News broke over the weekend that Professor Sami Al-Arian has, as the St. Petersburg Times, in Florida, is phrasing it, “secretly signed a plea deal that says he will be deported after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to help members of a terrorist organization.” The agreement, according to various news accounts, still has to be approved by the federal judge in the case, in which Mr. Al-Arian was acquitted of the some of the important charges against him and has been awaiting a decision on a retrial on the others. If the plea deal is accepted, however, the admission that he is guilty will be no small vindication of Attorney General Ashcroft’s decision to bring these charges in the first place. It is one of the hard facts of life – and we recognize that it is hard – that a man can’t, on the one hand, plead guilty and then, on the other hand, turn around and say that he is not guilty.

The record in this case is, after all, nothing if not proof that, in America, a man can take a stand at a trial and win acquittal. In the aftermath of the report of Mr. Al-Arian’s plea, the World Wide Web was delivering all sorts of comments about how it was a lesser charge to which Mr. Al-Arian was pleading. Much is being made of Mr. Al-Arian’s position that he did not participate in violence. But there are those of who recognize that helping members of a terrorist organization, in the midst of a terrorist war against Israel and America, is no small thing. This is a war in which, as a matter of policy, Palestinian Arabs are carrying bombs into wedding receptions and restaurants full of women, children, and teenagers. For those who draw the distinction between Israel and America in this war, there is a great deal of American blood on the hands of the organization Mr. Al-Arian has reportedly pleaded guilty to helping.

Nor does it matter whether Mr. Al-Arian played a substantial role or a minor role in helping Palestinian Islamic Jihad. This is the point that the first chief justice of the United States, John Marshall, made in his famous treason ruling, known as Ex-Parte Bollman.” … If war be actually levied, that is, if a body of men be actually assembled for the purpose of effecting by force a treasonable purpose, all those who perform any part, however minute, or however remote from the scene of action, and who are actually leagued in the general conspiracy, are to be considered as traitors.” It is probably too much to hope that this case will bring some humility to the university presidents and trustees on other campuses being infiltrated by supporters of and apologists for such organizations as Palestinian Islamic Jihad.