http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011219/ts/attacks_professor_1.html Wednesday December 19 12:19 PM ET South Fla. Professor May Be Fired By VICKIE CHACHERE, Associated Press Writer TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - University of South Florida's trustees agreed Wednesday a Palestinian professor linked to known terrorists should be fired for disrupting university operations. Sami al-Arian, a tenured computer science professor at the public university, has been the subject of continuous death threats because of his support for anti-Israeli interests. Al-Arian's appearance on a national television talk show after the Sept. 11 attacks prompted a stream of threats against him and the university. Al-Arian has been on paid leave as a security risk since, but in recent weeks his continued employment has prompted alumni and university donors to withdraw their support, university President Judy Genshaft said. Genshaft has the power to dismiss Al-Arian and has advocated the move, but she sought guidance from the trustees before proceeding. The next step would be a letter of notice of the pending dismissal that would give him 10 days to respond. Al-Arian, who has been at the school since 1986, was not immediately available for comment, according to staffers at an Islamic school and community center that he runs. The recommendation prompted concern that academic freedom was being threatened and Al-Arian was being fired because of his unpopular views. Al-Arian once headed an academic think tank on Islamic issues, World and Islam Studies Enterprises, later connected to fund raising for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. His brother-in-law, Mazen al-Najjar was jailed for three years on secret evidence as a threat to national security. The think tank was raided by the FBI (news - web sites) in 1995 and its assets were frozen. Another former head of the think tank, Ramadan Abdulah Shallah, left it in 1995 and resurfaced as the head of a terrorist organization, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Al-Arian has never been detained or charged with a crime, but the institute and a related charity for Palestinians had been accused by the FBI and Immigration and Naturalization Service agents of being a fund-raising front for terrorists. He was videotaped at some of the institute conferences a decade ago rallying the crowd with shouts of ``death to Israel.'' He now says he was making a political statement regarding the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and what he considers Israeli oppression, not advocating deaths of people. Al-Arian appeared on a Sept. 26 segment of Fox News Channel's ``The O'Reilly Factor'' and was questioned about his links to known terrorists as the television screen displayed the university's logo. A barrage of threats by telephone and e-mail the next day forced university police to shut down the computer science department where Al-Arian worked, a day later he was banned from campus.