Stunning Defeat

Sami Al-Arian, one of the most noted victims of the PATRIOT (cant spell patriot without RIOT!) Act, was acquitted today on 8 of the 17 charges against him (the jury deadlocked on the others).

The case against Sami Al-Arian, 47, had been seen as one of the biggest courtroom tests yet of the Patriot Act's expanded search-and-surveillance powers.

The U.S. Justice Department had no immediate comment.

Federal prosecutors said Sami Al-Arian and his co-defendants acted as the communications arm of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, spreading the word and raising money that went toward the suicide attacks that have killed hundreds.

Al-Arian was considered one of the most important terrorist figures to be brought to trial in the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. His indictment in 2003 was hailed by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft as one of the first triumphs of the Patriot Act, which was enacted in the weeks after Sept. 11.

The Patriot Act gave the government greatly expanded powers and broke down the wall between foreign intelligence investigations and domestic law enforcement. In the Al-Arian case, officials said, it allowed separate FBI investigations — one of them a yearslong secret foreign intelligence probe of the professor's activities — to be combined and all the evidence used against him.

...

Al-Arian's attorney, William Moffit, said the professor was being persecuted for espousing unpopular opinions that should be protected under the First Amendment.

"Any discussion of Sami Al-Arian being the most powerful man in the PIJ is fantasy," Moffitt said in his closing argument. "He never had control of the money, he never made any decisions."

Like Atrios, I dont know if he's guilty or not. But the whole rush to judgment had a Wen Ho Lee stench to it, with the joy and glad tidings of the PATRIOT Act heaped on top.