While bloggers and a few reporters have seized on White House lawyer and Islam adviser Rashad Hussain’s statement from Friday acknowledging and retreating from criticism he offered of Bush-era anti-terrorism prosecutions, I think many of the analysts are overlooking the most surprising part of Hussain’s latest comments.
Hussain’s declaration that his 2004 remarks “were ill conceived or not well formulated” is notable, but the most startling part of the White House adviser’s statement last week was actually his indication that he was satisfied with the result of the prosecution of former college professor Sami Al-Arian.
“The judicial process has now concluded, and I have full faith in its outcome,” Hussain wrote.
To some, such a statement may seem unremarkable. But as someone who has covered Al-Arian’s travails on-and-off for more than six years, I was somewhat taken aback by Hussain’s endorsement of the judicial process in the professor’s case. Hussain’s public assessment is striking because, to my knowledge, no major U.S. Muslim leader has indicated that there was any justice in Al-Arian’s 2006 guilty plea or the sentence he received of 57 months in prison.
In fact, those Muslim leaders who have commented publicly on the outcome of Al-Arian’s case have generally condemned the Justice Department’s decision to push forward with the prosecution after a jury acquitted him on some counts and reportedly split 10-2 for acquittal on others. Al-Arian’s allies have also denounced the jail sentence Judge James Moody Jr. imposed in the case and the tongue-lashing he delivered to Al-Arian at sentencing. Al-Arian’s camp has also sought to undercut the significance of his guilty plea, by suggesting that he was under pressure from his family not to endure another trial and that his admission to a felony count of violating the ban on aid to Palestinian Islamic Jihad had nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism.
In a letter to the St. Petersburg Times about the 57-month sentence in the case, Florida-based Islamic activist Pilar Saad wrote: “Not only is this totally unfair and a miscarriage of justice, but it provides the final proof that this case was a political prosecution and that Dr. Al-Arian and [a co-defendant] are political prisoners of our war on terrorism.”
“Al-Arian’s arrest, incarceration and eventual banishment to some other country — not yet identified — amount to an ugly maladministration of justice that mocks one of America’s most noble principles — equal justice for all,” former Rep. Paul Findley (R-Ill.) wrote in the Washington Report in 2006. “In a more civil moment in history, Al-Arian never would have been arrested or marked for deportation. Truly a modern-day Tom Paine, he would be saluted for his assistance to victims of oppression and fidelity to America’s enduring principles.”
Al-Arian’s saga was even turned into a sympathetic documentary film that won a series of awards.
After Al-Arian was transferred from Florida to Virginia and had his prison stay extended for refusing to testify in a grand jury investigation of Islamic groups, the claims that Al-Arian was a victim of persecution grew even louder. The outrage was so widespread that at least one Jewish activist who condemned Al-Arian’s conduct also faulted the government’s continued pursuit of the Kuwaiti-born Palestinian. “I have no truck with Sami Al-Arian. I believe he’s a terrorist and he funded terrorism, but the government made a deal,” Barry Augenbraun told the New York Sun in 2007. (Two federal appeals courts sided with the government.)
In light of all that (and Hussain’s acknowledgement that he’s friendly with one of Al-Arian’s sons), the White House adviser’s statement that he has “full faith in the outcome” of Al-Arian’s prosecution clearly qualifies as the most remarkable part of his late Friday missive.
One final note, for what it’s worth: While the judicial process regarding the criminal charges Hussain was discussing back in 2004 has now “concluded,” Al-Arian’s journey through the American justice system continues. He was indicted on contempt charges in 2008 and is in home detention awaiting a ruling on a motion his lawyers filed nearly a year ago asking that the indictment be dismissed.