Ed Jajko protests too much, although I can understand his touchiness. I did
not say that the Arabic material was the only evidence against this
individual, nor that his arrest was unjustified. But he clearly was
arrested on suspicion of terrorism, even if that was what not what he was
eventually charged with. Moreover, if his possession of "literature and
documents with Arabic printing" was not one of the things that got him into
trouble, why did the police and authorities mention it among the other
incriminating evidence? The fact remains that the Iowa police and troopers,
without, as Ed says, being "competent to figure it out" considered that
because it was in the Arabic script it was suspect. This attitude, which
has surfaced a number of times in different places, notably airports, is an
insult to the culture and lives of a fifth of the world's population, and
when manifested by the authorities of the world's most powerful nation,
represents a threat not only to the civil liberties of Americans, but
potentially to the peace and security of all of us. Rather than denying it
or being complacent about it, it is surely important for Americans of
intelligence and goodwill, such as Ed and his colleagues, to redouble their
efforts to educate their compatriots and resist the tide of prejudice and
aggression which is doing so much damage to the reputation of their country
and to the peace and security of the Middle East and the world.

In case Ed or anyone else imagines that I spend my time trawling the
Internet for evidence of American wrongdoing, I should explain that,
because I have a particular interest in the history of Arabic printing, I
recently registered this with Google's alerting service, to see what new
internet sources they might come up with. This page from the _Newark
Advocate_ was the first (and so far the only) result!

Geoffrey Roper
Cambridge

On Aug 17 2004, Edward A. Jajko wrote:
>
> Please, Geoffrey, give us a bit more credit over here. Granted, most
> Iowa state policemen are probably not competent to figure out what the
> "numerous pages of literature and documents with Arabic printing" may
> have been, but then again neither have any of my supervisors and library
> directors during my more than thirty years in research libraries.
> However, it wasn't the "literature and documents with Arabic printing"
> that got Michael Wagner in trouble. You gloss over as "among the
> incriminating evidence" the following, listed in a web page aptly headed
> "Odd terror arrest incident": "flight-training manuals, flight-training
> software, three bulletproof vests, night-vision goggles, a night-vision
> scope for a rifle, a telescope, a 9mm semiautomatic pistol, a bag of
> ammunition and marijuana residue in the ashtray." Forget the marijuana;
> but given what happened here, the combination of flight-training manuals
> and software, weaponry, ammunition, and armor, along with a suspect who
> allegedly offered up knowledge of al-Qa'idah terrorist plots rang some
> bells. Sources other than the Newark Advocate would have told you that,
> rather than being arrested for the materials bearing Arabic printing,
> Michael Wagner was in fact charged with being a convicted felon in
> possession of a firearm (which, according to web accounts, was in a
> secret compartment along with other of the incriminating material). As
> for the allegedly suspicious nature of the Arabic materials and their
> equivalence to evidence of terrorism, you would have read in the
> Cleveland Plain Dealer of 29 July, for example, that "Cleveland FBI agent
> Robert Hawk said authorities here and in Iowa found nothing that points
> to terrorism. "We looked at him from every angle, and we can't find any
> relationship between him and terrorists," Hawk said. "We took a real hard
> look at him, and we came up with nothing."" Presumably, the materials
> printed in Arabic were not evidence of terrorism. So please don't jump to
> conclusions unnecessarily. If you ever can, enjoy central Ohio and
> northeast Ohio's Amish country as my wife and I did earlier this month
> (the Ohio Light Opera season is over, however, until next summer). Please
> come to California for MESA and MELA in the fall and be among friends. We
> can sit and talk of other times of war and anxiety that have seen strange
> things happen. Liberty Cabbage was once a better dish to eat than
> Sauerkraut. In the later war, Japanese-Americans here were rounded up and
> held in concentration camps because of suspected disloyalty, yet their
> draftee and volunteer sons formed what became the most-decorated unit in
> the US Army. Who can forget that in the nervous and phobic years of the
> Great War, on your side of the water, even the Battenbergs decided it
> would be more politic to become known as the Mountbattens?
>
> Ed Jajko

> > On 29 July 2004, state troopers in Iowa, USA, arrested an American
> > Muslim on suspicion of terrorist activity. Among the incriminating
> > evidence found in his possession, according to them, were "numerous
> > pages of literature and documents with Arabic printing". He is now
> > being held without bail. (Source: online version of The Advocate, a
> > local newspaper in Ohio.)
> >
> >If you are travelling in America, be careful what literature you are
> >carrying.
> >
> >Geoffrey Roper
> >
> >Bibliographical & information consultant
> >Cambridge