FAYETTEVILLE — Arwah Jaber told his University of Arkansas professors he was quitting school in June 2005 to help Palestinians fight a holy war against the Israelis, prosecutors and defense attorneys said Tuesday.
The question a federal jury must decide is whether the 33-year-old Fayetteville man actually planned to join a terrorist group or was just frustrated by his inability to complete his graduate degree in analytical chemistry.
Jaber is on trial in U. S. District Court in Fayetteville on charges of trying to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, making a false statement on a naturalization application, making a false statement on a passport application, using a false Social Security number and procurement of naturalization unlawfully.
Testimony will resume at 8: 30 a. m. today.
In their opening statement, prosecutors said Jaber was planning to leave Fayetteville on June 14, 2005, to join the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization. But defense attorneys said he was actually going home that day to attend his sister’s wedding.
Jaber’s attorneys contend he had accepted a teaching job at the American University in Kuwait days before he was arrested.
“This case is about [Jaber ] saying something he shouldn’t have said because he was frustrated,” his attorney, John Wesley Hall Jr., said in his opening statement to the jury. “He had a job waiting for him. … Why would he join the [terrorist group ]?”
Before testimony began Tuesday, a male juror was excused after he fell asleep during opening statements. The juror, who was not named, had worked through the night and then drove an hour to get to court, U. S. District Judge Jimm L. Hendren said.
“He apologized for not bringing this to the court’s attention [Monday ],” Hendren said. A female alternate was added to the jury.
UA chemistry professor Charles Wilkins was one of 11 prosecution witnesses who testified Tuesday. Wilkins said Jaber told him he was going home to Palestine and might not return, but Wilkins said he didn’t think his former student was a terrorist.
“I told [the FBI ] I didn’t think he had any terrorist inclinations,” Wilkins said.
Scott Wall, a special agent with the Social Security Administration in Little Rock, testified Jaber used a Kansas teenager’s Social Security number to obtain several credit cards under another name.
Hall said the credit cards were in the name Orwan J. Houshia, Jaber’s Palestinian name. He didn’t explain how or why Jaber used someone else’s Social Security number.
Jaber, who was born in the West Bank, came to the United States in 1990 on a student visa and attended college until his arrest. He completed his graduate degree at UA in October 2005, Wilkins said.
Testimony on Tuesday showed Jaber obtained a Social Security card and naturalization status under his birth name, but obtained at least one driver’s license and the credit cards in his Palestinian name.
Hall said his client was not able to obtain credit under his birth name.