Associated Press
Defense attorneys contest evidence in terror case
Wednesday, November 24, 2004

TAMPA, Florida (AP) — Defense attorneys for a former professor

accused of terrorism want a federal judge to throw out virtually all
the government’s evidence, saying improper searches and
inappropriate surveillance violated their client’s constitutional
rights.

Attorneys William Moffitt and Linda Moreno said in separate motions
filed this week that federal agents made vague allegations to
justify search warrants and may have erred in targeting Sami Al-
Arian for surveillance…

Al-Arian’s defense has said the men are being punished for
supporting an unpopular cause, the plight of the Palestinian people,
and for lobbying against the use of secret evidence in deportation
cases.

Al-Arian’s home and offices first were searched in November 1995.
Moffitt and Moreno argue the probable cause used to back the search
warrants were based on unsubstantiated claims.

Agents, after receiving the search warrants, used a “seize first,
determine relevance later” attitude that violated the professor’s
Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches, the attorneys
wrote. Family report cards, grocery receipts and 16 copies of the
same book are among the hundreds of items federal agents seized.

The wiretapping was authorized by a secret court under the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act. The warrants target agents of a
foreign government or terrorist organization and face a lower
threshold than the probable cause standard used in criminal
investigations.

Moffitt, in seeking to prevent the use of the wiretap evidence, said
he is asking the judge to be his client’s “eyes and ears” since
Moffitt can’t see for himself whether the warrants were used
legally. The documents are classified, and defense attorneys have
been unable to review them.