In a major defeat for the Justice Department and its draconian war on terrorism, news organizations such as CBS News are reporting that Sami Al-Arian, an Arab American computer engineering professor at University of South Florida, was acquitted on eight of the 17 charges brought against him, including the most serious ones, with the jury deadlocked on the other nine charges:

In a stinging defeat for prosecutors, a former Florida professor accused of helping lead a terrorist group that has carried out suicide bombings against Israel was acquitted on nearly half the charges against him Tuesday, and the jury deadlocked on the rest.

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. . . .

A male juror, whose name was being kept secret by the court, said he did not see the case as a First Amendment issue, explaining that the decision came down to lack of proof. “I didn’t see the evidence,” he said. . . .

The defendants said that although they were vocal advocates for the Palestinian cause and may have celebrated news of the terrorist group’s attacks, the government had no proof that they planned or knew about any violence. They said the money they raised and sent to the Palestinian territories was for legitimate charities.

Finally, we see that there is justice in the U.S. -- that people who may have opinions and beliefs that are contrary to those of the federal administration cannot be arbitrarily arrested and be convicted on flimsy and circumstantial evidence that only show that they happened to disagree with the prevailing jingoistic and nationalistic sentiments of those in positions of power.

Let’s hope this is the beginning of more acquittals for innocent people (almost all of whom are Arab or Muslim Americans or people of color) whose only “crime” is that they happen to fit the government’s broad “profile” of a potential terrorist.