posted on June 12, 2005 07:55:32 AM new
Terror convictions don't add up
White House claims 200, but analysis shows 39 such cases
By Dan Eggen and Julie Tate
The Washington Post
Published June 12, 2005
WASHINGTON -- On Thursday, President Bush stepped to a lectern at the Ohio State Highway Patrol Academy in Columbus to urge renewal of the USA Patriot Act and to boast of the government's success in prosecuting terrorists.
Flanked by Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales, Bush said that "federal terrorism investigations have resulted in charges against more than 400 suspects, and more than half of those charged have been convicted."
Those statistics have been used repeatedly by Bush and other administration officials, including Gonzales and his predecessor, John Ashcroft, to characterize the government's efforts against terrorism.
But the numbers are misleading at best.
An analysis of the Justice Department's list of terrorism prosecutions by The Washington Post shows that 39 people--not 200--have been convicted of crimes related to terrorism or national security.
Most of the others were convicted of relatively minor crimes such as making false statements and violating immigration law--and had nothing to do with terrorism, the analysis shows. Overall, the median sentence was 11 months.
Taken as a whole, the data indicate that identifying terrorists in the United States has been less successful than the government often has suggested. The statistics provide little support for the suggestion that authorities have discovered and prosecuted hundreds of terrorists.
Except for a small number of well-known cases--such as truck driver Iyman Faris, who sought to take down the Brooklyn Bridge--few appear to have been involved in active plots against the United States.
In fact, among all the people charged as a result of terrorism investigations in the three years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, The Post found no demonstrated connection to terrorism or terrorist groups for 180 of them.
Just 1 in 9 people on the list had an alleged connection to Al Qaeda terrorist network and only 14 people convicted of terrorism-related crimes--including Faris and convicted Sept. 11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui--have clear links to the group. Many more cases involve Colombian drug cartels, supporters of the Palestinian cause, Rwandan war criminals or others with no apparent ties to Al Qaeda or its leader, Osama bin Laden.
Many people appear to have been swept into U.S. counterterrorism investigations by chance--through anonymous tips, suspicious circumstances or bad luck--and have remained classified as terrorism defendants years after being cleared of connections to extremist groups.
For example, the prosecution of 20 men, most of them Iraqis, in a Pennsylvania truck-licensing scam accounts for about 10 percent of the people convicted--even though the entire group was publicly absolved of ties to terrorism in 2001.
"For so many of these cases, there seems to be much less substance to them than we first assume or have first been told," said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert who heads the Washington office of RAND Corp., a think tank that conducts national security research.
"There's an inherent deterrent effect in cracking down on any illicit activity. But the challenge is not exaggerating what they were up to--not portraying them as superterrorists when they're really the low end of the food chain," Hoffman added.
Two life sentences have been handed down so far: to Richard Reid, the British drifter who was foiled by passengers in his attempt to blow up a jetliner over the Atlantic Ocean, and to Masoud Khan, a Maryland man convicted of traveling to Pakistan and seeking to fight with the Taliban against U.S. forces.
Two others convicted of terrorism-related crimes face life sentences.
Justice Department officials say they have not sought to exaggerate the importance or suspected associations of those prosecuted in connection with terrorism probes, and they argue that the list provides only a partial view of their efforts.
Officials said all the individuals were first put on the list because of a suspected connection or allegation related to terrorism. Last week, they also said that the department had tightened the requirements for including a case on the terrorism list.
Barry Sabin, chief of the department's counterterrorism section, said prosecutors frequently turn to lesser charges when they are not confident that they can prove crimes such as committing or supporting terrorism. Many defendants also have been prosecuted for relatively minor crimes in exchange for information that is not public but has proved valuable in other terrorism probes, he said.
"A person could not have been put on this list if there was not a concern about national security, at least initially," he said. "Are all these people an ongoing threat presently? Arguably not. ... We are not trying to overstate or understate what we're doing. You don't want to put language or a label on people that is inconsistent with what they have done."
Absolute faith has been shown, consistently, to breed intolerance. And intolerance, history teaches us, again and again, begets violence.
----------------------------------
President George Bush: "Over time the truth will come out."
President George Bush: "Our people are going to find out the truth, and the truth will say that this intelligence was good intelligence. There's no doubt in my mind."
Bush was right. The truth did come out and the facts are he misled Congress and the American people about the reasons we should go to war in Iraq.
posted on June 12, 2005 03:44:17 PM new
You couldn't be more right. I just wish the truth came out before the election.
Absolute faith has been shown, consistently, to breed intolerance. And intolerance, history teaches us, again and again, begets violence.
----------------------------------
President George Bush: "Over time the truth will come out."
President George Bush: "Our people are going to find out the truth, and the truth will say that this intelligence was good intelligence. There's no doubt in my mind."
Bush was right. The truth did come out and the facts are he misled Congress and the American people about the reasons we should go to war in Iraq.
posted on June 13, 2005 12:17:18 PM new
logan, Yes we are stuck with the Liar and very poor commander and chief but we can sure make him a lamer duck then he already is in 2006.
You know how Bush is always saying he is going to make this and that "accountable"
I see several Republicans backing away from Bush and his war. They are trying to make Bush "accountable" for his actions.
Right wing wacko Bush supporters and republican elected officials are very worried about the 2006 election.
People are seeing 1700 dead American troops along with thousands more wounded. All from a War started without threat to the U.S. and Bush LIES. The guy should be IMPEACHED!!!!
