(Headline USA) The wife of a convicted terrorist sympathizer was seen at Columbia University’s anti-Israel student encampment about a week before the New York Police Department raided the site and arrested more than 100 people.
Nahla Al-Arian, the wife of Sami Al-Arian, who pleaded guilty in 2005 to fundraising and providing other support for the terrorist group Islamic Jihad, was photographed alongside several Columbia students. The case against Al-Arian was highly dubious, according to his former lawyer, acclaimed constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley.
Now residing overseas, Sami Al-Arian bragged on social media earlier in the week about his wife’s involvement with anti-Israel protests, according to the New York Post.
🚨#BREAKING: New York City Hall has informed CBS News that there is evidence suggesting the presence of the wife of a known terrorist among the protestors on the Columbia University campus. pic.twitter.com/tOF1br3vHx
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) May 1, 2024
New York City Mayor Eric Adams seemed to confirm Nahla Al-Arian’s presence as well after the NYPD’s raid, noting there were multiple “outside agitators” in the encampment.
“There were individuals on the campus who should not have been there. They were people who are professionals and we saw evidence of training,” Adams said. “I know that there are those who attempting to say, ‘Well, the majority of people may have been students.’ You don’t have to be the majority to influence and co-op an operation. That is what this about.”
A spokesperson for Adams later confirmed that “one of the individuals” in question was a person whose “husband was arrested for and convicted for terrorism on a federal level.”
While there was no evidence of wrongdoing on Nahla Al-Arian’s part, the NYPD’s head of counterterrorism said Al-Arian’s involvement is still troubling.
“We have no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing on her part but that’s something I wouldn’t want influencing my child if I were a parent of somebody at Columbia,” Rebecca Weiner, the deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism for the department, said.
“These students don’t come in the door knowing how to barricade themselves behind barriers that they’ve created, right? These are all skills that are taught and learned and that presents a problem.”
New York police arrested 173 protesters on Tuesday night with charges ranging from trespassing, criminal mischief, and burglary.
