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For a long time, I have defended Sami Al-Arian.
The former University of South Florida professor indicted last February deserves the chance the law gives him to reply to his indictment in federal court, I said. We should stand by until the charges against him - that he is the leader of a U.S. faction of a Palestinian terrorist group and one of its chief fundraisers - can be aired.
But the government released an outline of some of its evidence last week, and it is no longer possible to simply look away.
The outline came in the form of an affidavit a customs agent submitted to a federal judge last year when the agent sought approval for a search of several Virginia homes, businesses and charities with Islamic affiliations.
Al-Arian's name, and that of the alleged terror group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, are all over the affidavit. It discloses some of what investigators found on his home computer when they first investigated him in the mid 1990s.
Some of the information is not new. But presented in one 17-page document, it reads like a CliffsNotes version of the Al-Arian case.
The records include plans for military training for Muslims in America loyal to the Palestinian cause.
If true, this is not the work of a man having his academic freedom and civil rights trashed by government authorities.
If true, this is a man the government has good reason to pursue.
The computer contains a draft and final version of a document called "The Manifesto of the Islamic Jihad in Palestine." According to the affidavit, the Jihad's philosophy was based on "rejection of any peaceful solution for the Palestinian cause." The United States is called "the great Satan America" in the manifesto.
The computer also contains a document outlining a "charter" to set up an organization within the United States called a "A Center of the Studies, the Intelligence and the Information."
"Our presence in North America gives us a unique opportunity to monitor, explore and follow up . . . We are in the center which leads the conspiracy against our Arab world," the charter states.
Don't think for a minute this was going to be some bookish graduate studies program.
Plans for the center call for training "brothers" in arms and espionage while "benefitting from the available opportunities that exist in this country." Those trained should also be able to "infiltrate the sensitive intelligence agencies," the document says. The plans also call for figuring out ways to export arms from the United States.
Al-Arian's reach was wide and bold. He spoke in a letter of how good relations were between his group and the terrorist organization Hamas. "There are serious attempts at establishing permanent coordination and unity of action," he wrote.
The affidavit cites payments of at least $177,000 to Al-Arian-controlled groups as far back as 1991 and as recently as 2001. Most of the money came from Beirut and another alleged Jihad leader who shared a Tampa bank account with Al-Arian. The rest came from the International Institute of Islamic Thought, a Virginia group also under federal investigation.
Writing this is difficult. I have written about Al-Arian's wife and one of his daughters and the struggles they face as the relatives of a famously accused man.
But this is not about his family (whom I tried unsuccessfully to reach Friday).
It is not about some law enforcement dragnet unfairly aimed at everything Islamic.
It's about a stack of specifics, and the feeling that Al-Arian has hoodwinked people who rose to his defense - college professors, peace groups and, yes, some reporters, among them.
This is not a man who advocates a peaceful solution to the Palestinian problem, the documents suggest.
Would a man who seeks peace brag about his good relations with Hamas? Would he be talking about the great Satan America?
- You can reach Mary Jo Melone at mjmelone@sptimes.com or 813 226-3402.