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<font size=3><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/<br><br>
</a></font><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000">May 4,
2009<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>Where's the
Justice at the Justice Department? <br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">The
AIPAC Spy Case
</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>By JAMES G.
ABOUREZK <br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">T</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>he big news last week was the defection of
Republican Senator Arlen Specter to the Democrats; the bankruptcy filing
of the Chrysler Corporation, and finally, the retirement of Justice David
Souter from the U.S. Supreme Court.<br><br>
A much smaller news item competing with these sensational stories was
that the U.S. Justice Department announced that it is dropping the
espionage charges against two former AIPAC agents. The story was so
small that it barely was a blip on the media’s radar, bringing absolutely
no comment on the network news and talk shows.<br><br>
That’s known as clever public relations. Announce the bad news on a
day when it won’t be noticed.<br><br>
Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman had been charged in 2005 with the crime
of espionage; specifically, handing over to Israel secret information
they had retrieved from Larry Franklin, who was then a policy analyst in
the U.S. Defense Department, working for Douglas Feith and for Paul
Wolfowitz.<br><br>
Franklin pleaded guilty to relaying top secret information on Iran to
Rosen and Weissman, and was sentenced to 12 years and 7 months in prison,
a term he is currently serving.<br><br>
In the <i>New York Times </i>story detailing the Justice Department’s
decision to drop the charges against Rosen and Weissman, the prosecutors
claimed that the presiding federal judge, T.S. Ellis III, had raised the
bar for the prosecution to prove its case against the two to a level they
did not believe they could meet. The Judge said that the
prosecutors could only prevail if they could prove that Rosen and
Weissman “knew that their distribution of the information would harm U.S.
National Security.” That was enough to make them dismiss the
charges.<br><br>
No one in the headquarters of the Justice Department took part in the
announcement, but it was made by the prosecutors themselves, presumably
the U.S. Attorney in charge of prosecution.<br><br>
I’ve had some experience in court with U.S. Attorneys. What I know
about how they operate is that if they don’t have a case, they will bring
so many charges that forces the unlucky Defendant to plead guilty to at
least one or two of them.<br><br>
I would like to turn now the case of Sami Al-Arian, who was a college
professor in Florida. Sami is a Palestinian, born in Kuwait.
And why wasn’t he born in Palestine like a good Palestinian should
be? Because, most likely, his parents were chased out of Palestine
when Israel undertook its ethnic cleansing of that land in order to
create an exclusive Jewish state.<br><br>
Al Arian was charged in 2005 in a 50 count indictment essentially with a
plethora of terrorism charges. The trial lasted six months, with
some 80 witnesses and 400 transcripts of intercepted phone conversations
and faxes.<br><br>
At the end of the prosecution’s case, Al Arian’s lawyers rested without
offering any evidence or witnesses in his defense. After 13 days of
deliberation, the jury acquitted Al Arian on 8 of 17 counts, and
deadlocked on the other with 10 to 2 favoring acquittal. Two of the
co-defendants charged along with Al Arian were totally
acquitted.<br><br>
Undaunted, the Justice Department prosecutors said they were
considering re-trying Al Arian on the deadlocked jury charges, one of
which carried a life sentence.<br><br>
Rather than fighting on, Al Arian agreed to plead guilty to one count of
conspiracy to contribute services to or for the benefit of the
Palestinian Islamic Jihad (which is designated as a terrorist
organization, but which the FBI admitted during trial had never carried
out an attack outside of Israel. The United States has designated a
number of Palestinian liberation groups as terrorists at the behest of
Israelgroups that have never attacked the United States). <br><br>
Al Arian had spent years in solitary confinement awaiting his
trial. As part of his plea agreement the prosecution agreed not to
charge Al Arian with any other crimes, and Al Arian agreed to expedited
deportation.<br><br>
He was, however, nearly re-charged when he refused to testify against
another Palestinian organization. He went on a hunger strike,
dangerous for a diabetic, but finally the prosecutors agreed that the
agreement exempted him from testifying in other cases.<br><br>
One would have thought that, following the jury’s decision, the bar set
by the jury in the Al Arian case would be so high that the prosecution
would finally leave him alone. But there is apparently a difference
between a Palestinian patriot and Americans spying for Israel. One
group has a powerful lobby in Washington, and the other has nothing,
except the urging of that powerful lobby to go after any Palestinian
activist with criminal charges or anything else they can get their hands
on.<br><br>
The question is: Can you find the justice in the Justice
Department?<br><br>
<b>James G. Abourezk</b> is a lawyer practicing in South Dakota. He is a
former United States senator and the author of two books,
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1556520662/counterpunchmaga">
<i>Advise</a></i> <i>and</i>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1556520662/counterpunchmaga">
<i>Dissent</a></i>, and a co-author of
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0917561392/counterpunchmaga">
Through Different Eyes</a>. This article also runs in the current
issue of Washington Report For Middle East Affairs. Abourezk
can be reached at
<a href="mailto:georgepatton45@gmail.com">georgepatton45@gmail.com</a>
<br><br>
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