Since the New York Times shares both these prejudices, perhaps Mr. Al-Arian is not as bad as his prosecutors make out. Particularly since those prosecutors are employed the by the terrible Bush administration, which, as the Times has told its readers on so many occasions, has already shredded the Constitution.
An accurate description of Sami al-Arian, rather than this promotional piece, would describe him as a devout jihadist, dedicated to killing infidels – Jews especially, but non-Jewish Americans as well – who has been taped saying things like this:
"We assemble today to pay respects to the march of the martyrs and to the river of blood that gushes forth and does not extinguish, from butchery to butchery, and from martyrdom to martyrdom, from jihad to jihad." And videotaped saying things like this: "Let us damn America ... Let us damn [her] allies until death."
Both of these quotes are cited in my book
At least one of these allies is quoted in the Times article defending the terrorist Al-Arian's legal rights. David Cole, professor of law at Georgetown and perhaps America's most sophisticated lawyer for accused terrorists, prosecutor for the coalition seeking to gut the Patriot Act, and legal theorist of the attack on our borders, had this to say of his friend: "This case has drawn such intense scrutiny partly because Sami has been so outspoken." Outspoken, indeed.
To be fair, the Times article is coy rather than blatant. Toward the very end, the reporter does get to mention the 157-page indictment, some of al-Arian's stronger anti-Israel statements (e.g., "Death to Israel" – but then so many liberals can understand that Palestinian sentiment these days) and even quotes a former defender of al-Arian who now feels burned.
But while the reporter found time to interview some of al-Arian's friends and Professor Cole, it apparently couldn't find Steve Emerson or the Miami Herald reporters who tracked al-Arian's terrorist activities, nor to mention that the brother of Palestinian Islamic Jihad founder Fathi Shikaki worked for Al-Arian's "academic" operation at the University of South Florida, nor that when Shikaki was assassinated, his replacement as head of the terrorist organization in Syria was also a director and member of al-Arian's "think tank."
Beyond the scope of the Times article is that as a "civil liberties activist" al-Arian was at the center of the legal left, which includes the National Lawyers Guild, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the ACLU – and that the head of al-Arian's organization, the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom – taking his place while he is in prison – is Kit Gage, longtime executive of the National Lawyers Guild and friend and colleague to everyone in the leadership of the aforementioned organizations, with plenty of friends, no doubt, at the New York Times.
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