Mazen Al-Najjar, his family, his lawyers and anyone who cares about justice have been waiting more than three years to find out what proof the government has to justify keeping him incarcerated as a threat to national security. This week, in a Bradenton immigration court, the government finally made some of its case public.

To say the evidence was weak would be generous.

The government has asserted for years that the 43-year-old Arabic teacher is associated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a group the State Department classifies as a terrorist organization. On the basis of secret evidence of that association, Al-Najjar has been denied bail while he fights a deportation order for overstaying a student visa. But when government lawyers were finally told by a federal court judge to prove their assertions in open court, they offered little more than innuendo and guilt by association.

The thrust of the government's public case was videotapes of political conferences, attended by Al-Najjar, where anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian speakers participated. The government also spent a great deal of time trying to raise suspicions about Al-Najjar's brother-in-law, Sami Al-Arian, and his potential ties to a terrorist group -- as if our legal system recognizes guilt-by-marriage.

Had this been a criminal matter, the paltry nature of the evidence wouldn't have warranted a prosecutor's second glance. But because this is an immigration case, lesser standards of justice apply.

In May, U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard in Miami directed the government to give Al-Najjar a new bond hearing. She said the government may use secret evidence but must give Al-Najjar enough information to mount a defense.

On Thursday, Al-Najjar's lawyers properly stopped the substitute bond hearing. The government was once again planning to use secret evidence without giving Al-Najjar's defense team any information about its contents.

By invoking secret evidence, the government is creating the perception that it has something devastating against Al-Najjar. But if you look at recent cases in which the government has been forced to actually show its hand, much of the secret evidence turns out to be uncorroborated hearsay. In the last year, three other immigrants who had been detained due to secret evidence were released when the evidence turned out to lack substance.

Al-Najjar's attorneys say they will be back before Judge Lenard soon to ask her to enforce her order. They are asking for a comprehensive, declassified summary of the evidence against Al-Najjar. That is the least they deserve.

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