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Academic group stops short of censuring USF in firing professor for terrorism charges
AP | 6/14/03 | MITCH STACY

Posted on 06/14/2003 4:12:19 PM PDT by kattracks

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- A national group influential in higher education condemned the University of South Florida on Saturday for firing a professor charged with terrorism, but stopped short of issuing a potentially damaging censure.

The American Association of University Professors passed the resolution at a meeting in Washington, condemning university President Judy Genshaft for firing Sami Al-Arian without a hearing before his faculty peers, said association spokeswoman Ruth Flower.

Although the school avoided a censure, association members ordered a committee to reconsider action that could come when the entire group meets again next year.

"I think that the intention is ... definitely to keep the case open," Flower said.

Censure is seen as an embarrassing stigma that can make it harder for a school to recruit and retain faculty members and obtain some research grants. It also could have barred the university from forming a Phi Beta Kappa honor society chapter.

Al-Arian was fired a week after he was arrested in February, charged with being the North American leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group that has killed dozens of people in the past decade. He remains in jail and denies he has any connections to terrorism.

Genshaft said in a statement that USF had found that Al-Arian used his university position to support terrorism.

"I cannot fathom how the AAUP can look at the same set of facts we looked at and come to the conclusion to condemn us for terminating Dr. Al-Arian," she said.

Robert McKee, Al-Arian's civil attorney, said he was pleased with the condemnation.

"We're disappointed they put off the censure vote for another year, but we'll continue to monitor it and hope for the best," McKee said.

Because of the complexity of the case, Al-Arian is not expected to go to trial until January 2005.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: Florida; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: aaup; education; samialarian; tenuredradicals; usf

1 posted on 06/14/2003 4:12:19 PM PDT by kattracks
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To: kattracks
A national group influential in higher education condemned the University of South Florida on Saturday for firing a professor charged with terrorism

No doubt this sensitive group would similarly protest the dismissal of a pro-life professor who had been dismissed from their teaching position.

What a crock.

2 posted on 06/14/2003 4:34:57 PM PDT by What Is Ain't
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To: kattracks
It is way, way past time to fumigate academia. I hope the press picks up on this. (Fat chance)
3 posted on 06/14/2003 4:54:19 PM PDT by roderick
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To: kattracks
This action clearly illustrates how out of freakin touch The American Association of University Professors truly is. And that's putting it politely.
4 posted on 06/14/2003 5:02:14 PM PDT by Texas_Jarhead
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To: Texas_Jarhead
The Professors should watch this...

America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
http://video.ire.org/10650.ram (Requires RealPlayer)

Who is Steve Emerson?

5 posted on 06/14/2003 5:15:05 PM PDT by Wolverine
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To: kattracks
Ol' Prof. Sami has some 'splainin' to do since his memnonic devices for referencing some very useful websites without typing them in show up in the return address on all the anthrax attack letters.

The chances of that happening just out of the blue are nil. Whoever sent the letters used that memnonic to prove to all the other AlQaida cells that "one of their own" had done the job!

6 posted on 06/14/2003 5:58:39 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah
Thank you for the comment. Could you elaborate on the specific mnemonics Islamonazi Sami used? I have not see that story...I thought I was pretty well informed, but once again, Freepers prove me wrong.
7 posted on 06/14/2003 6:05:24 PM PDT by esopman (Blessings on Freepers Everywhere)
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To: kattracks
It is a mark of pride to be censured by these pro-terrorist professors.
8 posted on 06/14/2003 6:12:08 PM PDT by Lexington Green
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To: muawiyah
Ol' Prof. Sami has some 'splainin' to do since his memnonic devices for referencing some very useful websites without typing them in show up in the return address on all the anthrax attack letters.

huh? Please clarify! It sounds very interesting, but more info is needed.

9 posted on 06/14/2003 6:18:30 PM PDT by Mean Spirited
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To: esopman
It's all very simple. "Greensboro", "Greendale", "School". You can get Brokaw's address at one of the three sites that pop up there. At the other, "Beachcomber", you get all the addresses for all sorts of things on the East Coast.

When the terrorists used Ol'Prof.Sami's memnonic in the return addresses on the anthrax letters, they let ALL the AlQaida cells know who'd done the deed.

BTW, it's only Sami and a couple of others who would have originated the "Greensboro" part of the key since they attended engineering school there! The NJ ZIP Code as shown in the anthrax letters, written backwards, is the ZIP Code of a town they would have passed through regularly going North up I-81 to intercept I-66 or I-70 to go East to New Jersey to visit friends and relatives in the rather large Moslem community located there! Maybe there's a halal store there, or a halal pizza joint. Someone might check it out.

The backwards ZIP Code is a matter of perspective. One direction it's Arabic; another direction it's English. (Note, notwithstanding the fact that Arabs write their numbers the same way we do). It's an attitude thing.

This set of key words, or the memnonic key, is pretty slick. Let's say you stop by your library to use the internet. If you sit down, you go to Google.com and do a search. Up come your three sites. You click on the one you want, and there you have it. (BTW, the Beachcomber site has been improved over the last few months.)

When you leave the library, the only thing showing in memory is that you did a wearch of www.google.com.

Your privacy is secure! The FBI is off your tail. You are home free.

10 posted on 06/14/2003 6:26:19 PM PDT by muawiyah
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Comment #11 Removed by Moderator

To: kattracks
I guess the charges are hitting too close to home for many in this organization. Could many other university professor "professionals" be close behind if a more thorough investigation takes place?
12 posted on 06/14/2003 6:29:20 PM PDT by freeangel (freeangel)
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Comment #13 Removed by Moderator

To: Mean Spirited
Please see my Post 10.

See: http://www.usps.com/postalinspectors/specrewd.htm for pictures of the anthrax letters.

Right from just outside of Greensboro, at New Hope NC 25880 take NC 61 to US 29 to Buena Vista/Lexington where you catch I-81 North. 08852 is the NJ ZIP. It may well be coincidentally the location Ol'Prof.Sami visited regularly. Someone might check to see if he has friends or relatives there.

Remember, this is a memnonic he oculd readily remember ~ not places he was living or working at during the time the anthrax attack was made.

I think if you are at the college Sami attended in Greensboro, and it's time for prayers, you bow toward New Hope!

14 posted on 06/14/2003 6:39:16 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah
Thank you very much for the reply. As an aside, I use that route for runs from my Virginia offices down to NC. I would (perhaps wrongly) assume that the FBI has checked out the NJ ZIP.
15 posted on 06/14/2003 7:21:35 PM PDT by esopman (Blessings on Freepers Everywhere)
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To: muawiyah
Something as transient as a Google search (Google rejiggers its algorithms periodically, as well as adding thousands of new pages daily) would be a very poor way to make a point.
16 posted on 06/14/2003 11:23:14 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
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To: HiTech RedNeck
Interesting that you think www.google.com is so transient.

I've been referencing that site with those words since November 2001.

I presume AlQaida hacks it with some regularity to keep replacing the META-TAGs with "GREENSBORO", "GREENDALE", "SCHOOL".

17 posted on 06/15/2003 5:57:20 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: esopman
You would correctly assume the FBI checked out the New Jersey ZIP. You would incorrectly assume the FBI reversed the sequence and checked out the New Hope ZIP!

I don't think they analyze things much beyond the meat-axe approach, and AlQaida is entirely too slick for them.

18 posted on 06/15/2003 5:58:54 AM PDT by muawiyah
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