The organization, known as Palestinian Islamic Jihad, has claimed credit for attacks that have killed at least 100 people in Israel and the occupied territories.

Al-Arian also played a crucial role in writing the Jihad's constitution, the agent says, helped raise money for the organization, helped other Jihad leaders enter the United States, and possessed plans for an elaborate Palestinian espionage operation in the United States.

These assertions and others are in an affidavit filed under seal last year with a federal court in Virginia. The affidavit was written to support a government request to search a number of Muslim-owned businesses and foundations in Herndon, Va., in March 2002. The government said at the time that it was looking for financial links between some of the Herndon sites and Al-Arian.

The Tampa Tribune and The New York Times have been fighting in court for a year to have the affidavit made public. The government recently agreed to release a heavily edited version of it. It was made public Thursday.

Al-Arian was indicted in February on federal charges of conspiracy to commit murder and provide material support to terrorists. He is in prison awaiting trial, now scheduled for January 2005, and could not be reached for comment on the affidavit.

But his wife, Nahla Al-Arian, said the affidavit is ``full of lies.''

``Those who wrote it should be ashamed of themselves,'' she said. ``My husband didn't do anything wrong.''

Contributions Cited

The affidavit adds sweep and detail to the government's case against Al-Arian, including statements allegedly made by him and his co-defendants in support of the Jihad, or PIJ.

No charges have been filed in the Virginia case, but the FBI and the new Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement are still investigating, said an ICE spokesman.

One of the Virginia foundations, the International Institute of Islamic Thought, contributed at least $50,000 in 1991 and 1992 to a USF-affiliated think tank founded by Al- Arian. The government has long said the think tank was a PIJ front.

In addition, an officer of several of the Herndon groups, Ahmad Totonji, sent $10,000 in November 2001 to a civil rights group Al-Arian headed.

The affidavit does not specify how the money was eventually spent.

The Herndon organizations have denied any links to terrorism. But the affidavit details a series of connections between them and Al-Arian's activities, and concludes, ``They are ardent supporters of PIJ.''

Much of what was edited from the affidavit involved the groups' alleged support for terrorism apart from the Tampa case.

Nancy Luque and Donna Sheinbach, attorneys who represent the Herndon organizations, declined to comment on the affidavit.

Defense In Flux

Al-Arian refused in April to enter a plea to the government's charges; a judge entered a plea of not guilty for him. But he has steadfastly denied any involvement with the PIJ and dismissed his arrest as ``all about politics.''

He fired his court-appointed lawyers last week and currently represents himself, but has signaled that he wants the former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, William B. Moffitt, to represent him.

Moffitt said he is unconcerned by the affidavit.

``None of this has been contested'' in court, he said. Investigators ``draw conclusions that may not be true.'

The new statements attributed to Al-Arian and others in the affidavit contradict his past claims that conferences he organized were peaceful and designed to benefit women and orphans.

``Islam means jihad, resistance, fight and martyrdom,'' Al-Arian allegedly said at a 1988 conference.

Nahla Al-Arian said even if her husband said that, there's nothing wrong with using such words as ``resistance'' and ``martyrdom.''

``Martyrdom doesn't mean killing people; it means defending your rights,'' she said. ``As for resistance, what is the problem? You have no dignity in this world if you just say yes to the slave master.''

In addition, the affidavit recounts remarks made at a 1992 conference by Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, a man then associated with Al-Arian's Tampa think tank who in 1995 unexpectedly became the PIJ's head. The think tank issued a statement at the time expressing shock over Shallah's elevation and denying knowledge of his political affiliations.

In his 1992 comments, Shallah defined jihad as a holy war that aims to kill Islam's enemies, including ``the New World Order symbolized by the United States,'' the affidavit says. People should not be defensive when accused of terrorism, Shallah allegedly said, ``because jihad required them to terrorize, devastate, humiliate and degrade their enemies.''

Thursday's disclosures do more than challenge Al-Arian's repeated denials of links to terrorism, said terrorism researcher Steven Emerson.

``This kind of flies in the face of everybody who said he was peaceful,'' said Emerson, who first spotlighted Al-Arian in a 1994 documentary ``Jihad in America.''

``When Al-Arian said, `How could I know this person [Shallah] was connected to the Jihad?' he knew exactly what was going on.''

Secret Recordings

Al-Arian's indictment is based heavily on secretly recorded telephone conversations and intercepted faxes.

The affidavit, dated 11 months earlier, relies more on materials seized in 1995 raids on Al-Arian's home and offices. Those raids came shortly after PIJ founder Fathi Shikaki was assassinated in Malta, purportedly by Israeli agents, and was succeeded by Shallah.

The Virginia affidavit was signed by David Kane, a senior special agent with what was then the U.S. Customs Service, the agency that spearheaded the Virginia searches.

The affidavit describes a handwritten document found in Al-Arian's home envisioning an organization called ``The Center of the Studies, the Intelligence and the Information.'' It called for ``a hostile intelligence organization in the United States and elsewhere.'' It also proposed branches for research, military training and surveillance.

Al-Arian claimed the plan was written by students at a summer camp, but Israeli intelligence officials have said they consider it authentic.

The affidavit also says agents found both a draft and a final version of the PIJ's Manifesto, or constitution, on Al- Arian's computer. In addition, agents discovered a form letter inviting recipients to a meeting at which the manifesto's endorsement and governing board elections were on the agenda.

``I believe that Al-Arian drafted the PIJ Manifesto,'' wrote Kane.

The manifesto calls for ``the rejection of any peaceful solution for the Palestinian cause, and the affirmation of the Jihad Solution and the Martyrdom style as the only choices for liberation.''

Among the manifesto's suggested slogans for the movement: ``Martyrdom awards life,'' and ``Victory or martyrdom, the way for Jihad.''

Israeli intelligence officials told the Tribune in June 2002 that they were unaware of the document's existence until it was discovered in Tampa.

USF fired Al-Arian within days of his indictment. He was a tenured professor of computer science at the time, and had been with the university since 1986.

Reporter Michelle Bearden contributed to this report. Reporter Michael Fechter can be reached at (813) 259-7621.

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LB: AL-ARIAN STORY

THE PAST: Sami Al-Arian was indicted in February 2003 on federal charges of conspiracy to commit murder and providing material support to terrorists. The indictment followed eight years of investigative reporting by The Tampa Tribune.

WHAT'S NEW: A government agent says in a newly released document that Al-Arian organized the Palestinian Islamic Jihad from his home in Tampa.

WHAT'S NEXT: Al-Arian is currently in prison awaiting trial in January 2005.