Sami Al-Arian's Defense Targets Contributing Expert Matthew Levitt (UPDATED with defense motion)
By Andrew Cochran
The defense in the upcoming terrorism trial of Sami Al-Arian has filed a motion to block the testimony of Contributing Expert Matthew Levitt (downloadable Acrobat file), thus indicating (to me, at least) their deep concern over the impact of Matthew's testimony. The NY Sun reports today: "A court filing Friday indicated that a former FBI terrorism analyst who is expected to be one of the prosecution's key witnesses, Matthew Levitt, will testify about the group's ties to Tehran and Damascus. 'Tehran began paying Islamic Jihad millions of dollars in cash bonuses for each attack against Israel in the context of the second intifada that began in September 2000,' Mr. Levitt wrote in a summary of his planned testimony. 'On top of funding the activities of the Tampa cell, the Islamic Jihad headquarters in Syria plays a direct operational role in financing and facilitating acts of terrorism targeting Israelis and Jews.'" That summary is included as an exhibit to the defense motion and is avaliable here (downloadable Acrobat file).