Pancakes, Not Brigades: Week 5 of the Dr. Sami Al-Arian Trial

July 17, 2005

Tampa—

On Thursday, July 14, observers at Dr. Sami Al-Arian's trial in Tampa were shocked when a government translator admitted under cross examination that he wrongly translated an Arabic word that means "pancakes" to "brigades" in a conversation between two defendants in the case. To many, this incident sums up the case against Dr. Al-Arian and his co-defendants.

Following a week's break for the Fourth of July holiday, testimony resumed in the closely watched trial. Week five of the trial featured the government's introduction of evidence acquired as a result of years of secret wiretaps on Dr. Al-Arian and several others. In the months leading up to the trial, defense attorneys challenged the legality of the FISA wiretap intercepts, which had never been considered admissible in any criminal trial. Judge James Moody denied those motions, however, and by the start of the trial, the government was set to introduce these conversations as evidence.

On Monday, FBI Special Agent Mike Alfeiri testified about the process of obtaining FISA warrants, which allow the monitoring of telephones, fax machines, and computers for "intelligence gathering" purposes. Alfeiri acknowledged that at least several dozen telephone numbers were monitored beginning in 1994 through early 2003. As Dr. Al-Arian's defense attorney William Moffitt alluded to during opening statements, the government collected over 21,000 hours of recorded telephone calls, comprising about 472,000 separate conversations during the nine-year period. Of that number, fewer than 400 calls are expected to be introduced by the government.

Through government translator Tahsin Ali, prosecutors introduced approximately 70 transcripts of the FISA intercepts they plan to use in their case. Defense attorney Linda Moreno pointed out to jurors that many of the conversations attributed to Dr. Al-Arian have been redacted by the government, that is, edited to include only selected content. In some instances, over a hundred lines of conversation were removed between one portion of the conversation and the next. It also appeared that statements by certain speakers were at times cut off mid-sentence, which defense attorneys argue could have drastically changed the content of the conversation.

Ali also translated videotapes seized in government searches of Dr. Al-Arian's home in 1995. Portions of two of those tapes, both pro-Palestinian events dating back to 1991, were played for the jury during the week. Prosecutors seized on selected quotations from the heavily redacted tapes in an attempt to inflame the passions of the jury and outside observers sensitive to some of the religious references and emotional appeals made by the speakers at the time of the largely non-violent first Palestinian Intifada. The lack of historical context, knowledge of Islam, and the heavy editing that occurred with respect to the tapes was a clear attempt by the government to distort the message of the speakers and mislead jurors.

Several of the quotations selected by the government were in actuality verses from the Koran with a particular religious and historical significance. The government's translator refused to even acknowledge that they were religious quotes until confronted by a copy of the Koran which contained the verses in question. In some instances, defense attorneys demonstrated that Ali's translation differed from that of most accepted translations of the Koran, often by trying to convey a more hostile message. Moreno also questioned Ali about the various meanings of the word "jihad," which he acknowledged is not the literal translation of "holy war" as is often depicted. In one particularly notable display, Federal Public Defender Kevin Beck revealed that the Arabic word translated by Ali to mean "brigades," in one of defendant Hatim Fariz's conversations, actually meant "pancakes." Ali admitted that he had misunderstood the term and many observers were awestruck by the disparity between the government's intended meaning and the actual word.

Also last week, FBI Agent Sally Hayes testified about charts and indexes she prepared for the government's case which compiled information obtained as a result of the searches, subpoenas, and years of surveillance. Among the many charts was one travel index which displayed twelve trips taken by various individuals over a ten year period out of an estimated 700 trips acknowledged by Hayes. It was not immediately clear what significance that trips held to the government, but under cross-examination, Hayes admitted to attorney William Moffitt that actual tickets were not among the government's evidence, and thus it could not be proven if these trips actually took place. Similarly, Sameeh Hammoudeh's attorney Steven Bernstein demonstrated a discrepancy between the government's evidence and his client's travel and accommodations.

In addition, last week marked the transition of a new team of United States Marshals to Judge Moody's court. As noted by the St. Petersburg Times, the new U.S. Marshals made an increased presence in the courtroom, first by including several agents near the defense tables, and secondly by placing new restrictions on the family and friends of Dr. Al-Arian, Hammoudeh, Fariz, and Ghassan Ballout. On more than one occasion, Dr. Al-Arian's family was stopped for attempting to deliver legal materials to attorneys. As reported by the Times, Moffitt protested to the Marshals, "I've never been in a courtroom where family members can't give papers to lawyers."

Marshals insisted on searching the folders and boxes of exhibits. Moffitt responded, "All I'm asking is to bring in a few documents. If you want to rummage through the box, go ahead." No official explanation was given for the extraordinary measures, though one agent stated that it was a result of "contraband" materials passed to Sameeh Hammoudeh by his family several weeks ago. The nature of the contraband? A Father's Day card signed by his daughters.