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Witness Met Al-Arian At Fundraiser, He Says By MICHAEL FECHTER and ELAINE SILVESTRINI The Tampa Tribune Published: Jun 10, 2005 TAMPA - A national conference on Islamic issues came to St. Louis, and Muneer Arafat brought a message for the gathering. Muslims need to stay unified, and they should support the Palestinian uprising known as the intifada. Arafat was delivering the words of a man he considered his spiritual guide, who was invited to the first Islamic Committee for Palestine conference but was not able to attend. Deliver this in my place, the sheik instructed Arafat. Arafat approached the conference organizer, Sami Al-Arian, who suggested distributing copies of the sheik's message at the 1988 conference. Al-Arian asked him some questions. How close are you to the sheik? Would you like to join up with our group instead of his? The group Al-Arian was talking about, Arafat said, was a breakaway faction of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. ``I said I'd think about it,'' Arafat testified Thursday, the fourth day of Al-Arian's trial on charges that he conspired to kill people abroad and provide material support to terrorists. Arafat said Al-Arian opened the conference by listing invited speakers who were unable to attend, including Sheik Asa'ad Tamimi, Arafat's spiritual guide. Al-Arian also named Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, a blind sheik convicted in a conspiracy to bomb New York landmarks, and Fathi Abdel Aziz, a pseudonym for Palestinian Islamic Jihad founder Fathi Shikaki, Arafat said. Contribution To Jihad A fundraising session at the end of the conference netted $50,000. Al-Arian announced that the money was for the Islamic Jihad, Arafat testified. The two met again a few months later at a fundraiser in a St. Louis mosque where $15,000 was collected, he said. Again, Arafat testified, the money was for Islamic Jihad. He said he never accepted Al-Arian's invitation to join the Islamic Jihad faction, operated out of Syria by Shikaki. That doesn't mean he opposed the group's goal of destroying Israel and replacing it with an Islamic state. Tamimi advocated the same goal. Tamimi, who served as imam of Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque from 1956 to 1967, preached that the destruction of Israel was a Koranic imperative, wrote Palestinian scholar Ziad Abu Amr in his 1994 book ``Islamic Fundamentalism in the West Bank and Gaza.'' Tamimi continued to lead a separate Islamic Jihad faction, called Beit Al-Maqdis. Shikaki led a band that was more violent. The intifada started with stone throwing - unarmed Palestinian children facing Israeli tanks and guns, Arafat said. The Shikaki faction wanted to ratchet up the violence and target civilians. ``They have an ego problem. Every brother there's a leader,'' Arafat said of the Shikaki faction. ``They are not worthy of leading anything. They are sending their kids to Duke or Yale University and living in Tampa, and they're sending someone else's kid to do a suicide bombing. If you want to lead, go lead there.'' The 1988 conference was before Islamic Jihad began waging suicide attacks. Al-Arian's attorney, William Moffitt, tore into Arafat on cross-examination in a booming voice. Moffitt asked him if he donated money to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad during the early 1989 fundraiser, even though he said he didn't want anything to do with the organization. ``Sure I did,'' Arafat said. Arafat also admitted to past lies on his resume and to receiving $35,000 from the government. The money was not in exchange for his testimony against Al-Arian, he said. The money came in several payments beginning in 2003 after he testified before a grand jury in another case. At one point, Arafat engaged in a discussion about the difference between what he called ``a white lie'' and ``a devil lie.'' Arafat admitted he had told several white lies but denied he told any devil lies, or lies that could cause someone else harm. ``If you want to count my three lies, my bad lies, but there are people who lie worse than that,'' he said. Arafat, who was born and raised in Kuwait, spoke quickly with a heavy accent, prompting one juror to pass U.S. District Judge James Moody a note saying the witness could not be understood. Moody said he agreed. Even though he was not a citizen, he said he twice registered to vote in St. Louis, once under his real name and once under a false name. He said he did not vote. He Lied To Get Jobs He also lied to get jobs, he said, claiming to be a U.S. citizen when he wasn't and claiming he graduated from Ohio State University when he had not officially graduated because he still owed the college money. ``When you lied on your resume, it was to get money,'' Moffitt declared while cross- examining Arafat. ``No.'' ``It was to get a job,'' Moffitt said. ``A decent job,'' Arafat said. ``I'm looking for a decent job.'' Arafat said he once was deported for overstaying his visa but never was charged with any crime for lying on the voting application. Arafat also testified that he and Al-Arian once had an angry exchange of words, but he didn't explain what it involved because Moffitt said he did not want to know. Arafat denied Moffitt's suggestion that he thought Al-Arian was stealing people from his mosque. After the testimony, Moffitt seemed satisfied he had undone any damage Arafat's direct testimony had done to his client. ``I think the facts are clear,'' he said. ``The cross- examination of the witness speaks for itself.'' Testimony will resume Monday. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Take a look at donorschoose.org, an excellent charitable web site for anyone who cares about public education! http://us.click.yahoo.com/_OLuKD/8WnJAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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