Stick to the here and now

The global spread of terrorism casts a long shadow over time and place. It reaches back even 18 years, to the then-sleepy town of Glendale and a group of Palestinian emigres long forgotten in Southern California. The case of the L.A. 8, as they were known, popped back into memory a few weeks ago with a detailed recounting by Times staff writer Pete King.

They are still battling with the government about just what they supported when they gathered other immigrant Palestinians in 1986 for food, folk dancing and fundraising.

Two of the eight were scheduled to return to court this week for a trial that could end the battle over whether they should be deported. One is Khader Musa Hamide, now a coffee wholesaler and father of three, and then alleged to be the leader of the group. The other is Michel Ibrahim Shehadeh, until recently a pizzeria owner. The judge in the case abruptly canceled the proceeding last week, setting no new date. This long, costly and ambiguous case ought to end.

The central question in the case is how to regard long-ago support of the Palestinian cause, including celebrations honoring the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The organization was a Marxist faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization that sponsored social welfare programs and engaged in acts of terrorism.

The case was always strange. The FBI agent who went after the eight spoke no Arabic and cited even their facial expressions as evidence of ill intent. FBI headquarters declined three times to authorize further investigation or prosecution, saying the group was engaged in constitutionally protected activity. (Of course, the same FBI later declined to go after possible terrorists learning to fly planes.) So the agent turned to what was then the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The eight could be charged in immigration court under the McCarran-Walter Act, a Cold War relic that allowed deportation of foreign nationals for espousing communism. This editorial page in 1989 called the case flimsy and the McCarran-Walter Act “odious” to civil liberties.

The act was eventually replaced with two successive anti-terrorism statutes that were applied retroactively to the L.A. 8. In 1996, a federal judge blocked their deportation, citing free-speech rights. A few years later the Supreme Court ruled differently and returned the case to immigration court. The cases of all but Hamide and Shehadeh lapsed. Then came the Sept. 11 attacks, followed by the Patriot Act and its retroactively applied deportation laws.

A few weeks ago, before the London terrorist bombings cast new shadows, Hamide and Shehadeh expressed some confidence that a new trial would go their way. The fears of now should not be applied to the acts and words of so many years ago, especially in a case built on such shifting legal ground.

The issue is whether the eight raised funds that supported a terrorist organization. If that were the case, we would support, at a minimum, their immediate deportation. But the government has never proved that to be the case; it’s merely the latest vague theory to justify a prosecution run amok. How many different theories and generations of anti-terrorism laws must the government burn through before a court puts an end to a string of proceedings that threatens to enter its third decade?

The nation would be better off defending against people who are a danger in the here and now.