Tampabay: Al-Arian vows to fight lawsuit

TAMPA -- Professor Sami Al-Arian fired back Thursday at the University of South Florida, fervently denying that he has ties to terrorism and accusing the school of trying to punish him for controversial statements.

Al-Arian, placed on leave from USF on Sept. 28, disputed every charge USF made Wednesday and blamed his predictment in part on the anti-Muslim fervor since Sept. 11.

"I'm an Arab, I'm a Palestinian, I'm a Muslim. That's not a popular thing to be these days," he said. "Do I have rights or don't I have rights?"

USF president Judy Genshaft took the unusual step Wednesday of filing suit in Hillsborough Circuit Court, asking a judge to determine whether firing the tenured computer science professor would violate his constitutional rights.

His attorney, Robert McKee, said Al-Arian plans to ask a judge to move the case from state court to federal court early next week once he has been served with the lawsuit.

"It appears to us that USF is trying to dictate the venue of this dispute," he said.

Dick Beard, chairman of the USF board of trustees, said later that the university thought they needed to file the suit in state court because federal court didn't have jurisdiction over a contractual dispute.

But Beard said the school wants the case to be moved to federal court because the judges are more experienced and conservative and likely to side with the university.

"He is falling right into our trap," Beard said. "That's what we want."

Wherever the case lands, McKee said, he will ask a judge to dismiss the lawsuit.

Al-Arian, 44, who declined to comment after the lawsuit was filed Wednesday, appeared at his attorney's Ybor City law offices Thursday with his wife, son and two daughters, one of whom will be a freshman at USF when classes start Monday.

He answered dozens of pointed questions by reporters, occasionally getting frustrated at having to deny allegations that have followed him for more than a decade.

"I'm very disappointed that we're still here discussing these issues we have talked about for many, many years," he said. "And I'm very disappointed that now we have to readdress some of these issues."

Al-Arian, who has been under federal investigation on and off for years, denied alleged ties to terrorism, which he has done numerous times before, and repeatedly cited an October 2000 ruling by federal immigration Judge R. Kevin McHugh. Al-Arian said the judge reviewed thousands of pages of documents and heard from dozens of witnesses before exonerating him.

"When a judge says no, people have to accept the findings," Al-Arian said.

But the USF lawsuit accuses Al-Arian of raising money for terrorist groups, bringing terrorists into the United States, founding organizations that supported terrorism and inciting people to break the law, "thereby aiding and abetting international terrorism."

Most of the accusations have been swirling for years. But USF attorneys say they can now prove them using previously classified documents they received in recent months. USF refuses to release those documents to the public.

The suit only addresses events in the 1980s and 1990s and does not say Al-Arian currently has ties to terrorists. But Beard said Thursday he believes Al-Arian continues to be involved in terrorist activities.

"He has negatively affected the university for 10 or 12 years," Beard said. "It is unfortunate but we are trying to deal with it."

Al-Arian was under federal investigation in the mid 1990s when federal agents suspected his Islamic think tanks were fronts for Middle Eastern terrorists. In February, authorities announced without elaboration that Al-Arian remained under investigation.

USF threatened to fire Al-Arian last year after allegations that he had ties to terrorists were aired on Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor two weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He was placed on paid leave from his $67,500-a-year job after the appearance.

Despite criticism that she would be trampling his academic freedom, Genshaft was widely expected to fire Al-Arian this week for violating his contract based on allegations he disrupted the university.

The new strategy triggers a long and costly legal fight but forestalls the possibility of censure by the American Association of University Professors that could harm USF's national reputation.

"We will continue to fight this," Al-Arian said. "I believe that the issue was, still is, an issue of academic freedom, the right to espouse views, even though they may be unpopular. If a professor tomorrow, not 14 years ago, says on campus ... "Death to God' he will not be fired. But for one statement, they will not let it go."

Genshaft refused to comment about her decision for the second day in a row, but sent out reassuring letters to faculty, staff and alumni. She also declined to be quoted in newspapers, such as the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post, or to appear on national TV shows that called constantly for interviews.

Calls came in from Canadian and Japanese broadcasting companies, The O'Reilly Factor and Inside Edition. Al-Arian appeared on several, including Phil Donahue's show on MSNBC and Connie Chung's show on CNN, and a USF attorney is expected to appear on the NBC's Today show this morning.

Beard and other board members praised Genshaft at their regular meeting Thursday but there was little talk about the case from the group that voted in December to fire him 12-1. "It's a good move," board member Lee Arnold said simply.

"Everyone knows where I stand. I want him gone," said Mike Griffin, USF student body president and board member. "But it's an issue too critical to the university to jump to conclusions. The step she took was prudent."

Earlier in the day, Gov. Jeb Bush, who was in Tampa at the Florida Government Expo, said he thought Al-Arian should be fired but said Genshaft made the right decision in involving the courts.

"The guy has ties to people who want to undermine the United States of America," Bush said. "The original basis for his departure from campus was the security issues and I don't necessarily think those have gone away."

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