"Terror cases now at pre-9/11 rate"

[mikelewis]

_In the eight months ending last May, Justice attorneys declined to prosecute more than nine out of every 10 terrorism cases sent to them by the
FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies. Nearly 4 in 10 of the rejected cases were scrapped because prosecutors found weak or insufficient evidence, no evidence of criminal intent or no evident federal crime.

_Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, only 14 people have been sentenced to 20 years or more in prison in terrorism cases. Of the 1,329 convicted defendants, only 625 received any prison sentence. More than half got no prison time or no more than they had already served awaiting their verdict.

The report comes at a difficult time for the Bush administration: It is sagging in public opinion polls just before congressional midterm elections. Democrats hope to regain control of at least one house of Congress, and President Bush has urged Republicans to run in part on his record in the war on terror.

....

At the penalty trial of al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, the government acknowledged that it has captured most of the Sept. 11 ringleaders including mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and operations coordinator Ramzi Binalshibh. Although prosecutors suggested they might be charged somewhere someday, the government has never disproved persistent allegations they were tortured during interrogations overseas and thus cannot be tried in U.S. courts. If prosecutions "have been compromised by unlawful interrogation or surveillance, that would be worse than ironic," Aftergood said. "It would mean the government has performed in a self-defeating manner."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060903/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/terrorism_prosecutions


DOH!!!

[liberal N proud]

1. So we are safer now?

:sarcasm:

[StrictlyRockers]

2. "The data suggest that some of the official rhetoric is misleading."

"An empirical study like TRAC's cuts through the rhetoric, lets us see just how many terrorists are being brought to justice," Aftergood said. "The data suggest that some of the official rhetoric is misleading."


Hmm, are you trying to tell me that the Repukes have been lying about this?

[mikelewis]

4. Noooo, they'd never hype terrorism to suit their own political goals...

why would they do that? :shrug:

[StrictlyRockers]

3. REPORT: Criminal Terrorism Enforcement Since the 9/11/01 Attacks

http://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/terrorism/169/

Criminal Terrorism Enforcement in the United States During the Five Years Since the 9/11/01 Attacks
A comprehensive and sometimes surprising portrait of the handling of criminal cases in the United States against individuals identified as international terrorists during the five years after 9/11/01 has emerged from an analysis of hundreds of thousands Justice Department records by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).

TRAC, a data research organization connected to Syracuse University, has been studying a wide range of federal agencies and programs for more than 15 years.
<...>