SDS is a little (okay, a lot) before my time but I don’t recall them doing any suicide bombings or trying to take over Washington D.C. [Jerusalem] as part of a wider Socialist/Communist [Islamic] revolution.

Yes, I read that. I still am one of those Americans who believe that we are free to assemble and associate. I am puzzled as to how Al-Arian could plead “guilty” to knowing his brother and others had associated with PIJ or any other group. He could have admitted concealing this information, but I don’t see what he could be convicted of with regard to not fully divulging all known associations both he and his friends may or may not have.

Shall we indict most of the U.S. State Department’s Near East Asian bureau for meeting with Arabs who have known PLO or Al Queada members? Bush knows the House of Saud, who also knows Bin Laden, so jail Bush and his henchmen.

I knew members of the SDS when I was in college. None of the people I knew did anything wrong, beyond the usual anti-war protests. Were our members guilty of crimes if we refused to identify, to the government, other SDS members, who, to our knowledge had committed no crimes? No.

When Hillary or Obama gets into power, will you agree that you must tell the government about all of the people who you know who are fundamentalist Christians, Pro-Lifers or libertarian-minded Republicans?

Had Al-Arian been a NASCAR driver from Southwest Virginia, instead of an Arab, you and others would be screaming about the injustice of being wrongfully held after being acquitted. You would, no doubt, point out that Mr. NASCAR had won a verdict in court and must be set free.

We must preserve our Constitution, our Liberty, and refuse to let post 9/11 hysteria allow us to be led into passive acceptance of a totalitarian state in place of our Constitutional Republic.

Just keep this fundamental precept straight and you should be OK: It doesn’t matter how often the Cops/government says you are guilty, if you are acquitted in a court of law, then you are, not guilty.

By your own account: “…a jury acquitted Al-Arian of nine charges and deadlocked on the remaining eight.”

What is it about ACQUITTED do you and others, so thirsty for revenge, not understand?

This fellow was acquitted and then made an agreement to leave the USA. He gave up a legal right to be here. Our government reneged on that agreement and kept him here, in prison, so that they could force him to appear at one kangaroo court hearing after another. No wonder he has refused to testify. He probably thinks that, since our government went back on its word, he has no incentive to cooperate, or perhaps, since he was ACQUITTED, he rightfully believes that he should be free. This man, Al-Arian, must be immediately set free.

You who applaud the acts of a government that ignores the law and wrongly imprisons people, even after an acquittal, better stop and think about what is happening. If the government ignores this fellow’s rights, then your rights go down the toilet, right along with his.

All it will take is a shift in the political winds, and the same government agencies who ignore the law in pursuit of Arabs, can be turned against us, to persecute for example, Pro-Life, heritage and religious organizations. Don’t think this is far fetched. The Clinton Administration used the FBI to infiltrate Anti-abortion groups, the Sons of Confederate Veterans and organizations deemed by the Clintonistas to be “White Separatists” or basically every traditionally conservative organization.

Insisting that our government remain within its Constitutional limits is not a soft, pro-terrorist position, but a pro-American position that will allow us to save this Republic from degenerating into a police state ruled by despots.

Al-Arian pleaded guilty to knowing that his brother-in-law Mazen Al-Najjar and two other colleagues, Bashir Nafi and Ramadan Shallah, were associated with the PIJ leadership and covering this up. He also admitted helping Nafi and Al-Najjar, after 1995, when it became illegal to do so because, according to evidence, they kept communicating with PIJ leaders.

And he says in the agreement that he knew of the group’s violent acts.

and:

Since then, an assistant U.S. attorney in Alexandria has thrice subpoenaed Al-Arian to testify before grand juries whose purposes remain secret. Al-Arian has twice refused to testify and twice been sentenced to jail for contempt. He was subpoenaed again in February.