Finally, former University of South Florida professor Sami al-Arian will be convicted and do time for aiding Palestinian Islamic Jihad. But under the plea deal he'll be deported when he gets released, and free to rejoin his terrorist pals. Not sure I'm too thrilled about that.

TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - 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.

It's a sad day to be a liberal. Many lefties cheered when al-Arian was previously found not guilty on some charges, because they would much rather attack the President than see the obvious. They chose to attack the President by saying that this was all an abuse of power and that al-Arian was being attacked simply for being a Muslim Arab. It was disgusting to see the left claim victory when a terrorist supporter was found not guilty on some of the charges brought against him.

I suspect now they'll just say he made the plea deal to end all this, but that he isn't actually guilty. Actually I don't only suspect it, I know it. FreeSamiAlArian.com is already playing that angle up.

The decision to accept the product of these negotiations was made by the Al-Arian family as a whole. Their concern first and foremost was to end Dr. Al-Arian’s suffering.

I'm sure this has also been a rough day for TalkLeft.com who falls in to the category of the libs I spoke about earlier. They were cheering the "failure" or the initial trial and saying the defense "shines", but they haven't mentioned any recent developments. Instead they are stuck on the Duke rape allegations. Where are you TalkLeft? You were all about it a few months ago: here, here, here, here, here and here.

Anyway, at least they finally got this guy, but like I said I don't think deporting him is the best idea. He's going sit around in jail, with his hatred for America growing even stronger, then get sent back to the middle east with nothing to do. A recipe for terrorism.

In related news, this is what al-Arian's pals did today (via AFP):

TEL AVIV (AFP) - Nine people were killed and dozens wounded in Israel's commercial capital Tel Aviv when a Palestinian bomber blew himself up in the deadliest suicide attack of the last 20 months.

The blast took place hours before the swearing in of the new Israeli parliament and prompted a pledge by prime minister designate Ehud Olmert that its perpetrators would not go unpunished.

The bomb went off next to a fast food stand at lunchtime in the southern Neveh Sha'anan district, close to the site of Tel Aviv's old bus station. The area has been the scene of several previous attacks, including one in January.

The blast -- the deadliest since a suicide bombing in August 2004 -- was claimed by the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, which has been behind all of the most recent bomb attacks in Israel.

AFP - Gali Tibbon

Stop the ACLU seems to be on the same wavelength.

Michelle Malkin has more on today's bombing.

Wizbang has more on the bombing and the al-Arian guilty plea.

AJ Strata is commenting as well.