 Next up, I want to introduce Dr. Sami Al-Aryan, who is a political activist, a community leader, and a former political prisoner. He was prosecuted by the Bush administration under the Patriot Act, and despite his innocence, Dr. Al-Aryan was in prison for years before being deported to Turkey in 2015. Professor, the floor is yours. Thank you very much, Brian. Thank you for the invitation and for the speakers and the audience. In 9-11 happened, the American political establishment had to explain to the American people what had actually taken place. They had two possible answers. One, that we were attacked before because of our policies. The policies such as the occupation of the birthplace of Islam in Saudi Arabia after the first Gulf War, or the sanctions on the Iraqi during the 90s, in which half a million people died. In the words of the former Secretary of State, Madeleine Halfbright, in which he said it was worth it. Or because of the policies in supporting Israel, the military hardware and economic subsidy to the tune of $200 billion over the past half century. Or the occupation of Palestinian land and subjugation over the Palestinian people. We're popping up of dictators and totalitarian regimes and Arab world undermining democracy every step of the way. These are regimes which have been supported by successive American administrations throughout the years. All these policies, if they were the root problem that caused the tragic attacks, that would have been an answer. But of course, we were given a different answer. The other answer was that America was attacked because of our freedom, our democracy of who we are. And because we can't change who we are, we have to change who they are. And therefore, we had to see evasions, occupations, setting up corrupt and incompetent regimes, the tensions of thousands and thousands of people, get more and above rape, torture, black sites, drones, bombings, assassinations. The surveillance state, CVE programs in order to recruit thousands and thousands of informants, the securitization of the American Muslim community, the demonization of Islam and Muslims, the whole thing. What happened after 9-11, in the words of a former FBI agent who had a change of heart after 17 years of trying to serve this security state. His story was told to us by the New York Times last week, Terry Albert, he said that this was very important revelation is that what happened after 9-11 within the political establishment, within the security apparatus is that it was decided that Islam is the enemy and therefore we had to go and fight throughout the world, as well as domestically. Doing so silencing Muslim leaders, undermining Muslim institutions inside the United States, infiltrating Muslim communities, targeting the most vulnerable among them, using entrapment and other underhanded tactics. Just to name a few became standard government policies. I was among the first to be targeted, first Muslim leaders that is to be targeted by the US administration at the time because of powerful interest groups who thought that I was dangerous because of my stance on Palestine, my activism against the government and secret evidence and other civil rights abuses because of my criticism of American foreign policy and domestic policy. And the attempts actually to silence me were long before 9-11, but 9-11 became the perfect pretext to fulfill that goal of eliminating my voice and ability to challenge the false narrative of imperialism and settler colonialism in Palestine. Now 20 years later, it's clear that this policy has failed and the explanation given to the American people has been exposed as false and a lie. There was the last military act of the United States this week, this past week, is very revealing. You can read it today in Washington Post and New York Times. The government said that they prosecuted a drone attack in which an ISIS person was targeted and he was eliminated and that because of secondary explosions, other civilians were killed. But what the actual revelation of the investigation by New York Times and Washington Post is that this person was working for an American aid charity. He was pro-American, he actually applied to be resettled. He was targeted because he went to a house that the intelligence services thought was a safe house for ISIS, which wasn't. He was the house of his boss. He was trying to pick up a laptop and they went after him for eight hours and because he went four different places, he basically was dropping off and picking up his colleagues. And because he put something in his trunk and they thought they were explosives and that's what caused the secondary actions. They were not. They were simply jugs of water because there wasn't water in his neighborhood. They said that he was targeted alone. It wasn't true. 10 people were killed, including seven children. This is emblematic of the actual so-called war in terror in which, by the way, the figure of two trillion dollars that was spent on these wars, much of it actually never left the United States. Most of it was profiteering from these wars, whether it was defense companies, whether it was contractors, whatever have you. Today, Afghanistan is poorer, poorer than it was in 2001. In 2001, the average daily income of the Afghani person was $2 per day. Today, it's less than $2 per day. So none of that money actually went to Afghanistan. And none of it actually went to the American people. It just went to certain people who became extremely rich. Now, when I was arrested back in 2003, I was among the first to be arrested and prosecuted by the so-called war in terror. I was facing three life sentences plus 220 years. The government wasn't even ready for the trial. So I had to wait 27 months in solitary confinement until they get ready. All in all, I had to spend 43 straight months in solitary confinement. They had 471,000 phone calls that they had on me over a 10-year period, $21,000 to be exact. They had over 400,000 documents, 2,000 audio tapes, 600 videotapes, 65,000 Hebrew documents that they threw just for fun. They brought in 80 witnesses in which 21 went from Israel. We had zero witnesses. It was the longest trial since 9-11, still is, six months from opening to verdict. And with all that, with all the advantages in which they spent over $200 million on that trial, they got zero convictions. Four of us, they could not convict in a single accusation, single charge, even though they had over 100 charges. But they were not ready to let go. So I had to deal with them, give up my rights and leave. And after the agreement, they kept me for another eight years waiting because another prosecutor, a Zionist who didn't like that murder, he had to bring me and drag me there trying to get me to testify even though we agreed that there will be no cooperation. And I had to wait another eight years in which I was charged in another charge and put on first two years in prison and then six years in under house arrest. And at the end, because we had a decent judge, the government had to give up. And of course, I have already given up all my rights despite 40 years living in America. To reiterate, what this was what it shows is simply a new face of America that is ugly, that has been exposed. And that what we need is grassroots movement to stand up to these policies and to stand up to the ugliness of this so-called war and terror that has done nothing but devastation, destruction, death. All in the name of the American people. And if this is a true democracy, then people really have to resist, mobilize, organize, and make change. And I appreciate the efforts of many people who are attending today in many organizations and institutions who are trying to do that. But we have to think also outside the box, meaning that there is something fundamentally wrong with how we're resistant. I remember when I was under house arrest, the Occupy movement, there was a lot of good people there in the streets, but they could not come together to make an effective change. The challenges are many. The money that is in politics today and corrupting the whole system has to be faced and has to be dealt with. But all in all, we need to bring all good hearted grassroots people together and think of how you can make a change because believe it or not, what America does is destroying the whole world. A lot of people who live in America see only part of this, but the impact is huge. And when people resist, certainly they can win, but at the end still the stick is big. The devastation is why the manipulation of the economic institutions throughout the world, just like destruction and mayhem all over. And therefore it makes a whole difference when we have people who care about peace and care about real freedoms and care about people that they come together and make a difference in this world. And since America is doing much of that destruction, then it's very important that people, American people, people with conscience, take the responsibilities serious and try to make a difference in this world. Thank you. Thank you so much, Sammy for sharing.