Wednesday, March 20, was a very busy day. Customs agents raided fourteen targets in Virginia, including the offices of the International Institute of Islamic Thought, which had ties to Al-Arian's World Islamic Studies Enterprise (WISE) and Islamic Committee for Palestine (ICP), back in 1995, before WISE and ICP were closed. The raids were conducted by a task force insituted to pursue financial ties to terrorist organizations. This was news, but it was news in which the non-local press found Al-Arian to have a rather small part:

• The Mar. 20 Associated Press said that *Raids in Virginia, Georgia part of campaign to go after terrorist financing.
• The Mar. 21 (Canadian) National Post said that Quebec group tied to al-Qaeda money web, and suggested a link between the raided agencies and al-Qaeda. A Mar. 22 follow-up story on `Alleged terror financers had Canadian office' started with serious accusations on funds going to terrorists but ended with, `Exactly what SAAR Canada did is not clear.'
• The Mar. 21 New York Times reported that Raids Seek Evidence of Money-Laundering, and that the primary target was the defunct SAAR Foundation, a former Saudi-backed charity.
• The Mar. 21 St. Petersburg Times said that Terror raid warrant names Al-Arian: Sami Al-Arian and Mazen Al-Najjar are named with Osama bin Laden in a raid of Islamic groups the government says may be linked to terror.
• The Mar. 21 Tampa Tribune said that Federal Agents Raid 15 Sites Tied to Al-Arian's Think Tank
• The Mar. 21 Washington Post said that Raids held in terror probe, and mentioned that one of the raided organizations has trained nine of the military's 13 Muslim chaplains. On Mar. 22, the Post reported that more sites were raided.
• The Mar. 21 Wall Street Journal mentioned the raid on homes and businesses affiliated with the chairman of Amana Mutual Funds Trust.

The fall-out after the raids began immediately.

• On Mar. 21, Agence France Presse reported that *US Muslim community outraged by raids..., and that the raids had been conducted under the authority of the Patriot Act. On Mar. 23, Agence France Presse reported that *the Muslim World League denounced the raids. League secretary-general Abdullah al-Turki strongly denied that the League, based in Mecca and one of the targets of the raids, has any links with terrorism.
• On Mar. 22, the New York Times ran an AP story saying that Muslim Groups Criticize Raids, quoting Jason Erb of the Council on American-Islamic Relations saying, ``The Muslim community is deeply concerned about what appears to be a fishing expedition by federal authorities using McCarthy-like tactics in a search for evidence of wrongdoing that does not exist.''
• In the Mar. 22 Oracle, Al-Arian said ``This is an orchestrated campaign that has been waged against us for many years.
• The Mar. 22 Washington Times said that Officials say raids were fair while Muslim activists said that they were not.
• In the Mar. 22 St. Petersburg Times, the raids were denounced by Muslim groups as a war on Muslim institutions.
• On Mar. 28, the London Financial Times reporter Nancy Dunne said that US Muslims see their American dreams die, and quoted one Muslim saying, ``As a community we feel hurt. Our kids are afraid to sleep at night.'' This article was denounced as ``a piece of terrorist propaganda'' by Christopher Caldwell in his April 8 article *Propaganda by the Column Inch; The Financial Times ``seems to many'' like an apologist for terror.

On March 20, same day of the first raids, John Loftus, President of the Florida Holocaust Museum, filed a law suit against Al-Arian, while complaining about foot-dragging in the department of Justice. Loftus filed the suit under Florida consumer protection law, which provides for a donor to sue a charity for financial irregularities: Loftus donated a few dollars to Al-Arian in March and then filed suit for financial misconduct allegedly occuring many years ago. (Mr. Loftus has posted many legal documents on this suit.)

• On Mar. 20, the Associated Press reported that *Tampa lawsuit accuses professor, Saudis of supporting terror. Also on Mar. 20, Foxnews posted an AP story not posted in Lexis saying that Lawsuit Accuses Saudis of Terror Support.
• The Mar. 21 Oracle said in Museum president sues Al-Arian that Loftus claimed that Al-Arian and the Saudis were conspiring against America.
• The Mar. 21 St. Petersburg Times said that Suit labels Al-Arian terrorist fundraiser: A former federal lawyer accuses the USF professor of using charities to finance Mideast terrorists the Times ran a profile of Loftus on Mar. 22. On Mar. 28, the Times ran a story on how Flaws in Al-Arian suit raise doubts, saying that, ``Errors of fact and spelling, plus a reliance on confidential sources, may weaken the lawsuit against the professor.''
• On Mar. 21, John Loftus and Al-Arian's attorney Robert McKee appeared on *The O'Reilly Factor, and Loftus said, ``What I did was I told the CIA and the Justice Department back on March 11, I'm going to give you a deadline or I'm going to expose the entire case. Now the night before I filed the case, the Justice Department asked me to give him a few more hours, because they were going to go ahead with the raids.'' So Loftus said he very kindly waited until the following morning.
• The Mar. 27 - Apr. 2 Weekly Planet ran a 2-column edition of their Discomfort Zone:
  • Fawn Germer does not know what is true, and is very wary of all sides.
  • John Sugg delves into Loftus's history and calls the suit a smear.
• In the Apr. 3 - Apr. 9 Weekly Planet, John Sugg ran another expose of Loftus's past, contacting some of Loftus's old acquaintances in the Justice Department to get disparaging remarks. In the same issue, Loftus wrote a Letter to the Editor saying that (a) Sugg was relying on news stories known to be false and (b) that Sugg screamed at him over the phone. Loftus concluded by accusing Sugg of acting ``with malice and reckless disregard for the truth,'' and the Planet got in the last word with, ``The Planet and Mr. Sugg respectfully disagree with Mr. Loftus.'' In the Apr. 17 - 23 Weekly Planet, Loftus sent in another rebuttal.

By now, people were coming to this campus --- and to other campuses --- to speak about this issue (and related issues).

• On Mar. 26, the St. Petersburg Times ran a story on a Transcript quotes Al-Arian's comments at rallies: It translates a 13-minute videotape of Al-Arian and other speakers at pro-Palestinian events from 1988 to 1992. This tape was seized by the FBI, and curiously the Times gives no hint on how it got the transcript. On Mar. 28, the Times editorialized that, ``It would be premature for Genshaft to make a final determination on Al-Arian before the FBI does.''
• On Mar. 28, an attorney for Mazen al-Najjar (Al-Arian's detained brother-in-law), Professor David Cole of Georgetown University Law Center, spoke on ``Free Speech, Academic Freedom and Civil Liberties in post September 11th America.'' His talk was sponsored by the Muslim Student Association, and was announced in the Mar. 28 Oracle article First amendment expert to analyze Al-Arian's case. At the talk, Cole spoke about the detention and pressure on immigrants, focussing on Al-Arian and Al-Majjar. In the talk, Cole said:
  • Of the case of Al-Arian's family ``... is a microcosm for what has changed since Sept. 11.''
  • ``Universities play an essential role in the free and open dialogue that is necessary in a free and open society.''
  • The irony is that USF is sacrificing the academic freedom that the universities developed.
  His talk was reported in the Mar. 29 Oracle article Cole condemns university action against Al-Arian.
• Meanwhile, on April 4, the (Chapel Hill) Herald-Sun reported in *Professor: Rights of Arab Americans, Muslims in peril that Al-Arian spoke at the University of North Carolina on April 3, where he spoke on the harassment of Muslims in America. In the April 4 (UNC-Chapel Hill) Chronicle article on Al-Arian discusses security, liberty, Al-Arian is quoted as asking, ``Is the majority willing to sacrifice the rights of the minority for security?''
• John Loftus, President of the Florida Holocaust Museum, who filed a lawsuit against Al-Arian (see below), gave a talk at the Marshall Center Ballroom on April 8, as announced in the April 8 Oracle story Terrorism: then and now: Holocaust expert who sued Sami Al-Arian will discuss past atrocities and present turmoil.
  • In the April 8 story, a spokesperson for Hillel, which had invited Loftus before the suit was filed, said that she hoped that ``the focus is Holocaust remembrance.''
  • Vain hope, for as the Oracle reported on April 9 in the story Loftus lambasts Al-Arian, Loftus spent enough time on Al-Arian to fill 43 column inches (including a 30-minute video tape), in which Loftus said that Al-Arian is ``one of the worst villains on the face of the Earth.'' Loftus claimed that Al-Arian ran an immense money-laundering operation and that if Al-Arian had been incarcerated, ``we might have saved the twin towers.'' Exactly how an alleged operation shut down in 1995 was connected to Sept. 11 was unclear.
• On April 4, the (University of Florida) Iguana reported that Fired USF professor to speak on Civil Rights in America after September 11, and on April 11, the (University of Florida) Alligator reported that Al-Arian said that Media incited anti-Islam backlash, adding that on Sept. 26, the day he appeared on O'Reilly's Spin Factor, when he got home there was a death waiting for him on his voice mail. USF Alumnus Michael Godey said of the suspension, ``But, hey, it's Tampa.''
• On April 12, the Associated Press covered a *protest in front of Tampa City Hall, featuring statements by Al-Arian on the Israeli-Palesting conflict. Al-Arian appeared less prominently in the April 13 story in the St. Petersburg Times and even less in the *April 13 story in the Tampa Tribune

Reflections

As the semester approached an end, it was time to look backwards at the affair, and perhaps speculate on what is to come.

• The April 2 Oracle reported that Al-Arian's departure left students academically unstable, with students saying that his class was disrupted when instructors were switched in mid-semester, and two graduate students had their programs disrupted.
• Yet on April 3, the Oracle reported that Interest in USF high despite Al-Arian case: niether undergraduate enrollment nor job searches for administrators seem to have been impacted by the controversy.
• And on April 4, the Oracle reported that The fluctuation in financial support to the university isn't totally caused by the Sami Al-Arian controversy, officials say: donations are down, but that is partly because of the economy and anthrax fears about mail. USF Foundations BP Vicki Mitchell said that, ``the magnitude of impact was created by reporters who don't understand fund raising.'' She didn't mention that it was the Board of Trustees that brought up the whole subject of impact on donations.
• On April 8, the Oracle ran a story, Threats subsiding over time: Police say death threats have decreased since the original airing of Sami Al-Arian's O'Reilly Factor, recapitulating the original threat, and follow-up apology, phoned to the Computer Science Department.
• On April 9, the Oracle ran a story on how University officials around the state say Sami Al-Arian's case calls for a tough decision. In this story there were comparisons with the case of the late FSU psychology professor Glayde Whitney, who had claimed that African Americans were intellectually inferior and even wrote the forward for a book by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke; Whitney, a tenured professor, was not subjected to any formal discipline.
• On April 19, the Socialist Worker interviewed Al-Arian, in which he said ``This is like fighting ghosts''. He also said ``This is an orchestrated political campaign by people who would like to settle political scores, and they found an opening after September 11.''
• On April 23, the Oracle talked to Alvin Wolfe of the USF Group for Phi Beta Kappa on how Censure could cost USF, and while a ``Phi Beta Kappa official says the university shouldn't even apply for its honor if censured by the AAUP, but USF administrators say talks of censure are premature.''
• On April 25, the Tampa Tribune talked to William Van Alstyne of the AAUP about his impression that he Sees USF Shift On Al-Arian (notice error in headline). The article said that Genshaft, ``... stands by her announced intention Dec. 19 to fire Al-Arian, and she said her deliberate pace in making a final decision does not mean she is wavering.''
• On April 26, the St. Petersburg Times also ran a story on the AAUP Team report, in which Team Chair William Van Alstyne claimed that Genshaft wavering on Al-Arian's fate. Like the Tribune article, the Times quoted USF spokesman Michael Riech's comment on the AAUP: ``We will not let some union dictate what we will do.''
• On April 26, at 9 pm, Tampa's big PBS station WEDU's program Tampa Bay Week had as one of its topics Will Al-Arian Teach Again at USF? From the four panelists:
  • Former State Representative of Tampa Mary Figg observed that, ``one of the problems is that Al-Arian is not a sympathetic figure, at least on public TV.''
  • Tampa Tribune Editorial Writer Joe Brown compared Al-Arian's case to that of Pete Rose, and said that if Al-Arian violated the contract, Genshaft should say how.
  • HCC Professor & McBride for Governor Campaign Treasurer Liana Fox said that while we are more security conscious since Sept. 11, campus safety has always been a serious issue.
  • USF/UFF Chapter President Roy Weatherford said that, ``every day that goes by without actual notification of dismissal is a sign that [Genshaft] is less sure than before ...'' He also recalled getting death threats during the civil rights era, and warned that using reception of threats as a ground for dismissal will only encourage troublemakers to make threats in order to get unpopular people dismissed.

The UFF sponsored a third Freedom Forum, on The Johns Committee in Florida and at USF on Thursday, April 25, at 4 pm, in the Grace Allen Room in the USF main library.

• It began with a video produced at the University of Florida, Behind Closed Doors, on the origins of the Johns Committee (the crippling bus boycott in Tallahassee in 1956, the Legislative Committee under Charlie Johns, its humiliating failure to corner the NAACP, its pursuit of alleged communists, and then onto its more successful mission of hunting homosexuals).
• With USF/UFF Chapter President Roy Weatherford moderating, the meeting then moved to a panel discussion, and on the panel was:
  • Charlie Arnade, Distinguished Professor of Governmental and International Affairs, who appeared before the Johns Committee three times, and has been at USF since 1961.
  • Jim Schnur, of the USF-Bayboro (St. Petersburg) Poynter Library, who did his master's thesis on the Johns Committee (as well as a shorter piece, Cold warriors in the hot sunshine: USF and the Johns Committee (in .pdf), in the Sunland Tribune.
  • Flora Zbar, Professor of English, who arrived at USF in 1965 and had some stories to tell of the aftermath.
• There was an open-mike session for Questions & Answers & Reminescences, with tales of policemen taking license plate numbers of cars parked outside Unitarian meetings, tales of hostility from an old Tampa (loyal to and jealous for the University of Tampa) towards the new university, tales of the tendency of university administrations to take controversial actions during vacations, tales of how USF was censured by the AAUP (and the aftermath, when conversations at academic conferences featured questions about What Is Going On In USF?), and, inevitably, comparisons with current events.

A Resolution from Friends in CUNY

On April 25, the Executive Council and Delegate Assembly of the Professional Staff Congress of the City University of New York, American Federation of Teachers Local 2334, passed a Resolution in Support of the United Faculty of Florida Chapter at the University of South Florida in Tampa, stating that ``... WHEREAS, this threat to academic freedom and the First Amendment has all the hallmarks of a politically motivated attack on the personal views of a member of the university community uttered extramurally ... THEREFORE, be it resolved, that we join in solidarity with them in their struggle (and donate $100 in support of their efforts) ...''. USF/UFF is grateful to our brothers & sisters up north for their support.

Summertime ...

Commencement was on May 4, 5. There are in fact several commencement ceremonies, for it would take a football field to hold the entire class of 2002. And then there is a lull of several weeks between the end of the Spring semester and the beginning of Summer Session A. Usually, this lull is marked by little observable activity other than construction here and there. Meanwhile ...

• On May 5, the St. Petersburg Times ran a guest column by Kathleen Ochshorn, Professor of English at the University of Tampa, on a *Cautionary tale of past USF censure, about how after the AAUP censured USF, the USF Administration was spooked by external pressure into firing an untenured faculty member, a Robert Stevenson, who had had the temerity to help organize a protest against St. Leo College Commencement Speaker Melvin Laird. In the ensuing court case, USF lost and paid damages of $ 7,500.
• Promoting Responsibility In Middle-East Reporting, a local organization, has been pushing a Petition to President Genshaft calling on her to ``... remain steadfast in [her] decision to dismiss Sami Al-Arian ...'' The Petition states that Al-Arian should be dismissed because of ``his inflammatory speech and verifiable links to terrorists'' and complains that he has ``single handedly caused the shameful label `Jihad University' to be bestowed'' on USF. (Of course, it was NOT Al-Arian who bestowed that label, but anyway ...) PRIMER President Norman Gross announced that on May 7, he will present BOT Chairman Richard Beard, or at least his office, with a box of 14,800 signatures. The May 7 Tampa Tribune reported that Petition Urges Al-Arian Firing, while in the May 7 St. Petersburg Times story Thousands support firing Al-Arian, Beard said, ``We are grateful for the support and overwhelmed by the effort. It shows a strong level of commitment by those who signed,'' while Al-Arian's attorney Robert McKee reminded reporters that the issue is a question of law, not popularity.
• Meanwhile, Al-Arian's brother-in-law, detained on a 180-day deportation order issued Nov. 24, has lawyers arguing that the 180 days are up and he should be deported or released. This story was reported in *the May 14 Associated Press, the May 15 St. Petersburg Times, and the May 16 Oracle.
• On June 3, National Public Radio ran a story *Palestinian man fights for release from jail in the US while the INS works to deport him, on al-Arian's efforts to aid his brother-in-law Mazen Al-Najjar, who is in solitary confinement, detained on orders from the INS, based on secret evidence.

After a quiet May, a noisier June. Former USF adjunct Ramadan Shallah, now ``Secretary-General'' of Islamic Jihad, stepped forward to claim ... credit ... for his share of the chaos in Israel. Shallah had worked for one of Al-Arian's organizations, WISE, before leaving and later surfacing (much to the surprise of USF and all involved intelligence agencies) in Islamic Jihad in 1995: in fact, it is this job change that was the original focus of the investigations by USF (which found no evidence of any wrongdoing by Al-Arian) and the FBI (which is still investigating whatever it is still investigating).

• On June 6, Agence France Presse reports that *Jihad leader lived in Florida as professor: University of South Florida.
• On June 6, Fox News carried a segment of an interview with Abdallah Shami, an Islamic Jihad spokesman.
• The June 6 Tampa Tribune also reported *Head of Islamic Jihad Taught at USF in '90s.

• The June 9 Associated press reported that *USF could face censure over treatment of professor.
• The June 10 Oracle editorialized that Censure is more than black mark. Then on June 13, the Oracle reported that AAUP restates stern warning to USF, which reported the AAUP's concern about academic freedom and USF spokesman Michael Riech saying, ``It's not about academic freedom at all.''
• The June 9 St. Petersburg Times reported that Professors' group may censure USF over Al-Arian: A committee releases a statement saying that USF should return the professor to his teaching, not fire him.
• The June 9 Tampa Tribune reported that Academic Group Keeps Focus On USF, Al-Arian, in which they reported that President Genshaft says she will make her decision on whether to fire Al-Arian ``by August.''

• The June 12 Associated Press reported that Judge dismisses lawsuit against USF professor.
• The June 13 Oracle reported that Loftus lawsuit temporarily stalled.
• The June 12 St. Petersburg Times reported that Loftus's suit against Al-Arian is dismissed, adding that the judge said Loftus neglected to show how he had been harmed by Al-Arian's alleged activities. Loftus repeated his most serious accusations against Al-Arian, this time citing not Oliver North but from Meir Hatina's recent book Islam and Salvation in Palestine: The Islamic Jihad Movement.
• The June 13 Tampa Tribune reported that Lawsuit Vs. Al-Arian Dismissed, quoting Al-Arian's lawyer saying the lawsuit ``is just a publicity stunt anyway.''