Sami al Arian To Be Deported

Former Florida university professor Sami al-Arian has pleaded guilty to aiding the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad and agreed to be deported, U.S. officials said on Monday

Al-Arian and three co-defendants were charged in 2003 with helping the group carry out attacks in Israel. In December, a federal jury in Tampa found al-Arian not guilty on eight charges and failed to reach a verdict on nine others after a six-month trial.

Prosecutors, whose failure to convict al-Arian after the jury trial was seen as a stiff blow to the U.S. government's attempts to prosecute terrorism suspects, hailed the plea bargain agreement as a victory.

"Al-Arian has now admitted providing assistance to help the Palestinian Islamic Jihad ... as the government has alleged from the start," Assistant U.S. Attorney General Alice Fisher said in a written statement.

The United States has designated Islamic Jihad a terrorist organization. When the charges against al-Arian and the others were made public three years ago, then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said the group was responsible for over 100 deaths in Israel, including two Americans.

Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed nine people and wounded 60 outside a restaurant in Tel Aviv on Monday.

Arian gets deported, which means he's no longer able to do his business in the US, but count on him shilling for Islamic Jihad overseas. So far, there's no indication of where he's going to end up.

Others blogging: Texas Rainmaker and Stop the ACLU. Wizbang has photos of Islamic Jihad's latest handiwork (that would be today's suicide bombing in Israel that killed nine and wounded over 65). It shows just who and what al Arian was involved in, and none of it any good. He supported mass murderers who sought to commit heinous acts of violence.