I’ll agree with you on that… My first thought when I read that he wasn’t actually convicted of the dirty bomb plot was “Martha Stewart” and “Scooter Libby”. I’m definitely a bit worried that the charges that he was convicted of were considerably watered down.

That being said, the damage to civil liberties was already done on that one… After all, the two folks I just mentioned were convicted of giving false statements to investigators. Not perjury, just not being 100% truthful with the people trying to put you in jail. That seems like it really reverses the burden of proof, where the government doesn’t have to prove that you did what they allege, they just have to prove you lied (about anything) when trying to throw them off your trail.

The particular charge of conspiracy that was used is incredibly vague and the evidence used to gain the conviction was incredibly light.

That precedent may turn out to be infinitely more damaging to civil liberties than the fight over habeas corpus. After all, a despot can gladly grant habeas corpus if he knows the burden of proof is extremely light.