Prosecutors: Al-Arian Wanted To Work With Hamas

Another Sami update from the Tampa Tribune (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist), in which still more damning information comes out about our favorite "rumpled academic" (as Nicholas Kristof memorably dubbed him).

Prosecutors in Al-Arian's trial read transcripts of wiretapped telephone conversations and faxes between Ramadan Shallah and Fathi Shikaki in March 1995. At the time, Shikaki was the secretary general of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Shallah was working at Al-Arian's think tank, World and Islam Studies Enterprise.

The conversations covered a variety of topics, including Shallah's need for travel documents so he could leave the United States and mentions of videos made by suicide bombers.

In one fax, Shallah told Shikaki that Al-Arian has suggested that Islamic Jihad members in the U.S. work with Hamas counterparts. But Shallah and other Islamic Jihad members were against the idea.