I was very disturbed to hear of your recent article regarding Sami Al-Arian and particularly concerned by your portrayal of him as an innocent professor being smeared by the prime-time media.

As a researcher for the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, I met Sami no less than four times between 1989 and 1992. For your information, Professor Al-Arian was the organizer of five conferences (held in Chicago 1988-1992) sponsored by his own organization, the Islamic Committee for Palestine, and as far as I can determine, I was the only "Westerner" to attend these conferences (usually about 800 people).

During this time, I had the opportunity to observe the interaction between Sami, the speakers and attendees to these conferences. For your information, just a few of these included Sheik Rahman, better known as the blind Sheik and convicted for his participation in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, Sheik Abdulaziz Odah, the spiritual leader of Islamic Jihad, and a regular visitor to Tehran when he was not spending time in the United States. The Conference chairman was none other than the future leader of Islamic Jihad, a known terrorist organization.

Other speakers included a member of the Iranian parliament (at a time when this country did not maintain relations with Iran), a member of the Egyptian Brotherhood, the same organization responsible for the death of President Anwar Sadat, and a member of the Jordanian Parliament who was later convicted of attempting to overthrow King Hussein. In addition to participants from the United States, additional speakers came from the Sudan, Somalia and other countries known to be unfriendly to our own.

Needless to say much of the rhetoric centered upon Israel, and the "head of the Zionist snake" being located in the U.S. Numerous books and merchandise were available including items comparing Zionism with Nazism and blaming American policy for Muslim problems in the Middle East.

Although neither I nor the Simon Wiesenthal Center take a position on the firing of Sami Al-Arian, or the circumstances surrounding it, I will state that the conferences were booked under the name of the computer science department at USF.

Additional statements by Salon.com have indicated that much of the evidence against Mr. Al-Arian is old. This I do not understand. At a time when the newly created office of Homeland Security is doing all it can to protect this country, should not all individuals and links that may lead not only to Islamic Jihad, but possibly al-Qaida, be investigated thoroughly?

Rick Eaton, Senior Researcher, Simon Wiesenthal Center, Los Angeles

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