Giving new details of the theory prosecutors plan to present when Al-Arian goes on trial along with three co-defendants, Assistant U.S. Attorney Walter E. Furr III told U.S. District Judge James Moody: ``Terrorism is a very unique crime. It requires someone in the group [who] acknowledges or announces who did it and why. ... The PIJ cell in the United States was personally responsible for getting the word out.''

Defense Calls Claim Hearsay

Defense attorneys dismissed the prosecutor's statements as based entirely on hearsay. Al- Arian's attorney, William Moffitt, declined to respond to the specifics, telling reporters outside the courthouse, ``You'll hear it in my opening statement.'' When pressed on another issue, Moffitt again demurred, saying, ``I just don't feel like trying my case right now on the street corner.''

Al-Arian is scheduled to go on trial June 6 along with Sameeh Hammoudeh, Hatim Naji Fariz and Ghassan Zayed Ballut. Those four, and five others who are overseas, are accused of helping organize and finance the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an organization that has claimed responsibility for suicide attacks in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.

Moody on Thursday denied a defense request that he delay the trial until July 11 on the grounds that prison and jail officials have restricted Al-Arian's ability to review evidence. The judge wrote that if jail restrictions were that problematic, the attorneys should have taken Moody up on his offer in March to allow Al-Arian to come to the courthouse up to five days a week to review evidence.

Attorneys for Fariz filed a motion asking Moody to bar evidence about the more than a dozen attacks listed in the indictment. The attorneys argued that the prosecution must prove with more than hearsay evidence that the defendants were part of the conspiracy and that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad was responsible for the attacks.

In response, Moody directed Furr to give a proffer, or a description of the proof the prosecution intends to present about the defendants' participation.

``At one time, you had 40 percent of the board of directors of PIJ here in Tampa,'' Furr said, referring to Al-Arian and three other indicted defendants who now are overseas, Basheer Nafi, Mazen Al- Najjar and Ramadan Shallah.

The organization had two goals, Furr said. One was to ``rid Palestine of the Jews,'' he said. The other was to make sure ``there was never peace till that was done.''

Furr said, ``There was a lot of forwarding of information'' by the defendants about the organization's activities and goals. He described a ``terror cycle'' that begins with killings by the organization, then statements on behalf of the organization, claiming responsibility. Finally, he said, the organization ``uses murder to get money to get more support'' for more attacks.

``The defendants were involved in this,'' Furr said.

The Jihad used a series of publications to spread its dogma and trumpet its attacks, Furr said. One, Al-Muhjahid, had the Jihad's logo on its masthead. The other, Islam and Palestine, routinely published interviews with the group's leaders.

Al-Arian's Wife Responded In 1999

Al-Arian and his family have acknowledged distributing Islam and Palestine but vehemently denied that it was part of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

In May 1999, Al-Arian's wife, Nahla, wrote a letter to The Tampa Tribune protesting a story that said her husband's charity, the Islamic Committee for Palestine, published the newsletter.

``It was published in Europe and edited by students living in Europe,'' she wrote. ``It had an Islamic orientation but never asserted in any issue that it was representing any political movement, including Islamic Jihad or Hamas. It is grossly inaccurate and pure conjecture to claim otherwise.''

Another Jihad publication Furr described was Islamic Vanguard. That publication, he said, listed a post office box that belonged to Al-Najjar and another overseas defendant, Muhammed Tasir Al-Khatib, when they were in college with Al-Arian in North Carolina in the early 1980s.

Agents found copies of Vanguard in Fariz's and Ballut's homes when they were arrested in 2003, Furr said.

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837. Reporter Michael Fechter can be reached at (8130259-7837.