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Al-Arian trial views evidence

Prosecutors are focusing on documents confiscated during a November 1995 raid on the professor's home.

By MEG LAUGHLIN
Published June 15, 2005

TAMPA - On a warm morning in late November 1995, a team of federal agents arrived at the split-level stucco home of Sami Al-Arian and his family.

The lead agent, Eddie Tuttle, knocked on the door and announced a search.

An elderly couple opened the door, a small child standing next to them.

As the three stepped aside, the photographing, labeling and packing of stacks of papers, videos and bank statements was under way. Seven hours later, federal agents carted off 15 boxes and a computer.

On Tuesday, prosecutors introduced some of those items into evidence in the federal trial of Sami Al-Arian and three other defendants accused of raising money for terrorists.

Prosecutors are laying the groundwork in hopes of ultimately linking Al-Arian and the others to the charges that they conspired to provide material support to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a group responsible for years of violence in Israel.

"I remember seizing items that said Islamic Jihad," FBI Agent Tuttle, who supervised the search, told the court during her testimony Tuesday.

Among items taken from the house and now entered into evidence:

A 1993 calendar of color photographs from Israel of police and soldiers, of teenagers throwing rocks and starting fires, and of people praying. Several pages have the logo and the name of the PIJ on them.

A letter dated Oct. 23, 1995, to the British Consulate in Atlanta, on World & Islam Studies Enterprise (WISE) stationery. It said, "Ramadan Abdullah Shallah has been working for WISE since 1993 ... and will continue through 1996." WISE was a scholarly organization founded by Al-Arian at the University of South Florida. Prosecutors say it was a money-laundering front for terrorists in Israel.

To prosecutors, the significance of the letter was that a week later Shallah left his job at WISE in Tampa and went to Damascus, Syria, where he announced he was the new PIJ leader. The letter shows his years of association with WISE.

It also suggests, however, that WISE officials in Tampa did not know he was about to leave and become head of the PIJ.

A disclaimer dated Oct. 31, 1995, on WISE letterhead in which WISE leaders, after Shallah's announcement on becoming PIJ leader, wrote: "WISE denies any knowledge of Dr. Abdullah's association or affiliation with any political group or agency in the Middle East."

Sami Al-Arian's address book, with handwritten names, addresses, phone numbers, dates and plans in it.

Stacks of business cards, including one from Muhammad Al Khatib, the PIJ treasurer who is one of five defendants out of the country and not in custody.

Defense attorneys raised questions about the reliability of the evidence and the way it was stored and inventoried. They questioned which documents were originals, copies, or copies of copies, and whether it was possible to tell.

Prosecutors eventually hope to link evidence to a larger picture of PIJ funding.

To the same end, prosecutors Tuesday questioned a nine-year employee from a K-12 school Al-Arian founded in 1992 in Tampa.

School nurse-secretary-receptionist Nafeesah Adurrashid testified that Al-Arian made all the decisions about the Islamic School of Florida, which grew from 50 students in 1992 to more than 300 in 2001.

All of the tuition money went into Al-Arian's top right desk drawer at the school, after receipts were written, she said.

Midday at the trial, David Austell, a student services director from USF reviewed old visa and university applications and testified that defendant Sameeh Hammoudeh did not have the proper visa to work outside the university when he was a USF graduate student and on the WISE payroll.

But Austell withdrew this conclusion when defense attorneys showed him an agreement between WISE and USF stating that, because of the collaborative agreement between the university and the organization, working for WISE was acceptable.

[Last modified June 15, 2005, 02:15:41]