A Greater Circle

The full dimensions of Al-Arian's legal situation began to sink in. The amount of evidence is huge, and the case is extremely complex, and the central charges rest not so much on one or two overt acts, but instead of the pattern of some forty acts taken together. Al-Arian's family started to speak of the financial burden of mounting a defense --- a million dollars? more? --- while his lawyer started expressing the timeline in terms of years. It is not surprising that his attorneys put his contractual dispute with the Board of Trustees on a back burner, but perhaps it was surprising that in doing so, Al-Arian's position on the contract itself became aligned with that of the Board of Trustees, against the union.

When Al-Arian's attorney told the Oracle that UFF was ``out of the loop,'' maintaining this site became problematic. Continually updating this site requires a union member to devote hours each week, and broadcasting the latest news in Biweekly newspapers suggested a level of involvement that UFF no longer had. Facing a hostile Board of Trustees, defending the contract UFF itself negotiated is a higher priority that defending the rights of a faculty member whose attorney announces that he is dispensing with UFF's help. And so the Chapter decided that effective March 29, when the deadline for Al-Arian to file a contractual grievance on his dismissal runs out, this site will no longer be comprehensively updated. Major developments will be noted, and all the old pages kept on-line, but as Al-Arian moves into his greater circle, UFF's first obligation is to the circle that Al-Arian, mostly involuntarily, leaves behind.

Waiting

On Mar. 20, the USF Oracle reported that Bargaining may not occur soon: Union president Roy Weatherford says the faculty and administration are at a standstill in bargaining progress. The story reports that the Mar. 19 Faculty Senate meeting, UFF USF Chapter President Roy Weatherford said that all discussions between the Chapter and the USF Administration has been via lawyers. The story also reported that proposed revisions of the new rules will be ready for consideration by faculty on Mar. 21.

• On Mar. 20, AP reported that *UCF professor arrested on immigration charges. UCF computer engineer Hussam Jubara was arrested for making false statements on immigration forms. Jubara was a USF student and helped run the Islamic Concern Project founded by Al-Arian.
• On Mar. 20, AP also reported that *Prosecutor: Al-Arian is security threat and should remain jailed, that Assistant U.S. Attorney Walter Furr told U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Pizzo that ``Mr. Al-Arian was, in one way or another, involved in many of the terrorist acts this organization took part in. For a time he was as powerful as any member of the Islamic Jihad on the planet.''
• On Mar. 20, the Miami Herald ran an analysis on how *Trial will test antiterrorism law, saying that the admissibility of the wiretap evidence may become a major issue. The problem is whether introducing wiretap evidence under the USA PATRIOT Act would violate Al-Arian's Fourth Amendment rights. According to the article, ``In Ashcroft's view, the antiterrorism law amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act so that the government could use intelligence wiretaps for criminal investigations,'' but in May, 2002, U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court warned that this might not be the case. However, the article reported that in November, 2002, the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, consisting of three judges appointed by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rhenquist, and which never meets, said that cooperation between law enforcement and intelligence should be encouraged: ``A standard which punishes such cooperation could well be thought dangerous to national security.''
• On Mar. 20, the USF Oracle described The lure of PIJ? If the allegations are true, why would Sami Al-Arian align himself with a group like the Palestinian Islamic Jihad? The answer may lie in in the history of his homeland. The article was largely a thumbnail sketch of the history of Israel, Palestine, and the PIJ.
• On Mar. 20, the St. Petersburg Times crime column Tampa Uncuffed reported that ``Hearing could end Al-Arian's confinement.''
• On Mar. 20, the Tampa Tribune reported that Al-Arian Lawyer Moves To Suppress Evidence. The story reported that much of the case against Al-Arian consists of counterintelligence wiretap intercepts, and that the recent PATRIOT Act, and recent revisions to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) may have made such intercepts admissible in trials. However, Al-Arian's lawyer argues that the use of such intercepts may violate Al-Arian's rights. His lawyer also will seek bail for Al-Arian.

• The Mar. 20 Weekly Planet ran a collection of articles by local people involved in or observing the controversy. There were brief columns by WP film critic Lance Goldenburg, community activist Maura Barrios, African-American & Muslim activist Askia Muhammed Aquil, retired pediatrician Bruce Epstein, Florida Family Association Executive Director Bruce Caton, Democratic Congressional candidate (against Katherine Harris) Wayne Genther, Garcia/Mackin & Associates Wayne Garcia, Islamic Society of Tampa Bay director Mohammed Sultan, Sarajevo Project founder Linda Beekman, journalist Samar Jarrah, Alessi Bakeries founder Phil Alessi, African People's Socialist Party Chairman Omali Yeshitela, attorney Grissim Walker, ASPEC director Merle Allshouse, and Gulf Coast Coalition for Peace and Justice member Rev. Nina Burwell.
• The April 7 National Review reported on the *Fight on the Right: 'Muslim outreach' and a feud between activists, describing the confrontation between Center for Security Policy columnist Frank Gaffney and Islamic Institute co-founder Grover Norquist on the relationship between the American Right and Wahhabi missionaries --- apparently including Al-Arian.

• On Mar. 21, AP reported that *Al-Arian's colleagues, family say he never talked about violence, quoting American Muslim Alliance national chairman Agha Saeed saying, ``Dr. Al-Arian and I have worked together to build that culture of possibility, of hope, instead of the despair of violence.'' AP also reported that *Lawyer: Chicago man has no connection to Palestinian jihad group, reporting that the lawyer for Ghassan Zayed Ballut, Bruce Howie, said that the case against Ballut consisted of some telephone conversations with Al-Arian, which the indictment did not describe.
• The Mar. 21 Miami Herald reported that *Professor accused of terrorist fundraising may be a flight risk, reporting that Assistant U.S. Attorney Walter Furr said of the four defendents in custody: ``If we let these people out we will never get them back.''
• The Mar. 21 USF Oracle reported on A day of disorder: Sami Al-Arian's bail hearing Thursday was anything but typical, as rowdy crowds and external disruptions caused delays in the proceeding, reporting that the hearing room could only accomodate an audience of 35, that pro- and anti- demonstrators were separated by eight policemen, and that a bomb threat led to an evacuation of the building. The story reported that lawyers were working on making $ 1 million bail, two-thirds of it from the Islamic Academy of Florida, one-third of it by a strip mall owned by the Al-Arians.
• On Mar. 21, the St. Petersburg Times reported that Amid uproar, Al-Arian hearing begins: Pro- and anti-Al-Arian protesters gather at the courthouse, where the bail hearing is expected to last into next week. Prosecutor Walter Furr is paraphrased as saying that `the government has evidence from intercepted phone calls and faxes that proved the men had been raising money and supporting terrorism,' and that `Al-Arian's phone was ringing around the clock, sometimes immediately after terrorist attacks in the Middle East.'
• On Mar. 21, the Tampa Tribune reported that UCF Teacher Held On Immigration Charges. The Tribune reported that he is being held on charges of lying about a marriage from the INS, of concealing profits he made from a business, and failing to disclose names he used.

At the March 21 USF Chapter Meeting (of the UFF), the Chapter discussed a letter from Marcus Snow, representing the Board of Trustees, to UFF counsel Tom Brooks. The letter, dated March 7, stated that the Board of Trustees recognized the implications of the fact that UFF filed 1,035 CBA petitions (cards), and offered to support voluntary recognition of UFF as the designated bargaining representative of faculty within the bargaining unit if UFF filed a Recognition Acknowledgement Petition. The letter noted that no university in SUS has officially recognized the BOR-UFF Collective Bargaining Agreement, but offered to accept the old contract as a basis for negotiating the next one (this was the major bone of contention) --- but the letter was a bit vague on the details. The letter set Mar. 21 as the deadline for a response, and stated that if UFF did not respond by the deadline, the USF Administration would seek a certification election.
After some discussion of recent trends in PERC's decisions, various parallel developments, and other pros and cons, the Chapter decided that this was the current optimum, and voted to file a Recognition Acknowledgement Petition as Snow requested.

On Mar. 21, Google found ``about 8,800'' sites for ``al-arian.'' As usual, this site was number two.
This site began in late Winter, 2002, after UFF (statewide) President Tom Auxter proposed that the USF Chapter of UFF maintain an archive on the controversy, in order to aid future historians. USF Chapter President Roy Weatherford asked me, Greg McColm, to be the archivist. Since I was the Publicity Chair for the Chapter (I produce the biweekly electronic newsletter and the quarterly hardcopy newsletter and maintain the web-site), I proposed maintaining the archive on-line. An on-line archive would assist scholars, students, reporters, and just plain folks who wanted to find out what was going on.
There were complications. First, it consumes a non-trivial amount of time to put up code; but since UFF arranged for me to have a course release each semester last year, it was do-able. Second, the site became quite large (it is now over 60,000 words and over 1,000 links, the size of a small book), and thus is difficult for visitors to navigate. No one seemed to know of any other site dedicated to covering a controversy in this way: certainly in the Al-Arian controversy, most other sites are either (a) devoted to the publications of a single media outlet or (b) devoted to a particular point of view. But as UFF is composed of scholars, and since UFF was assisting Al-Arian in his defense against the USF Board of Trustees, it seemed as if UFF had to maintain a public image on this issue, and this site -- providing a wide range of views -- seemed to provide that image (although the UFF's and the webmaster's point of view could be discerned by reading editorial comments.)
The situation changed this semester, when the USF Administration chose not to honor UFF's assignments of course releases. This was a violation of the contract, but the position of the USF Board of Trustees is that they do not know if they are bound by the terms and conditions of the contract, and hence they are compelled to violate it. The result was that the time and labor of all UFF activists suddenly became harder to get, and hence more valuable.
Then on Feb. 27, Al-Arian's attorney announced that Al-Arian would file a grievance over his dismissal --- but using the procedure outlined in the New Rules promulgated by the USF Board to replace the contract. This is a process that UFF is not involved in, and the USF Oracle quoted Robert McKee saying that UFF was ``out of the loop.'' Under the terms and conditions of the contract, Al-Arian has until Mar. 28 to file a grievance under the contractual process. If he did not, it was likely that as of Mar. 29, UFF would no longer be assisting Al-Arian in any formal way on any front.
At the Mar. 7 Chapter Meeting, the chapter began a discussion on the question: if it is now more difficult to maintain the site, and if Al-Arian himself is not making any request for formal assistance, is maintenance of the site as high a priority as it used to be? Since then there has been more discussion, and on Mar. 21, several proposals were presented to the Chapter. The proposals rested on two points:

• The Al-Arian controversy will generate a lot more news, and cannot be reasonably covered at the same level with the resources that the Chapter has for this one of many tasks.
• The Chapter needs coverage of academic, employment, and related issues in a coherent fashion that would assist membership.

• That as of Mar. 29, assuming that Al-Arian does not reverse his attorney's announcement, news coverage of the controversy would be restricted to major developments. As the archivist, I would continue to collect material, but only post the most significant items. All pages constructed thus far would remain on-line with stable URLs.
• The Chapter will spend the next four weeks considering the future of the site, based on the needs of the UFF/USF membership, those of the faculty whom the union represents, and the community at large.

• On Mar. 22, the St. Petersburg Times reported that Witnesses vouch for Al-Arian's character. American Muslim Alliance chairman Agha Saeed said Al-Arian ``believes that we must build a culture of hope and possibility to defeat terrorism.''
• The Mar. 22 Tampa Tribune reported that Family, Friends Portray Al-Arian As Nonviolent. Laila Al-Arian said that her father thought killing innocent people is ``abhorrent,'' and her brother said that his father ``really taught us to appreciate this country. ... He's always been grateful to a lot of the values in this society.''

• On Mar. 24, AP reported that *Al-Arian's colleagues say he advocated peace, about some of the testimony from character witnesses for Al-Arian.
• The Mar. 25 USF Oracle reported that Lawyer paints picture of a hardworking, peaceful Al-Arian, quoting one witness saying, ``He disagrees with violence. He was as devastated and upset as the rest of us when the towers were bombed ... (He attended the memorial because) he wanted to emphasize this violence wasn't part of his faith.'' The article also reported that Al-Arian's attorney dealt with one of the allegations in the indictment, that Al-Arian attempted to procure some urea fertilizer: Al-Arian's attorney said that it was part of a legitimate business deal.
• The Mar. 25 St. Petersburg Times reported that Al-Arian's bid to get out of jail faces new hurdle: Federal immigration officials want to keep him in custody, even if a magistrate grants him bail. The Times reported that federal immigration officials have informed Al-Arian's lawyer that even if Al-Arian gets bail, he will still be detained, presumably pending deportation proceedings. Also, Al-Arian's family said that they were having difficulty raising money for Al-Arian's defense: Mrs Al-Arian said, ``We're just like a lot of average Americans in this country ... We don't have a lot of money.''
• The Mar. 25 Tampa Tribune reported that Al-Arian's `Excellent Character' Praised During Bail Hearing, and quoted Islamic Academy of Florida co-founder Pilar Saad saying that Al-Arian ``has excellent character. He's honest. He's helpful. He's generous. He's a hard worker.''
• The Mar. 25 UPI reported that *Patriot Act key to case against professor, reporting that some of the wiretap evidence introduced on the basis of the USA PATRIOT Act may be challenged: Al-Arian's attorney said, ``We believe it's a violation of the Fourth Amendment because it allows the court to issue this surveillance warrants on less than probable cause.''

• On Mar. 25, President Genshaft broadcast a letter to the faculty announcing that ``are finally able to proceed with voluntary recognition of United Faculty of Florida.'' Then she said that the USF Administration had been ``willing'' to proceed once UFF filed a Recognition Acknowledgement Petition, which the USF Chapter decided to do on Mar. 21. There was no mention of the USF Administration's commitment to use the old contract as the basis of negotiating the succeeding contract, but she did express a desire to begin collective bargaining as soon as PERC permits.

• On Tuesday, Mar. 25, USF/UFF Chapter President Roy Weatherford sent a Letter to USF Faculty announcing that the USF Chapter of UFF had decided to file a Recognition Acknowledgement (RA) Petition, in preparation for obtaining Voluntary Recognition of UFF by the USF Board of Trustees. The letter said that the 1,000 Collective Bargaining Authorization cards collected by UFF from USF faculty last Fall, and the defense of faculty rights by the Faculty Senate, the Chairs of the College of Arts and Sciences, and UFF, had persuaded the USF Administration to rescind its misconduct rule and to refrain from changing the summer salary formula.
  UFF had pressed for a joint petition for Amended Certification, which would protect the contract. The USF Board of Trustees had not responded directly to that proposal, but instead had repeated its request that UFF file an RA petition, and said that it would accept the contract as a basis for negotiating a new contract. Meanwhile, the Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC) had rejected a petition for Amended Certification from the Association of Federal, State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the union representing USF staff (and a union long targeted by Governor Bush, who has appointed all members of PERC): PERC said in its ruling that the business relations between AFSCME and the Board of Regents (followed by the Florida Board of Education) was clearly inherited by the individual Boards of Trustees. So UFF decided not to attempt to press for a petition for Amended Certification, and instead file an RA petition.
  The Voluntary Recognition will not in itself provide recognition of the contract (althought the USF Administration has committed itself to using the contract as the basis of negotiations) so UFF will proceed on parallel avenues up to and including filing Unfair Labor Practice complaints with PERC. But Weatherford's letter concluded by noting that this is a political battle (again, PERC itself is appointed by the Governor), and UFF will be more successful in a political battle if it gets support from the faculty.

• The Mar. 26 USF Oracle reported that Al-Arian at least a year from trial, saying that federal judge Thomas McCoun III presided over the hearing. The article reported that witnesses said that Muslims are required to donate 2.5 % of their income to charity, and suggested that that was what lay behind the financial transactions cited in the indictment. The article concluded with: ``Physically, Al-Arian is beginning to show more troubling signs of his 34-day hunger strike. In addition to his outwardly thin appearance, Al-Arian appeared weak and frail Tuesday. He walked slowly to and from his seat hunched at the waist and stumbling often. He also clutched at his back on several occasions while he walked.''
• The Mar. 26 St. Petersburg Times reported that Al-Arian's lawyers cite size of investigation: They predict it will be at least two years before a trial starts, given the mountain of records and tapes to be examined. The four-day bail hearing ended Tuesday, Mar. 25, and the St. Petersburg Times reports that over 1,000 audio and video tapes have been seized, in addition to the 1,000 reels of tapes made by federal officials (under 152 warrants under FISA). Al-Arian's attorney noted that one of Al-Arian's co-defendents, Bashir Nafi, remains free in England, and said, ``It is hard to believe he would be sitting there ... if he was the terrorist they think he is.'' The Times said that the hearing was before Magistrate Judge Mark Pizzo, who is quoted saying, ``Frankly, I cannot recall in my almost eight years of being a magistrate judge of having four defendants with such distinguished civic track records ... But I almost feel like a character in Alice in Wonderland, and I've fallen down the hole, and I'm looking at a different [case] ... And, I have to tell you, the indictment is very persuasive.''
• The Mar. 26 Tampa Tribune reported that Judge Delays Al-Arian Decision, reporting that in the bail hearing, Pizzo reserved judgement, while in the arraignment, McCoun postponed the proceeding until April 7 to give the defense time to find out if Al-Arian could raise sufficient funds to mount a defense. The Tribune concluded by reminding readers that Pizzo had presided over the Aisenberg case.
• On Mar. 27, the St. Petersburg Times reported that Muslim linked to Al-Arian trained military chaplains. The Times suggested that Taha Jabir Al-Alwani is ``unindicted co-conspirator number five'' in the indictment, and that U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D.-NY) asked the Defense Department to investigate the Graduate School of Islamic and Social, Sciences which trained ``at least seven of the twelve'' Muslim chaplains in the U.S. military. Rita Katz, executive director of the Search for International and Terrorist Entities (SITE) Institute, and a consultant in a lawsuit by victims in the Sept. 11 attacks (filed against members of the Saudi royal family, and Al-Alwani), said Al-Alwani ``supports and funnels money to terrorist organizations, and he's training Muslim chaplains for the military.'' A spokesperson for the Army said that the chaplains Al-Alwani trained ``are all good chaplains who have represented their faith and other faiths well,'' and the article noted that Al-Alwani had issued a fatwa in 2001 ``permitting American Muslims to fight in the conflict in Afghanistan.''
• On Mar. 28, the Oracle picked up the story, reporting that Pentagon investigating man linked to Al-Arian, reporting that Al-Alwani helped found the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), which helped fund WISE during the early 1990s.

• On Mar. 28, AP reported that *Al-Arian moved to federal correctional complex in Sumter County. Al-Arian's attorney said that the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Sumter County is an hour's drive away and that the move will make consultations more difficult. Ms. Al-Arian said, ``This is opening my eyes to things that I thought only happened in dictatorships ... This means more trouble, more hardships for me, my kids and for him.''
• On Mar. 28, the St. Petersburg Times reported that Al-Arian moved to federal facility: The former USF professor, suspected of funding a terrorist group, has been moved for security reasons. The ``security reasons'' were not divulged by the federal government, but the Times reported that Ms. Al-Arian said that Al-Arian was placed in solitary confinement.
• The Mar. 28 Tampa Tribune reported that Al-Arian, Co-Defendants Transferred To Federal Complex In Sumter County. Al-Arian's attorney is quoted saying, ``They never say why ... They came this morning and picked them up and moved them.'' Hillsborough county Colonel David Parrish, who had been Al-Arian's warden, said, ``It's real nice not to have him here now ... The staff are all quite relieved. It's been a lot of extra work and quite a strain on the staff. ... They were high-maintenance inmates,'' but denied that he had asked for the defendents to be moved out.

During the Fall, 2001, the United Faculty of Florida watched the Al-Arian situation with considerable concern, and UFF expressed that concern in public statements by USF Chapter President Roy Weatherford and others, and a Statement on Academic Freedom. At that time, public charges made against Al-Arian were rather nebulous, and typical of charges often made against unpopular activists (and Al-Arian, an activist, was quite unpopular in certain circles).
Al-Arian was dismissed on Dec. 19, 2001, and soon UFF was officially involved. During 2002, UFF provided advice and publicly defended Al-Arian's rights against the Board of Trustees. (While UFF has an insurance policy to pay job-related legal expenses of UFF members, Al-Arian was (according the the insurance companies) ineligable, for several technical reasons.) UFF assisted Al-Arian essentially because the proceedings against him were in violation of the contract (and UFF is always concerned about deliberate violations of the contract) and because he asked (and the USF Chapter of UFF has a policy of assisting any faculty member threatened with dismissal).
The situation came to a head on Jan. 6, 7. By that time, the Board of Trustees had made it clear that their intent was indeed, as UFF had long contended, the termination of the contract (if not the dissolution of UFF). The contract expired on Jan. 7, and the Board of Trustees refused to negotiate a successor contract, and refused to recognize UFF. Al-Arian responded by filing, on Jan. 6, a grievance under the contract contending that in suspending and banning him indefinitely, the USF Administration was punishing him. UFF assisted him in processing this grievance. The grievance was denied at the Step 1 level a week after he was indicted, and just as he was fired. Al-Arian's attorney announced that Al-Arian would file a grievance --- under new USF rules, and not the contract --- and that UFF was now ``out of the loop,'' and implicitly supported the Board of Trustees' position that the terms and conditions of the contract were no longer relevant. Al-Arian's attorney did not mention an appeal of the denial of his previous grievance.
Since Al-Arian was fired on Feb. 26, he had until Mar. 28 to file a contractual grievance. Now that the deadline has passed, he may not file a grievance under the contract. Since his lawyer's statement, he has not expressed any wish that UFF continue to assist him in his confrontation with the Board of Trustees. (He may have other priorities, and UFF deals only with employment issues, not criminal matters.) It appears that UFF's assistance has come to an end.
This site was maintained and updated by UFF in part so that people could find out what was going on in this very controversial issue that UFF was involved with. This site required considerable resources to be kept up to date, and in the midst of a major struggle with the Board of Trustees, it is not clear that UFF can maintain this site at the same level as in the past. Therefore, while past pages will be kept on-line, with stable URLs, future chronological pages will only list major developments in the case. The Chapter will revisit this policy at the April 18 Chapter meeting: all visitors are invited to send their views to the USF/UFF Webmaster.