, we are joined by activist, community leader, and former political prisoner, Dr Sami Al-Arian.

Dr Sami Al-Arian is from a Palestinian family expelled from their home in 1948. Eventually Dr Al-Arian arrived in the States where he was a professor of Computer Engineering at the University of South Florida.

A community leader, advocating for just reform on behalf of his community and the public, Dr Al-Arian was also a successful activist and organizer, getting significant bipartisan support for ending the government’s use of secret evidence.

However, in the aftermath of 9/11, as anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian hysteria ran rampant accross the country, the Bush administration targeted and persecuted Dr Al-Arian. Imprisoned unjustly for years, despite his innocence, Dr Al-Arian struck a deal with prosecutors, pleading to a trumped-up lesser charge and deportation, in exchange for being freed from imprisonment. With Israel occupying his native homeland, Dr Al-Arian ultimately gained assylum in Turkey, from where he joins us.