Former University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian, serving time for supporting an Arab militant group, is on a hunger strike to protest prosecutors’ efforts to make him testify in their probe into whether a network of Virginia-based Islamic charities financed terrorist organizations.
True to form, the Council on American-Islamic Relations is trying to drum up international sympathy for Al-Arian by portraying prosecutors as intent on “humiliating” him without cause. Alexander Cockburn is also protesting what he calls the “persecution” of Al-Arian.
But U.S. District Judge James Moody, who has backed the prosecutors, got to the root of the matter, writing “The Court has never heard of the Government agreeing that someone would forever be protected from grand jury subpoena.”
David Kelley, a former U.S. attorney, said further that it is a common practice for prosecutors to seek more testimony from someone already convicted. “In many instances, you are remiss if you don’t pursue that,” he told the Washington Post.
Remiss, indeed, with jihadists still intent on doing us harm. Pursue away, prosecutors.