Bad news for local supporters of Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist leader Sami Al-Arian, who was indicted against today for contempt for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury looking into terrorism financing by Al-Arian’s former benefactor, the International Institute for Islamic Thought. Al-Arian remains in prison for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury about the involvement of his associates in terrorist financing in the US.
Here’s a few paragraphs from a report today by the Investigative Project on Terrorism describing the new charges:
Convicted terrorist Sami Al-Arian has been indicted in Virginia on two counts of criminal contempt after refusing to testify before a federal grand jury despite a grant of immunity.Back in April we noted that in 2002 Al-Arian was a featured speaker for the Ohio State Muslim Student Association (“OSUMSA speaker and convicted terrorist leader enters fifth year in prison”).
Al-Arian, who pled guilty in 2006 to conspiring to provide goods and services to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, has argued that his plea agreement ruled out any cooperation with the government. Two appellate courts, the 4th Circuit and 11th Circuit have rejected that argument, saying no such agreement is in the written plea and was not uttered during Al-Arian’s plea hearing.
The indictment offers few details, except to give Oct. 16, 2007 and March 20, 2008 as the dates of his alleged criminal contempt. The grand jury’s focus is believed to be on terror financing by the Herndon, Va.-based International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT).
IIIT was the single biggest donor for Al-Arian’s Tampa-based think tank, the World and Islam Studies Enterprise (WISE). The president of IIIT Al-Arian wrote a letter in 1992 referring to WISE as an extension of IIIT.
IIIT also housed Bashir Musa Nafi, one of the original founders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In 1995, Al-Arian sponsored a petition for a workers visa on behalf of Nafi to allow him to work as a research director employed by WISE. However, Nafi was actually employed by IIIT, and false information on his INS petition leading to Nafi’s deportation to London in June 1996.
That would also be the same Sami Al-Arian who delivered his infamous “Let us damn America!” speech at the Islamic Center of Cleveland. You can see Imam Fawaz Damra’s introduction of Al-Arian, where he acknowledges that Al-Arian’s organization is “the active arm of the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine”. Nor can we forget his other greatest video hit, the “Jihad is our path, death to Israel” diatribe. Both of these speeches were BEFORE he spoke at the OSUMSA event.
Moderate Islam in full bloom in Central Ohio!
