6A • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 21, 2003
Professorfaces charges
The Associated Press
TAMPA, Fla. — A Palestinian college professor previously accused of having terrorist ties was arrested early yesterday by federal agents. He was one of several people arrested here, in Chicago and overseas, the FBI said.
Television reports showed Sami Al-Arian being led in handcuffs to FBI headquarters in Tampa after the arrest. His indictment is sealed until a court hearing scheduled for Thursday afternoon.
"It's all about politics," AlArian told reporters as agents led him inside.
FBI spokeswoman Sara Oates said that three people were arrested in Tampa, one person was in custody in Chicago, and an undisclosed number of people were arrested overseas. She identified the other two arrested in Tampa as Sameeh Hammoudeh, 42, of Tampa, and Hatim Naji Fariz, 30, of Spring Hill, but she had no detail on those arrested
elsewhere.
Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago, declined to comment, and the FBI there did not immediately return a phone call.
in Tampa, U.S. attorney's office spokesman Steve Cole said that Attorney General John Ashcroft would be holding an afternoon news conference in Washington with Paul Perez, U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Florida. He said that the arrests were related, but would not elaborate.
Al-Arian's criminal attorney. Nicholas Matassini, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
Perez's office had said last year that Al-Arian was under federal investigation.
"This was disconcerting but not surprising." USF spokesman Michael Reich said about the arrest. He said university President Judy Genshaft will meet with the school's lawyers Thursday to discuss it.
The tenured computer engineering professor was placed on forced leave and banned from campus shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and his subsequent appearance on Fox News Channel. The school also is trying to dismiss him.
He was quizzed about links to known terrorists, and asked about tapes from the late 1980s and early 1990s in which he said "Death to Israel" in Arabic.
Al-Arian has said he has never advocated violence against others and his words were a statement against Israeli occupation. He also has consistently denied any connection to terrorists.
The university says that hurt the school's fund-raising efforts and resulted in threats being made against the school.
The university also claimed the professor raised money for terrorist groups, brought terrorists into the United States, and founded organizations that support terrorism
In wake of stampede, Chicago seeks to punish club owner
The Associated Press
CHICAGO — The city wants to permanently shut down a nightclub where 21 people died in a stampede and prevent its owner from doing business in Chicago.
City Corporation Counsel Mara Georges on Wednesday initiated administrative proceedings to revoke the food, liquor and other licenses that allowed Le Mirage Studio Ltd., which owns the Epitome restaurant and second-floor E2 nightclub, to keep the businesses open.
Georges also wants to bar the president of Le Mirage, Dwain J. Kyles, from holding any other city license.
"There has been enough of a flagrant disregard here to warrant the fact that this gentleman should not hold another license within the city," Georges said.
On Tuesday, the city asked that the club's landlord, Le Mirage and Kyles, be found in criminal contempt for defying an order last summer to stop using the second
floor because of housing code violations. A hearing was set for March 7.
Afterward, Kyles spoke of the sorrow that he felt for the families, but did not publicly comment.
Kyles is a prominent member of Chicago's black community. His father, the Rev. Billy Kyles of Memphis, and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson are longtime friends. Jackson and Kyles' father were with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968 when King was murdered.
French-bashing increases in U.S.
The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA — Mon dieu, how some Americans are bashing the French these days!
Americans galled by France's reluctance to endorse an invasion of Iraq are boycoting French wine and french fries and trading jokes and insults about all things Gallic.
A Las Vegas radio station Tuesday used an armored vehicle to crush photographs of French President Jacques Chirac, photocopies of the French flag, a Paris travel guide, bottles of wine and a loaf of French bread.
In Beaufort, N.C., one restaurant owner took french fries off his menu and replaced them with "freedom fries."
In West Palm Beach, Fla., bar owner Ken Wagner dumped his entire stock of French wine and champagne into the street, vowing to serve vintages only from nations that support U.S. policy.
And Palm Beach County Commissioner Burt Aurenson said he would try to block a subsidiary of the French conglomerate Vivendi from getting a $25 million government contract to build a sludge treatment plant.
"France's attitude toward the United States is deplorable. I don't want to have any French companies earning dollars from American interests," the 75-year-old Aaronson said. "We've left thousands of our men and women over in France, underground. It's quite possible that if we didn't send our troops there, the French people would all be speaking German."
"The only way the French are going in is if we tell them we found truffles in
Iraq."
Dennis Miller
Comedian
France is far from alone in pushing for a delay in military action. Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Greece, Ireland and Luxembourg have all said they would prefer to give U.N. weapons inspections more time.
But it is the French who have borne the brunt of U.S. scorn and become the butt of jokes about their beret-wearing, wine-drinking, cheese-eating, Jerry Lewis-loving, literature-deconstructing, surrendering-to-the-Germans ways.
"France wants more evidence," David Letterman wisecracked. "The last time France wanted more evidence, it rolled right through France with a German flag."
Comedian Dennis Miller quipped: "The only way the French are going in is if we tell them we found truffles in Iraq."
Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., warmed up a crowd of GOP leaders in Missouri last week by saying, "Do you know how many Frenchmen it takes to defend Paris? It's not known, it's never been tried.
"Somebody was telling me about the French Army rifle that was being advertised on eBay the other day — the description was, 'Never shot. Dropped once.'"
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