...Al-Arian's own words on tape and in e-mail records show him deeply involved in and sympathetic with the terrorist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The PIJ is dedicated to the destruction of Israel through holy war and is believed responsible for as many as 100 deaths in Israel and Gaza, including at least one American.

Here, for example, is what prosecutors said was Al-Arian's response to an e-mail from the PIJ office in Damascus reporting results of a Nov. 11, 1994, suicide bombing in which three Israeli soldiers were killed and 15 others injured: "Pride and glory overwhelmed us. May God bless your efforts and accept our martyrs."

Notice the use of pronouns: "us" and "our." Al-Arian, who founded the think tank at USF that was a cover for anti-Israel activities and whose one-time director became head of the PIJ, was one with the terrorist organization...

...the FBI's Tampa field office asked Abdel-Hafiz to follow up by asking al-Arian several questions related to a counterterrorism case they were building against him -- and secretly record his answers. Abdel-Hafiz agreed to speak to al-Arian by phone but said he would not record the conversation without al-Arian's knowledge. The lead Tampa agent on the case, Barry Carmody, was scandalized by his refusal, calling it "outrageous."

Then Abdel-Hafiz met, unexpectedly, with al-Arian at an American Muslim Council conference in Washington and wrote a summary of their conversation, which he had not coordinated with Tampa. The report he filed was not well received by Carmody and his team of investigators in Tampa -- or by FBI agents John Vincent and Robert Wright, whose Chicago investigation dovetailed with the al-Arian case.

"After Gamal had a conversation with Sami al-Arian, he made a lot of self-serving statements for al-Arian and denigrated the FBI agent (Carmody) who was investigating the case," says Vincent, who also had a run-in with Abdel-Hafiz over his refusal to wear a wire to record another Muslim under terror investigation -- Soliman Biheiri, who is tied to al-Arian (investigators found the his phone number in Biheiri's computer address book). Abdel-Hafiz tried to explain to Vincent that a "Muslim does not record another Muslim."...