The eight were never accused of plotting or committing any act of terrorism -- or any crime, for that matter. As William H. Webster, FBI director at the time, testified before Congress not long after the case broke: "If these individuals had been United States citizens" -- rather than green card holders and foreign students -- "there would not have been a basis for an arrest."
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18 Years Waiting for a Gavel to Fall
A group of Palestinians have been in legal and personal limbo for nearly two decades as the U.S. has sought to deport them. Their case foreshadowed post-9/11 policy.
THE L.A. 8 | COLUMN ONE
THE L.A. 8: First of two parts
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday July 01, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 64 words Type of Material: Correction
The L.A. 8 -- A time chart that accompanied an article in Wednesday's Section A about a long-running terrorism case known as that of the L.A. 8 made reference to a "Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine fundraiser." Whether money raised at the 1986 event went to the Popular Front organization is a matter of dispute and the central issue in the case.
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Rather, they were targeted for removal, technically a civil proceeding, on grounds that they allegedly had raised money for the PFLP. More specifically, the initial charges involved the eight's efforts to distribute Al Hadaf, the PFLP magazine -- a publication available in public libraries, on college campuses and even at the U.S. Library of Congress.
The government contended that the magazine linked the defendants to an organization advocating the "doctrines of world communism," a deportable offense under a provision of the McCarran-Walter Act, which was conceived during the McCarthy era as a means to remove immigrants with Marxist leanings.
The charges against the L.A. 8 have been reworked at least three times since, reflecting changes in immigration and anti-terrorism laws, some of which were tailored to be applied retroactively to this case. For all of that, however, the matter is far from finished.
Two of the eight, Khader Musa Hamide and Michel Ibrahim Shehadeh, are scheduled for trial in immigration court next month, with the government seeking to deport them under a provision of the Patriot Act that forbids giving material support to terrorist organizations. The outcome of their trial could influence the fate of the others. Should the government prevail, it could in theory take the same tack against the rest of the L.A. 8.
The respondents, as defendants are called in immigration court, hope the trial will bring an end to the case -- a hope tempered by experience.
"I think we are going to win, but now what is the price of winning?" asked Hamide, alleged leader of the eight and a father of three who now makes his living as a wholesaler of coffee beans. "It's already been 18 years of hell and misery for all of us. Is it going to take another 18 years? I mean, we want to go on with our lives."
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Los Angeles in the early 1980s, the Los Angeles in which this case took root, was in the midst of transformation, on its way to becoming what boosters at the time liked to call a "world city."
The agents of change, by and large, were immigrants.
