June 6, 2005

“Free Sami Al-Arian,” says Andy Martin

“FREE SAMI AL-ARIAN, AND FREE THE PEOPLE OF PALESTINE FROM THE YOKE OF ISRAELI IMPERIALISM AND COLONIALISM” COLUMNIST ASKS U. S. ATTORNEY GENERAL TO END SHAM TRIAL IN TAMPA, FLORIDA, PREDICTS PALESTINIAN NATIONALISTS WILL BE ACQUITTED OF MOST IF NOT ALL CHARGES. (CHICAGO) (June 6, 2005) The Bush Administration is determined to make America the laughingstock of the Middle East, and to ensure that every potential opponent of America is energized to action against us. The most ridiculous “show trial” since Stalin’s purges in Russia in the 1930’s has begun in a federal courtroom in Tampa, Florida. The Israeli government, using neo-con extremists in the Bush administration, is placing the Palestinian People on trial for the “crime” of fighting for their freedom. Sami Al-Arian was a guest on my radio program, “Andy Martin’s America.” I have never met the man, but from what I know I am happy to call him “friend.” Assuming all of the nonsense alleged by the federal government is true, the real criminal in this cast of characters is missing: Ariel Sharon, and his henchmen in the Israeli government. The real criminal organization is the Israeli military establishment that occupies the Palestinian People. Sami Al-Arian is being tried for the crime of assisting in the fight for freedom of his people. Consider the implications, and change for a moment the venue from Tampa to London. The British government fought an “anti-terrorist” campaign to suppress Irish nationalism. The tactics used by British police involved all of the atrocities similarly employed by the Israelis: mass arrests, torture, murder, concentration camps, etc. But the Irish had friends in America. Both the lowly, who contributed money, and the mighty, who contributed publicity and visibility, combined to keep the hope of removing Britain from Ireland alive. As British troops massacred Irish, violence was returned by the occupied. Through all of this extreme behavior on all sides, the U. K. government was incensed at the support shown for Irish nationalism by Senator Ted Kennedy, Representative Peter King and many others. The charges against Sami Al-Arian are just as ridiculous as if the British Government had indicted Senator Kennedy and Representative King and other Irish supporters for supporting the war of Irish liberation. Merely to suggest the prosecution of Ireland’s American supporters in British courts is to recognize how absurd the current show trial in Tampa really is. Make no mistake who is behind this abuse of American courts: the Israeli government, which treats the U. S. Government as a puppet and plaything. Sharon’s regime wants to destroy existing support for Palestinians in the United States, and wants to criminalize any future support for Palestinians, while encouraging pro-Israel Americans to immigrate and settle on stolen Palestinian lands. The ultimate human right is the right to freedom, as Americans celebrate every July 4th. Palestinians seek the same freedom for themselves. And Israelis will never be able to deny Palestinians their right to freedom. Not now. Not ever. It is not a crime to fight for your freedom, or to assist others to fight for their freedom. Not surprisingly, bloody tactics to suppress Palestinian freedom have begotten bloody tactics in response. The reality is unpleasant for supporters of Israel to admit and accept: Israel is its own worst enemy. American supporters of Israel could some day be placed on trial somewhere in the Middle East for the “crime” of sending decade after decade of financial support to subsidize Israeli colonialism and occupation in Palestine. Without taxpayer subsidized U. S. support the military regime in Israel would be forced to make peace with its neighbors. Which means it is doomed to fall some day, unless Israel awakens to its own moral duty and seeks to undo the damage it has done to world peace. Israel can survive, and even survive as a strong nation, but only if adopts the path of peace, not the paths of occupation, colonialism and imperialism. In essence, every American–whatever his or her political beliefs–is forced to subsidize Israel through federal tax dollars. It is a counterproductive, self-destructive foreign policy and we continue to reap the rewards for this insanity, in fears of terrorism at home and in being ostracized abroad. Now we are turning over U. S. Courts to the Israelis so they can use federal attorneys to conduct show trials against Palestinians. And we wonder why the world hates us. I have sent a letter asking the U. S. Attorney General to end the travesty and direct that the Al-Arian trial be ended. [Copies of my letter to the Attorney General are available on request.] The solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflict does not lie in a Tampa courtroom. It lies in enlightened leadership, sorely lacking, in Washington, to force the evacuation of all land occupied by Israel since 1967, and the immediate recognition of a Palestinian State by the U. S. Government. Before my e-mail in-box is flooded with the usual hate and harassment of pro-Israeli supporters let me state my stand clearly and plainly: I am not an enemy of the Israeli people; their state was created by International law, not God, and they are entitled to live in peace, once they make reparations and restitution for the damage they have caused and withdraw from occupied Palestine. The Palestinian People are entitled to equal status, not vassal status to Israeli overlords. Attempts to make Israelis rulers, and to force Palestinians to submit to Israeli domination, will never succeed, or bring peace. The brutal confrontation between two peoples is perpetuated by political manipulators who seek to prolong conflict for political gain. Unless sanity comes to Washington, insanity will continue to reign in the Middle East. All of the American blood that has been and is being spilled for “peace” and “democracy,” rightly or wrongly, will be as wasted as if it had been poured down the drain, in a Tampa Courtroom. Likewise, Middle Easterners must accept that much land all over the world was partitioned after World War II. Religious extremism will never succeed. Arabs have been badly led and sadly misinformed. Just as I criticize Israeli imperialism I also criticize Arab intransigence. And most of all, I implore President Bush to stop kowtowing to religious fundamentalists that have consistently and continuously corrupted our policies in the Middle East. Peace between two peoples is possible. Attorney General Gonzales: Free Sami Al-Arian, and help free the Palestinian People from the yoke of Israeli colonialism and imperialism. Help us all to live in peace; let us all forgive the sins of the past, on all sides, and let us all come together as brothers and sisters, not as parties to an ugly show trial in Florida. My final prediction: As a lawyer, I am painfully aware that no federal criminal trial is ever “fair.” The power of the federal government is overwhelming and corrupting to the administration of justice in any case, let alone in a political show trial. But from what little I have seen of how the trial will be managed, I will make an outlandish prediction: the Palestinian freedom fighters will be acquitted of many, if not all, of the charges against them. I hope and pray Sami Al-Arian takes the stand, and I hope he is allowed to tell the American people and the world the truth about why people of good sense and godly direction favor peace for both peoples, and not just peace for one people. I predict the Al-Arian trial will backfire on the federal government, and, ultimately backfire on the Israeli regime that created it, orchestrated it and controls it. We all must condemn terrorism and violence, but we must condemn them on both sides, not only the side of the victims of occupation. Israel has provoked a war of national liberation. It should make peace now, before it is too late and before the American people say “enough” and withdraw their support. ——————— ANDY MARTIN serves as independent Contrarian Columnist and chief national/foreign correspondent for Out2.com. Martin has been Out2.com Baghdad Bureau Chief since April 2003; he has been a Middle East expert for 34 years and is America’s most respected independent foreign policy analyst. He is executive director of the Revolutionary War Research Center, a Washington, DC consortium that studies guerilla war and unconventional military and political tactics. MEDIA CONTACT: (866) 706-2639. 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