Al-Arian's story tests our sense of fair play*** Over the weekend, the smoke that shrouds USF professor Sami Al-Arian thickened. Unidentified Israeli intelligence officials said in the Tampa Tribune that he was among the founders of the board that governs the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Al-Arian denied it. For years here, I've defended Al-Arian's right to speak and act. But I have to admit that these allegations have shaken my faith in him. Speaking up for a political cause he believes in is one thing. Being one of the guiding lights of a terrorist group is entirely another. The Israelis making the charges did not want to be identified. The Tribune story said they wouldn't turn over the evidence to its reporter. ***
Newspaper: Israel ties Tampa university professor to Jihad*** Al-Najjar, who spent more than 3 1/2 years in jail on secret evidence linking him to terrorists, only to be released in December 2000, has been in solitary confinement since November 2001 awaiting deportation. A seven-member delegation of prosecutors and investigators from Tampa traveled to Israel in the fall of 2000 for briefings by the Israelis, the Tribune reported. Then-U.S. Attorney Donna Bucella, now in private practice in Miami, said Monday she could not confirm the trip occurred nor comment on the report. As recently as 1994, suspects arrested in connection with terrorist attacks in Israel have had slips of paper with Al-Najjar's home telephone number in Tampa written on them, the Israeli intelligence agents told the newspaper.***