After his acquittal of certain terrorism charges and a hung verdict on others, Sami al-Arian pleaded guilty to one count of providing financial assistance to a terrorist organization -- Palestinian Islamic Jihad, of which al-Arian was the North American leader. Judge James Moody sentenced al-Arian to the maximum time on the charge and addressed a few choice words to al-Arian:

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...

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.

While incarcerated, al-Arian has been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury regarding the "charities" that funded his "think tank" in Tampa, Florida. Al-Arian has refused to testify and has been held in contempt of court. Al-Arian has now gone on a hunger strike in protest.

During his trial Ahmed Bedier of the Council on American-Islamic Relations emerged as al-Arian's spokesman. See Pipes and Chadha's "CAIR: Islamists fooling the establishment." On its home page CAIR has posted an item on the Muslim Coalition's call for fasting in solidarity with al-Arian. The full item is here.

CAIR holds itself out as a civil rights group opposed to terrorism. Yet it operates as a front group that lends its support to the likes of a confessed terrorist such as al-Arian. And it supports Al-Arian in his refusal to testify to his knowledge of facts relevant to the discovery of terrorist infrastructure in the United States. Today's Frontpage has more in "Lying about al-Arian."

CAIR's continuing success in fooling the establishment is a remarkable story of CAIR's deceit, of the gullibility of bystanders and of the complicity of knowing outsiders such as Minnesota's own Rep. Keith Ellison.

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