FAYETTEVILLE Three people testified Wednesday that Arwah Jaber’s demeanor changed so drastically last year they called the FBI with their concerns.
Jaber is charged with knowingly attempting to provide material support to a government-recognized, foreign terrorist organization, Palestine Islamic Jihad. His trial began Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Fayetteville.
Cindy Alburtin, a former secretary in the Chemistry Department at the University of Arkansas, where Jaber was a student, said she was shocked when Jaber told her he was going to join the Palestinian resistance movement and flashed a clenched, upraised fist.
Alburtin said she noticed a complete change in Jaber’s personality in the weeks leading up to his failed doctoral dissertation defense and later arrest. Jaber was a smiling, happy student and became intense and passionately interested in fighting the Israelis, Alburtin said.
“This was a total personality change,” Alburtin said.
She first reported her concerns to the department head then called the FBI when no apparent action was taken.
Jeff Jones and Michael Stump, former graduate assistants with Jaber, said they became so concerned about Jaber’s actions at a conference last June, shortly after an alleged telephone call to a spiritual advisor and just days before his arrest, they also contacted authorities.
Jaber allegedly said he’d lost interest in obtaining his doctorate degree and a pending job in Kuwait and, instead, wanted to return to Palestine and fight in the Jihad.
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Prosecutors have been trying to establish that Jaber was attempting to purify himself physically and spiritually for Jihad through such actions as apologizing to anyone he may have offended, paying off any debts and preparing his body ritually by, for instance, staying out of the sun to lighten his skin tone. Jaber was allegedly planning to send his wife back to the United States and remain in Palestine after the couple’s planned trip there last June. Jaber was arrested at the airport before flying out.
There was also testimony Wednesday about a lab project in which Jaber helped students make a improvised explosive known as “Mother of Satan,” although the recipe came from a textbook. The experiment was apparently part of a project the students wanted to do that they felt could benefit homeland security.
An FBI explosives expert said a college lab was not the place to be making the unstable explosive. Chemistry professors said they were aware of the situation and were concerned.
Jaber also faces a number of minor charges related to immigration statements and using someone else’s social security number to obtain credit cards.
Jaber, a University of Arkansas graduate student, was arrested June 16, 2005, at the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport. The government contends he was flying out to join the jihad. Jaber maintains he was going to visit relatives.
Jaber, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in the West Bank town of Yamoun, allegedly told federal authorities that he told his doctoral professor and others at the university that he was going to Palestine to “fight for freedom, peace and justice.”
Jaber maintains he was frustrated with a professor over delays in graduating and made the statements in an effort to sway the teacher into approving his degree. He contends he didn’t mean any of it and recanted the statements under questioning by FBI agents.
While on bond awaiting trial, Jaber graduated with a doctorate in chemistry.
