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MEG LAUGHLINJurors will decide whose versions to accept in a case built substantially in Arabic.
TAMPA - Jurors at the terrorism-related trial of Sami Al-Arian got a lesson in Arabic 101, Thursday.
Among the things they heard: "Brigade" does not mean "pancakes." Sometimes "books" are just "books," not code for something else. "Jihad" has several meanings, including "striving for the utmost," as well as "holy war," depending on the context. And talk of "slaughtering and butchering" - especially during the winter holidays - might refer to what's for dinner.
With FBI-contracted linguist Tahsin Ali on the witness stand, federal prosecutors and defense attorneys argued semantics, disputing the meanings of Arabic words heard in seized videos and eight years of FBI wiretaps, which Ali translated for prosecutors.
The prosecution is being built substantially on wiretaps, speeches, papers and other records that are in Arabic. Ultimately, in an already complex case, it will be up to the jurors to decide whose translations to accept. Al-Arian and his three co-defendants are charged with conspiring to fund terrorism.
Both sides agreed that "chickpeas" added up to "hummus." But they parted on whether "hummus" was code for the terrorist group "Hamas." They also couldn't agree on whether an Arabic word that sounded like "ka-tuh-yee" referred to "brigades" or "pancakes." As a general rule, federal prosecutors argued that the defendants' words had violent meanings, or were code for something sinister related to terrorism, while defense attorneys argued that they were mild, innocuous words.
The translator fell somewhere in the middle.
He flipped through his English-Arabic dictionary and the original Arabic in transcripts to explain why he sometimes capitalized the words "jihad" and "intifada" and sometimes didn't.
"I capitalized the event - the battle - but not the general word, "jihad,' " he said.
He said uncapitalized "jihad" meant "striving to the utmost to achieve a goal." Uncapitalized "intifada" was a "general uprising." Capitalized "Intifada" was the Palestinian uprising.
Defense attorney Linda Moreno pointed out several times in a transcript (of a 1991 Al-Arian speech in Cleveland) when Ali didn't capitalize "jihad," suggesting that Al-Arian didn't mean a physical battle.
But prosecutor Cherie Krigsman, hoping to use the speech to show Al-Arian raised money for a terrorist group, read a few lines from the speech to put an example of "uncapitalized jihad" in a context that appeared violent: "Thus is the way of struggle. Thus is the way of battle. Thus is the way of jihad. Thus is the way of martyrdom. Thus is the way of blood, because this is the path to heaven."
Defense attorney Stephen Bernstein asked if "martyrdom" always meant "suicide for a cause." Ali replied that it could mean getting killed by the enemy.
One of the lessons of the day was in English: a primer on the meaning of the word "redacted."
That meant "left out," Ali told jurors, referring to missing lines in a foot-tall stack of transcripts. Moreno began adding up the numbers of lines from page to page that prosecutors had redacted. Her point: Prosecutors are focusing upon information that they hope will make their case. Defense attorneys hope to show that information was excluded that gives a fuller, more reasonable picture of defendants.
When the number of redacted lines went over 500, U.S. District Judge James S. Moody stopped Moreno to instruct jurors about the missing information.
"There is a lot more that you haven't heard than what you have heard," he said.
Times staff writer Meg Laughlin can be reached at 813 226-3365, or mlaughlin@sptimes.com