U.S. says Al-Arian is under study

An official says the U.S. attorney wants to dispel the notion that the teacher has been cleared.

By GRAHAM BRINK and MARY JACOBY
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 22, 2002

TAMPA -- In a highly unusual move, federal prosecutors announced Thursday that they are conducting an ongoing investigation "into the conduct and activities" of controversial University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian.

U.S. Attorney Mac Cauley would not say how long the investigation has been going on or what agents are looking into. He also wouldn't say whether an indictment is imminent.

While Department of Justice officials have expressed frustration over press reports portraying Al-Arian as an innocent victim of law enforcement, Cauley's spokesman said the announcement was simply an effort to correct any impression that Al-Arian has been cleared.

"In rare cases, especially when public safety is an issue, the U.S. attorney is allowed to acknowledge an ongoing investigation," said spokesman Steve Cole. "Mr. Cauley decided this was one of those occasions."

Al-Arian said he had "no idea" what prompted Cauley to make the announcement. He said he was confident in his innocence and had never done anything criminal.

"There is a lot of political pressures around these days," he said. "I just hope no one does anything irrational."

USF president Judy Genshaft would not say whether the announcement would affect her pending decision on whether to fire Al-Arian, a tenured professor of computer engineering.

But former federal prosecutor John Fitzgibbons said the fact that any statement was released -- an act he said was as rare as "snow in Tampa" for a U.S. attorney -- indicates a "very significant investigation" is under way.

Roy Weatherford, the president of USF's faculty union and a staunch supporter of academic freedom, said the move smacked of 1950s McCarthyism.

"Back in the McCarthy era they would yell about an investigation and someone would lose their job," he said. "Then it would turn out there was nothing there."

Al-Arian is no stranger to federal scrutiny. The Kuwaiti-born professor was the focus of a federal investigation in the mid 1990s, when agents suspected that an Islamic think tank he operated at USF was a front for Middle Eastern terrorists.

A former head of the think tank, Ramadan Abdulah Shallah, left Tampa in 1995 and soon resurfaced as the head of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist organization.

Al-Arian also was accused of raising money for Palestinian groups with ties to terrorism. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he made fiery speeches that denounced Israel, including one in which he said: "Victory to Islam. Death to Israel."

Al-Arian, who applied for U.S. citizenship several years ago, has never been charged with a crime. But the FBI never announced that its investigation was closed.

In November, officials from Cauley's office and the Tampa FBI were preparing to travel to Israel to gather evidence in the Al-Arian investigation but canceled the trip because of escalating violence in the region.

It was not known late Thursday whether that trip had been rescheduled, or had taken place.

Fitzgibbons said the investigation could be based on the older allegations or on new information. He said Cauley is highly respected in the legal community and said he doesn't think the announcement was politically motivated, especially since Cauley is serving as an interim U.S. attorney and will soon be replaced.

"If it wasn't big and they didn't think it was of great public importance, I don't see them making the announcement," he said.

Al-Arian's recent problems began last fall after his alleged ties to terrorists were aired on national television. That created a firestorm for USF, which said it received hate mail and several death threats.

Al-Arian was immediately suspended with pay and banned from campus. In December, after a 12-1 vote for dismissal by USF's board of trustees, Genshaft notified Al-Arian that she intended to fire him.

But she has yet to take that final step.

On Monday, Genshaft met with U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He had received a briefing from the FBI days earlier about the Al-Arian investigation.

A spokesman for Graham said Thursday that the senator was forbidden to tell the public, including Genshaft, what the FBI had told him. Graham simply told Genshaft that he met with the FBI, the spokesman said.

Genshaft spoke with Cauley on Thursday, before the announcement was released.

"Like my briefing (from Graham), my conversation today with Mr. Cauley was very helpful," Genshaft said in a release. "I take this information very, very seriously and I will fully consider it as we proceed."

In an interview earlier this week, USF's attorney Thomas Gonzalez said an FBI indictment of Sami Al-Arian "absolutely" would help the university's case against the professor.

"I don't want to say "bolster,' but to the extent that there was a case to dismiss him, then an indictment could help us present our case," he said.

Weatherford didn't think the announcement should influence Genshaft's decision. If Al-Arian is found guilty of aiding terrorists or some similar charge, then he would have to face the consequences, including losing his job.

Otherwise, he should not be persecuted by Genshaft on the "petty charges" she conjured up as grounds to get rid of a professor who supports unpopular beliefs.

If Genshaft were to fire Al-Arian based on the announcement, she would only further anger the academic community at USF and would "set back the university" for years to come, Weatherford said.

-- Times staff writer Stephen Buckley contributed to this report. Contact Graham Brink at (813) 226-3365 or brink@sptimes.com.

U.S. attorney's statement

Statment from U.S. Attorney Mac Cauley:

"Although we are normally prohibited from acknowledging whether or not there is an ongoing criminal investigation, there are exceptions to this policy such as when the community needs to be reassured that the appropriate law enforcement agency is investigating a matter. As the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, I hereby acknowledge that federal law enforcement does have an active and ongoing investigation into the conduct and activities of University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian."

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