Fw: [ANSWER]: Statement on Dr. Sami Al-Arian's arrest

["Nello Margiotta" <animarg at tin.it>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "A.N.S.W.E.R." <answer.general at action-mail.org>
To: <answer.general at action-mail.org>
Sent: Friday, February 21, 2003 5:15 AM
Subject: [ANSWER]: Statement on Dr. Sami Al-Arian's arrest


 STOP BUSH & ASHCROFT'S POLITICAL TARGETING!
 
 A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition statement on the arrest of Florida 
 Professor Sami Al-Arian
 
 Early this morning, Thursday, February 20, 2003, FBI 
 agents in Tampa, Florida, arrested Dr. Sami Al-Arian, a 
 Palestinian professor from the University of South Florida 
 (USF). As he was led into the Tampa headquarters of the 
 FBI, Al-Arian told reporters: "It's all about politics."
 
 Dr. Al-Arian has gained widespread support over the last 
 year and a half after being placed on forced leave and 
 banned from the USF campus shortly after September 11. 
 Almost one year ago, on February 21, 2002, the United 
 States Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, Mac 
 Cauley, issued a statement acknowledging that Dr. Al-Arian 
 was under investigation.
 
 Today and for many years, Samia Al-Arian has been targeted 
 by the government, media and academic establishment 
 because he is a consistent and outspoken supporter of the 
 right of the Palestinian people to live free from 
 occupation, as well as a proponent of civil liberties and 
 civil rights.
 
 Dr. Al-Arian is among several others arrested by the FBI 
 today; there were other arrests in Florida and Illinois. 
 They are among thousands of people of Middle Eastern 
 decent and other immigrants who have been investigated, 
 arrested, interrogated, detained and/or deported since 
 September 11.
 
 Following Attorney General John Ashcroft's announcement of 
 the 100-count indictment that charges these men with 
 allegedly "financing, extolling and assisting acts of 
 terrorism," Dr. Al-Arian's attorney, Nicholas Matassini, 
 stated: "He's a political prisoner right now as we speak." 
 Matassini called Ashcroft's indictment "a work of 
 fiction."
 
 BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON SAMIA AL-ARIAN
 
 Shortly after September 11, 2001, Dr. Al-Arian appeared on 
 the fervently right-wing Fox TV's Bill O'Reilly Factor 
 show, where O'Reilly accused him of having "terrorist 
 connections." According to a document produced by USF 
 faculty entitled "The United Faculty of Florida defends 
 the Due Process rights, and Academic Freedom & Tenure 
 rights of USF Professor Sami Al-Arian," on September 27, 
 the USF administration suspended Dr. Al-Arian, and on 
 December 19 they sent him a letter of dismissal, then 
 modified this letter to state that he "wasn't fired so 
 much as subject to being fired."
 
 Since that time, Dr. Al-Arian and many supporters around 
 the country have been fighting to be reinstated at USF. On 
 April 25, 2002, the Executive Council and Delegate 
 Assembly of the Professional Staff Congress of the City 
 University of New York, American Federation of Teachers 
 Local 2334, passed a resolution in support of Dr. 
 Al-Arian, and on June 20, 2002, American Federation of 
 Teachers President Sandra Feldman sent a letter to USF 
 President Judy Genshaft in supporting his rights.
 
On December 16, 2002, a federal district court judge 
 dismissed a case brought by USF which asked the court to 
 clarify the constitutional issues surrounding the firing. 
 USF brought the case in an attempt to bolster support and 
 confidence in proceeding with the firing, but the court 
 dismissed the case and left it to the USF administration 
 to either fire or reinstate Dr. Al-Arian. USF President 
 Genshaft said her plan was the former.
 
 According to the Academic Free Speech website, which is 
 devoted supporting Dr. Al-Arian in his struggle to resume 
 teaching at USF, Dr. Sami Al-Arian's family is from 
 Jerusalem and Jaffa, Palestine. He was born in Kuwait, 
 lived in Egypt, and then studied at Southern Illinois 
 University and North Carolina State University. He became 
 a professor at USF in 1986, has received tenure, several 
 teaching awards, and has over forty published works.
 
 Dr. Al-Arian has helped to establish several 
 organizations, including the Islamic Society of North 
 America (ISNA, est. 1981) and many affiliated 
 organizations. In 1990, he co-founded the World and Islam 
 Studies Enterprise (WISE), a research and academic 
 institution. In 1997, Dr. Al-Arian helped to found the 
 Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace, which has 
 fought against the arrest, imprisonment and deportation of 
 Dr. Mazen Al-Najjar; and in the same year co-founded the 
 National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom, which he 
 was elected the president of in 2000. Dr. Al-Najjar is Dr. 
 Al-Arian's brother-in-law, who in 2002 was deported after 
 being held in U.S. jails without charges for nearly five 
 years using "secret evidence."

 The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition joins the organizations and 
 individuals worldwide who are condemning Bush's and 
 Ashcroft's political targeting of Dr. Al-Arian.
 
 ---------------------------------------
 
 Email circulated by:
 A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
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