday that he must spend another 18 months in prison before being deported, in a case that had been seen as a key test for sweeping anti-terror legislation brought in after September 11.

Sami al-Arian, a former professor at the University of South Florida, has been jailed since February 2003, meaning he has 18 months to serve in the four year and nine month term he received yesterday. In sentencing, Judge James Moody called him an "active leader" in Islamic Jihad.

The verdict was a result of a plea bargain. Arian was acquitted by a jury along with three others in December last year on several more serious terrorist charges, including conspiracy to murder.

In the past, Arian, a Kuwaiti-born Palestinian who has lived in the US for nearly 30 years, has said he was singled out for prosecution because of his support for Palestinian rights. He denies advocating violence. His family said that the professor agreed last month to plead guilty to lesser charges of providing support to the Islamic Jihad in order to get out of prison."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1765362,00.html

[wakeme2008]

1. F_cking judge

Sami al-Arian was told by the DA that if he pleaded to this one minor count, he could be with his family and deported. He has been in jail for 3 years and wants back to his family so he pleaded. :grr: the judge ignored the deal....

[mallard]

3. They need to fabricate guilty Arabs...

To carry on with a fabricated war following the fabricated 9/11 attacks.


This is not to say the war hasn't BECOME real, nor that there's anything fake about the enemy that's been recruited. It's just all for lack of valid reasons.

Why is this from the Guardian and not the NYT? Just too much embarrassment for our domestic press??

The guy seems very not guilty.

[OKthatsIT]

6. War on Terror is a FRAUD...secretly boosting 3 new industrial complexes

paid for by...guess who?

[kdmorris]

2. I wonder what they did to him

He and his family were adamant that he was innocent and now he pleads guilty to such a serious charge? It makes me sick to think of what they must have done to him to get him to confess. I don't know. Maybe 3 years in jail would do it to any innocent person, but I doubt it.

[wakeme2008]

4. No the charge was very minor and watered down

He had been in jail for 3 years over on the other coast of Florida from his family. The DA was saying it would take another year before he was ready to retry him. The DA was promising him time served and maybe a couple more months and he fell for it.

[kdmorris]

7. Ahhh

I knew he was in jail for 3 years. I saw his wife at a rally on Free Speech TV and got interested in his story. In addition, I did a bit of research when Betty Castor was running for the Senate and Martinez kept throwing this guy up to make Betty Castor look like she was "aiding and abetting the terrorists". I didn't realize that the charge was minor. It's hard to tell these days. Thanks for the clarification.

[HuffleClaw]

5. history is going to remember these years as a dark time for

justice in the us. text books will compare it to the witch hunts of the mccarthy era.