The Tampa Tribune
August 8, 2003
Sami Al-Arian and his co-defendants have asked to review the classified evidence against them. The government doesn’t want them to see it.

The evidence includes more than 21,000 hours of wiretap surveillance tapes of the defendants that prosecutors say should be kept from them because they could learn about “sources and methods” of intelligence gathering.

Isn’t that the same sort of argument the government put forth when prosecutors tried to “protect” Steve and Marlene Aisenberg by fighting so hard to keep their recorded conversations private? Of course we know now that the lawyers and investigators involved in the case of missing baby Sabrina Aisenberg took those recorded conversations out of context or simply made them up.

It may not be necessary for the government to reveal all the evidence it has against Al-Arian, but in fairness, prosecutors must reveal to him that evidence they plan to use to prove their case.