Bush aide met terrorist leader during FBI probe

Government Refuses to Produce Wiretaps Between Bush Aide and Accused Terrorist

by Tom Flocco

WASHINGTON -- April 7, 2004 -- TomFlocco.com --Lawyers for former University of South Florida computer science professor Sami Al-Arian, under a 50-count federal indictment as an alleged terrorist leader, said late Monday that government officials have declined to provide taped conversations from FBI wiretaps which they feel will clear him, citing "the government has no duty to provide information the defendant already knows," according to an Associated Press report.

President George Bush and wife Laura in a photograph with Sami Al-Arian and family at a Plant City, Florida strawberry festival in March, 2000 as the presidential primary season was reaching its apex. Eleven months later in February 2001, Al-Arian was indicted on a 50-count federal charge, alleging use of an Islamic charity and academic think tank to provide funds for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. At the time of the photo with Mr. and Mrs. Bush, Al-Arian had already been under FBI investigation and surveillance for six years.

In June 2001--three months before the September 11 attacks, Al-Arian was briefed by Senior Presidential Advisor Karl Rove on Bush's faith-based agenda and other issues in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House.

The Secret Service requires White House complex visitors to submit a Social Security number and birth date for the purpose of undergoing a security check which would have revealed that Al-Arian was already under a six-year-long FBI investigation.

Al-Arian's group of American Muslim Council members had been scheduled to be briefed by Vice-President Cheney, who canceled at the last minute in the face of a Jerusalem Post front-page story that same morning headlined "Cheney to host pro-terrorist Muslim group."

Karl Rove replaced the Vice-President that morning. But no reports offer reasons for the switch in plans.

There are also no reports regarding what Cheney and Rove's reactions were when Secret Service agents told them they were about to meet with someone currently under surveillance as a terrorist financier for the Islamic Jihad--credited with more than one hundred suicide-bombing deaths in Israel.

Last month, William Moffitt, one of the lawyers for the former professor, said his team is particularly interested in acquiring taped wire intercepts of conversations Al-Arian had with Rove and Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

During the campaign season, Al-Arian stumped for Bush in Florida's Muslim mosques; and in return the future president denounced the immigration laws that detained and deported Al-Arian's brother-in-law Mazen al Jajjar--also linked to terrorism.

Al Jajjar had been jailed before in 1997, and the evidence against him was classified by the government for unreported reasons; but sources said the evidence allegedly linked him to the Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad.

In July 2001--one month after Sami Al Arian's briefing with Karl Rove and two months before the 9/11 attacks, the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom, a civil liberties group headed by Al-Arian, gave Republican power broker Grover Norquist an award for his work to abolish the use of secret intelligence evidence in terrorism cases, according to the St. Petersburg Times.

President Bush adopted this position in his 2000 campaign, also according to the Florida paper.

In March 2002, FBI terrorist targets and organizations linked to Norquist's Islamic Institute were raided to bring down terrorist financial networks, including those linked to Al-Arian.

Four months later in July 2002, Sami Al-Arian spent two hours in Norquist's offices, according to the SP Times.

Al-Arian lawyers Moffitt and Linda Moreno say the tapes the government refuses to produce are "potentially embarrassing to some powerful people who had conversations with Al-Arian about Palestinian rights."

U.S. District Judge Thomas McCoun instructed Moffitt and Moreno to file a motion on the matter.

Al-Arian's trial regarding terrorism finance is scheduled for after the presidential election, in January 2005.

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