Military Justice: The first of three Navy SEALs charged with abusing a captured jihadist has been cleared. Why has this administration taken the word of terrorists and let American heroes twist in the wind?

The acquittal of Petty Officer 1st Class Julio Huertas, 29, of Blue Island, Ill., by a six-member U.S. military jury in Baghdad on Thursday is good news and the correct verdict.

Huertas was found innocent of charges of dereliction of duty and attempting to influence the testimony of another service member in the case of the treatment of captured terrorist Ahmed Hashim Abed.

Huertas was a member of the Navy SEAL (sea, air, land) team that last Sept. 3 was dropped into harm's way to capture Abed, a high-value target known as Objective Amber. The mission was a success.

Abed was the mastermind behind the killing, burning and mutilation of four American contractors working for Blackwater USA in Fallujah, Iraq, in March 2004. Their charred bodies were dragged through the streets and hung from a bridge over the Euphrates River for the world press to photograph.

Abed, following the al-Qaida training manual, claimed he was abused while in custody.

An al-Qaida handbook captured in a raid by British authorities on a terrorist cell in Manchester, England, states "brothers must insist on proving that torture was inflicted on them by state security before the judge. Complain of mistreatment while in prison." And lie Abed did.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew McCabe of Perrysburg, Ohio, was charged with assaulting Abed, punching him in the stomach and giving him a fat lip. McCabe is scheduled to be court-martialed May 3 in Virginia.

The court-martial of Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Keefe of Yorktown, Va., who, like Huertas, was charged with dereliction of duty for failing to safeguard Abed, is scheduled to begin Thursday, also at Camp Victory.

Huertas' civilian attorney argued that Abed was a terrorist who could not be trusted and may have inflicted wounds upon himself as a way of placing blame on his captors.

"There was no abuse," the lawyer, Monica Lombardi, argued. "This is classic terrorist training."

The politically correct Maj. Gen. Charles Cleveland, commander of Special Operations Command Central, said of the attempted railroading of the three SEALs: "The abuse of a detainee, no matter how minor, creates strategic repercussions that harm our nation's security and ultimately costs the lives of U.S. citizens."

We do not know what he thinks of the Huertas verdict or of the harm done to our nation's security by prosecuting those willing to die for their country on the word of a terrorist who has murdered American citizens.

All three SEALs could have accepted only a military reprimand, but risked a court-martial to clear their names and save their careers. They refused to be human sacrifices to the same political correctness that seeks a civilian trial with all the trimmings for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Muhammed in New York City not far from ground zero.

Administration defenders say that for President Obama to intervene as commander in chief would amount to exercising "undue command influence," a traditional no-no in military justice. Yet as commander in chief, he sent them on a dangerous mission to apprehend a terrorist murderer of American citizens. They risked their lives on his orders. Who has their back, Mr. President?

They performed their mission brilliantly and bravely, and for doing so found themselves facing charges based on the word of a terrorist taught to lie. It's doubtful that President Reagan would have let this travesty of justice continue.

This, however, is a politically correct administration that wants to close the detainee facility in Guantanamo Bay lest it tarnish our image among Islamofascists worldwide. We apologize to everybody and anybody. We won't tolerate another Abu Ghraib, so we tolerate this tragedy.

We are happy for Huertas. No more American heroes should be offered up as human sacrifices to world public opinion and the political left.