> Published Tuesday, December 19, 2000, in the Miami Herald
>
> Ex-terrorist suspect on crusade to ban use of secret evidence
>
> BY VICKIE CHACHERE
> Associated Press
>
> TAMPA -- A Palestinian jailed for three years on secret evidence
> spent the weekend celebrating his freedom, taking congratulatory
> calls and spending time with his daughters. Now, he wants to make
> sure no one else is detained under similar circumstances.
>
> Mazen Al-Najjar gathered with his supporters at the Islamic cultural
> center and school, which he helped build, and said he will not be
> happy until every ``prisoner of conscience'' is freed.
>
> ``I've always believed the people here are really fair,'' Al-Najjar
> said. ``They just needed to know the truth.''
>
> The Immigration and Naturalization Service jailed Al-Najjar in 1997
> on a visa violation. A judge denied him bond based on government
> allegations that Al-Najjar used an Islamic think tank at the
> University of South Florida as a front for terrorism.
>
> Al-Najjar was released Friday after a panel of judges agreed -- and
> Attorney General Janet Reno relented -- there was no reason to keep
> him behind bars.
>
> One other person, Harpal Singh Cheema of India, is jailed in the
> United States on secret evidence, according to the INS. He has been
> held in California since November 1997 and is being deported.
>
> Al-Najjar, his brother-in-law and fellow think tank founder Sami
> Al-Arian and their supporters say they are turning their efforts to
> congressional legislation that would ban the use of secret evidence
> in immigration cases.
>
> Al-Arian on Monday called for federal agents to leave Tampa's small
> Islamic community alone, saying that many had been visited or
> intimidated by federal agents seeking information.
>
> ``We are a community that is peaceful, a community that is active, a
> community that likes to speak its mind,'' Al-Arian said.
>
> ``The way they have treated our community is reprehensible, to say
> the least.''
>
> Al-Najjar said he will continue to seek political asylum in the
> United States because he considers it his home. As a stateless
> Palestinian, he cannot return to Gaza where he was born and his
> three young daughters and his parents are U.S. citizens.
>
> The INS still intends to deport Al-Najjar, who has a court hearing
> Jan. 9 before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Miami to argue
> against deportation.
>
> Martin Schwartz, Al-Najjar's lawyer, said he believes his client has
> a strong case for asylum and that even if another country accepted
> him, he likely would be persecuted because he has been labeled as a
> terrorist.
>
> ``I can never be a terrorist,'' Al-Najjar said Monday. ``I have
> never been in any army. I have never been in a paramilitary
> organization. I have never touched a gun in my life.
>
> ``I don't believe in violence . . . I believe violence is the worst
> part of mankind's history.''
>
> Al-Najjar said he would like to return to teaching, but there will
> be no more think tank. The FBI seized the records, computers and
> software of World and Islam Studies Enterprise and froze its bank
> accounts when it alleged that the group was raising money for
> terrorists in the early 1990s.
>
> The government placed Al-Arian and Al-Najjar at conferences attended
> by men who later would become known as terrorists, but never
> disclosed details of financial support to the Palestinian Islamic
> Jihad.