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FBI agent testifies on video of Al-Arian

The judge gives jurors instructions after they hear speeches that contain inflammatory language.

By MEG LAUGHLIN
Published July 27, 2005

TAMPA - FBI case agent Kerry Myers left his seat on the prosecution team Tuesday and took the stand as government witness in the trial of Sami Al-Arian and three other defendants.

His purpose after working on the case "50 to 60 hours a week" for five years: To connect the dots for the government and turn scattered examples of unpopular speech into knowledge of conspiracy to fund terrorist acts for Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Israel.

For starters, Myers and the jury looked at three videos of Islamic Committee for Palestine conferences. Two of them were full of inflammatory language - some of which is diluted when placed in context.

The day ended with the most incendiary video of the three - an excerpt from 1991 ICP rally in Chicago. In it, a man in the audience screams, "Revolution against the oppressors!"

A little girl screams, "Death to Israel!"

Other children join in and repeat the words.

The speeches were in Arabic, and the videotapes had English subtitles.

Ghassan Ballut, one of the defendants in the court room, appears on the video and gives a four-minute speech about supporting Palestinians in "the jihad" against Israel. He talks about their "marginalization and ... oppression" and tells the audience: "We must draw the gun in one line facing the enemy. ... Yes to jihad and armed struggle."

After another speaker talks about how the youth of Palestine "have learned how to die," Al-Arian steps up to the microphone.

He quotes from the Koran: "Had the people of the Book (the Old Testament) believed, it would have been far better for them. Some of them are believers, but most of them are sinners. ... Those of the Children of Israel who disbelieved were cursed by David. ..."

"Monkeys and pigs," Al-Arian calls the "disbelievers," saying they "hold sway over us, our people, our nation and our future."

He concluded: "Advance, advance till Jerusalem. ... Victory is to Islam. ..." U.S. District Judge James S. Moody stopped the proceedings after Al-Arian's speech to give the jury instructions about the contents of the video. "This is about freedom of speech," he said. "People have the right to say things that make people angry. But they can't form groups and agree to shoot somebody. They can't provide material support for a specially designated terrorist group after 1995."

The video speeches were being shown, he told jurors, not because they were illegal but because, if the government could prove that the defendants did fund the PIJ, the speeches would show they were aware of the violent activities of the PIJ.

"But it has to be more than saying something," he concluded.

The defendants in the courtroom on trial are former University of South Florida professor Al-Arian, Sameeh Hammoudeh, Hatem Fariz and Ballut. The four men are accused of using Islamic charities in Tampa as fronts in a conspiracy to finance terrorist attacks by the PIJ, which has claimed responsibility for killing more than 100 people in Israel and the occupied territories.

Earlier in the day a video of a 1989 ICP conference was shown. Al-Arian began the conference by saying that he hoped discussions would be "friendly, respectful, advisory in nature and low-key." But things went downhill when an unidentified man in the audience asked Bashir Nafi how to increase Islamic armies "for the annihilation of the Jews" and fight unfriendly regimes all over the Arab world.

Nafi is listed as a defendant in the case, but lives in London and has not been extradited. He was obviously annoyed and tried to stop the man, yelling, in English, "That's enough!"

The jury saw this exchange on the videotape, but the words are omitted from the transcript they will be given to read.

The man continued to talk about how to arm people and Nafi cut him off, saying he would talk to him outside, after.

Next, Fawaz Damra, who is on the government's witness list, spoke on the video, saying he would discuss two principles to be questioned: One was that "terrorism and terrorism alone is the path to victory." The second was that "settlement is decided by the sword." He said Palestinians should "scrutinize" the mujahedeen in Afghanistan as possible models when considering these two statements.

The Afghan fighters, from various tribes, defeated the occupying Russians in 1989, the same year of the ICP conference in the video. To be victorious, they sought and received help from fighters outside the country, and were supported by the United States. Because of their strength as guerrilla fighters they never resorted to suicide bombing to kill.

"It is imperative to fall upon the Israelites who fear death," said Damra, a Cleveland imam, who has not been indicted in this case, and who has since become an advocate for dialogue and peace between Muslims and Jews.

Abdel Aziz Awda, an imam in Gaza at the time, concluded the video by saying: "We categorically refuse the label of "terrorism' for those protective measures in which we have taken part."

Awda is also listed as a co-defendant in the trial, now living in the Middle East. He has not been arrested. He is a PIJ spiritual leader.

The third video featured Al-Arian at a 1990 ICP meeting in St. Louis. In it, Al-Arian said that the "Islamic movement's position toward America has been a weak one" and "does not express the magnitude of the American administration's continuing enmity toward Islam and the Islamic activity."

To be stronger, he said, there must be "true armed jihad against the enemy in Israel."

Today, Myers returns to the stand.

Prosecutor Terry Furr pointed out the U.S. District Judge James S. Moody warned jurors that they would need to "filter" what Myers said because he was both "an expert witness" and also "in charge of the case" for the government.

[Last modified July 27, 2005, 04:51:01]