The wife of a former university professor convicted on terrorism-related charges was arrested at the Columbia University encampment before the dramatic attack, as Mayor Eric Adams blamed outside agitators for the campus chaos on Wednesday. He was seen hanging out on the ground.
Adams said the NYPD had already begun identifying individuals who were not Columbia University students before police were given the green light to remove a pro-terrorism group that occupied an academic building on campus late Tuesday.
“One of the husbands of that person has been arrested and convicted on federal terrorism charges,” Hitzner did not name anyone specifically, but told MSNBC.
“One of them was married to someone who was arrested for terrorism,” he later said in a follow-up interview on CBS.
Follow The Post’s coverage of anti-terrorism protests at Columbia University.
Sami al-Arian, who pleaded guilty in 2005 to raising funds and otherwise supporting the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization, previously tweeted on social media that his wife, Nara, had joined anti-Israel protesters at the Ivy rally. He was proud that he had done so. League campus last week.
Adams did not say whether the woman he mentioned was among the hundreds of people detained at the Morningside Heights campus Tuesday night.
It was not immediately clear whether Nahla al-Arian was at the scene or had just joined the tent encampment last week.
For updates on the anti-Israel protests at Columbia University, follow the Post’s live blog
“If you look for it, you’ll find this information. Maybe they’ve identified themselves on social media platforms,” the mayor said when asked specifically about ties to terrorism.
“We will leave it up to the intelligence department to decide what information should be released and what information should not be released.”
