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Al-Arian Site Home
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An Overview of the Entire Controversy
Background: Before Sept. 11
The Year 2001 - 2002
The Year 2002 - 2003
Recent News
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The year 2002 - 2003:
7 Days: 8/21/02 - 8/27/02
September: 8/28/02 - 9/26/02
Looming Clouds: 9/27/02 - 11/04/02
Anticipation: 11/05/02 - 12/31/02
Transitions: 1/1/03 - 2/19/03
Indictment: 2/20/03 - 2/21/03
Termination: 2/22/03 - 2/28/03
Reverberations: 3/1/03 - 3/19/03
A Greater Circle: 3/20/03 - 3/28/03
Recent News: 3/29/03 - |
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Seven Days in August
Links from August 21 to August 27, 2002
At the end of Spring, President Genshaft announced that she would decide
whether to fire Al-Arian by August.
In Florida, August is the cruellist month, with temperatures rising to
90, humidity to 100, and the news is dominated with stories of hurricanes
past and school years to come.
On Aug. 21, five days before the Fall semester began, the USF Administration
announced that they indeed intended to fire Al-Arian ... but that they would
first submit the proposed Notice of Termination to a court that would rule
on its constitutionality.
This submission was in the form of a lawsuit, naming Al-Arian as the
defendent, but mostly targeting and complaining about the American
Association of University Professors.
The result was another news splash like the one in December.
These links are in a very rough chronological order, and will be
updated as events develop.
Again, links marked with an asterisk (*) are to the LEXIS-NEXIS site: this
is restricted to on-campus users and requires that the user do a search;
two asterisks (**) apply to other restrictions.
WARNING ABOUT `LINK ROT':
Some websites take pages down, or restrict access to them, after some
time passes.
So unfortunately, some of the links on these pages will be inoperative.
However, most of the items can be found by searching
lexis-nexis.
Here are links back to
the site map, to
the main Al-Arian page of this site,
and to
the main UFF/USF page.
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Litigation is
the pursuit of practical ends,
not a game of chess.
- Felix Frankfurter
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Previous:
Summer Suspended
6/10/02 - 8/20/02
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Next:
September
8/28/02 - 9/26/02
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When in Doubt, Punt
The news of what was supposed to be the long-awaited decision first came
from Michael Riech's office on Aug. 20 in the afternoon, announcing that
President Genshaft would announce Al-Arian's fate the following morning.
By this time, almost everyone publicly and privately expected that Genshaft
would fire Al-Arian, and so most observers expected Genshaft to announce
on Aug. 21 that she intended to fire him.
Indeed, this is where the St. Petersburg Times was come the deadline for
putting into type its Aug. 21 story that
Decision on Al-Arian due today: If USF fires him, he will be among only
a handful of tenured professors in the nation dismissed each year.
And technically, that is what happened.
But as the Aug. 21 Tampa Tribune explained, Genshaft did both more and less
than that: in
USF Redefines Al-Arian Case,
the Tribune announced that the USF Administration would (1) change its
rationale for dismissal by adding the charge that, in BOT Chair Richard
Beard's words, ``... this guy is allegedly involved with terrorist
activities,'' and (2) instead of firing Al-Arian right away, a new
Notice of Dismissal would be presented to a court first, requesting that
the court rule on its legality.
(See also the Tribune's Aug. 22 article on how
Al-Arian History Linked To USF Since 1986.)
The story spread rapidly.
For example, the White House Bulletin reported that
University President To Accuse Professor Of Ties To Terrorists,
and quoted BOT Chair Richard Beard saying that, ``It's time we take
action and effectively cut this cancer out.''
Then in the small, packed President's Conference room, at 10:05 am,
President Genshaft, BOT Chair Richard Beard, Provost David Stamps,
and the four external counsels entered and the conference began.
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First, President Genshaft read a
statement,
expressing her commitment to academic freedom at USF, and continuing to
say: In order for us to maintain a climate for academic freedom, we
must be able to assure our students, our faculty, our staff and our
visitors that USF is a safe place for the pursuit of ideas and free
expression.
She said she believed that Al-Arian is ``using academic freedom as a
shield to cover improper activities,'' and so to protect USF, she is
moving to dismiss Al-Arian.
However, she will first submit the Notice of Dismissal to a court to
have a ruling on its legality; afterwards, it will be sent to Al-Arian,
dismissing him from USF.
She concluded with the usual statement that as the matter was under
litigation, she could make no further statements.
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The lawsuit, filed in the Florida 13th Judicial Circuit Court and naming
Al-Arian as the defendent, requests ``declaratory relief'' under
Florida Statute Chapter 86,
which permits a suit for a court to pass on the legality of certain
actions in advance.
The suit says that USF would like to fire Al-Arian, but the threat of
censure by the AAUP makes a court resolution of ``the actual controversy
between the parties'' necessary: the USF Administration has composed a
new Notice of Dismissal superseding the one of Dec. 19, 2001, and would
like the court to rule on whether it violates Al-Arian's First Amendment
rights before it delivers the notice to Al-Arian.
Exactly how a court decision would resolve the problem posed by the AAUP
was not made clear.
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The new notice is different from the Dec. 19 Notice.
The new rationale is that Al-Arian's work in the Islamic Concern Project
and the World and Islam Studies Enterprise violated Article 19 of
the
Collective Bargaining Agreement:
Al-Arian's fierce public statements of the late 1980s and early 1990s
are cited, together with a complaint that USF's name was used at least
once; in addition, the Notice notes that some visitors to the ICP and
WISE turned out to be terrorists.
In addition, the Notice complains that some of Al-Arian's citizenship
application papers were not in order, and that a few days after a
1995 bombing, Al-Arian sent out a fundraising letter to raise funds
for more `operations ``such as these''.'
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There followed an extensive Q & A session with the three external counsels,
and General Counsel Friedlander, with a few questions to BOT Chair Richard
Beard.
External Counsel Bruce Rogow said that all this would have been happening
if Al-Arian hadn't appeared on the O'Reilly Factor, but he later said that
Al-Arian's appearance had been a ``precipitating factor'' and refused to
speculate on whether this was a post-Sept. 11 phenomenon: ``what happened,
happened.''
Beard confirmed his ``cancer'' quote and said that it was a metaphor; he
also said that ``it's my belief that if you associate with terrorists
... then you have ties [to terrorists].''
External Counsel Thomas Gonzalez again dismissed the AAUP as a ``union''
and said that it can do what it wants to do: he did not clarify what
the suit was supposed to accomplish with the AAUP (he also said that
the suit did not involve the Arab community, and that USF has ``a history
of supporting unpopular thought'').
Incidentally, Rogow said that ``the university will abide by any court
order'' but later said that he meant the ``final'' court order, apparently
issued by whatever appeals court makes it.
Some of the legal documents are available from the
FSU Law School site on the lawsuit.
A Big News Story in August!
And then the reporters filed their stories.
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Agence France Presse reported on Aug. 21 that
*Palestinian teachers in Florida likely to be deported, other could be
expelled, and on Aug. 22 that
*Palestinian teacher in Florida denies fundraising for terrorists.
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On Aug. 21 and Aug. 22, Associated Press filed
a sequence of stories, including one in which Florida Governor Jeb
Bush said, ``The guy has ties to people who want to undermine the
United States of America,'' and including one carried by the
New York Times:
University Seeks to Fire Scholar for Reputed Link to Terrorism
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See also the Aug. 22 Tampa Tribune's AP story
USF President: Al-Arian Has Terrorist Ties,
where BOT Chairman Richard Beard says, ``The reality is, this guy's been
associated with terrorists for the last 15 years,'' while USF-UFF Chapter
Vice President Mark Klisch says, ``They realized they didn't have a case
before.
They're trying to save face.''
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On Aug. 22, CNN reported that
University sues for right to fire Palestinian professor,
and quoted Al-Arian saying, ``It's still a case of academic freedom,''
Al-Arian later said at his attorney's office after the lawsuit was filed.
``That hasn't changed. It's just an indication of how politicized the
university has become.''
CNN also carried a live segment on Al-Arian and his attorney,
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On Aug. 22, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that
**U. of South Florida Accuses Professor of Links to Terrorism and Asks
Court to Approve Plan to Fire Him,
and reported that many observers were disturbed by the use of the courts
in a move that would typically bankrupt a professor.
Said USF-UFF Chapter President Roy Weatherford,
``I've been active in defending academic freedom for 28 years, and I've
never heard of a university suing a professor for something like this.''
The suit is a new question in the Chronicle's Colloquy:
Is the University of South Florida justified in seeking a court order to
uphold the legality of firing Sami Al-Arian?.
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On Aug. 22, the Ball State University (Muncie, Indiana) Daily News asks in
Our View: Professor faces termination:
``Does anyone remember innocent until proven otherwise?''
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On Aug. 21, FOX News The Big Story carried an
*Interview With John Loftus,
who says that the Department of Justice was protecting Al-Arian from the
FBI.
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On Aug. 22, the Guelph Mercury reported that
*Professor accused of terrorist ties; University seeks court permission
to dismiss him.
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The Aug. 22 Los Angeles Times reported that
University Seeks to Fire Palestinian Professor:
Security: Florida school tells court Sami A. Arian has long had terrorism
links; But many of his colleagues see academic freedom threatened.
The Times quoted USF-UFF Vice President Mark Klisch saying,
``Punishing a man and threatening to fire a man based on rumors, that's
just not the American way.
All the faculty union has wanted all along is to give this man the due
process he deserves.''
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On Aug. 22, the Ohio University (Athens, Ohio) Post editorialized that
Accusations alone not grounds for loss of job, saying,
``Intolerance is running rampant in our country, and it is despicable that
a university, a cradle of higher education, would contribute to this
intolerance and ignorance.''
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The Aug. 22 St. Petersburg Times reported that
USF sues for right to fire professor: USF says it can prove that professor
Sami Al-Arian has ties to terrorists and asks the court to determine
whether firing him would violate his constitutional rights, and
quoted external counsel Rogow saying, ``The university has committed itself
to the termination of Dr. Al-Arian ... .''
The Times also ran an
interview with former federal prosecutor John Fitzgibbons,
who called the suit clever but risky,
and said that USF could depose Al-Arian and get testimony that could
be used against him in subsequent criminal proceedings.
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On Aug. 22, Salon.com asked,
Teacher or terrorist? A Florida university is stepping up efforts to sack
faculty member Sami Al-Arian, accusing him of terrorist ties.
Critics say the charges are specious -- and a threat to academic
freedom, and quoted USF English Professor and former Faculty Senate
President Nancy Tyson saying, ``This is just another stalling technique to
keep him in limbo.
They want somebody else to tell them what to do.
But eventually it'll end up in Al-Arian's favor.
The only question is how long it will drag on.''
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The Aug. 22 Tampa Tribune reported that
USF's Dramatic Move Spawns Legal Debate,
and covered some of the inside story of how the new strategy came into place.
The Tribune also ran Genshaft's full statement.
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The Aug. 22 Washington Post reported that
School Seeks Protection In Firing of Fla. Professor.
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The Aug. 22 Washington Times reported that
School seeks to fire Palestinian professor,
but seemed more interested in John Loftus's suit than USF's.
And there were opinions, divided on the new rationale for firing Al-Arian, but
disapproving of going to court.
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The American Association of University Professors
reported that AAUP General Secretary Mary Burgan said,
``We are stunned that a university would take one of its own faculty
members to court on an academic freedom issue.
We certainly recognize the difficulty that President Genshaft has faced in
dealing with these issues in the midst of intense political controversy;
but that's the very reason that we strongly encourage universities to
adhere to nationally recognized standards of academic due process.''
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The Aug. 22 St. Petersburg Times ran an editorial on
The Al-Arian factor, writing that `USF's revised case against the
professor rightly focuses on his apparent ties to terrorist groups, but
turning to the courts only prolongs the controversy.'
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On Aug. 22, St. Petersburg Times columnist Mary Jo Melone wrote that
Genshaft's inaction is louder than words,
and predicted that this case would drag on for years.
At the Aug. 22 Board of Trustees meeting, Chairman Richard Beard opened the
meeting by commending Genshaft for her action, and said, ``You have my full
support.''
Later, USF-UFF Chapter President Roy Weatherford spoke to the Board, and:
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He said that the new rationale for dismissal was more germane, and
he said that bringing the issue to an external forum may calm people, but
that the court could not resolve the issue by ruling on whether the
Notice of Dismissal violated Al-Arian's First Amendment rights.
The issue at the moment is whether said dismissal would violate Al-Arian's
contractual rights, and so even if the court ruled in the USF
Administration's favor, the issue was still grievable, and would still
be resolved by the grievance process.
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In addition commented on a statement by Beard that if Al-Arian was in
private industry, Al-Arian would have been fired long ago.
Weatherford said that while that would be true in a non-unionized company,
in any private company with a union and a collectively
bargained contract, the company still could only fire an employee for just
cause and follow due process procedures.
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Weatherford said that UFF was concerned for the expense, and not only
because as the state with the lowest ranked educational appropriations,
Florida could ill afford the cost.
The problem was that a lawsuit might be a form of intimidation, since
few professors could afford to fight a university (although UFF members
have the benefit of the $ 1 million legal defense fund for job related
liability).
The issue seems unprecedented, and it may be that a lawsuit is a form
of discipline, and therefore grievable in itself.
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He concluded by reminding the Board that the time to begin bargaining the
next contract is at hand.
The Aug. 27 USF Oracle reported on this Board of Trustees meeting in
BOT finalizes tuition increase, discusses Al-Arian,
quoting USF-UFF Chapter President Roy Weatherford saying, ``In 28 years of
defending faculty rights, I have never known a university to sue its own
faculty,'' and Board of Trustees Chairman saying, ``Roy Weatherford is the
only one that's come out wanting to keep this guy on campus,'' and Trustee
and Student Government President Michael Griffin saying, ``I want him
gone, and I've stood by that decision for a while.''
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Genshaft electronically broadcast a
Letter to the Faculty,
which was similar to her Aug. 21 prepared statement, and to the statement
that she prepared for the Aug. 26 - Sept. 22 USF Forum.
That evening (Aug. 22):
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CNN host Connie Chung talked with Associate General Secretary of the AAUP
Martin Snyder about
Professor with Alleged Terrorist Ties Under Fire,
where Snyder said, ``What we support is his right to free speech.
We may not agree with what he says.
I think many of us would violently disagree with him, strenuously disagree
with him. But we would certainly respect his right to say ...''
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CNN Talkback Live covered
*Professor with Alleged Terrorist Ties Under Fire,
a discussion with Hussein Ibish of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination
Committee, and Phil Kent of the Southeastern Legal Foundation.
Mr. Ibish said, `` I don't think there's a hidden agenda. I think the agenda
is overt.
I think that ... a lot of charges swirling around created an uncomfortable
situation for the university.
...
I think ... it's an embarrassment, and ... the easiest thing is just to fire
him ...''
Mr. Kent said, ``I am really sad to see the Anti-Discrimination committee,
a group I once respected, try to defend this person, this professor.
It's not a free speech issue.
The man has advocated violence.''
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USF-UFF Chapter President Roy Weatherford appeared on the FOX O'Reilly Factor
segment on
The Trials and Tribulations of Dr. Sami Al-Arian, where
Weatherford said, ``... we are not, of course, defending what Al-Arian
said or did.
We have no brief for his political agenda at all.
We are defending due process, the contractual agreement, and the rights of
all faculty under the principles of academic freedom.''
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FOX ran an interview with Al-Arian's attorney Robert McKee on its
*Political headlines
show, in which McKee said that Al-Arian never raised money for the PIJ,
and anyway, that the accusation was that Al-Arian raised money for the
PIJ back when doing so was legal.
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CNBC reported that
*University of Florida trying to get rid of tenured Professor Sami
Al-Arian, accused of having ties with terrorist groups.
while NBC reported that
*Florida university taking action against pro-Palestinian professor
accused of having ties with terrorists.
The webmaster can't resist mentioning that sometimes the facts get garbled:
in the Aug. 22 Afternoon briefing by US State Department Deputy Spokesman
Philip Reeker (see the Federal News Service
*STATE DEPARTMENT REGULAR BRIEFING, a reporter asked,
``Do you have any comments on the professor, Al- Arian, whose university is
trying to toss him out of the country?
Does the State Department have any role in that?''
Mr. Reeker said, quote, ``I -- I don't think there's any State Department
connection there.
No.''
The Stakes May Be Higher Than You Think
While all this has been going on, Al-Arian's brother-in-law Mazen Al-Najjar
has been in (solitary) detention since November 25, 2001, pending deportation,
with an order based on secret evidence Al-Najjar's lawyer has not been
permitted to see, pending deportation,
although no nation has accepted him.
There have been no charges, and the evidence against him is secret, although
some of it has evidently been leaked and apparently concerns his activities
in WISE and the ICP, where al-Najjar had assisted Al-Arian.
The Aug. 19, 2002 St. Petersburg Times reported that
Al-Najjar finds a home abroad:
An unidentified country will accept the former USF professor after he gains
travel documents from the Palestinian Authority
Evidently, the FBI is not too keen on keeping Mr Al-Najjar around, despite
the ongoing investigation into WISE and ICP.
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This story was picked up immediately by AP, Knight-Ridder, and UPI, and was
published in
The Tampa Tribune
on Aug. 20.
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In an Aug. 20 story on al-Najjar,
*US officials order deportation of Palestinian linked to terrorist groups,
National Public Radio reports that the Department of Justice is also
investigating Al-Arian, but as Al-Arian is a premanent resident, he is
``not deportable.''
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On Aug. 22, CNN reported that
Arab professor fights for job as in-law deported.
CNN also carried a segment on how
*Mazen Al-Najjar Deported to an unnamed nation.
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The Aug. 20 Miami Herald carried the Knight-Ridder story that Ms. Al-Najjar
said her husband ``is 45, but he looks 60; he is diabetic and very skinny,''
in
*Muslim cleric to be deported; case watched by civil libertarians.
Later, on Aug. 23, the Tampa Tribune reported that
Al-Najjar Sent To Points Unknown, saying that Al-Najjar was not
permitted to say goodbye to his family before leaving and, more ominously,
that the visa he had for his destination was good only for two weeks.
So things turned sour: the unnamed nation turned out to be Bahrain,
just as quickly Bahrain backed out, claiming
to have been misunderstood: Bahrain would indeed only grant a visitor's visa.
So after al-Najjar was bundled on board a military jet, and the jet was over
the Atlantic headed for Bahrain, it was diverted.
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In its Aug. 23 article
US deports Palestinian academic,
BBC News quoted a Randall Marshall of the American Civil Liberties Union
saying that imprisoning Mr al-Najjar on secret evidence was
unconstitutional, and that the ``10 months that he spent in solitary
confinement was nothing more than the raw exercise of government power.''
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The Aug. 23 St. Petersburg Times reported that
Al-Najjar in limbo as he heads to Bahrain.
Ms Al-Arian, Al-Najjar's sister, said, ``We are very very worried about his
safety. We are praying he will be safe and join his family.''
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The Aug. 24 St. Petersburg Times reported that
Al-Najjar's odyssey a diplomatic debacle,
adding ``After Bahrain rejects Mazen Al-Najjar, Italy lets him wait
temporarily. Where the stateless Palestinian will go next is unclear.''
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The Aug. 24 Tampa Tribune reported that
Bahrain Refuses To Take Al-Najjar.
And so he arrived in Lebanon, which gave him a 6-month visa.
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The Aug. 24 Associated Press reported that
*Deported Palestinian professor lands in Middle East
(in which the `second secretary at the Embassy of Bahrain in Washington,'
said `that Al-Najjar's deportation by the United States and the publicity
his case had generated had influenced Bahrain's decision to turn away the
professor'), and that
*Deported Palestinian professor lands in Lebanon, plans to move elsewhere
soon
(in which Al-Arian said, ``He's extremely happy and he said to me he can
now resume his intellectual activity.''
By Sunday, the headline was
*Deported Palestinian professor lands in Lebanon, plans to move to South
Africa.
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The Aug. 25 St. Petersburg Times reported that Al-Najjar had
Landed in Lebanon with hopes of resettling in South AFrica, and
that he was met by his sister Hala Al-Najjar at the airport.
The Times also reported the details of the flight in their story on how a
'Wandering Palestinian's' ordeal ends.
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The Aug. 25 Tampa Tribune reported that
Al-Najjar's Fight For Freedom Has Ended,
in which Al-Najjar's attorney, Georgetown University Professor David Cole,
said, ``... in the name of fighting terrorism, our country locked him up
without any criminal charges and without letting him see the evidence used
against him for more than four years.
That's not a way to fight a war on terrorism.''
The Tribune also reported that
Al-Arian: Al-Najjar Accepted In Lebanon.
But not everyone was pleased.
Yet on Aug. 29, the Tampa Tribune reported that the U.S. Embassy in
Beirut said that
Politician Alone In Outcry Against Al-Najjar.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch ...
As far as the collision between UFF and the USF Administration is concerned,
this is ultimately a contractual dispute, and thus the status of the
contract is a serious issue.
(See the page on Florida
academics for historical background.)
The reorganization of the Florida universities from a single State University
System (SUS) to collection of semi-independent institutions, and changing the
legal employer of faculty from the State of Florida to various Boards of Trustees,
may affect the contract.
Legally, the contract was negotiated between UFF (on behalf of the faculty of
the SUS) and the Board of Regents (BOR, on behalf of the State of Florida).
UFF's authority arose from the fact that UFF had won two ``certification
elections,'' i.e., presented with several options (be represented by UFF,
be represented by a competitor, not have a union at all and just accept
whatever contracts the BOR writes), a plurality of the faculty voted for
UFF.
Usually, an employer cannot get rid of a union simply by reorganizing, but
we live in strange times, and in Florida, and some of the reorganizers had
already said that perhaps UFF needed to be recertified.
(To be fair, such statements were often accompanied by assurances that
``union-busting'' was not an intended effect of reorganization.)
Thus UFF chose to go to the state agency that overlooks such matters, the
Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC).
On Aug. 22, UFF mailed petitions to ``conform, modify and/or amend
certification'' for each of the ten universities and New College to PERC;
essentially, UFF was asking to remain the designated bargaining agent
for each, including USF.
The Roots of Coincidence
On Aug. 25, the St. Petersburg Times ran an opinion piece by Ted Gup, former
reporter for The Washington Post and Time magazine, and now Shirley Wormser
Professor of Journalism at Case Western Reserve University.
Entitled ``The Danger of Finger-Pointing,'' it had already run as
You May or May Not Be a Suspect, But You Will Be All Over the News
in the Aug. 18 Washington Post.
The piece is about Lousiana State University associate director of the
National Center for Biomedical Research and Training Steven Hatfill, who
was labelled ``a person of interest'' in the FBI investigation of the anthrax
attacks that followed the carnage of Sept. 11 last Fall.
In the article, there appears the following paragraph:
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You know investigators have a weak hand or no hand at all when they turn to
reporters before they make their case.
The cycle is all too familiar: There's the initial leak of a name, followed
by narrative-driven profiles filled with what might be called the suspect's
``forensic eccentricities,'' behavioral deviations that bolster otherwise
anemic cases.
There's the nasty, decades-old divorce, or the shelf of X-rated videos, even
the midnight walk observed.
Any of these can enhance the narrative, while providing ersatz evidence of a
sociopath on the loose.
We journalists all know how it's done, indeed are inadvertently trained to use
the alchemy of reporting to turn irrelevance into insight, coincidence into
culpability.
Hadn't Richard Jewell a spotty employment record?
Wasn't Wen Ho Lee something of a loner -- and foreign-born to boot?
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The National Center, an ``Academy of Counter Terrorist Education,'' is closely
connected with the US Department of Justice --- Office of Domestic
Preparedness.
On Sept. 3, 2002, LSU
**fired Dr. Hatfill
as announced by LSU Chancellor
Mark A. Emmert.
All the World is Watching
In December, it may have been a slow news season, but the dismissal was not
expected.
But this re-dismissal had been expected, as a decision was expected in
August, another low news season.
Everyone was ready, and so the story was picked up even more rapidly than
before.
Here is August 23, the second day after the announcement.
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Agence France Presse reported that
*US civil liberties activists criticize treatment of Palestinian
professors.
-
FOX News reported that
Florida Professor Denies Terror Ties,
and that Al-Arian's attorney, Robert McKee, would seek to move the
case to federal court.
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The Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported that
*Palestinian professor to fight planned sacking.
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The London Guardian reported that
Attempt to sack 'terror link' professor reaches court, and that
AAUP General Secretary Mary Burgan said that the move to ``pre-sue''
Al-Arian had ``chilling portents for academic freedom.''
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NBC News reported that
*University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian says the
accusations of terrorist activity and the push to fire him are
unjustified,
in which Al-Arian said, `` What's happening today is I'm being punished
for things that have been said 10, 12 years ago which are protected First
Amendment speeches,'' and that the American people, ``must know that I am
a very moderate Muslim person who has strong passion about the Palestinian
cause ...''
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New York Post columnist John Podhoretz asked
Tenure for Terror?,
beginning with the question of the legal standing of academic tenure
(``Boring? You have no idea. Important? Absolutely.'') but quickly
shifted to Al-Arian, who is ``in a word, despicable,'' but concludes
by bashing CUNY professor Leonard Jeffries.
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The Orlando Ledger editorialized about
The Real Issue With Al-Arian,
concluding with: `` If Al-Arian can be proved to have actively supported
terrorists, USF will be well within its rights to dismiss him. If not, he
must be given the benefit of the doubt.''
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The St. Petersburg Times reported that
Al-Arian vows to fight lawsuit,
and that Al-Arian said, ``I'm an Arab, I'm a Palestinian, I'm a Muslim.
That's not a popular thing to be these days.
Do I have rights or don't I have rights?''
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The Tampa Tribune covered the spectacle:
Nation's Eyes On Al-Arian As He Vows To Fight USF,
which quoted USF-UFF Chapter President Roy Weatherford saying,
```If nothing else, it makes me glad to live in Florida, where nothing
is ever impossible and new things happen every day,'' and Al-Arian
saying, ``My case right now is not really about me anymore.
It's about the principle, and I think I'd be betraying the principle if I
just walked out.''
The Tribune also reported the fees of the three external counsels:
$ 350 per hour each for Greg Kehoe and Bruce Rogow, and a mere $ 100
per hour for Thomas Martinez.
-
The Washington Times editorialized,
Good riddance,
but based its argument on the old rationale, expressing outrage at
Al-Arian because videos of his old sloganeering were replayed
``just a few days after 3,000 innocent Americans had been killed
in the worst terrorist act ever perpetrated on U.S. soil.''
(Of course, it was Mr. O'Reilly who played those tapes ... .)
This does not count short pieces around the country.
As of 3:30 pm on Aug. 24, google registered 5,330 sites for ``al-arian,''
UFF's being third.
On Aug. 24, Rocky Mountain News writer Linda Seebach wrote about
Yet another recruit to the cause of academic freedom,
about Illinois State University graduate student John Wilson's new site on
Academic Freedom, which she compares (unfavorably) to that of the
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and then on to comment
on Wilson's comments on Al-Arian.
And he Chronicle of Higher Education began a Colloquy on
Academic Freedom Endangered:
visitors to the site are invited to read &, for the next few days, write
comments.
Then comes Sunday, Aug. 25, when the commentators comment.
-
The Boston Herald editorialized that
Academic freedom has limits,
saying that USF's decision to sue Al-Arian was ``terrible public relations''
and that USF should have just fired Al-Arian and let Al-Arian sue, and if
the AAUP censured USF, USF should just ``denounce the association as
indifferent to terrorism.''
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The Miami Herald reported that
Terrorism or free speech?
Sami al-Arian's fight with the University of South Florida is becoming
the hottest academic debate in the country,
and outlined the situation.
-
The St. Petersburg Times ran a column by Al-Arian on
Fighting for right of dissent and due process,
in which he mentions an old civics professor of his (when he was in college)
who talked about ``the `2 D's': dissent and due process, cornerstones of
American democracy.''
And Associate Editor Martin Dyckman wrote that
USF should read and heed former governor's speech,
and quoted the late Florida Governor Leroy Collins saying,
``You can't suppress bad speeches without suppressing good ones.''
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Tampa Tribune columnist Daniel Ruth wrote that
``Sami Al-Arian's problems are of his own making - his own actions, the
company he chose to keep, the inflammatory rhetoric he used to threaten,''
in his column on
An Issue Of Academic Freedom Or Academic Extortion?.
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And the Tampa Tribune editorialized that
Facts Leave No Doubt Al-Arian Abetted Terrorism,
but in the text watered that down to
``Enough is known about his activities to lend credence to the university's
view that he has aided and abetted international terrorism.''
The Semester is Starting
The Fall semester began on Monday, Aug. 26.
-
On Aug. 26,
*John Loftus appeared in the FoxNews O'Reilly Factor, where he claimed
that, ``... the Israelis had a spy at the headquarters of Islamic Jihad in
Syria, and they found out that Sami narrowly lost the vote to become the
number one guy in the world in [Islamic Jihad].''
-
On Aug. 26, the USF Oracle reported that
Genshaft decides not to decide,
and that ``Al-Arian is not commenting.''
The Oracle also reported that
Al-Najjar to be released and deported:
After nine months, Mazen Al-Najjar appears to have found a country.
-
The Aug. 26 alternative student newspaper Shanachie reported that a UFF
source speculated that Al-Arian
may be fired on Jan. 7, 2003, ``the last date of the current collective
bargaining agreement.''
-
The Aug. 27 Denver Post editorialized on
*Academic freedom's limits;
overlooking that Al-Arian is the named defendent the Post said,
``The AAUP went on to claim that the university intends to overwhelm
the professor with vastly superior legal resources.
This, in our view, is nonsense,'' and concluded by saying that the case
would have wound up in court anyway.
-
The Aug. 27 USF Oracle editorialized that
Genshaft dodges decision, saying that ``Genshaft should have made a
decision herself Wednesday about what to do with Al-Arian instead of
throwing it to a third-party judge.''
-
On Aug. 27, USF Oracle editor Ryan Meehan wrote about how USF was
On the verge of victory or chaos?
on ``Two stories that fall on opposite ends of the spectrum but could
potentially alter the shape of USF's future: Sami Al-Arian and Sooner
football.''
The week was reviewed in the Aug. 28 - Sept. 3 Weekly Planet
article on
Trying Terror,
in which USF UFF Chapter President Roy Weatherford says,
``If the university in the future decides that it would like to harass and
bankrupt a professor, what is to stop them from deciding to sue?
This could be a terrible precedent with serious, chilling effects on academic
freedom at our university.''
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Previous:
Summer Suspended
6/10/02 - 8/20/02
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September
8/28/02 - 9/26/02
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Al-Arian Site Home
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An Overview of the Entire Controversy
Background: Before Sept. 11
The Year 2001 - 2002
The Year 2002 - 2003
Recent News
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The year 2002 - 2003:
7 Days: 8/21/02 - 8/27/02
September: 8/28/02 - 9/26/02
Looming Clouds: 9/27/02 - 11/04/02
Anticipation: 11/05/02 - 12/31/02
Transitions: 1/1/03 - 2/19/03
Indictment: 2/20/03 - 2/21/03
Termination: 2/22/03 - 2/28/03
Reverberations: 3/1/03 - 3/19/03
A Greater Circle: 3/20/03 - 3/28/03
Recent News: 3/29/03 - |
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