Sentencing of Al-Arian
The following is a partial transcript of Judge James S. Moody's statement at
the sentencing of Sami Al-Arian to the maximum term of 57 months in prison
on 1 May 2006. The quotation here was published at the St. Petersburg Times
website on 1 May 2006. There is no copyright in works of the U.S. Government,
such as statements in open court by a federal judge.
- Judge Moody:
- Dr. Al-Arian, as usual, you speak very eloquently.
I find it interesting that here in public in front of everyone you praised this country,
the same country that in private you referred to as "the great Satan." ....
You are a master manipulator.
You looked your neighbors in the eyes and said you had nothing to do with the Palestinian Islamic
Jihad. This trial exposed that as a lie....
The evidence was clear in this case that you were a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad [PIJ]....
When Iran, the major funding source of the PIJ, became upset because the PIJ could not account
for how it was spending its money, it was to your board of directors that it went to demand changes.
Iran wanted its representative to have a say in how its money was spent.
To stop that, you leaped into action. You offered to rewrite the bylaws of the organization....
But when it came to blowing up women and children on buses, did you leap into action then? ....
No. You lifted not one finger, made not one phone call.
To the contrary, you laughed when you heard about the bombings,
what you euphemistically call "operations." ....
And yet, still in the face of your own words, you continue to lie to your friends and supporters,
claiming to abhor violence and to seek only aid for widows and orphans.
Your only connection to widows and orphans is that you create them, even among the Palestinians;
and you create them, not by sending your children to blow themselves out of existence.
No. You exhort others to send their children.... You are indeed a master manipulator.
This document is at
http://www.rbs0.com/alarian3.htm
first posted 7 May 2006
Return to my essay on the Al-Arian case.