This is in response to an article written by Chris Hedges and published at Truthdig, among other places.

Chris,

I respect you and your opinions, and I regularly enjoy your writings, but I believe your defense of Sami al-Arian is a little misguided.

Unlike the dozens of ‘sting’ operations across this country that target Muslims simply because they are Muslim, there is a very long and complex history behind this case that involves money laundering, terrorism financing, organized crime, and massive corruption within the U.S. government.

Sami al-Arian and his affiliated organizations link back to US-supported elements of the ‘al-Qaeda’ network. These organizations were apparently used to funnel cash for covert operations overseas, originally in Afghanistan and later on in Bosnia, Kosovo, and elsewhere.

If you study the work of Daniel Hopsicker, Nafeez Ahmed, the NSWBC, and others, you’ll see what I mean. Particularly, I suggest looking into the New Jersey-based investment bank once known as BMI and a technology firm/U.S. defense contractor by the name of Ptech.

Moreover, as noted by former Justice Department prosecutor John Loftus,“It is a matter of record that an organization known as the Baraka group laundered the money to the skyjackers of Sept. 11. Sami Al-Arian incorporated Baraka in the state of Florida, which was dissolved on Sept. 28, 2001.”

This and other information surrounding the 9/11 attacks is being kept locked away as ‘secret evidence’ because public exposure would implicate high-level government officials in criminal activities. This is why investigations into the Virginia-based network have been obstructed for over a decade.

In fact, according Loftus, even after 9/11 "people in the intelligence community came and said-guys like…Sami al-Arian and other terrorists weren’t being touched because they’d been ordered not to investigate the cases, not to prosecute them, because there were being funded by the Saudis and a political decision was being made at the highest levels, don’t do anything that would embarrass the Saudi government.” He went on to say, “who was it that fixed the cases? How could these guys operate for more than a decade immune from prosecution? And, the answer is coming out in a very strange place. What Alamoudi and al-Arian have in common is a guy named Grover Norquist. He's the super lobbyist. ...Grover Norquist's best friend is Karl Rove, the White House chief of staff, and apparently Norquist was able to fix things.”

According to his lawyers, al-Arian believes his life would be endangered if he agreed to testify, which raises an obvious question: If he wasn’t involved with anything illegal, then whom does he have to fear?

Follow the money and you just might find out.