Valiant Lodi jurors defend America

Among the evidence the jury found telling that Hamid Hayat provided “material support” for terrorism, in addition to a “confession” of dubious legality that he had attended a training camp: “a handwritten warrior's prayer in Arabic found in his wallet” and “an Urdu-language scrapbook that Hayat kept with news about militant Pakistani political parties, many of them strongly anti-American.” A prayer and a scrapbook. Pretty damning stuff. Quite a threat.

One juror said she hoped the verdict would be a deterrent in the war on terrorism. "I hope it gets the message out: Don't mess with the United States," she said. "It's not worth it."

Actually the message is that fearful, mindless “patriots” like her can always be found to help George Bush undermine freedom in the United States in the name of a paranoid vision of reality.