The Palm Beach Post
Petty behavior in the Sami Al-Arian case
August 7, 2003

There was Dr. Sami Al-Arian, professor of computer engineering – who was invited to the White House in 2001 for a briefing on President Bush’s faith-based agenda – and founder of a school in Tampa that was eligible for tax-favored corporate contributions. Then there is Sami Al-Arian, facilitator in this country for the terrorist group Islamic Jihad.

The United States says the latter is the real Sami Al-Arian, and the government says it can prove that allegation. The trial, though, won’t start until 2005. Lawyers for Dr. Al-Arian and his codefendant, Sameeh Hammoudeh, have to examine tens of thousands of pages of evidence and hundreds of hours of audio tapes that make up the government’s case. Meanwhile, the two men are confined together in a 70-square-foot cell they are allowed to leave for only an hour each day.

Amnesty International, the human rights group, says the confinement violates American Correctional Association and United Nations standards for space and exercise.

Dr. Al-Arian’s current lawyer has endured picky harassment. She must provide the prison with elaborate notice that she is coming and can bring documents no more than a half-inch thick to meetings with her client, although the indictment alone is 2 1/2 inches thick. The prisoner must carry any documents he has mule-style, on his back with his hands shackled behind him. The rules, prison officials say, are for his own safety. He has been charged but has not been convicted.

Before his arrest, Dr. Al-Arian was controversial as a Muslim activist in the Tampa Bay area. He is a difficult prisoner; he is currently on a hunger strike. He has been able to generate more interest, at home and abroad, in his case than was aroused for all the 766 Muslims, Arabs and others – rounded up after 9/11 – who disappeared into prisons and most of whom, it is said, were deported without public notice.

When Dr. Al-Arian goes on trial, the United States will go on trial with him. The trial will put on view the kind of justice with which we propose to replace Saddam Hussein’s arbitrary illegality in Iraq. News coverage will be extensive. Even in the best circumstances, some of it will be hostile to American values.

Still, the trial needs to be a perfect example. Knowing that, the Justice Department should be doing all it can to avoid the appearance of stacking the deck, erecting roadblocks against the defense or providing even a remote basis for appeals. The defendants should get their best shot and be seen to be getting it – if only because it would be the best way to show that the government’s case is solid.