USA vs. Al-Arian premieres in Tampa
May 3rd, 2007 by Wayne Garcia in Activist News, Random Acts, The Morning PapersLine Halvorsen’s documentary about the struggle of former USF professor Sami Al-Arian, convicted of a single count of conspiracy to aid the terrorist Palestinian Islamic Jihad, is set to make its U.S. premiere later this month at the Tampa Theater.
USA vs. Al-Arian is a powerful, if one-sided, account of the Bush administration’s unending pursuit of the Palestinian advocate, despite a jury’s acquittal of Al-Arian on many counts against him and the increasingly apparent fact that Al-Arian was not the terrorist mastermind as the government made him out to be. Al-Arian accepted a plea deal on one count to end his ordeal and allow him to be deported, something the government has blocked despite his plea. The film shows the anquish of his case through his family’s eyes.
The film has played to awards and good reviews overseas, making the Al-Arian family celebrities in such places as Norway.
The 7:30 p.m. May 16 screening at Tampa Theater is sponsored by the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and will be followed by a panel discussion.
Send to a friend:
May 5th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
This movie was shown prime time in Sweden to-day in the foremost tv-channel for good reasons. The world needs to be informed. The outright evilness of the Bush administration in its relentless and paranoic hunt for imaginary terrorists is exposed to the bare bones as a hunt on islamic believers, arabs and Israeli critics. In the midst of harsh ciritizism on Putin of Russia for silencing opposition in media one might ask: Where on earth were the USA media during this trial? Answer: Muted, patriotically mumbling. The bible-waving and gun toting Bush America with its despiceable and corrupt federal institutions in particular make us sickened, disgusted, fed up with its agenda. What the EU and the world is waiting for is a democratic (in its original sense) US government that will restore trust in American civil rights again. The final verdict on Al-Arian as voiced by the federal judge will make viewers spew. He in fact accused Al-Arian for exactly those things that the jury overwhelmingly had aquitted him from. It’s farcical but illustrative of the sick climate in the political USA of to-day. If a Palestinian on the West Bank says “Death to Israel” it´s only taken as a freedom fighter’s word against an oppressive military occupant. But it is absolutely not an indictable terrorist act against the USA. Or used to be up till now.