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Report: Gov't Statistics Show Terror Trials a Bust

By Jeralyn, Section Terror Trials
Posted on Sat Jun 11, 2005 at 07:51:54 PM EST
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The Washington Post has completed an analysis of the Administration's claim that it has obtained convictions of 200 terrorists. Here are the results:

An analysis of the Justice Department's own list of terrorism prosecutions by The Washington Post shows that 39 people -- not 200, as officials have implied -- were 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. For the entire list, the median sentence was just 11 months.

Taken as a whole, the data indicate that the government's effort to identify terrorists in the United States has been less successful than authorities have often suggested. The statistics provide little support for the contention that authorities have discovered and prosecuted hundreds of terrorists here. Except for a small number of well-known cases -- such as truck driver Iyman Faris, who sought to take down the Brooklyn Bridge -- few of those arrested appear to have been involved in active plots inside the United States.

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    Report: Gov't Statistics Show Terror Trials a Bust | 16 comments (16 topical)
    Re: Report: Gov't Statistics Show Terror Trials a (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:56 PM EST