On Mar. 19, federal authorities arrested Hussam Jubara, a Palestinian visiting professor of computer engineering at the University of Central Florida, at his home south of Orlando, and charged him with immigration violations for allegedly making false statements on forms he filed while fighting deportation in 1998. According to the affidavit, Jubara lied about a prior marriage in 1984, misrepresented his immigration history and failed to disclose other names he used. Jubara is a friend of Sami Al-Arian, the University of South Florida professor arrested on Feb. 20 in Tampa on racketeering and terrorism-related charges [see INB 2/22/03]. Al-Arian was Jubara's academic adviser at USF.

The affidavit against Jubara also alleges that he concealed $26,000 in "under-the-table" income he received while working for an Orlando gift shop chain in 1995 and 1996. That retail chain is owned by multimillionaire businessman Jesse Maali, a US citizen of Palestinian descent who was arrested last Nov. 14 in Orlando by the same task force that arrested Jubara. Maali and five associates are charged with funneling $2.25 million through shell companies to pay 53 undocumented workers at Maali's Big Bargain World gift shops in Florida's Orange and Osceola counties since 1998.
[AP 3/21/03; Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale) 3/20/03]

Meanwhile, bail hearings for Al-Arian and three co-defendants began on Mar. 20 in Tampa. Al-Arian has been refusing meals to protest his arrest; he consumes only a daily breakfast milkshake.
[St. Petersburg Times 3/21/03]

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