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The Bashir Trial:

In case you are not familiar with the fellow, Abu Bakir Bashir stands accused of being the most important terror-supporting religious leader in Asia. He is accused of being the "spiritual leader" of Jemaah Islamiyah, and is currently standing trial for alleged involvement in various bombings across Indonesia. Although it's largely passed below radar in the US, his is the biggest terror trial in the world just now.

He's going to walk, too.

And not only that, he deserves to walk. This trial has been a joke from start to finish. A prosecution that can't do better than this does not deserve a conviction. The prosecution, which started off pursuing capital punishment, is today reduced to stridently repeating its "demand that Bashir be sentenced to eight years in jail." This trial has seen convicted bombers -- themselves under death sentences -- walk across the stage to kiss Bashir on the cheeks, before testifying that of course Bashir knew nothing about anything at all. It's seen a former US State Department official testify that the whole prosecution was cooked up by evil George Bush.

The only good thing that's come out of the business has been that Bashir condemned terrorism against civilians, although in the same breath he urged Indonesians to go fight Americans in Afghanistan.

This is the problem with the law enforcement approach to terrorism. It just doesn't work real well.