(Tech Central Station) J. Peter Pham and Michael I. Krauss - On February 28, Sami Al-Arian - formerly a tenured associate professor of computer engineering at the University of South Florida - entered a guilty plea to conspiracy to procuring "funds, goods, or services to or for the benefit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Specially Designated Terrorist [Organization]." At his sentencing, U.S. District Judge James S. Moody Jr. delivered a stinging rebuke to Al-Arian from the bench: "You are a master manipulator. You looked your neighbors in the eyes and said you had nothing to do with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. This trial exposed that as a lie....The evidence was clear in this case that you were a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad." "When Iran, the major funding source of the PIJ, became upset because the PIJ could not account for how it was spending its money, it was to your board of directors that it went to demand changes." "You laughed when you heard about the bombings, what you euphemistically call 'operations.'...And yet...you continue to lie to your friends and supporters, claiming to abhor violence and to seek only aid for widows and orphans. Your only connection to widows and orphans is that you create them, even among the Palestinians; and you create them, not by sending your children to blow themselves out of existence. No. You exhort others to send their children."
2006-05-12 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive